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Need Help!!! 2012 MBA SSD failure?

Mr Rabbit

Mr Rabbit

macrumors 6502a
May 13, 2013
638
5
'merica
KelvinAng said:
I asked him if he could replace it with a Samsung (or anything other than the Toshiba with a known problem), but he said Apple will only allow him to order the exact same part as replacement under the warranty programme, which I suppose is fair enough except that it's silly to replace it with a drive known to fail prematurely...?
Click to expand...

For what it's worth, Apple will frequently have multiple revisions of a component without changing the part number. For example, component 123-A installed in September of 2013 could be the original version, however component 123-A installed in March of 2014 could be revision 2 or even 3. Very rarely will they inform technicians of any changes aside from "part 123-A revision 2 is available".

If they are seeing large scale failures then they will likely work with Toshiba (or whoever) to iron out any issues either through hardware or firmware engineering and then start shipping revised units for repairs as necessary. If the failures are widespread enough (i.e. more than "half" of shipped Macs are affected) then they may even rollout a repair extension program (REP) to address out of warranty failures, similar to the NVIDIA GPU program with the older MacBook Pros and the top case replacement program for the polycarbonite MacBooks.
 
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Edmilan

macrumors newbie
Jun 18, 2013
16
0
Just recieved my MBA 2012 from repair after an SSD failure (luckily 11months in warranty, still a month left), the SSD was replaced. How do i know what SSD is inside my Air? How do i know it's still using a Sandforce controller thingy?
 
S

Sergey.P

macrumors newbie
Aug 27, 2013
15
0
Finland/Russia
Edmilan said:
Just recieved my MBA 2012 from repair after an SSD failure (luckily 11months in warranty, still a month left), the SSD was replaced. How do i know what SSD is inside my Air? How do i know it's still using a Sandforce controller thingy?
Click to expand...

Hi! I believe you may find all basic info about your SSD in Disk Utility (manufacturer, etc), to dig deepper use System Profiler, just browse the tabs on the list and eventually you'll find your drive somewhere there.. Unfortunately I can't say for sure which tab consists the SSD, since it's not SATA anymore (as far as I can remember :D ) and my Mac is still at Apple's service :(
 
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eskimokind

macrumors newbie
Aug 23, 2013
3
0
I am also very disappointed about Apple!

:mad:

mid 2012 macbook air:

My SSD is also failed 30 days over warranty.

And that after only one year! This is quality

Now I´m working only with an external HDD, the repair is too expensive for me.
 
K

KelvinAng

macrumors newbie
Sep 4, 2013
3
0
Mr Rabbit said:
For what it's worth, Apple will frequently have multiple revisions of a component without changing the part number. For example, component 123-A installed in September of 2013 could be the original version, however component 123-A installed in March of 2014 could be revision 2 or even 3. Very rarely will they inform technicians of any changes aside from "part 123-A revision 2 is available".
Click to expand...

And indeed this is what the repair guy told me. He told me that the part number is the same, but the new revision number is different from my old one, and he has got no idea what the differences are, or if this hardware revision is prone to failure or not.

I got my laptop back and had just made an external hdd bootable with an OS on it, in preparation for the second failure of the SSD. I know that SSDs will eventually fail, but the fact that they cost _that much_ to replace outside of warranty frightens me.
 
K

KelvinAng

macrumors newbie
Sep 4, 2013
3
0
sirdanielm said:
But now...I feel like all the "blah blah" about Mac reliability is just like other "blah blah" = smart marketing. SHould you have to buy an extra $100 or $200 service plan (AppleCare) for peace of mind? Isn't it better for the consumer for them to spend more on the SSD component and charge the appropriate price, instead of lowballing on cheap crap?
Click to expand...

I feel your pain, I'm wondering if I should spend NZ$350 (~US$280) on an extra 2 years warranty (AppleCare) on my Macbook Air, and I have a month more to decide before my first year is up and I won't be able to buy it. I feel "blackmailed" into buying it because I have a Toshiba-made SSD, but the cost of not buying it may mean a replacement 64Gig SSD at twice that price a year later, judging at the rate of failure on these drives at the moment.

I do wish that my revised drive has got the failure issue ironed out, but without any clarification or info from Apple I won't know anything until it's too late.
 
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okatomy

macrumors newbie
Sep 8, 2013
7
0
hi guys

i have the 2012 MBA for almost a year now with the Toshiba 128GB SSD that didnt fail (yet)

i remember there was a firmware update for this SSD a few months back that fixed a bug causing the system to freeze.

so to those that have a failing SSD that is still recognized as 32KB and will NOT getting a warranty replacement:

have you tried to perform a "ATA secure erase" ? maybe this will bring back your SSD to life ( it wouldnt be the first time to bring an SSD back by this )

ive secure erased my SSD before heres how to:

Get Parted Magic ISO Image form http://partedmagic.com/
Burn to CD and boot with external USB CD Drive
OR
use Unetbootin http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net to crate a bootable USB thumb drive with that ISO.

hold the option key on start and boot from your Parted magic (Labeled as Windows in the Apple boot manager)

once your on the desktop launch the app "erase disk" and choose to perform the internal secure erase command.

follow directions when it asks to put it to sleep, then launch the erase disk again , it will work this time.

does that help?
 
hindmost

hindmost

macrumors regular
Jan 14, 2009
190
68
old-wiz said:
I used to have Time Machine running since I have plenty of HDDs around, but I started having trouble with it - it would freeze on "preparing"... so I decided it wasn't worth it for me.
Click to expand...

