1StGenCL

My wife has an early 2015 MacBook Air 11inch, which we bought from Best Buy a year and a half ago. Lately, the screen will go black and if you tilt it, it will sometimes come back on, sometimes a key push turns it back on, and sometimes a lid close and open fixes it. No work is lost and it comes up like nothing happened but I had her take it to the store, thinking it was a cable or something with the screen.

She called me almost in tears about how big of dicks the Genius people were and said the SSD was failing and would be $500 or so to fix, since it is out of warranty. This sounds like a screen issue and I have read about a ton of the problems with past airs (2013-2015) but does an SSD seem like the issue? I can replace it because I'm not going to pay $500 but I don't think this will fix the issue, thoughts?

thoiboi

fuck best buy...

sounds like a motherboard to screen issue. probably ribbon cable unseating?

1StGenCL

This was the Apple Genius bar that said it was the SSD and were dicks and a loose cable was my guess.

The guy said that if the SSD goes, the screen will go black but don't they usually come up with a ? mark? If the drive was going, would the computer randomly go dark and then come back on with no restart or anything?

thoiboi

hmm.. iuno

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads...-else.1618118/

https://discussions.apple.com/thread...t=150&tstart=0


people saying it might also be power saver settings

1StGenCL

Thanks man, I think I changed all of her settings so it wouldn't put the drive to sleep but I'll double check.

AZuser

If you paid for it with a credit card, there's a chance it's still under warranty. Most credit cards will extend the manufacturers warranty for another year. Contact the credit card company.

To me, this doesn't seem like an SSD issue. A screen that goes dark but can come back on with the movement of the screen or press of a keyboard key leads me to think it's a loose/bad connector or bad logic board. Have you tried reseting NVRAM / SMC yet? If not, see if it helps first.

1StGenCL

My first thought was the credit card because all of my cards, at the very least double the warranty but then I remembered, I used the BB card for reward dollars, doesn't cover shit.

I think the Genius was a bit off, I guess I try another Apple Store.

doopstr

https://www.cnet.com/news/mid-2013-m...ck-screen-bug/

Whiskers

No way its the SSD (unless apple did a full hardware test and its showing its failing), its a lose connection from the board to the monitor.

1StGenCL

That video, while extreme, is exactly what she is seeing and I've verified. They did hook the computer to an iPad for diagnostics and he said the flash drive is the issue and it will eventually complete fail. While that may be, I still don't see how that is the issue because movement is a huge contributor but obviously, I could be wrong. When she moves the computer from her lap to the coffee table, at an angle, and slightly slides the bottom across, it blacks out so there is a small amount of vibration.

Whiskers

Well. If it was me, I would open it up. Hook it up to an external monitor and see if it does the same thing.

1StGenCL

I love to fix things and have repaired numerous iPhones, iPads, MacBooks, added colored casings, etc but they always have a few ways to tell if you opened it so I'm going to hit up another store and go from there I guess. Now that I see I'm not the only one that thinks it isn't the SSD, I'll go back but I'm hoping they don't just go off the first store's notes.

doopstr

While you are at the store get them to hook it to an external display What Whisky said.

AZuser

But you're out of warranty, no? Don't see how it would change things if you open it up.

oo7spy

I don't know if they changed the design from late 2010, but changing the Air screen is a MAJOR pain in the ass. Like professional repair shops often lose money attempting it because they damage something. I was going to give it a try when my screen was smashed, but decided against it, and I have even removed and resoldered display ribbon cables in an iPad Mini. Luckily I located another unit with a busted SSD and simply moved my SSD to that unit.

1StGenCL

True, the warranty is up so I guess it doesn't matter. I reset a few things and made sure the drive doesn't go to sleep but it seems we all believe it is the display. I guess I want them to diagnosis it before I tear it apart.