MacBook Air cuts connection with internal hard drive

Hello Everyone,

This question was asked for Macbook Pro but not for Macbook Air.

Couple days ago my computer froze totally while in use. I powered it off and on and came across that dreadful flashing folder with question mark.

After some research i tried resetting CMOS and it didn’t work. I decided to reinstall through recovery tool but the internal hard drive was not there. The computer cant recognize it.

The next day i powered it up and everything was working normally with no sign of mentioned problem. However after couple minutes the computer froze again and i went through all the same steps and came across with exactly the same issues.

I tried it couple more times and figured out (or assuming) the computer cuts connection with internal hard drive once it is heated up.

I opened it up and look for visible damage but the motherboard and hard drive socket looks just fine. I did a dust clean up. Unfortunately the hard drive is not like in macbook pro so i could suspect cable problem as mentioned in a similar thread over here.

Unfortunately i couldn’t try it out with another hard drive since Macbook Air has its own rare hard drive not available easily.

On the other hand, i just installed MacOSX on an external hard drive and it seems to be working just fine without any freezing.

My question is that, does it sound like a motherboard issue or hard drive? I don’t want to buy a new hard drive just to understand the source of the issue.