This article is more than 1 year old

Apple fanbois SCREAM as update BRICKS their Macbook Airs

Ragegasm spills over as firmware upgrade kills machines

Apple fanbois have erupted in rage after an update bricked their Macbook Airs.

On the official Apple support forum, dozens of angry customers claimed that the latest software update for the 2011 Macbook Air had gone horribly wrong.

Some posters said their Airs had been totally borked by the update, while others reported difficulties installing it.

All had been trying to install version 2.9 of an EFI firmware update, which was supposed to fix a problem which causes the computer to take an eternity to wake from sleep and then run the fans at full speed.

One owner of a Macbook Air from mid 2011 is now in mourning for his deceased laptop.

He wrote: "The update seemed to install fine, then asked for a reboot.

"The MBA shutdown and never came back on. Tried SMC reset, with and without power adapter. Nothing. The thing is dead."

Worst of all, the poster was from Greece. Not necessarily a bad thing in itself, we note, but terrible if you're a fanboi because of the lack of an official Apple store in the country. Now he has been forced to pay for a fix.

One parent went a step further with a tale of woe, isolation and broken laptop.

"My son is on an internship in a somewhat remote place in Alaska (read: no Apple genius to bring it to), with his Macbook Air," he said. "He sent me a text informing me that his perfectly working MBA won't power on at all after applying a firmware update this morning. It's dead, killed by Apple, and it is out of warranty."

Other forum folk suggested there was hope of a resurrection, if you just leave the computer alone for a while.

"I just realised the fan is running quietly, so maybe not dead, just having a terrible dream," one fanboi wrote.

"Anyway, the laptop after standing around for two hours (I kid you not) rebooted by itself. A scary two hours," another added.

Happily, some posters reported fixing the issue by performing a triple System Management Controller reset. To do this, you just need to plug the laptop in, hold down the Shift, Control and Option keys as well as power. Then release them all and whack the power button.

Repeat three times, say four Hail Marys, salute the great gods of the underworld and hey presto, your Macbook might just return from the grave. Until then, we are praying for you. ®

More about

TIP US OFF

Send us news


Other stories you might like