Recently, for my new work computer, we picked up an Apple refurbished 11" MacBook Air (the cheapie 2013 model), as this will be good enough for my needs and didn't break the bank.
I got it about a week and a half ago, and found that it needed to be charged a bit before it would start. I thought that it might have just been sitting around for awhile and didn't really get too concerned. After a few minutes of charging, everything was fine and started using it (it did need the date reset, so I'm assuming the battery was really dead). Still, I was able to copy files over from my old computer, ran some software updates (including some SMC ones, further making me believe that it had been sitting around), and everything seemed fine.
I took it home and realized that I'd rather just do a fresh install of OS X Yosemite and not worry about bringing all the old content over. Because of this, I used my go-to Yosemite installer drive (which I've used on plenty of other Macs) to erase everything and do a fresh install. After installing successfully, the computer rebooted with a chime, but then just a black screen.
From there, everything I tried didn't work - external display, recovery mode, SMC reset, PRAM reset, booting from an alternate drive (option key), and even Target Disk Mode. I threw in the towel and took it in to the Apple Authorized Service Provider we use and we both suspected that the SMC update might have caused a problem with the logic board, since it was still only chiming and having a black screen.
Last Friday, I got a call that they replaced the logic board and it was still happening, and then they replaced the screen and it was still happening, so they're sending it off to Apple because they didn't want to keep throwing parts at it. Having diagnosed many issues myself in the past, I completely understand, but thought I'd ask everyone here to see if anyone else has had this issue or know what else could be causing it.
I mean, judging by the design of the MacBook Air, besides the logic board, screen "half", all that's left are the keyboard/trackpad, speakers, and battery...not much left to replace.
Had I known it was going to be this difficult, I might have just contacted Apple about it dying after a few hours of initial use, but if it were just the logic board, our local AASP gets parts in hand and swapped rather quickly. I'm waiting to see what Apple does and am not looking to make a big stink...it's more curiosity at this point.
I got it about a week and a half ago, and found that it needed to be charged a bit before it would start. I thought that it might have just been sitting around for awhile and didn't really get too concerned. After a few minutes of charging, everything was fine and started using it (it did need the date reset, so I'm assuming the battery was really dead). Still, I was able to copy files over from my old computer, ran some software updates (including some SMC ones, further making me believe that it had been sitting around), and everything seemed fine.
I took it home and realized that I'd rather just do a fresh install of OS X Yosemite and not worry about bringing all the old content over. Because of this, I used my go-to Yosemite installer drive (which I've used on plenty of other Macs) to erase everything and do a fresh install. After installing successfully, the computer rebooted with a chime, but then just a black screen.
From there, everything I tried didn't work - external display, recovery mode, SMC reset, PRAM reset, booting from an alternate drive (option key), and even Target Disk Mode. I threw in the towel and took it in to the Apple Authorized Service Provider we use and we both suspected that the SMC update might have caused a problem with the logic board, since it was still only chiming and having a black screen.
Last Friday, I got a call that they replaced the logic board and it was still happening, and then they replaced the screen and it was still happening, so they're sending it off to Apple because they didn't want to keep throwing parts at it. Having diagnosed many issues myself in the past, I completely understand, but thought I'd ask everyone here to see if anyone else has had this issue or know what else could be causing it.
I mean, judging by the design of the MacBook Air, besides the logic board, screen "half", all that's left are the keyboard/trackpad, speakers, and battery...not much left to replace.
Had I known it was going to be this difficult, I might have just contacted Apple about it dying after a few hours of initial use, but if it were just the logic board, our local AASP gets parts in hand and swapped rather quickly. I'm waiting to see what Apple does and am not looking to make a big stink...it's more curiosity at this point.
