I got a Macbook Air 13" mid-2011 (A1369) from a friend who disposed it years ago. He said it was "broken", and a technician told him it wasn't worth the repair. He's not an expert, and couldn't give me any other useful details. Now he gave it to me, I'm looking if I can fix it.
When I push to power button I can't hear the usual chime and the notebook doesn't turn on. Connecting a working power adapter it doesn't seem to charge – no lights on the magsafe connector. My guess first guess was that the battery may be broken.
Today I opened it, and found the SSD missing.
So my question: Can this Macbook Air turn on without any SSD installed?
Is it possible that it doesn't turn on because there's no SSD installed?
Actually, I'd like to try anything before spending money on a SSD that I can't use elsewhere. Battery replacements are cheap, but SSD drives are expensive.
Best Answer
You don't need an internal drive for a MacBook Air (any Mac for that matter) to boot; you can boot off an external drive.
You also don't need a battery to turn on a MacBook (plain, Air or Pro). Plugging in the MagSafe will just show an amber led, not green.
It doesn't turn on because there's something more serious wrong with it. It's most likely, the SSD was removed for two reasons:
There are many logic board repair services available, you may want to check them out because it's most likely a logic board issue.