How To Reset The Smc Pram And Nvram On A Mac Laptop Repair Guide

Difficulty

Very easy

Steps

Time Required

                          1 minute

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How to reset the SMC, PRAM and NVRAM on a Mac Laptop
3 steps

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Introduction

If you have a MacBook Pro 2018 Model with a T2 Chip head over to this guide as the steps are different for that model.

Step 1

              SMC Reset for Mac Laptops with a Non-Removable Battery

If your Mac has a removable battery, skip this step and go to step 2.
Choose Apple menu > Shut Down.
After your Mac shuts down, press Shift-Control-Option on the left side of the built-in keyboard, then press the power button at the same time. Hold these keys and the power button for 10 seconds. If you have a MacBook Pro with Touch ID, the Touch ID button is also the power button.
Release all keys. Press the power button again to turn on your Mac.

If your Mac has a removable battery, skip this step and go to step 2.

Choose Apple menu > Shut Down.

After your Mac shuts down, press Shift-Control-Option on the left side of the built-in keyboard, then press the power button at the same time. Hold these keys and the power button for 10 seconds. If you have a MacBook Pro with Touch ID, the Touch ID button is also the power button.

Release all keys. Press the power button again to turn on your Mac.

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Step 2

              SMC Reset on a Mac Laptop with a Removable Battery.

Power down your Mac.
Remove the battery.
If you are unsure how to remove your Mac’s battery, head on over to this linkand select your Mac’s make and model.
Once you have removed the battery, press and hold the power button for 5 seconds.
Release the power button. Reinstall the battery.
Press the power button again as you would to turn on the Mac.

Power down your Mac.

Remove the battery.

If you are unsure how to remove your Mac’s battery, head on over to this linkand select your Mac’s make and model.

Once you have removed the battery, press and hold the power button for 5 seconds.

Release the power button. Reinstall the battery.

Press the power button again as you would to turn on the Mac.

Step 3

              PRAM/NVRAM Reset

Shut down the computer
Press the Power button
Before the grey color screen is shown, press and hold Command + Option + P + R keys simultaneously.
Hold down these keys until the MacBook restarts and then you will hear the startup sound.
Release the keys.
Once you have reset PRAM/NVRAM, keep in mind that settings like disk caches, volume, time, keyboard and mouse preferences, will also be reset.

Shut down the computer

Press the Power button

Before the grey color screen is shown, press and hold Command + Option + P + R keys simultaneously.

Hold down these keys until the MacBook restarts and then you will hear the startup sound.

Release the keys.

Once you have reset PRAM/NVRAM, keep in mind that settings like disk caches, volume, time, keyboard and mouse preferences, will also be reset.

If these reset did not help you with your Mac, head on over to the Answers Forum (if you have not already been there) and ask our friendly community for the next steps.

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Fish Outta Water - May 26, 2020

Got a 2012 Macbook Pro. Was running GIMP with a couple Browsers open and Word. Gimp crashed twice and I had to restart it. I saved a GIMP file to a png. Placing one png over another, it all froze: Cursor and all not moving. Pressed Cntrl/alt/shift, etc and it closed the the first application open, in layered fashion, but until I got to the last finder window, it kept opening. Shut down completely. Start up took about 2 minutes (usually 37 seconds. Has 2TB SSD and 10GB memory). Was super fast, until today).

When I click on any file or program, it hesitates for a second, then opens as if it’s on a delay, with an odd trace of lighting or movement tracks. Tried the finder “search” and it isnt’ recognizing anything, like it’s not accessing directories, etc. Had to open Applications, to get DiskUtility and run it. Nothing changed. There is a thin grey line that appears to run horizontally through the middle of the “search box”. What’s up???

colinmd55 - Aug 25, 2022

I replaced the battery, as old battery was only holding a partial charge, but still worked After the battery replacement, it turned on a court of times and was charging, the next day nothing would power up

Thanks I. Advance fog your assistance

Colin. m Donald

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