⟐ Answered August 29, 2026 at 22:09 MST

⟐ Commented August 28, 2026 at 15:24 MST

⟐ Commented August 27, 2026 at 18:27 MST

⟐ Answered August 21, 2026 at 8:48 MST

A bit of a head-scratcher which i've been trying to troubleshoot for the past week. Hopefully someone here on the forum can provide some guidance.

The Context:

About July last year a cousin of mine gave me her old 2013 11 Inch MacBook Air because (in her words) it has stopped working and I'm known in the family to tinker with laptops (admittedly, she didn't really look after it).

Anyway, I got it home and quickly realised that the only issue is the magsafe connector is a bit worn out. By jiggling the connector around I could easily get the orange/green indicator light to show up, the MBA would charge and otherwise operate normally.

I went ahead and purchased/installed a replacement battery from iFixit seeing that the OG battery had over 1000 cycles. I then installed macOS Ventura (and eventually Sonoma) using OpenCore Legacy patcher which all worked pretty well.

For the past half year i've been using this little machine as my Discord and Spotify hub to great affect.

The Problem:

About a week ago I noticed that the Laptop would not power on unless the charger was connected. The magsafe indicator light shows a solid orange light. If the laptop is on and I disconnect the charger, it instantly dies.

If I reconnect the charger and hit the power button it seems to 'resume' rather than restart (even if the laptop was in the middle of booting).

The Investigation:

To date I have tried:

• Multiple SMC and PRAM resets.
• Disconnected the battery connector and left it for 24 hours before reconnecting.
• Tried a different Magsafe Charger
• Wiped and performed a clean reinstall of the latest Officially supported OS (Big Sur).

The weird thing is that if I power the laptop on and remove the connector AFTER the startup chime then it will go most of the way through the boot up process before it shuts off. I've even performed an Apple Diagnostic test (whilst running on battery power) where I'll get an error code PPT001 "The Battery was not Detected" (this whilst the machine was UNPLUGGED from its charger). So clearly the battery works in some capacity?

The System Information app in Big Sur only shows zero values under Battery Information.

I've Included a collection of photos at the end of this question.

The Question:

I'm unsure where to go from here? Is this clearly a logic board issue? Or is it a battery issue? Are there other tests I can try? Is the battery stubbornly stuck in a low power state? Something else entirely?

I am willing to purchase a new battery for this machine but if this turns out to be a logic board issue then repair would likely be expensive (I would need to send it away - that sort of repair is way outside of my experience level), likely resulting in me throwing it away.

⟐ Answered August 21, 2026 at 2:04 MST

My computer died awhile back so I changed the battery (which allowed the device to turn on) and the usbc board but it will not charge even after trying multiple charges. What else can I do to see why it isn’t charging?

⟐ Answered August 20, 2026 at 18:31 MST

I have a Macbook Air 13" (2019) that was not keeping a charge and eventually would just turn off when unplugged. I thought it would just need a new battery. So ordered the replacement Ifixit battery for the model. When I opened up the macbook, the original battery was slightly swollen so I took extra care removing it. I performed the surgery on the laptop, swapped batteries and re-assembled. On boot, everything is working (screen, trackpad, speakers, etc.) except that the battery is not showing up as recognized (an X on the battery icon on login screen) and the macbook requires staying plugged in. It also feels very slow. Its my girlfriends laptop, so I don't ever use it, but it stills feels sluggish. Besides the swollen battery, I did not see any damage on the logic board, though I wasn't really looking out for any. Did a SMC reset and a system update (laptop had been sitting for a month or two waiting for the repair). Still no luck.

Not sure where to go from here, open back up and remove logic board to inspect for damage? Would the swollen battery have affected the logic board?

Any help would be great thanks!

EDIT:

CoconutBattery main screen showing no battery detected.

EDIT 2:

Here are the pictures of battery connector with the new battery. It's as connected as the old one was, no damage visible on the mainboard.

As requested, I managed to connect the old swollen battery without removing the newly installed one (just got creative with some electrical tape to hold things in place). Wildly enough, the old swollen battery is recognized by Coconut Battery and was trying to charge. The laptop ran smoother and the fan wasn't going full tilt while I had the macbook running to get the pictures. Could the new Ifixit battery be faulty/bad connectors? Where to look?

