MacBook Air won't boot

[mac daddy]

My 2019 MacBook Air (intel) will not boot. It will sometimes get to the Apple logo, sometimes not. After that point, the screen will light up ever so slightly then go black, repeatedly. I was able to get it to Internet Recovery Mode, in which it will load to for about 20 minutes then reboot back into the same mode. it will not boot into safe mode or recovery mode. I've tried the keyboard combinations resetting the NVRAM and SMC, to no avail.

The notebook does boot into Windows via bootcamp after pressing Option upon booting up, so I am hopeful that it's not a hardware issue.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

 

[Fishrrman]

What I would try first:
- boot to INTERNET recovery (command-OPTION-R)
- you'll need your wifi password
- when the internet utilities load, open the installer and try to reinstall the OS

What I would try if that doesn't work.
- Hope you have a backup
- Again, boot to INTERNET recovery
- This time, open disk utility, go to the view menu, and choose "show all devices"
- Locate the internal drive (will be top item in list on the left) and ERASE it to APFS, GUID partition format
- When erased, close disk utility, open the OS installer, and NOW try to reinstall the OS
- Finally, restore from your backup drive

First process may or may not work. I have no hands on experience with bootcamp, and generally advise folks to avoid it.

Second process WILL work, but again, you MUST have a backup because otherwise, all personal data on the drive (including the bootcamp partition) will be lost. But sometimes, "this is the only way"...

 

[mac daddy]

What I would try first:
- boot to INTERNET recovery (command-OPTION-R)
- you'll need your wifi password
- when the internet utilities load, open the installer and try to reinstall the OS

What I would try if that doesn't work.
- Hope you have a backup
- Again, boot to INTERNET recovery
- This time, open disk utility, go to the view menu, and choose "show all devices"
- Locate the internal drive (will be top item in list on the left) and ERASE it to APFS, GUID partition format
- When erased, close disk utility, open the OS installer, and NOW try to reinstall the OS
- Finally, restore from your backup drive

First process may or may not work. I have no hands on experience with bootcamp, and generally advise folks to avoid it.

Second process WILL work, but again, you MUST have a backup because otherwise, all personal data on the drive (including the bootcamp partition) will be lost. But sometimes, "this is the only way"...

What I would try first:
- boot to INTERNET recovery (command-OPTION-R)
- you'll need your wifi password
- when the internet utilities load, open the installer and try to reinstall the OS

What I would try if that doesn't work.
- Hope you have a backup
- Again, boot to INTERNET recovery
- This time, open disk utility, go to the view menu, and choose "show all devices"
- Locate the internal drive (will be top item in list on the left) and ERASE it to APFS, GUID partition format
- When erased, close disk utility, open the OS installer, and NOW try to reinstall the OS
- Finally, restore from your backup drive

First process may or may not work. I have no hands on experience with bootcamp, and generally advise folks to avoid it.

Second process WILL work, but again, you MUST have a backup because otherwise, all personal data on the drive (including the bootcamp partition) will be lost. But sometimes, "this is the only way"...

As stated in my original post, I did boot it using Internet Recovery mode. The issues is that the utilities never loaded. It would just reboot into Internet Recovery mode. Looping.

 

[Fishrrman]

OK, then I have more suggestions:

Can you create a bootable USB flashdrive to boot and then repair or erase the MPB?
Of course, you will need another working Mac on which to do this.

Next suggestion:

Use ANOTHER MAC to create a bootable USB3 external drive (SSD preferred).
Take that drive to the non-bootable MBP and connect it.

Then try booting with the option key down to invoke the startup manager.

IMPORTANT: I believe you will need to create the bootable external drive on a Mac that is INTEL-based. Trying to create it on an m-series Mac won't work.

Can you get booted from the external drive?
Then, I would:
a. try to get any Mac files from the internal drive.
then
b. COMPLETELY ERASE the internal drive, and start over.

Another possibility, not sure if this can be done:
Can the MBP be booted into "DFU mode" using Apple Configurator?
If so, it may be possible to either "revive" or "restore" it.
Here's a place to start:

Revive or restore an Intel-based Mac using Apple Configurator

You will need either a late-model Intel based Mac or an Apple silicon Mac (I -think- this will work), running the latest version of Sonoma AND the latest version of Apple Configurator 2.
Also, I believe the host and [problem] Mac must be connected using a "high-speed, charging" cable (such as the Apple charging cable).

Hope something here is of use to you.

 

[MBAir2010]

what is your start up disk target?

I type this because my MacBook Pro 2012 would not boot Thursday.
sure enough that was the problem.