MBA 2014 Restarts when opened from sleep

[cosmichobo]

G'day,

I have just purchased a 2014 MacBook Air.

It's in pretty good condition, no real issues to speak of that I've noticed thus far - except for 1 - When you open the MBA after it's been left sleeping for "a period of time" (typically overnight) - it presents with a blank screen, after a moment it chimes, then chimes again, and then starts up.

It does not remember what I was doing - just takes me to the desktop.

I've done a little googling and can see this appears to be a known issue, but without any solid answers?

The battery isn't low (ie 70% this latest time).

Any suggestions for how to remedy? It looks like the previous owner installed a fresh copy of Mojave before selling, so I'm guessing re-installing the OS wont help - but could certainly give that a go.

Cheers

cosmic

 

[Audit13]

Does the Air have an original Apple SSD inside? Same thing happens with MacBook Pros and Airs that are running a third-party name drive.

 

[cosmichobo]

Thanks for the reply.

I was going to check this - until I learned about pentalobe screws... Waiting on a screwdriver now.

So - if it is 3rd party - is that all that the error is reporting? Not an "issue" - just a discrepancy?

 

[Audit13]

Look in system report to find the name of the ssd and post it here.

 

[cosmichobo]

Comes up as "Feather M13 256GB".

I'm a bit out of date. In Disk Utility, I can see the "Feather" disk, then an APFS Container, which contains the APFS volume. Is that normal these days?

 

[Audit13]

That doesn't look like an apple SSD identifier to me. I think the drive inside is an nvme drive: https://www.google.ca/amp/s/fledging.net/amp/feather-m13/

Does the drive appear under the nvme or sata storage part of system report?

 

[cosmichobo]

It comes up under NVME - NOT storage.

 

[Audit13]

Makes sense that the MacBook is behaving this way.

When the MacBook is waking from hibernation, it tries to restore the hibernation file from the SSD but it's unsuccessful, suffers a kernel panic, and restarts.

You will need to disable hibernation mode 25. By doing this, the MacBook will not enter deep sleep.

An alternative solution would be to install an original apple SSD.

 

[cosmichobo]

I appreciate your feedback!

So - it's not possible to set up the "Feather" SSD to function in the same way as the original Apple SSD?

Happy enough to kill hibernation if that's what it takes, just exploring options.

 

[Audit13]

There is no way to make a non-apple SSD function exactly like an apple SSD unless you are able to modify and flash an efi bootrom with an updated nvme driver from high Sierra or Mojave.

 

[cosmichobo]

Ahh ok - I thought it may have been as "simple" as replacing the HDD in a Gen1 AppleTV, with its multiple manually created volumes/etc.

Thanks for all the info. Appreciated.

 

[Audit13]

Swapping the SSD for an original apple SSD is easy. It's the cost that you may not like.

 

[cosmichobo]

I just paid around $600 for the machine, which for Australia isn't a bad price, but not a "steal" - not looking to invest anything in it right now.

 

[cosmichobo]

Hi again,

I set the hibernate mode to 0, restarted, and - after being left with the lid closed overnight - it still did the double-chime restart.

Hibernate was originally set to 3 when I checked it out.

I have a pentalobe screwdriver now, so will pop the back and look for any oddities... have heard perhaps a lot of dust could cause issues??

 

[Audit13]

Is your MacBook running the latest bootrom?

Dust would not cause the restart issue.

Have you tried reinstalling the os?

 

[cosmichobo]

Checked this out, and no - the bootrom is:

111.0.0.0.0

I believe it should be 117.0.0.0.0 for a MacbookAir6,2.

I've just been googling / searching Apple for a security update for Mojave so I can update the bootrom, having read that Apple don't offer apps just to update the firmware any more... but no luck.

The machine is running 10.14.6.

Think I may go the re-instal route.

 

[Audit13]

Bootrom updates are installed during an os update.

You could try reinstalling Mojave from scratch but there is no guarantee the bootrom update will take.

Is it possible to borrow an Apple drive from another person?

 

[paridedamessina]

Hi I'm new in this forum, I'm from Italy and I've bought a Fledging M13 but have trouble intsalling in MBP retina mid 2014...HOWEVER i think one possible solution is to refer to the knowledge base in the Feather suport page (https://fledging.net/feather-support/#M13) about "Trouble waking up from sleep" in wich they suggest to use this command in Terminal : sudo pmset hibernatemode 0 standby 0

 

[Audit13]

Running these commands will disable deep sleep which means the MacBook will not write the ram contents to a hibernation file and power itself off. This results in battery drain when the lid is closed.

 

[paridedamessina]

I've requested a substitution of the Fledging Feather M13 first gen that have a lot of sleep/Hibernation issues because of damaged contacts (as they point out to me).They send me a new one (512GB very fast shipping) and installed on my MBP 11,1 mid.2014 and immediatly worked flawlessly with Mojave 156.0.0.0.0 boot ROM. As I boot with "Alt" pressed is viewed as "external"(orange) but not a great issue!
Still testing...

 

[cosmichobo]

Coming back to this...

I went away for 2 weeks holiday, and took the MBA with me - was one of the reasons I purchased it in fact... and - yep - bloody annoying always having it reboot between uses.

I don't have access to another MBA.

You say that re-isntalling Mojave may not get the updated bootrom to "stick". Is there an actual process to update the Bootrom specifically?

 

[paridedamessina]

I think the only possible solution is to borrow an Apple drive from another person (I have it quite funcioning from my MBP 11,1) and make the bootrom update on it and than swap the Feather SSD on Mac and see if it works.That's my experience.

 

[Audit13]

Coming back to this...

I went away for 2 weeks holiday, and took the MBA with me - was one of the reasons I purchased it in fact... and - yep - bloody annoying always having it reboot between uses.

I don't have access to another MBA.

You say that re-isntalling Mojave may not get the updated bootrom to "stick". Is there an actual process to update the Bootrom specifically?

By rebooting, do you mean it would suddenly reboot during normal use or it suffers a kernel panic after opening the lid from sleep?

There are only two methods to update the bootrom: install the latest os with an Apple drive in the Mac or by using a bootrom programmer.

Updating the bootrom with a stock bootrom will not enable deep sleep or eliminate sleep kernel panics. Updating with a modded bootrom may enable proper sleep mode behaviour.

 

[cosmichobo]

The rebooting (with 2 chimes) occurs after "x" period of sleep - I haven't put an exact time frame on it, but it seems to be several hours at least - yet sometimes it wont happen over many many hours.

I just read up on the Feather SSD manufacturers website, and they offer a "kit" to update your Mac's BootRom - including a genuine Apple SSD, which they say is required - matching your comments above. If you return the drive when done, they offer a credit, but I'll still be out of pocket about AU$60.

For that much, I could potentially source a small capacity genuine Apple SSD from eBay... Or just pay $150-odd for a 256GB genuine SSD, then re-purpose the Feather SSD into my MacPro...

Kinda disappointing - guess I should have researched this further before purchase. I would love to use the machine for writing, but would be terrified of losing data if I forget to save before closing the lid.

PS I found a link to a OWC app that updates your BootRom - tried it out, but it couldn't see the Feather SSD. It must only work on the brand that they sell..

 

[Audit13]

Are sure the owc app updates the bootrom and not the firmware in the SSD?

Even an updated bootrom won't fix the reboot issue.