If you have a MacBook Air and are experiencing long pauses when waking from sleep, or if you find your system fans are regularly blaring after waking from sleep, then Apple has a fix in the form of an EFI firmware update, that should hopefully clear the issue.

The update, for Mid-2011 MacBook Air systems, is a small download available via Software Update in the Apple menu, but can also be downloaded from Apple’s Support downloads page and applied manually.

As with all firmware updates, this will require you to reboot your system, and you may see the system reboot automatically at least once.

As always, be sure to fully back up your system before applying this update, and follow all on-screen instructions for applying the update.

Since the issues that this fix addresses are otherwise related to the system management controller’s functions, if you do not see an improvement right away then consider resetting your system management controller, which can be done on the MacBook Air by shutting down and plugging in the system, followed by pressing the Shift-Control-Option keys on the left side of your keyboard and then pressing the power key. Release all of these together, and then press the Power key again to start up the system.

The update states it only applies to systems running OS X 10.9.2 or later, and those with the following EFI versions only:

• 0077.00
• 0077.08
• 0077.0E
• 0077.0F

To check the version of the EFI firmware on your Mac, open the System Information utility and click the Hardware section, in which you should see the firmware version listed.