After some brief surfing around this morning, I went to work with my MacBook running fine as usual. After coming home, my keyboard and trackpad are both unresponsive. What's a bit more unsettling is that, in the System Preferences, it's not even recognizing a trackpad as being connected.

After doing some searching around, I've found that some people ran into this issue with MacBook Pros, and it was because of a ribbon that had become loose underneath the battery. I'm wondering if it's possibly the same problem for me with my MacBook Air. I hadn't read about anyone with an Air experiencing the same problem.

Any help would be appreciated.I would love to get my Air working so I don't have to constantly use my external keyboard/mouse.

Thanks!

Edit: The only key that works on the keyboard is the power button.

⟐ Answered July 07, 2025 at 6:09 MST

I now I have to either use my Bluetooth keyboard or dictation!!

It is just the top row of letters, QWERTYUIo... P works!

If I move the keyboard problem, if I type repeatedly and seemingly fill the keyboard buffer the problem goes away.

I have taken my MacBook air to the genius bar, and after running diagnostics they found no hardware problems.

My Mac is running OS X 10.10.5

It's a mid 2011 13 inch 1.8 GHz Intel core I7, with 4 GB of DDR3 RAM

I've tried resetting the PRAM ram, no luck. Similarly the SMC reset.

Everything else runs fine, so I'm reluctant to go buy new machine when this feels like it's a bug.

If anyone has any suggestions, hints or tips - I would be eternally grateful!

⟐ Answered April 02, 2023 at 1:26 MST

Lastly I saw an explanation on how to reset the smc which I did, not sure whether it worked or not but no change in the slowness.

⟐ Commented July 17, 2020 at 6:34 MST

I decided to replace the battery because it only got to 121 cycles before it stopped holding a charge at all and I could only use the laptop when plugged into the power adapter. The battery status says "Not Charging" and the adapter status light does not glow when connected (it does function normally when plugged into any other computer, so the adapter is not the issue). The second it becomes disconnected the computer shuts down.

Charge Information:

Charge Remaining (mAh): 2545

Fully Charged: No

Charging: No

Full Charge Capacity (mAh): 6620

Health Information:

Cycle Count: 0

Condition: Replace Now

Battery Installed: Yes

Amperage (mA): 0

Voltage (mV): 7575

I'm at a total loss for what to do next to solve this problem. Could it be the I/O board or cable? Any ideas? Thanks!

⟐ Commented August 01, 2020 at 19:21 MST

I have a macbook air to repair. The problem is the same as here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSpikNzb0...

Looping chime. It even dont show logo of Mac OS. There just is a grey screen and looping chime until you place a finger on the button of power for 6 seconds.

I tried to reset PRAM, SCM - nothing. It got even worse. Before I reset PRAM it loaded to Windows but keyboard or mouse did not response. When i tried to load MacOS so 'Alt' key worked, it proposed me to select OS to load, but cursor of keyboard nor touchpad worked... Then i reset PRAM and from then chime is looping and it dont load OS at all... Even dont propose me to select OS. Even from external HDD.

Does anyone know a problem?

Thanks.

The problem was in Flash Memory that corrupted. I changed it. installed New Flash Memory removed serial number but computer began to start normally. Thanks to all.

⟐ Answered October 23, 2021 at 6:16 MST

Is it possible to get Phillips screw replacements for the pentalobe screws on the bottom case of an Air?

⟐ Commented January 21, 2024 at 15:44 MST

⟐ Commented July 04, 2024 at 3:26 MST

⟐ Answered May 21, 2020 at 6:39 MST

1. SMC & PRAM resets

2. Disk utility - repair disk and repair permissions

3. OS X reinstall - erased and reformatted and reinstalled.

4. Apple Hardware diagnostics test

5. Use of new profile.

I am thinking this is a hardware issue however I don't recall anything going wrong with the machine. Everything else works fine and the camera worked well previously too. Note: the ambient light sensor that's next to the camera doesn't function either.

Any one have any ideas? I have never taken the laptop apart but I don't mind doing it if I have to. Can the camera/light sensor be replaced or does the whole screen assembly have to be replaced?

Any advice/tips are appreciated.

⟐ Commented May 12, 2020 at 13:32 MST

I would like to remove these keys for cleaning.

Can it be done? If yes, is the procedure different from the one I've seen regarding letter keys on older macbook 'chiclet' keyboards on youtube ?

Many thanks in advance.

⟐ Answered June 16, 2018 at 16:16 MST

When I'm trying to turn the display I have some flickering and lose of colour. Sometimes the picture becomes frozen.

That accrues when I'm open my laptop and turn it on after some time in sleep. So it is cold. When it heats up a little bit, problem seems to go away.

I opened it and make a little test, pushing the display cable to what happened. It seems like pushing the cable helps, while not pushing cause flickering even on "heated" laptop.

Do you thing that the problem in this cable or in some other place?

⟐ Commented May 05, 2016 at 10:36 MST

⟐ Commented November 15, 2020 at 18:13 MST

As of now I am wondering whether I soldered wrong, or whether the problem is with the backlight itself.

I also noticed that there is no keyboard backlight. Even if I hit the keyboard backlight keys, it doesn't light up.

I was wondering whether that means that my soldering is wrong, or not. Is the backlight fuse also "protecting" the keyboard backlight ?

EDIT: I did some measurements on the logic board. My interpretation of them is that everything seems fine, except the voltage divider for BKL_EN. For some reason, even though input voltage seems fine, and both resistors have correct resistance, divider output is slightly lower than it should be.

The only weird thing I notice, that could explain this value, is the fact that resistance rises slowly when I measure it. It starts at half the final value, and rises logarithmically for about 30 seconds.

