Sometimes your Mac can start to act weird. A normal restart in that regards can be a useful thing. The errors include lights not working well, volume settings malfunctioning, fans rpm not under control and display acting weird. Everyone does a restart, but what if after a restart your mac doesn’t return to being normal?
In that case, simply reset PRAM/NVRAM and SMC.
What exactly is an SMC in Mac?
SMC means system management controller, it’s a hardware chip installed in Mac. This chip is pretty important as it controls LED lights, fans and other peripherals. Therefore, resetting this chip is often deemed necessary if your mac is acting weird. SMC also controls how your hard drive behaves in your system. SMC also controls your display turning on after lid of the macbook is opened. There are other problems mentioned in this Apple guide which might be due to an SMC error.
Learn to reset SMC
Simply follow these steps to reset your SMC. The below option is for models of macbook which are released after 2015, especially those models in which battery is non-removable.
- Turn of your Mac.
- 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 power button for around 10 seconds.
- Release all the keys after 10 seconds.
- Press power button again to turn on your Mac.
If the battery of your mac is removable, then follow this guideline:
- Turn off your Mac and remove its battery.
- Press power button for five seconds.
- Re-install battery and turn on your Mac.
What exactly is PRAM and NVRAM in Mac?
PRAM and NVRAM hold information about configuration of a Mac. The information stored in these memories is date and time, desktop, volume, mouse and other settings. When you turn off your computer, as power is removed, a small battery protects NVRAM and PRAM to lose its memory.
It’s known that modern intel based systems have NVRAM while older systems have PRAM. If your mouse and keyboard is not responding to its best, then it’s time to reset your PRAM/NVRAM.
Learn to reset PRAM and NVRAM
Follow these steps to reset PRAM and NVRAM in your mac:
- Like always, turn off your mac. Press the power button after turning it off.
- Before the grey screen appears, right after the black one, press Command+Options+P+R at the same time.
- Hold down the above mentioned keys until your Mac restarts and you hear a startup sound a second time.
- Release the keys.
