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evanwaight

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Feb 1, 2019
3
0
Hi there,

I recently purchased an 11" 2014 MacBook Air from the facebook marketplace for $400 CAD. I'm feeling a little beside myself because a few issues have come up that I didn't detect initially when buying it and the seller was quite confident that aside from some lagginess when he installed OS Mojave that it was in mint condition... only to find out that's not really the case. Not wanting to think the worst in people -- the person was a university student and claimed they only really ever used it in class but also owned a PC which they used for everything else so I don't know if this individual was fully aware. none the less I feel I'm pretty much stuck with it now.

The issues I'm having are as follows:

- It will only charge when shutdown -- the charge will hold and continue to charge the battery while in operation when I boot it back up, however if the Mag charger is unplugged and plugged back in while on it will not recognize it and I'll have to repeat shutting it down and booting it up again.

- Lagginess, it takes a bit of for things to load, though coming from a 2009 MacBook that's seen its share of issues I'm used to it and the 2014 is still faster then the 2009.

- Audio, when I first received it the audio and playback of videos on youtube or in iTunes was fine, again it took a sec to load but it worked. in trying to figure out the battery issue I restored the factory settings and now I no longer have audio and video playback is pretty choppy.

- I ran a diagnostic and it said: There may be an issue with the system management controller. there may be an issue with the power management system and then it just tells me to contact apple support services, which I did but was just instructed to take it to an authorized apple store.

I plan on taking it to an authorized apple store to be assessed and may also take it to another reputable repair shop in town as well just to get a couple of opinions but was hoping to pro long it because of any associated cost at the moment.

Aside from those issues it pretty much works fine, I can use my photoshop on it I'm even typing this on it. I just wanted to see what the Mac rumors community might think as its actually driving me nuts not being able to pin point the issue. If it's something like the left I/O board I feel confident being able to replace that, if its something like the logic board I know that the associated cost is greater and even more so because I'll probably have to have a professional do it.
 

Audit13

macrumors 604
Apr 19, 2017
6,807
1,808
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Where are you located?

Did you erase the drive before installing Mojave?

Tried an nvram and SMC reset?

Tried a different charger?

How many cycles on the battery and max charge capacity?

Battery shows as healthy in system report?

Have you removed the bottom cover to look for signs of liquid exposure or corrosion?
 

Ruskes

macrumors regular
Jan 4, 2019
135
38
Hi there,

I recently purchased an 11" 2014 MacBook Air from the facebook marketplace for $400 CAD. I'm feeling a little beside myself because a few issues have come up that I didn't detect initially when buying it and the seller was quite confident that aside from some lagginess when he installed OS Mojave that it was in mint condition... only to find out that's not really the case. Not wanting to think the worst in people -- the person was a university student and claimed they only really ever used it in class but also owned a PC which they used for everything else so I don't know if this individual was fully aware. none the less I feel I'm pretty much stuck with it now.

The issues I'm having are as follows:

- It will only charge when shutdown -- the charge will hold and continue to charge the battery while in operation when I boot it back up, however if the Mag charger is unplugged and plugged back in while on it will not recognize it and I'll have to repeat shutting it down and booting it up again.

- Lagginess, it takes a bit of for things to load, though coming from a 2009 MacBook that's seen its share of issues I'm used to it and the 2014 is still faster then the 2009.

- Audio, when I first received it the audio and playback of videos on youtube or in iTunes was fine, again it took a sec to load but it worked. in trying to figure out the battery issue I restored the factory settings and now I no longer have audio and video playback is pretty choppy.

- I ran a diagnostic and it said: There may be an issue with the system management controller. there may be an issue with the power management system and then it just tells me to contact apple support services, which I did but was just instructed to take it to an authorized apple store.

I plan on taking it to an authorized apple store to be assessed and may also take it to another reputable repair shop in town as well just to get a couple of opinions but was hoping to pro long it because of any associated cost at the moment.

Aside from those issues it pretty much works fine, I can use my photoshop on it I'm even typing this on it. I just wanted to see what the Mac rumors community might think as its actually driving me nuts not being able to pin point the issue. If it's something like the left I/O board I feel confident being able to replace that, if its something like the logic board I know that the associated cost is greater and even more so because I'll probably have to have a professional do it.

OK lets do this one at the time.
Charging the battery,
It could be simple problem with SMC reset.

Another common problem is DIRTY charger plug (clean it)

The battery is 4 years old so it might be time to replace.
To check Hold Option key and click on the battery icon. It should say Condition Normal.

[doublepost=1549087232][/doublepost]Lagginess
Open the Activity Monitor and look who is using CPU most
[doublepost=1549087490][/doublepost]For the other problems install and run a great non-intrusive software called EtreCheck.
It will check your Mac and without changing anything on it it will give you a report on what it has found.
You can publish that report here so we can help you with it.
 
Last edited:

evanwaight

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Feb 1, 2019
3
0
Where are you located?

Did you erase the drive before installing Mojave?

Tried an nvram and SMC reset?

Tried a different charger?

How many cycles on the battery and max charge capacity?

Battery shows as healthy in system report?

Have you removed the bottom cover to look for signs of liquid exposure or corrosion?


Weirdest thing, I went to go plug it in to get the PRAM/SMC resets again because of the audio and now it recognizes the charger and charges like it normally should, this is the first time since I got it that it’s done this.

So to answer your question. The guy that owned it did a reset and installed Mojave first. Because of these issues I repeated that process.

I did resets multiple times.

I tried another charger.

The battery charges 100% and it shows as normal.

However seemingly the charger is no longer the issue and the audio is now the problem.
[doublepost=1549088552][/doublepost]I can play the audio via my Bluetooth beats pill speaker but not the internal speakers or headphones as well.
 

Ruskes

macrumors regular
Jan 4, 2019
135
38
Open the Sound in the System Preference
Click on the output
What do you see there when you Plug/Unplug headset ?
Does it changes
[doublepost=1549088932][/doublepost]Remove all Non Apple applications the previous owner has installed.
Remove any application that starts automatically when you log in.
 

evanwaight

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Feb 1, 2019
3
0
Open the Sound in the System Preference
Click on the output
What do you see there when you Plug/Unplug headset ?
Does it changes
[doublepost=1549088932][/doublepost]Remove all Non Apple applications the previous owner has installed.
Remove any application that starts automatically when you log in.

So when I plug in headphones it recognizes it and switches from internal speakers to to headphones and when I unplug it reverts back. Everything from the previous owner has been wiped out because I restored it but I do have non apple applications that I installed. I can try removing those I suppose.
 

Ruskes

macrumors regular
Jan 4, 2019
135
38
So when I plug in headphones it recognizes it and switches from internal speakers to to headphones and when I unplug it reverts back. Everything from the previous owner has been wiped out because I restored it but I do have non apple applications that I installed. I can try removing those I suppose.
Well it looks like your Audio is working. As for the bad or no sound it is possible the previous owner has installed some app that interferes with that. It does work with your Bluetooth headset, so it is working in general. Open the MIDI in the utility folder and make sure it is set to microphone and Speakers only, and nothing else, and it is not on Mute.
 
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