The 'sparse bundle' in the 'DATA' file Time Capsule stores which contains your Time Machine 'backups' may have become corrupted.

That does happen very infrequently. When it happened to me, the 'fix' has been to flush the Time Capsule file completely and start anew. No fix like a total fix by using a new DATA base. Just a thought.
 
O

old-wiz

macrumors G3
Mar 26, 2008
8,331
228
West Suburban Boston Ma
hindmost said:
The 'sparse bundle' in the 'DATA' file Time Capsule stores which contains your Time Machine 'backups' may have become corrupted.

That does happen very infrequently. When it happened to me, the 'fix' has been to flush the Time Capsule file completely and start anew. No fix like a total fix by using a new DATA base. Just a thought.
Click to expand...

I thought of that, but I decided that time machine just didn't have enough benefit for me.
 
H

henryonapple

macrumors 6502
Oct 29, 2012
406
0
I'm not sure if my 2012 MBA SSD has failed, but I am unable to boot and in disk utility the Mac HD does not show up.
 
mayuka

mayuka

macrumors 6502a
Feb 15, 2009
609
66
henryonapple said:
I'm not sure if my 2012 MBA SSD has failed, but I am unable to boot and in disk utility the Mac HD does not show up.
Click to expand...

It certainly seems so. Contact Apple support immediately and ask for repair under warranty.
 
M

mp42

macrumors newbie
May 4, 2006
16
0
Canada
I've experienced two SSD failures in about a month.

The 128GB SSD in my 2012 MBAir, 11 inch, died 2 weeks out of warranty in July. I called Apple and pleaded, and they agreed to replace no charge. New drive worked great at first. Fast forward 6 weeks, the new one has died! What!

I am waiting to see if Apple will replace again.
 
H

henryonapple

macrumors 6502
Oct 29, 2012
406
0
mp42 said:
I've experienced two SSD failures in about a month.

The 128GB SSD in my 2012 MBAir, 11 inch, died 2 weeks out of warranty in July. I called Apple and pleaded, and they agreed to replace no charge. New drive worked great at first. Fast forward 6 weeks, the new one has died! What!

I am waiting to see if Apple will replace again.
Click to expand...

that's not a good sign, anyone have links on how to replace it ourselves?
 
H

HarryWarden

macrumors 6502a
Oct 27, 2012
608
121
Eek! My 13-inch 2012 MBA is currently 10 months in and is confirmed to be a 128-Toshiba drive. I saw the link for OWC drives: which one(s) are compatible and recommended for use with the 13-inch 2012 Air because if it does fail out of warranty I might just replace it myself with another manufacturer's product so I don't have to worry about the high rate of failure with the Toshiba drive given that they probably would replace it with that brand again.
 
mayuka

mayuka

macrumors 6502a
Feb 15, 2009
609
66
henryonapple said:
I am about 3 months out of my warranty, like many of us here
Click to expand...

If that is the case, you should try to initiate a petition with the option of a class action lawsuit. If so many people are affected, it should have success. It worked before with the iPod and other models.
 
R

richard6r

macrumors regular
Jun 11, 2013
136
33
Add me and my macbook air mid 2012 to the list.

After the fans on my air went into high gear a shutdown was performed normally. it would chime and turn off after pressing the button. Disk utility on my time machine says 33kb sandforce.

25 days before limited warranty expires. I guess I'm lucky.
 
C

chkneo

macrumors newbie
Sep 13, 2013
2
0
2 of my macbook air 2012 crashed too

I have one macbook air with 6 days left for warranty and the other with 1 month left. Both SSDs are failed. AppleCare is replacing both the SSDs.

The issue is worldwide I guess. I am using both laptops in india. Bought one in US and other in Thailand. Thanks god its international warranty :)


But I lost all the data. Thats the serious problem for me now. Make sure to take backups periodically.
 
Last edited:
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chkneo

macrumors newbie
Sep 13, 2013
2
0
mayuka said:
That's sad to hear. Which SSD was inside? Toshiba? :confused:
Click to expand...

All mid 2012 MBA 13 128GB SSDs are toshiba :mad:

----------

Since two of my MBA's SSD failed, I bought the extended AppleCare just in case of any another failure after 10 months :mad:

Looks like average lifetime for the toshiba SSD is very less. AppleCare = SSD = 250$
 
C

cyber16

macrumors 6502
Jan 12, 2013
487
28
Not so sure about that as I replaced my 64gb 2012 11" ssd with this one
http://www.ebay.com/itm/190896750007
It is an apple SSD for the mid 2012 mba

chkneo said:
All mid 2012 MBA 13 128GB SSDs are toshiba :mad:

----------

Since two of my MBA's SSD failed, I bought the extended AppleCare just in case of any another failure after 10 months :mad:

Looks like average lifetime for the toshiba SSD is very less. AppleCare = SSD = 250$
Click to expand...
 
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