Update targets MacBook Air mid 2013 and early 2014 models

Jun 11, 2014 08:06 GMT  ·  By

A flood of negative reports on the Apple Support Communities forums have prompted the Cupertino giant to issue MacBook Air EFI Firmware Update 2.8 in an attempt to address random reboot bugs on MacBook Air mid 2013 and early 2014 models.

It seems that the company has been made aware of the random reboot flaws reported in close to a dozen separate threads on Apple Support Communities.

A user identified as tonight99 writes in one of the many threads on this topic, “Hi recently my macbook pro has been randomly rebooting in the middle of my use. The screen becomes white and it says your computer has encoutered a problem, and is going to reboot. I am running a 2011 Macbook Pro 13 i7. Running Mavericks.”

Another person, using the handle EggieRowe, chimes in to say, “Since installing Mavericks last week on a mid-2011 MacBook Air, it has randomly rebooted at least once daily, if not more.”

EggieRowe suspects that the reboot issues are tied to Safari, “since the laptop often freezes in Safari and requires a manual reboot. Safari is also constantly closing and reopening itself in the background when I'm using other programs,” this person explains.

Apple does not confirm which system component is the culprit, noting only that MacBook Air EFI Firmware Update 2.8 “improves reliability when waking from sleep and when booting while certain USB and Thunderbolt devices are connected.”

The Mac maker adds, “This update also addresses a rare memory issue that may cause the system to randomly reboot, and an issue where the system may not properly sleep the built-in display when an external display is connected while running Windows using Boot Camp.”

Available as a free download from Softpedia, Apple Support Downloads, and via the Mac App Store’s update tab, MacBook Air EFI Firmware Update 2.8 is recommended for MacBook Air mid 2013 and early 2014 models.

The update goes onto OS X Mountain Lion 10.8.5 & later and OS X Mavericks 10.9.2 & later. Weighing in at around 5MB, the installer package supports over two dozen different languages.

Users should note that some firmware updates may not be displayed automatically using Software Update, which means they’ll have to fetch them manually from the aforementioned download sources.

It’s ok to try to download and run the installer even if you’re unsure whether your Mac needs it or not. “The installer will alert you if the firmware update is already installed or not needed,” according to Apple.