EDIT 3

Last question before I reach out to IFixIt. As I was cleaning up the macbook and giving the new battery one last try (no luck). I noticed the control boards on each battery are quite different in layout and modules. I'm no expert, but would this difference in control boards be the source of my issues? Left is old recognized battery and right is new troubled battery.

LAST EDIT

New battery worked, guess I got a faulty lemon. Thanks all for assistance

⟐ Answered August 20, 2026 at 7:49 MST

I'm looking for some advice or insights regarding a frustrating issue with my MacBook Air M2. I suspect it might be related to the T-CON board, lid angle sensor (ALS), or a loose display cable, but I wanted to share the full story and my troubleshooting steps along with a video clip showing the exact behavior.

Here is the timeline of what happened:

1. The Incident

Day 1 (Right before leaving): Before I even left for class, I was using my MacBook normally, watching YouTube. Suddenly, the mouse cursor froze and wouldn't move.

When I shook the mouse back and forth—using the macOS feature that temporarily enlarges the cursor so you can find it—the cursor did enlarge, showing the system wasn't totally dead. However, when I stopped shaking, the cursor stayed stuck in place and wouldn't respond. Interestingly, if I dragged the frozen cursor down to the Dock, the Dock icons still popped up and reacted as expected, even though the pointer itself wouldn't navigate normally.

Day 1: I brought my MacBook to class. It was packed inside a protective laptop bag, and I placed it under the seat of my motorcycle.

When I arrived at class, I opened the lid, but the screen was completely blank. Because the room was extremely bright, I couldn't see the keyboard backlight or any faint glow from the display, so I assumed the battery had run out.

Since I didn't bring my own charger, I tried using a friend’s iPad charging cable. However, the cable was too thin and didn't provide enough wattage, so it didn't charge.

2. Initial Troubleshooting

When I got back to my room and plugged it in properly, nothing happened to the built-in display.

However, the keyboard backlight turned on, and the trackpad responded normally (haptic feedback worked), meaning the system was actually running.

Later, I tried connecting it to an external monitor via USB-C/HDMI, and it worked normally. While using the external display, I updated macOS. Suddenly, during or after the update, the built-in laptop screen came back to life and worked normally again.

3. The Lid Angle & Sleep Issue

After that, I noticed a strange pattern: if I open the lid past roughly 90 degrees, the screen goes black.

As shown in the attached video, I have to lower the angle down to about 45 degrees for the display to turn on properly.

Crucially, I must not let the laptop go to sleep. If it goes to sleep, it reverts right back to the black-screen state.

When the screen finally wakes up or recovers, a Kernel Panic report pops up.

4. Apple Store Visit

I made a Genius Bar booking at the Apple Store. The technician told me that the display assembly might need to be completely replaced, costing around 26,000 THB.

Given the high cost, I decided not to repair it through Apple right away and took it back home.

5. Current State & Workarounds

For the first 2–3 days after coming back, it worked fine (as long as I managed the lid angle).

But now, as seen in the video, if I test putting it to sleep (e.g., pressing the Touch ID power button once, then pressing ESC), the screen shuts off with an abnormal flickering flash, and it gets stuck in that broken loop.

Right now, the built-in display is completely black again. My current workaround to revive it is purely a game of chance: I have to completely drain the battery (sometimes by using the MacBook's ports to charge an iPhone) until the battery dies completely, hoping it resets the SMC/display state upon reboot.

Has anyone experienced a similar issue with their M2 MacBook Air? Is this definitely a hardware failure with the physical display cable/T-CON/lid angle sensor, or could it be software-related? Any advice or workaround suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

(Please check the attached video to see the lid angle behavior and the flickering screen issue.)

Thank you so much!

⟐ Commented August 18, 2026 at 8:34 MST

When I attach a second hand screen (genuine Apple) it gives me the option to finish the repair and it calibrates accordingly.

When I try a second hand Touch ID (genuine Apple) it fails to recognise it as being a genuine part.

My questions are - is it possible to calibrate a Touch ID now through Apple's program? And if so, would I need to buy a new button through the Self-Service Repair from Apple?

⟐ Answered August 18, 2026 at 1:41 MST

⟐ Commented August 15, 2026 at 18:34 MST

I'm considering buying a brand new 2015 or 2014 13" MacBook Air. I would prefer to upgrade the SSD myself.

