Full shut down. Seems ridiculous these days with USB/TB, but there's definitely something bad going on.
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M1 MacBook Air won’t power on
- Thread starter wittgenstein
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I’m definitely not going to do that. If my M1 MacBook Air dies then Apple will fix it under warranty. I’ve had it since November 17th and have used it in clamshell mode and open both since that date. I don’t shut down to unplug. I haven’t experienced any problems and don’t expect to.
I am wondering if the Macs that died were all just faulty ones and we are blaming the hubs because it is an easy suspect since Apple has forced us to use a hub due to limited I/O. I want to believe this theory since it will make me stop worrying about the hub and there is no way I am going to (or can remember to) shut the mac down multiple times a day ?
Unlikely - At least I haven’t seen reports of non docked M1s refusing to start/bricked
Also, almost all of the hub related failures (or seemingly hub related) seem to have occurred during plugging/unplugging the hub thus implying a strong correlation.
Shutdown/restart seems a bit extreme though. Surges can happen even with the software flag set to shutdown so not even sure if that would help if the other conditions that cause this are true for the event to occur.
I went the Apple hub route - in the presumption that adequate testing would have happened with that.
In addition, I did take the ACP after contemplating for a few days. While I can’t say that 100% of the contribution to the decision was on account of hub related failures but at least 50% was.
(considering I do plug it in/out a couple of times a day.)
There is at least one report here in this thread that it happened while on battery.
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/m1-macbook-air-wont-power-on.2272304/post-29593531
The reports are so varied that it is hard to draw any conclusions. I’ve seen at least one poster having a problem with Apple’s own adapter too.
I will be crossing my fingers that this doesn't happen to me. While I don't expect to be using a hub where I will be pulling power before pulling the hub, I will be occasionally be plugging in to a USB-C monitor that supplies 60w of power.
I also have a few small form-factor Anker 30w USB-C chargers that I had anticipated using (smaller and more portable than Apple's).
I also have a few small form-factor Anker 30w USB-C chargers that I had anticipated using (smaller and more portable than Apple's).
It may well be, still some over-current protector in the Mac should prevent such issue.
Is it possible to use the USB-C on the monitor just for data and not for charging? If not, I'll have to continue using hdmi
You'll have to dig in to your specific monitor's setting to see if power delivery can be disabled.
Hi all.
M1 MacBook Air user here. Only purchased in Nov 2020. Tried to wake from sleep and it was completely unresponsive. Just a black screen.
Dropped it into an Apple reseller today who confirmed shortly after that the logic board and Touch ID sensor requir replacemen.
can confirm I have been using a usb hub since Nov and mostly with the power lead going into the hub.
does anyone know if a logic board replacement means my files will still be there when I get the m1cback? Presumably the HDD was fine.
M1 MacBook Air user here. Only purchased in Nov 2020. Tried to wake from sleep and it was completely unresponsive. Just a black screen.
Dropped it into an Apple reseller today who confirmed shortly after that the logic board and Touch ID sensor requir replacemen.
can confirm I have been using a usb hub since Nov and mostly with the power lead going into the hub.
does anyone know if a logic board replacement means my files will still be there when I get the m1cback? Presumably the HDD was fine.
The SDD is in the logic board. Most certainly your files will be gone. You will need to restore from a Time Machine backup or some kind of backup. In my case, the machine came back in "like new" condition after the logic board replacement and I had to restore. I understand that the reason they have to replace the TouchID piece is because it matches the logic board for security purposes.
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It seems like a text book case of this pesky problem.
If you bought it in November then we could kind of guess that the new batch of machines (say, manufactured recently) are not having this problem anymore, since I don't see more posts here (at least not in waves).
Maybe we can conclude that this problem went away? Maybe Apple quietly upgraded some internal circuits or something in the past few weeks.
oh. that's the concern with tightly integrated components. whilst it is good to know that replacing the board seems like a new unit, without proper data backup, it will be a big loss. so we should take that into consideration (and regularly sync or backup our data)
I hope that's true (at least for the succeeding batches) but Apple should do a recall if it is considered to be widespread.
still hard to get the pattern across.
it seems like quite a big story and I’ve yet to see any of the Mac websites cover it?
Perhaps Apple don’t want the bad publicity around such a key product etc.
The only worry with previous macbooks were - would it run my apps smoothly and if the battery would last long enough. They are no longer a worry but I'd be very reluctant to choose this MBA over my iPad for travel because there is no clarification as to how and why it happens.
While it is surely a concern esp given the seemingly random nature of occurence, It did not deter from getting one and I don’t regret the decision one bit.
1) You should be fine charging the Mac on one port and any dongle on the other
2) Charging the Mac with a PD powerbank (as long as directly connected) should also be fine - has not been an issue for me so far , nor have I seen any report (although I have used it only for testing given - travelling , well!)
3) Charging via the A2119 adapter with HDMI and USB A connected is also not an issue - I have been using mine at my desk for 2 months now , nor have I heard of any issues
In the bigger scheme of things, modifying my workflow a little bit (to avoid changing via hub ) is only a minor inconvenience compared to the gains
That however does not change the fact that it is indeed a shame how such a thing could have been missed during design and testing of the system
There is at least one report here with a failure while only using an Apple HDMI adapter and the Apple charger plugged directly into the MacBook.
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/m1-macbook-air-wont-power-on.2272304/post-29479982
It was an issue with macOS optimized charging. I have turned it off and have been using the charger ever since without any issues. I just make sure to not use it through a USB hub.
Link
Oh well, If such a failure were to occur with the charger plugged in directly too then there isn't much one can do I guess.
I did however take the 3 year ACP - which is something I may not have done if not for this issue (and have done only for one of the last 5 Macs I have purchased in the last 15 years)
If this does not occur during a 3 year period then likely won't after it either.
I do normally replace my Macs in 3 years - but with this one, I am hoping I would be able to keep it for at least 5 given how well it performs
This is why I'm currently not too worried. These reports are all over the place and seem likely to be unrelated failures. I can't find any real pattern except it does seem to happen more often with plugging/unplugging a dock with a power delivery charger but not exclusively. Until more reports come in or there is an acknowledgement from Apple that there is a hardware issue, I'm just going to use my M1 MacBook Air as designed and not worry about it overly. Apparently there have been previous reports of Intel MacBook failures as well.
You got me with optimized charging thing.
Can any of the users with dead M1 confirm if they had optimized charging ON or OFF?
(If optimized charging is controlling the flow of juice to the battery - could this be the culprit?. This setting is ON by default)
Here... I helped you with your comment above.
Optimized charging requires "learning usage pattern" to start working.
Apps like AlDente work (on M1) by cutting battery charging when the defined maximum is reached, and they dont require "training". Instead - they write instructions to SMC directly.
So question again - did anyone with bricked M1 had optimized charging OFF before the incident?
If so - it will rule out hypothesis that this is still sw bug, and although rare - could somehow be prevented.