Macbook Air 11" mid 2012 shut down constantly

[Krysztoff]

I am in possession of a Macbook Air mid 2012 and I can't figure out what's going wrong. It boots normally, only to shut down immediately when I do just about anything. Let's say, if I leave it aside for 30 minutes I can use it for 5 minutes and it shuts down. When I retry to power it up it takes only 1 minute for it to shut down. Running disk permissions is, in this case not even possible. And trying to run AHT seems quite unlikely. I don't want to send it to a repair store, because it's cheaper to fix it myself (and they would probably say the logic board needs to be replaced. Which in the end might solve the problem)
anyway, I've seen similar problems, but without immediate solution..
I wondered, is there any chance it could be a faulty battery instead of the logic board?
ps: I tried PRAM and SMC

a nice representation would be this video:

 

[motrek]

I am in possession of a Macbook Air mid 2012 and I can't figure out what's going wrong. It boots normally, only to shut down immediately when I do just about anything. Let's say, if I leave it aside for 30 minutes I can use it for 5 minutes and it shuts down. When I retry to power it up it takes only 1 minute for it to shut down. Running disk permissions is, in this case not even possible. And trying to run AHT seems quite unlikely. I don't want to send it to a repair store, because it's cheaper to fix it myself (and they would probably say the logic board needs to be replaced. Which in the end might solve the problem)
anyway, I've seen similar problems, but without immediate solution..
I wondered, is there any chance it could be a faulty battery instead of the logic board?
ps: I tried PRAM and SMC

a nice representation would be this video:

Is it overheating? Is the fan spinning?

 

[Significant1]

Try filter for shutdown in console.app and see if it register a shutdown cause before it happens.

 

[Krysztoff]

@motrek , there are no signs of overheating, temperature is steady around 40° C and the fan is spinning properly.
@Significant1 , I did that, but there was nothing suspicious registered at the moment of a shutdown.

 

[Significant1]

@Significant1 , I did that, but there was nothing suspicious registered at the moment of a shutdown.

Hmmm, I Would still think, it should be possible to determine from the messages or lack of them, if OSX made a controlled shutdown or hardware failure caused abrupt power off.

What about recovery? Does it shutdown too? if so, it would indicate hardware problem, if not I would reinstall OSX. You can also do a disc repair inside recovery and it would do not harm, but I don't think disk corruption would cause shutdown without any kind of warning.

ps. Not sure why the video should be representative to the problem you describe. It just show a manually shutdown and then a manually turn on, which boot without a hitch. Nothing unusual or faulty, as far as I can see.

 

[Krysztoff]

@Significant1
The fact that it shuts down even before it manages to finish an AHT (I did one now, and it did die on me when it was checking the logic board) would mean it's not really a software problem, right? I dismantled the MBA checking on bad connections, but discovered none.

ps: Thanks for mentioning the video, I apparently copied the wrong one.. I put the right one now.

 

[Krysztoff]

I have a feeling that, whenever the system has to do just a little effort, it shuts down. I can leave it up and running for 10 minutes or longer. But as soon as I start opening programs. Or do 2 things at the same time. It goes. It looks to me it'll be the logic board. Optimistically speaking I was hoping it would be the battery, but the battery wouldn't care if I were to run 2 apps or not. It would just die on me.
In case it's the logic board, shall I bake it? reflow anyone?

 

[Significant1]

@Significant1
The fact that it shuts down even before it manages to finish an AHT (I did one now, and it did die on me when it was checking the logic board) would mean it's not really a software problem, right? I dismantled the MBA checking on bad connections, but discovered none.

Yeah, it sounds like hardware failure. Sorry.

(Since the casing has remained the same for many, I have always what else has changed beside the logic-board and if it would be possible to fit a logic-board from a newer model into an older model.)

 

[Krysztoff]

Yeah, it sounds like hardware failure. Sorry.

(Since the casing has remained the same for many, I have always what else has changed beside the logic-board and if it would be possible to fit a logic-board from a newer model into an older model.)

That's what I did with my iMac i5 late 2009. It's GPU was broken, so I put the HD 5750 and i7 2,93 Ghz in there. Works like a charm.
But if the MBA of 2013 has the same infrastructure, that would be absolutely wonderful news.

 

[Significant1]

That's what I did with my iMac i5 late 2009. It's GPU was broken, so I put the HD 5750 and i7 2,93 Ghz in there. Works like a charm.
But if the MBA of 2013 has the same infrastructure, that would be absolutely wonderful news.

I did the same to my 2009 iMac. Though not the CPU, because it already had the 2.8GHz i7

Would be nice if ifixit testede logic-board compatibility among generations and why stop at 2013 except for price ;-). Likely the problem is also, that the logic-boards are not so easy to get hands on. Apple's keep strict record on spare-parts I have been told.

 

[Krysztoff]

@Significant1 We all know that they don't like tinkerers. the pentalope screw is a perfect example for that. I just checked the architecture of the early 2014 logic board and compared it to the 2012 one, except for the wifi/bluetooth module being flipped and a unified chip it all looks quite the same to me. I know the 2014 logic board works on a 2013 MBA, but I haven't read anything about fitting it on a 2012 MBA though..

It would indeed be great if iFixit did something like that. Maybe we should poke them a bit )

 

[Significant1]

I know the 2014 logic board works on a 2013 MBA, but I haven't read anything about fitting it on a 2012 MBA though..

It would indeed be great if iFixit did something like that. Maybe we should poke them a bit )

The only difference between 2013 and 2014, was a 100MHz speed increase in the i5-model. I have a maxed out i7 11" model from december and it still a 2013 model, because they didn't change the i7 configuration.

As you can see, from my part, it is more curiosity. I was forced to hit the trigger in December knowing it was an 2year old model and a update would hit anytime. "Fortunately" for my buyers remorse, the retina Macbook was too crippled and the Air update relatively minor.