1. Will any standard "M.2" (form factor) SSD module fit the socket connector on this logic board?

2. Or, is the socket connector a totally proprietary connection on on these 2014/2015 MacBook Airs?

I'm planning on purchasing the following "M.2" SSD:

Samsung XP941 Series [Generation 2 PCIe "4 Lanes"] 512GB M.2 SSD.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...

From iFixit's teardown of the 2015 MacBook Air it seems like it should be easy to simply pop out the factory "M.2" style SSD and swap in a new "M.2" style SSD module.

Please let me know if this is true.

Thanks!

⟐ Answer accepted August 14, 2026 at 10:26 MST

A couple of hours later when he went to turn the Macbook and that's where he first noticed the problem with the backlight. He says that when he first turned it on, the screen was very dim, but he was able to make out a dialog box on MacOS. Then he said it flickered and went completely dim.

When he gave it to me, the screen was completely dark. However, by shinning a light through the Apple logo, I was able to see the MacOS desktop and confirm it was the backlight that was not-functioning and not the LCD. I connected his laptop to an external monitor and was able to confirm that everything else was working fine.

At that point, my initial instinct was to just replace the display. I found a couple of eBay listings of Macbook Air displays that came with the full display housing. However, in the course of my research, I've read a lot of support threads identifying the Fuse on the mainboard of the Mac as the reason why backlights on the MBA might fail.

Here's a picture of the (what I think is the) fuse on the mainboard:

My Question: How do I know which is the right solution? How do I know if the Fuse is blown or not? Will buying the display off eBay solve the problem regardless? Or will I end up wasting money if it turns out to be a problem with the Fuse?

⟐ Answered August 14, 2026 at 0:21 MST

Today's problem: Diagnostics I received a 2015 13" Macbook Air and the customers problem was that the computer randomly shut off while his daughter was watching a youtube video and then it would not power back on after being plugged in.

They attempted to fix it themselves just by those steps i.e. (unplugging it and discharging and then plugging it in again to see if it powers on.

So far I have tried unplugging the battery from the logic board and powering on to see if the battery was the problem at hand. It still didn't power on. So my only thought is the IO port is bad and that needs replacing, I came here to see if anyone thinks that would be my best next step or if any of you had any advice for me on this project.

A friend of mine who does board repairs/ micro soldering suggested it might be the smc chip has lost its touch.

⟐ Commented August 12, 2026 at 11:17 MST

Then it started turning off every 30 seconds, same thing closing display and opening again fixed it. At this point, connecting to an external monitor worked fine. So on the external monitor I could use it like regular (with mirrored or extended screen).

Then I restarted, tried a bunch of things on the https://support.apple.com/en-ca/HT210905 and https://www.macbookproslow.com/fix-black....

I never got into safe mode or knew if things were working, but I tried all the keyboard combinations. Late into the night, it started working and then I used the Macbook regularly, I went to sleep happy that it was fixed.

Now I woke up and the screen is not working at all, not even showing the apple logo which it was last night. Also, it's not working on external monitor either. I can still see the external monitor and the mouse but it's a black background. The backlight is working and the keys and everything seem fine.

Very frustrating and I'm not sure what to do :(

⟐ Commented August 10, 2026 at 7:02 MST

⟐ Answered August 10, 2026 at 5:35 MST

⟐ Commented August 02, 2026 at 7:44 MST

⟐ Answered July 29, 2026 at 6:34 MST

Not much got everywhere, but some of it appears to have gotten stuck underneath at least 3 keys; mainly the "T" & "Y" keys, as well as the screen-brightness reduction key in the top left of the keyboard. The keys have since become stuck & it's become a bit harder than usual to push them down. I know it's possible to remove the keys on older models for cleaning, but I'm unsure how to go through with it/if there's a different process for the new 13" Air. Any help would be highly appreciated <3

⟐ Answered July 29, 2026 at 4:34 MST

⟐ Commented July 28, 2026 at 11:41 MST

As described in the title I can only charge my MacBook Air 2020 with an old (extremely slow) USB-A to C charger, I don't exactly know when the issue started because this MacBook was gifted to me not too long ago, but I think there were some smaller issues with charging prior to this one.

If anyone has any insight, it would be strongly appreciated!

⟐ Commented July 21, 2026 at 5:04 MST