Here are the measurements:

Global values

• PPBUS_G3H : 8.3V
• SMC_LID : 3.4 V

Driver output

• PPVOUT_SW_LCDBKLT : 8.43 V
• PPVOUT_SW_LCDBKLT_FB (at test point) : 8.4 V
• PPBUS_SW_LCDBKLT_PWR_SW : 8.46 V
• PPBUS_SW_BKL (before L9701 inductance) : 8.32 V
• Output of inductance
  • When measured in DC : 8.32 V
  • When measured in AC : 17.5 V
• Feedback line connectivity check:
  • By putting multimeter in diode mode, placing red probe on ground, and black probe on PPVOUT_SW_LCDBKLT, multimeter displays 510/512/515
    • A second measurement gave 530

BKL_EN circuit

• BKL_EN : 2.64 V
• PPBUS_SW_LCDBKLT_PWR : 8.43 V
  • measured both at test point, and on resistor closest to driver
• Fuse : 8.43 V
• Resistors
  • R9731 : 201 kOhms
  • R9715 : 101 kOhms
  • => theoretically BKL_EN should be : 2,72

Other driver inputs

• PP5V_S0_BKL : 5.17 V
• PP3V3_S0_BKL_VDDIO : 3.3 V
• BKL_PWM : 3.34 V
• LCD_BKL_PWM : 3.34 V

LCD activation circuit

• PP3V3_SW_LCD : 3.25 V

Other output

• LED_RETURN_1 : 0V
• BKL_ISEN_1 : 0V
• LED_RETURN_2 : 0V
• BKL_ISEN_2 : 0V
• LED_RETURN_3 : 0V
• BKL_ISEN_3 0V
• LED_RETURN_4 : 0V
• BKL_ISEN_4 0V
• LED_RETURN_5 : 0V
• BKL_ISEN_5 0V
• LED_RETURN_6 : 0.5 V
• BKL_ISEN_6 : 0.5V

⟐ Commented June 17, 2018 at 2:13 MST

Today I installed a brand new display/lid assembly using the guide here on iFixit. The laptop (besides the screen) was working fine before I attempted repairs, I had it plugged into an external monitor and all was working as normal. However after completing the replacement successfully (screen now 100% working) there is a new problem!

Upon turning the Air on the fan speed keeps increasing until it reaches max rpm (so loud!!) and the Yosemite loading bar crawls at an absolute snails pace (taking maybe 2-3 mins just to boot) but even the mouse cursor is extremely laggy etc.

I have read on another forum post (in that case the air had been liquid damaged) that it's an SSD issue, but my Air has had no liquid damage and was working normally before this repair!

Steps I have taken to try and solve the problem so far:

SMC reset

Removing cpu fan cable and reinserting into logic board

Removing ssd, wiping connector, socket + solder points with isopropyl and reinstalling onto logic board

Can anyone help? Thanks in advance :)

⟐ Commented February 24, 2022 at 12:05 MST

I have a Macbook air and I am trying to figure out what is wrong with it. The macbook doesn't work without the AC plugged in. The battery does charge after I disconnect and then reconnect the battery and the I/O flex cable. But when I reboot it after that it stops charging again and only shows a green indicator. Hardware test, SMC reset, PRAM reset and complete factory reset did not do anything.

Battery info is:

• Battery Information:
• Model Information:
• Serial Number: D8612460820DKRNA7
• Manufacturer: SMP
• Device Name: bq20z451
• Pack Lot Code: 0
• PCB Lot Code: 0
• Firmware Version: 406
• Hardware Revision: 1
• Cell Revision: 162
• Charge Information:
• Charge Remaining (mAh): 3356
• Fully Charged: No
• Charging: No
• Full Charge Capacity (mAh): 5888
• Health Information:
• Cycle Count: 727
• Condition: Normal
• Battery Installed: Yes
• Amperage (mA): 18
• Voltage (mV): 7739

Everything is original in the macbook and I have already tried it with other chargers.

My main question now is: can I find out if it is the battery, the I/O board or the I/O flex cable?

⟐ Commented September 12, 2017 at 5:47 MST

After a wine spill on a 2011 Macbook air (A1369 EMC 2469) the backlight isn't working anymore.

The MacBook works fine, lcd is still functioning. Connected to a external display it also works fine, so it is probally not the graphic chip.

Did some research online, and found some hits about the fuse.

Does anyone have documentation about this fuse or what the problem could be.

⟐ Answer accepted December 05, 2013 at 22:37 MST

Would this be the correct part# BCM94360CS2?

Thanks for the help guys.

⟐ Commented February 20, 2024 at 13:06 MST

I had actually though the keyboard would stay in place without them but maybe not...

⟐ Commented December 15, 2016 at 8:23 MST

I have a problem with screen backlight on my MBA. The screen turns on but backlight don't. Probably I found the problem on the logic board, the yellow fuse shown with the red arrow in the image is broken.

Is there anyone can help me to find the fuse specifications?

Thank you very much.

Alessio

Hi Israel,

thanks a lot for your precious help providing the images.

I made the resistance measurement. Since I don't know the position of the FET pins I cannot specify when in direct or reverse polarity. Anyway here it is the values:

Q9706: 299 kohm and 288 kohm (reverse). Tested on the green circles in the image posted

Q9707: 0.7 Mohm and 5 Mohm (reverse). Tested on the red circle in the image posted.

R9788: 298 kohm

R9789: 146 kohm

C9782: 95.5 nF

I hope this numbers make sense. Waiting for your comments.

Alessio

⟐ Commented September 14, 2015 at 7:20 MST

At this point how can I tell which part/parts need replacing? Any ideas?

Thanks and Cheers

⟐ Answered December 29, 2014 at 21:45 MST