Apple's EFI Firmware 2.9 Update for 2011 MacBook Airs Appears Buggy, Some Users Unable to Install

Tuesday July 22, 2014 4:12 PM PDT by Juli Clover
Apple's recent EFI Firmware 2.9 update for 2011 MacBook Air models appears to be causing trouble for several MacBook Air users, according to a thread on the Apple Support Communities.

Released on July 15 to fix sleep/wake issues and a bug that caused fans to run at full speed after waking from sleep, the EFI update has caused some MacBook Air machines to shut down completely for several hours and on other machines, the update is still listed in the App Store after being installed.

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Multiple users have said their machines turned off and did not reboot for several hours after attempting to install the update, while others have been unable to install the update at all. Some users have also reported completely bricked machines even after several hours.

One user attempted to install the update multiple times with no luck, while another user took his machine to the Apple Store where employees were also unable to get the update to install.
I had the same issue. The machine simply shuts off and doesn't restart so the firmware update is never applied. The power button stopped working and the machine would not turn on at all. So I took it the the Apple Store and they cracked it open to do a physical SMC reset.

It booted up fine after that. We tried the install again and no dice. Same thing happened. This time the guy at the Genius Bar did some kind of "soft" SMC reset. He pressed SHIFT+FN+CONTROL+POWER at the same time (the first 3 keys are in the lower left corner) ... held it for a few seconds and let them go. When he pressed the Power button after that the machine booted up fine. Still didn't apply the firmware update though. The guy at the Genius Bar said he would report this issue to Engineering to alert them to the problem with the update.
It is not clear if the issue is widespread or limited to just a 2011 MacBook Air users, but as none of the affected users in the thread have discovered a solution, those who have not yet attempted to install the 2.9 update might wait to wait for an official fix from Apple.

32 comments


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farewelwilliams
66 months ago
you're...installing it wrong?
Rating: 4 Votes
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smithrh
66 months ago
For cripes sake:

Bugged != Buggy

Title implies that installing this EFI firmware will bug your MBA.
Rating: 3 Votes
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Exotic-Car Man
66 months ago
Reminds me of the June 2012 Thunderbolt update (https://www.macrumors.com/2012/06/12/thunderbolt-software-update-1-2-causing-boot-failures-for-some-users/) boot failures. That one caused my iMac to kernel panic. Luckily, I had a backup. The lesson to be learned is: always backup before installing an update that requires a reboot!
Rating: 1 Votes
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oatman13
66 months ago

For cripes sake:

Bugged != Buggy

Title implies that installing this EFI firmware will bug your MBA.


*may* bug your MBA. ;)
Rating: 1 Votes
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gavroche
66 months ago
My install took a very long time to restart after reboot. Thought it was bricked. Was in process of researching the issue on the iPad when it finally rebooted. My points of note:
1) Definitely starts from sleep more rapidly now. Love this.
2) Having issues with wi-fi now. Specifically, after waking the computer from sleep, nearly every single time the wifi network is no longer chosen and active. I have to wait for it to scan for available networks, and select correct one to join. Annoying.
Rating: 1 Votes
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TheGarreth
66 months ago
BoyRacer, your update did not install. The current version MBA41.0077.B0F was the previous version we were all running on. For a short time yesterday after the update was released, Apple's firmware page was updated to reflect MBA41.0077.B11F as being the current version - they have since, having realized this was a bad/erroneous update, canceled the software update & revised that page to show MBA41.0077B0F as being the current version.
From everything I'm reading, it's pretty apparent that the new EFI didn't actually install for anyone.
Rating: 1 Votes
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