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The larger of Apple's MacBook Air laptops featuring dual microphones and 802.11ac Wi-Fi connectivity.

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2013 MacBook Air hot; shuts down within 1 min of power cord removed

I’m the original owner of a mid-2013 Macbook Air that’s been working great for the last few years. Over the last month, I’ve run into a new problem that’s been extremely frustrating. I’d like to avoid getting a new laptop, but I’m stuck. I poked around the forums and got Coconut Battery and TG Pro to try to help troubleshoot.

Problem: when the Macbook is not plugged in, it will shut off within 2 minutes. Sometimes it’s immediate, mostly it’s a few seconds to a minute. Battery health is good according to Coconut Battery. If I try to restart it without the power cord plugged in, I can hear the fan start up, then immediately shut down. I don’t hear the chime nor see anything on the screen. If I plug the laptop in and press the power button, the fan will start up and immediately shut down 3 times, but after the third time the computer will start up and I can use it as normal.

I use my computer pretty lightly - mainly for browsing the internet. That being said, I have seen TG Pro show CPU temperatures around 100 C (!) - especially if my CPU is high (generally appears to be when Google Drive is syncing).

A few months ago, I swapped the original 128 GB SSD hard drive for a 1 TB OWC Aura N SSD. Everything else is either original or was replaced by Apple under warranty 6+ years ago.

Would love some insight and advice. I’d really like to continue using this laptop, but the lack of portability won’t work for me.

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Plugged in:

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Unplugged, a few seconds before turning off:

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Can you snap a pic of CoconutBattery just before the system shuts down with the MagSafe disconnected so we can see it under load with the battery alone.

Also it the White sleep LED pulsing on and off? When in this state?

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@danj Added CoconutBattery to original post - the temperature reading is clearly wrong. Temperature returned to a more realistic value (87 fahrenheit) after plugging it in and turning it back on.

I don't think my model has a sleep LED, but please let me know if I'm wrong!

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All MacBook Pro's before 2016 have a SIL Mac computer Sleep Indicator Light behavior

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At this point you either have a bad battery or the SMC logic is messed up. I’ve never seen a bad temp value like this. Most of the time the output is null values or they are off either powered by AC or battery.

Time to visit someone local who has the deeper skills to diagnose this.

Do make sure you have a real Apple MagSafe charger in case thats the cause.

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Thanks @danj - wish it were better news but glad to have a path forward,

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Jordy Goldstein will be eternally grateful.
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