⟐ Commented July 10, 2020 at 4:57 MST

⟐ Answer accepted February 12, 2017 at 9:21 MST

I bought a used MacBook Air 11’ 2013 (Intel Core i5 1,3 Ghz, 4 GB RAM, 128 GB SSD) off of eBay at the beginning of this year.

The seller had indicated that the Air runs slowly, which I thought I might be able to fix so I bit the bullet, since the asking price was 150€.

During the past months I noticed to particular issues:

1. The fans of the air are constantly spinning. While the noise is audible it’s not comparable to the jet engine like sound seen and heard on other MacBook Airs in YouTube Videos.
2. The Air runs extremely slowly in battery mode at times, with applications taking several times longer than usual to load or update information. This behavior does not appear, when the Air is plugged into power.

I ran several programs (EtreCheck, SMC Fan Control, Apple Hardware Test) and got the following results.

• The Apple Hardware Test completes with the error PPF003 indicating that the fan is not working properly.
• EtreCheck completes with the “Minor Issues”: High battery cycle count & Heavy I/O usage.
• SMC Fan Control indicates, that the fan is not spinning (000 rpm).

I did a clean install of macOS Mojave 10.14.5, but the issue persists. Upon opening the case in order to clean the fan and renew the thermal paste I noticed, that the fan connector on the motherboard looks damaged.

I don’t believe this to be a software issue, since CPU usage doesn’t seem to be particularly high.

I’m happy for any input or further tests I could run.

Thanks in advance!

Peter

⟐ Commented November 28, 2020 at 7:39 MST

⟐ Answered April 15, 2019 at 10:15 MST

⟐ Commented August 05, 2020 at 20:55 MST

I was hoping that someone could point to the precise location of the fuse for the Mid 2013 Macbook air, 1.3Ghz, i5 on the Logic board. The computer's screen works as it should yet the backlight does not. I am confident that there is a way to fix this computer, I know this is a more advanced repair so here I am ready for the next challenge !

I pulled this photo off your website and found that it matches my Logic Board. I am thinking that checking the fuse is the first step. Any other suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

Bret :o)

Edit- Photo of Logic Board Oct 28, 7pm

You can see in the upper corner where the hinge screws are there is some corrosion on the hinge and the screws. The fuse checks out fine.

⟐ Commented May 29, 2019 at 21:25 MST

The SSD in my MacBook Air 2013 is dead. Now I want to replace it with the SSD of a MacBook Pro Retina 2015. Will it work? If yes can I damage my MacBook Air because the new SSD has a higher speed?

Thank You!

⟐ Answer accepted December 18, 2016 at 8:30 MST

Stripped it down and didn't see any clear liquid damage or anything else out of the ordinary, slapped it back together and that dang thing turned on soon as I plugged in the battery!

Couldn't login with the built in keyboard or even an external for some reason, then the client informed me that the shift key was stuck. Traced that issue back to the trackpad for some reason. I reset the SMC and the machine seemed to respond properly to the power button during random tests over a 48 hour time span.

Ordered in a trackpad and replaced it, put together, booted when the battery was connected, shut it down, pressed power... nothing.

Reset the SMC, LED changes states but will NOT power on. Disconnected power and battery, plugged back in, boots up, get into OS, tap the power key, shuts down.. proves power key is functional.

Tap again, nothing. Only way this machine will restart is if the battery and adapter are unplugged and reconnected... besides that, runs like a dream. Reset PRAM and SMC, no change.

Thoughts?

⟐ Commented October 07, 2016 at 9:58 MST

⟐ Answer accepted December 13, 2014 at 7:05 MST

⟐ Answered March 02, 2014 at 13:07 MST

I have a Macbook Air 11" Mid 2013. It is working perfectly except that it won't power on after it was shut down. To power it on, I have to do the following steps:

1) Remove back cover

2) Unplug battery cable

2') Plug battery cable in

3) Plug megasafe in

4) It turns on automatically after about 5-10 seconds. No need to press power button

Note:

- Step 2 is the most important step. Without unplugging battery, it won't power on by any methods including megasafe plugged in.

- Step 2' is not important. It will turn on without Step 2'

- Power button is working when it's ON. When it is completely OFF, it won't power on by pressing power button

- When it's ON, it can be restarted by Press Power Button --> Select Restart; or Select Apple logo --> Select Restart

- When it was shut down, it won't power on except above method.

- I have tried reseting SMC, NVRAM but won't work

- Megasafe LED is on when plugged in

Any comment or suggestion would be highly appreciated.

Thanks,

Happy New Year 2017!

