My Macbook Air would not take the OS X 10.14.4 update today.  Tried several times, always failed.  Ran the built-in Mac diagnostics and it said there may be a problem with a memory module.  Booted MemText86+ from an external CD drive and it confirmed there were problems.  As you may know, the memory on the Macbook Air is soldered onto the logic board (motherboard) and is virtually impossible to replace on its own.

Chatting with Apple support, they suggested I contact a local service dealer.  So I did.  Called Alpha Computers and they told me that my Macbook Air was just old enough that they would not be able to get replacement parts from Apple.

So now I’m stuck with what was once a fairly spendy laptop that I cannot repair.  For satisfaction’s sake, I clamped it in the huge vise on my garage workbench, then smashed it up with the sledge end of my eight pound splitting maul.  Tossed it in the trash like so much garbage.  I may take the aluminum shell and recycle it.

At this point, I am not sure I will ever buy another Macintosh.  Literally the only laptop I’ve ever owned that actually had memory fail on it.  The irony of it: all the other laptops I have owned with replaceable RAM modules, and none of them have failed.  Buy a Mac with non-replaceable modules and they fail.  Probably keep using Ubuntu on Thinkpad or Toughbook hardware until that is no longer an option.