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My Macbook Air M1 died all of a sudden (Logicboard Problem)

septianrishal

septianrishal

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 27, 2020
11
3
I have a macbook air m1 base model, after it was 9 months old, suddenly when I tried to turn it on nothing happened.

Black screen like no power, tried connecting to charger and pressing the power button for 10 seconds nothing happens.

After contacting Apple, it is advisable to visit the service center. After I visited AASP, it was said that there was a hardware failure, maybe the logicboard. Of course I will lose data.

What I want to discuss, why is this happening? is this a manufacturing defect of the M1? and unlike the type C dock case, I never used it. I'm afraid this will happen again in the future.

 
Could it be as simple as bad luck or internal damage of some kind? A datapoint of one isn't enough to go on.

Of course nobody should lose data because of a logic board failure. That's why God gave us backup software.
 
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Significant1 said:
It might not be a hardware problem. It might "just" be unresponsive and can be revived with Apple Configurator 2 using another Mac:
https://support.apple.com/en-us/guide/apple-configurator-2/apdd5f3c75ad/mac
"In very rare circumstances, such as a power failure during a macOS update or upgrade, a Mac may become unresponsive and so the firmware must be revived or restored."
Click to expand...
It's been handled by the service center, it's really working on hardware. Currently waiting for replacement parts.
 
Mikael H said:
Could it be as simple as bad luck or internal damage of some kind? A datapoint of one isn't enough to go on.

Of course nobody should lose data because of a logic board failure. That's why God gave us backup software.
Click to expand...
Fortunately there is no important data in it. It's a shame, despite the M1's speed, soldered storage is a pain.
 
It is not uncommon for mass-produced consumer electronics to fail. Around 5-10% of new computers will experience a hardware failure within the first two years. It's just an industry fact. And it's not a sign of bad quality or bad craftsmanship either. These are electronic circuits of mind-boggling complexity, with myriad potential failure points, manufactured at the absolute cutting edge. It would be possible to make things more reliable of course, but that would make the products much more expensive and you will have to abandon the cutting edge technology (meaning worse performance). Example: military tech, they use 10 years old tech and pay an arm and leg for it.

Bottomline: consumer electronic fails, and that's why warranty exists.
 
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septianrishal said:
Fortunately there is no important data in it. It's a shame, despite the M1's speed, soldered storage is a pain.
Click to expand...

These things are encrypted at the controller level. A removable SSD won't help you to restore data at all. The advantage of a removable SSD would be upgradeability and easy replacement in case of a failure.
 
leman said:
It is not uncommon for mass-produced consumer electronics to fail. Around 5-10% of new computers will experience a hardware failure within the first two years. It's just an industry fact. And it's not a sign of bad quality or bad craftsmanship either. These are electronic circuits of mind-boggling complexity, with myriad potential failure points, manufactured at the absolute cutting edge. It would be possible to make things more reliable of course, but that would make the products much more expensive and you will have to abandon the cutting edge technology (meaning worse performance). Example: military tech, they use 10 years old tech and pay an arm and leg for it.

Bottomline: consumer electronic fails, and that's why warranty exists.
Click to expand...
Yes, I hope this is just a glitch on a small percentage of devices. Not mass damage like butterfly keyboard cases or Staingate.
 
septianrishal said:
Yes, I hope this is just a glitch on a small percentage of devices. Not mass damage like butterfly keyboard cases or Staingate.
Click to expand...

So far, there have not been any mentions of M1 machines dying at alarming quantities, so you probably just got unlucky.
 
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Always make backups. There are plenty of options, the simplest is to mirror Your folders containing critical data in a cloud.
I use both Dropbox and MS OneDrive.
If You have some ,classified’ content use external drive with TimeMachine or some third party software. There is plenty of them to choose from.
And hardware failures just happen.
 
septianrishal said:
Yes, I hope this is just a glitch on a small percentage of devices. Not mass damage like butterfly keyboard cases or Staingate.
Click to expand...
No way to tell. The oldest M1 Mac is only 10 months at this point. I guess in the next year we will know if this type system is a big flop.
 
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I kinda had similar on a 6 month old MacBook Pro M1 ( currently with apple getting repaired as I type ), camera just packed in and charging USB ( one nearest screen ) stopped charging and data communication/device recognition.
 
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leman said:
Around 5-10% of new computers will experience a hardware failure within the first two years. It's just an industry fact. And it's not a sign of bad quality or bad craftsmanship either.
Click to expand...

That almost sounded like a lobbying to accept that failure rate.
 
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Leon1das said:
That almost sounded like a lobbying to accept that failure rate.
Click to expand...

It’s simply reality. Unless there will be some truly groundbreaking advanced in the technology, the failure rates are not going to change.
 
I feel the same. I just bought the base model macbook air m1 exactly one week ago. and now trackpad and keyboard not working. then I took it to AASP, after being diagnosed it turned out that my m1 logicboard was damaged. huft lucky i still have warranty
 
as someone who has a 2 year old son who likes to "help daddy" by carrying my m1 mbp around (and dropping it constantly)..id say you just got unlucky. If mine survived a year with physical abuse and still works (on top of not hearing other stories of failing macbooks) id say its a fluke and not something to be concerned about.
 
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