⟐ Answered December 20, 2017 at 18:30 MST

⟐ Answer edited February 17, 2020 at 6:25 MST

I am using a SM951 256GB M.2 SSD with a NGFF M.2 Adapter.

I have researched and found them to be compatible with my laptop, a 11" Mid 2013 MacBook Air.

The original SSD went bad, and this is a replacement more than an upgrade.

I have created a High Sierra (latest) USB installer, and upon using I can see my drive in Disk Utility.

I format it as Journaled and start the installer. I select the drive, it starts installing and says about 5 minutes.

At the 2 minute mark the screen will go black (restart I presume?) and then show the apple logo.

The progress bar below will load about 10% and then it will just boot to the USB again.

Inspecting the drive in disk utility shows that about 5GB of it is now used, but it is not bootable.

What is happening, and how do I fix it?

Can provide pictures and product links if needed...

Thanks

⟐ Commented August 04, 2018 at 16:40 MST

The fan is spinning at max (6500), and the cpu is taken over (400-800%) by kernel_task.

I have tried pram resets and smc to no avail. Smc did give some sort of results, as in once in a while it makes the computer fast again, mak s the battery disappear (isn’t recognized both by coconut and my os), but the fan is still maxing out. In addition to that I used disk utility and ironed out a few bugs in the system. The volumes are now perfectly fine.

On the hardware side I pried open the thing, pulled out and put back battery, io/cable, fan and ssd. A hardware test was run, it didn't find anything out of the ordinary.

All that didn’t get me anywhere. I’m willing to substitute i/o board and cable, but am not sure wether or not it’ll be a solution.

Any inputs are more than welcome.

I did run diagnostics, the results were:

• Battery will need to be replaced soon (functioning normally) PPT002
• There may be an issue with SMC, PFM006, PPN001

TG Pro says 6500 rpm (as I said), and no part of the laptop is over 45 C. The hottest being the SSD at 45.

Update:

I pulled the logic board out, the backside doesn’t show any signs of corruption of any kind. It was submerged in dust though. I’ll clean all the components today. Battery lufe cycles will be posted.

Update:

Coconut gave back 1300 lifecycles, making the change 300 lifecycles overdue. Still, can the battery cause this kind of errors?

Update:

Running the system without the battery gives the same exact results as with.

Update

Just to be sure I cleaned my ssd an reinstalled macos. It was to no avail. Utility monitor doesn’t show kernel_task taking over anymore though.

⟐ Commented March 03, 2023 at 5:45 MST

should i get a new one or just replace the battery and go on

im putting a picture

⟐ Answer accepted October 25, 2021 at 10:40 MST

I would like to ask if anyone has encountered a same or similar problem, and what the solution could be.

I accidentally pored water on my MacBook Air. After drying it for days in a “tent” position, I tried to turn it on, but no response. When I plugged it in, the charger’s light did not even appear at all.

I opened up the back of the lap top and took it apart to see what is going on. When I reassembled and plugged the computer in, the charger’s light appeared (red), and I was able to turn the lap top back on.

While it is running, everything seems to function perfectly on it.

The problem is that once I shut it down, I am unable to turn it back on. I can only do it if I open the back of the lap to and disconnect it’s battery cable from the board, wait a few seconds, and plug it back on (I do not even have to take out the whole battery, just disconnect it from the board).

I run diagnostics when I turned the computer on, and it suggested me to get a new battery. So I did! Now I replaced the battery, but the same problem occurs even with the new battery.

If I would like to summarize:

-If I shut down the computer, I can only turn it back on when I open up the back, and unplug the battery cable from the board and plug it back on after a few seconds (it is enough to just unplug it, I do not have to take out the whole battery)

-Then I plug the computer in with the charger, and it turns on

-When the computer is on, it is functioning perfectly without any problems or glitches

-If I shut the laptop down, then I can not turn it back on without going through the battery process mentioned above

I am not good at computers so please excuse me if my description is unclear. I would really appreciate any help or advice about what the problem could be and how to fix it, what to replace perhaps.

Thank you so much!

PS. These are the screenshots after running the “coconutBattery 3” app

*Screenshots with MagSafe charger plugged in

⟐ Commented March 09, 2021 at 16:19 MST

⟐ Commented August 04, 2024 at 12:33 MST

⟐ Commented March 31, 2024 at 23:11 MST

But it was the screen of the 2012 model and I know that the iSight camera cable doesn't compatiable

also, I don't need an iSight cable.

However ,the display and Wi-Fi cables look similar, are they compatible?

⟐ Answer edited February 14, 2023 at 6:33 MST

I/O problem or what else could it be ??

⟐ Answer deleted December 11, 2021 at 9:51 MST