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MacBookAir Problem

Avatar Drew McFarlane
2011 MacBookAir — HighSierra 10.13.6

If I close the lid on my computer when watching YouTube, my computer doesn't switch off. The display i.e Apple Logo switches off but I can hear the sound of whatever I have been watching.

Any suggestions on how to eliminate this problem please?

Re: MacBookAir Problem

Avatar Mick Burrell
I take it "stop the video before closing the lid" or "press the mute key before closing the lid" is a bit too obvious?

Does it carry on if you select "sleep" from the Apple menu? I know iOS devices will carry on playing from apps like BBC iPlayer Radio when the screen switches off. Perhaps laptops behave the same.

Re: MacBookAir Problem

Avatar Drew McFarlane
It shuts down when I press "sleep", no sound. Until recently it cut the sound when the lid was closed, and restarted when I opened the lid.

On the MacBook Pro of the same age everything works as normal.

Re: MacBookAir Problem

Avatar Mick Burrell
Are they both running 10.13.6?

Re: MacBookAir Problem

Avatar Drew McFarlane
Yes.

Re: MacBookAir Problem

Avatar Mick Burrell
Try resetting the SMC:
SMC

Or NVRAM/PRAM:
NVRAM/PRAM

Or start in safe mode:
Safe mode

If none of these fix it, I have to give up!

Re: MacBookAir Problem

Avatar Drew McFarlane
Yes Mick, I tried all your suggestions before posting. I was hoping that some else may have had a similar problem and found an answer.

Re: MacBookAir Problem

Avatar Euan Williams
Maybe it's time for slightly more radical checks? If you have a recent or fairly recent, clone on an external drive or internal partition, start up with that (press option key before the chime at start) the start will be slow, but if the MBkA behaves nicely you have three useful choices:
1. re-install your current macOS,
2. Install the latest macOS your system accepts, or
3. re-clone back from your working external drive -- having made sure you have proper data backups.

Startup options for re-installation are:
Command (⌘)-R
Install the latest macOS that was installed on your Mac.

Option-⌘-R
Upgrade to the latest macOS compatible with your Mac.

(and, pretty irrelevant here:
Shift-Option-⌘-R
Install the macOS that came with your Mac, or the closest version still available.)

Rarely, something in an App or System update will interfere with smooth operations. For example, every time I update my macOS on my MbkPro 15" 2014, a kernel extension for Thunderbolt access to Ethernet has to be removed to stop the Mac suddenly shutting down at odd intervals. The rogue kext is in System> Library> Extensions> and file name is "AppleThunderboltNHI.kext". This issue probably only affects a few thousand macs, and I doubt Apple will ever produce a fix :)

Re: MacBookAir Problem

Avatar Richard I
This sounds like the computer is not sleeping when the lid closes, it just turns off the screen.

I'm sure this is a setting somewhere which is used , to avoid it sleeping when you use an external screen with the laptop's lid down. However, can I find it? -no!

It may be that somehow you have enabled this mode.

Re: MacBookAir Problem

Avatar Tony Still
I think it's default behaviour with a MacBook that if you close the lid when an external display is connected, the MB does not sleep but continues to run using just the external display (so the built-in display is turned off).

Something else to try:
Launch Activity Monitor, choose View > Columns and tick 'Preventing sleep'. That column will appear in AM's window and should show you if any apps are running that have overridden the normal sleep behaviour.

Re: MacBookAir Problem

Avatar Drew McFarlane
Apologies for my late reply.

Having tried everything suggested including reinstalling High Sierra I still have the same problem.

Our MacBook Pro of a similar year closes down down completely when the the lid is closed as did the MacBook Air until recently, I guess I will have to live with it.

Thank you for all your suggestions.

Re: MacBookAir Problem

Avatar Lionel Ogden
Have you thought of giving Apple Support a call?
 
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