My Macbook Air M1 died all of a sudden (Logicboard Problem)

[septianrishal]

I have a macbook air m1 base model, after it was 9 months old, suddenly when I tried to turn it on nothing happened.

Black screen like no power, tried connecting to charger and pressing the power button for 10 seconds nothing happens.

After contacting Apple, it is advisable to visit the service center. After I visited AASP, it was said that there was a hardware failure, maybe the logicboard. Of course I will lose data.

What I want to discuss, why is this happening? is this a manufacturing defect of the M1? and unlike the type C dock case, I never used it. I'm afraid this will happen again in the future.

 

[Significant1]

It might not be a hardware problem. It might "just" be unresponsive and can be revived with Apple Configurator 2 using another Mac:
https://support.apple.com/en-us/guide/apple-configurator-2/apdd5f3c75ad/mac
"In very rare circumstances, such as a power failure during a macOS update or upgrade, a Mac may become unresponsive and so the firmware must be revived or restored."

 

[Mikael H]

Could it be as simple as bad luck or internal damage of some kind? A datapoint of one isn't enough to go on.

Of course nobody should lose data because of a logic board failure. That's why God gave us backup software.

 

[septianrishal]

It might not be a hardware problem. It might "just" be unresponsive and can be revived with Apple Configurator 2 using another Mac:
https://support.apple.com/en-us/guide/apple-configurator-2/apdd5f3c75ad/mac
"In very rare circumstances, such as a power failure during a macOS update or upgrade, a Mac may become unresponsive and so the firmware must be revived or restored."

It's been handled by the service center, it's really working on hardware. Currently waiting for replacement parts.

 

[septianrishal]

Could it be as simple as bad luck or internal damage of some kind? A datapoint of one isn't enough to go on.

Of course nobody should lose data because of a logic board failure. That's why God gave us backup software.

Fortunately there is no important data in it. It's a shame, despite the M1's speed, soldered storage is a pain.

 

[Significant1]

Fortunately there is no important data in it. It's a shame, despite the M1's speed, soldered storage is a pain.

Even if it was removable, you should still take backup. Things breaks or get lost/stolen.

 

[leman]

It is not uncommon for mass-produced consumer electronics to fail. Around 5-10% of new computers will experience a hardware failure within the first two years. It's just an industry fact. And it's not a sign of bad quality or bad craftsmanship either. These are electronic circuits of mind-boggling complexity, with myriad potential failure points, manufactured at the absolute cutting edge. It would be possible to make things more reliable of course, but that would make the products much more expensive and you will have to abandon the cutting edge technology (meaning worse performance). Example: military tech, they use 10 years old tech and pay an arm and leg for it.

Bottomline: consumer electronic fails, and that's why warranty exists.

 

[leman]

Fortunately there is no important data in it. It's a shame, despite the M1's speed, soldered storage is a pain.

These things are encrypted at the controller level. A removable SSD won't help you to restore data at all. The advantage of a removable SSD would be upgradeability and easy replacement in case of a failure.

 

[septianrishal]

It is not uncommon for mass-produced consumer electronics to fail. Around 5-10% of new computers will experience a hardware failure within the first two years. It's just an industry fact. And it's not a sign of bad quality or bad craftsmanship either. These are electronic circuits of mind-boggling complexity, with myriad potential failure points, manufactured at the absolute cutting edge. It would be possible to make things more reliable of course, but that would make the products much more expensive and you will have to abandon the cutting edge technology (meaning worse performance). Example: military tech, they use 10 years old tech and pay an arm and leg for it.

Bottomline: consumer electronic fails, and that's why warranty exists.

Yes, I hope this is just a glitch on a small percentage of devices. Not mass damage like butterfly keyboard cases or Staingate.

 

[leman]

Yes, I hope this is just a glitch on a small percentage of devices. Not mass damage like butterfly keyboard cases or Staingate.

So far, there have not been any mentions of M1 machines dying at alarming quantities, so you probably just got unlucky.

 

[matrix07]

Fortunately there is no important data in it. It's a shame, despite the M1's speed, soldered storage is a pain.

Just use time machine to back up to external.

 

[Wolff Weber]

Always make backups. There are plenty of options, the simplest is to mirror Your folders containing critical data in a cloud.
I use both Dropbox and MS OneDrive.
If You have some ,classified’ content use external drive with TimeMachine or some third party software. There is plenty of them to choose from.
And hardware failures just happen.

 

[chabig]

Yes, I hope this is just a glitch on a small percentage of devices. Not mass damage like butterfly keyboard cases or Staingate.

Don't try to make this into something it's not.

 

[UH8183]

Yes, I hope this is just a glitch on a small percentage of devices. Not mass damage like butterfly keyboard cases or Staingate.

No way to tell. The oldest M1 Mac is only 10 months at this point. I guess in the next year we will know if this type system is a big flop.

 

[Bravo2zero]

I kinda had similar on a 6 month old MacBook Pro M1 ( currently with apple getting repaired as I type ), camera just packed in and charging USB ( one nearest screen ) stopped charging and data communication/device recognition.

 

[Leon1das]

Around 5-10% of new computers will experience a hardware failure within the first two years. It's just an industry fact. And it's not a sign of bad quality or bad craftsmanship either.

That almost sounded like a lobbying to accept that failure rate.

 

[leman]

That almost sounded like a lobbying to accept that failure rate.

It’s simply reality. Unless there will be some truly groundbreaking advanced in the technology, the failure rates are not going to change.

 

[Kung gu]

That almost sounded like a lobbying to accept that failure rate.

my Lenovo laptop motherboard died as well. It was random, things like this happen

 

[Gideon Christ]

I feel the same. I just bought the base model macbook air m1 exactly one week ago. and now trackpad and keyboard not working. then I took it to AASP, after being diagnosed it turned out that my m1 logicboard was damaged. huft lucky i still have warranty

 

[hefeglass]

as someone who has a 2 year old son who likes to "help daddy" by carrying my m1 mbp around (and dropping it constantly)..id say you just got unlucky. If mine survived a year with physical abuse and still works (on top of not hearing other stories of failing macbooks) id say its a fluke and not something to be concerned about.