What's wrong with my MBA?

[TheDarkEnforcer]

Hello,

I'm trying to log into my MBA, and I'm getting stymied.

Here's the situation:

1. My computer isn't "chiming" when I boot it up.

2. When I try to log into my computer's admin account, the computer accepts my password, works for a few seconds, then the cursor turns into the "beach ball" and nothing happens afterward.

3. Another symptom is that the "backlight" that illuminates the keyboard is not functioning as well.

According to everymac.com, my computer is a Apple MacBook Air "Core i5" 1.6 11" (Mid-2011)

I am, however, able to log into my computer's Safari-Only "Guest" account, which is where I'm posting this from.

Can anyone help me with this problem?

Thanks,
TDE

 

[donlab]

boot into internet recovery mode and run disk utility to check for errors. you could try resetting NVRAM or SMC but I suspect it could be hardware issues. take to apple store and let them run some tests.

 

[ssmed]

Hello,
I'm trying to log into my MBA, and I'm getting stymied.

I am guessing you have a corrupt file/application which is stopping start-up as you can get onto a guest account, so a motherboard issue is unlikely, although chime and keyboard illuminations appear to point to something more fundamental.

What happens when you login holding the shift key down to stop applications from loading during start-up?

Have you reset your PRAM (CMD-OPTION-P-R) as that might also help?

HTH

 

[TheDarkEnforcer]

I am guessing you have a corrupt file/application which is stopping start-up as you can get onto a guest account, so a motherboard issue is unlikely, although chime and keyboard illuminations appear to point to something more fundamental.

What happens when you login holding the shift key down to stop applications from loading during start-up?

Have you reset your PRAM (CMD-OPTION-P-R) as that might also help?

HTH

Okay, Safe Boot got me back into my admin account.

I don't know if this means I've got a pure software issue, or if hardware could still be an underlying problem.

I'll try resetting NVRAM, PRAM, and SMC (one at a time then testing for success) and get back to you both.

 

[TheDarkEnforcer]

Okay:

The SMC reset brought back the keyboard light functionality, but nothing else.

I then did the PRAM reset, which brought back the chime.

However, I'm still unable to log into my admin account outside of safe boot.

 

[ssmed]

Okay:

The SMC reset brought back the keyboard light functionality, but nothing else.

I then did the PRAM reset, which brought back the chime.

However, I'm still unable to log into my admin account outside of safe boot.

Unclick all of your login items in system preferences and see if that helps, if not then the hunt is on and a re-install might be easier and more reliable. I presume you have run Disk Utility and repaired permissions now you are in, although the latter is likely more for completeness.

 

[TheDarkEnforcer]

Unclick all of your login items in system preferences and see if that helps, if not then the hunt is on and a re-install might be easier and more reliable. I presume you have run Disk Utility and repaired permissions now you are in, although the latter is likely more for completeness.

I repaired all the permissions that were incorrect, and there are no items "clicked" in the login items screen.

I guess that I have to take my computer to an apple store or apple authorized repair shop.