Late night my Wifes 2011 MacBook Air decided it would drop to a screen with nothing but a flashing folder the same/similar to the screen you get when you don’t have a valid boot drive installed. A forced reboot saw it all come back to life without issue so I figured it was just a one off fart. The machine has had a little love over the years, the battery was replaced 12 months ago, the SSD was upgraded to a 480GB OWC Aura 6G SSD in mid 2014 and it’s in very good condition for it’s age.
Today she’s messaged me saying it’s done it again (while sitting open on a table) which leaves me thinking it’s one of three things.
Software
Failing SSD (or loose)
Failing Mainboard
Backups are already in place so that’s not a concern, but I’m looking for someone to check my logic and/or provide alternative ideas for testing before I’m forced to bite the bullet and organise another machine.
OSX First Aid says it’s all OK.
I might open it up and re-seat the SSD and clean out any new dust that’s in there before I do much more.
Next up would be some sort of software check of the SSD itself. Can anyone recommend any tools?
Is there some sort of hardware test that can be otherwise done on the MacBook to test the wider system? Or this is a Genius bar sort of tool?
Assuming all that passes and it’s still happening I will re-install OSX and see if that helps.
Beyond that I could only try the stock SSD and see if that helps.
If all of that fails I suppose it will be time to consider a replacement…