AppleInsider Staff
It appears Apple's most recent EFI update for mid-2011 Mac Book Air models contains a bug that in some cases fails to install, or more seriously creates system crashes.
Apple pushed out the MacBook Air EFI update 2.9 last week to address sleep/wake issues seen on mid-2011 hardware running OS X 10.9.2 and later.
On Tuesday, users began reporting the update as flawed on Apple's Support Communities forum, citing a number of problems including installation bugs and system lockups. The exact cause of the problem is unknown, though a corrupted file may be to blame as users with identical hardware are seeing varied negative effects.
One user with a "bricked" Air took their machine to an Apple Store Genius Bar, where the technician performed a "soft" SMC reset to successfully expunge the tainted EFI update and bring the computer back to life. The issue was then reported to Apple's engineering department, though the company has yet to remove the EFI update page.
The thread, which now has more than 850 views and 42 replies, contains a number of similar stories, though the number of MacBook Air owners affected remains unknown.
Apple's MacBook Air update was meant to fix an issue that causes the laptop to take longer than expected to wake from sleep. Also addressed in the software is a problem that could cause the computer's fans to run at full speed after waking from sleep.
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19 Comments
Unfortunately I have a Mid-2011 11" MacBook Air i5 sitting on my desk experiencing the same issue. Waiting to speak with an Apple Engineer to help them troubleshoot.
Had the same problem. Called Apple Care. They walked me through the SMC thingy. That didn't help but the Air finally turned on during the support call-- out of the blue. Seems fine now. Total time with a black screen about 70 minutes. Possibly the SMC reset did the trick but the Air didn't boot up until five minutes later. Possibly just give the Air some time to rest and dream of electric sheep for 70 minutes.
Mine came back to life after 5-10 minutes. I was a bit worried when it didn't boot up after the mandated reboot, but apparently it just wanted a nap.
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[quote name="NostraThomas" url="/t/181524/users-report-install-crashing-issues-with-latest-macbook-air-efi-update#post_2567912"]Had the same problem. Called Apple Care. They walked me through the SMC thingy. That didn't help but the Air finally turned on during the support call-- out of the blue. Seems fine now. Total time with a black screen about 70 minutes. Possibly the SMC reset did the trick but the Air didn't boot up until five minutes later. Possibly just give the Air some time to rest and dream of electric sheep for 70 minutes.[/quote] Have you checked System Information to see whether you're actually running the updated firmware now? I've tried that process as well, and all an SMC reset does is kickstart the MBA again but doesn't actually install the firmware, as in most logs I've see it'll restore the previous EFI from backup before restarting...