Macbook air is stuck in a reboot loop after running Software Update. It looks like a firmware update is failing.

Question

Macbook air is stuck in a reboot loop after running Software Update. It looks like a firmware update is failing.

I have a first generation Macbook Air running Lion, and just ran software update to get the latest version of iTunes. It appears I may have gotten a firmware update mixed in the bunch, and now it keeps trying to run the update at boot, failing, and shutting down.

I can start the restore partition, and the system appears to function, but I cannot figure out how to abort this failing update so I can use my system, and determine which update is breaking it and why. I've tried resetting the firmware, but that didn't change anything.

There's nothing, not even a the CD drive plugged into the Air, so it's not a peripheral problem.

I could restore from backups, but that seems like a very brute force way to get rid of a firmware update loader.

Does anyone know how to disable these little beasts?

MacBook Air, Mac OS X (10.7)

Posted on Oct 15, 2011 6:31 AM

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Answer 1

Andrew J

Level 3

790 points

Oct 15, 2011 4:14 PM in response to Charles in Charge

Restart the Air while holding down the shift key, this is safe mode. Once in to the login screen, login then hold the shift key again. It will disable login items, which can be the cause of startup problems. Remove all your login items from your user accout and try a restart (Note the login items if you need to re-add essential ones later). If it all works well, then keep an eye on third party startup items, they will cause you grief!

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Answer 2

Oct 15, 2011 8:23 PM in response to Andrew J

No joy. I still get the firmware upgrade bar and spinner under the Apple icon, and the machine powers off.

It's not login items that are the culpret here... it's some variety of firmware update that's running at boot from the main disk, and that I want to disable from recurring.

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