MacBook Air hard lock

B

B1ueB1aze

macrumors member
Hello,

My MacBook Air 13" mid-2013 is having a hard lock issue. It seems to be happening on a daily basis. What happens is when the display dims from inactivity, but it isn't quite in sleep mode, and someone rubs the trackpad or presses a key to brighten the display back up, the display just goes completely black then, but the keyboard backlight remains lit. The MacBook Air becomes completely unresponsive. There is no way to wake it, and it doesn't recover. The caps lock key light also does not eliminate when the button is pressed, this makes me think the logic board just goes completely offline. Holding the power button to force it off, then turing it back on fixes it, and everything runs fine for a day, then the issue happens again. I've tried a SMC reset, and verified the disk with disk utility. I have just done a PRAM reset and will see if that fixes it, but I'm doubtful. I've checked the logs as well, and no logs say theres an issue, and there are no kernel panic logs.

I've seen others with the same issue, but no real resolution, and what I read was a few months old. Has anyone else more recently had this issue?
 
B1ueB1aze said:
Hello,

My MacBook Air 13" mid-2013 is having a hard lock issue. It seems to be happening on a daily basis. What happens is when the display dims from inactivity, but it isn't quite in sleep mode, and someone rubs the trackpad or presses a key to brighten the display back up, the display just goes completely black then, but the keyboard backlight remains lit. The MacBook Air becomes completely unresponsive. There is no way to wake it, and it doesn't recover. The caps lock key light also does not eliminate when the button is pressed, this makes me think the logic board just goes completely offline. Holding the power button to force it off, then turing it back on fixes it, and everything runs fine for a day, then the issue happens again. I've tried a SMC reset, and verified the disk with disk utility. I have just done a PRAM reset and will see if that fixes it, but I'm doubtful. I've checked the logs as well, and no logs say theres an issue, and there are no kernel panic logs.

I've seen others with the same issue, but no real resolution, and what I read was a few months old. Has anyone else more recently had this issue?
Click to expand...

Happens regularly to my brother's 2010 MacBook Pro with Samsung SSD running Mountain Lion. The backlight of the LCD is off, but the screen is still on. I can see the screen faintly when I put a light on it. Sometimes the screen does light up eventually. Can it be the ambient light sensor being dirty perhaps?
 
The screen on mine is completely off, no image at all. I've left it sitting like this for many hours and it never recovers.The caps lock key light doesn't even come on which makes me think the system just completely locks. It begun happening about 1.5 - 2 weeks ago, so it began happening in Mountain Lion and now Mavericks.
 
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I haven't had a hard lock yet since the PRAM reset. I hope this fixed it. I'll keep an eye on it for at least a week though before I say it fixed it.
 
It has hard locked again. I found out when it is happening. I can now reproduce the issue. It happens right when the Mac goes to sleep, and I quickly wake it. It's right when the display goes off, and the keyboard backlight begins to dim. I will rub the trackpad, or hit a key, and it will just hang with no error in the logs. I think I might take it to the Apple store when I have the time to do so.
 
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