Mac Pro :: PRAM Keeps Resetting By Itself?
Feb 28, 2010
recently had a small USB issue, so I reset my PRAM which fixed it.Now every time I boot the PRAM will reset itself. This particularly annoying because:1) It takes longer to boot as it restarts again and again (sometimes 3-4 times).2) I have the boot volume set to 0 and when the PRAM is reset it will go back to default which isn't fun [and it loud].
3) I have verbose mode on and a PRAM reset removes that as well, so I need to do the 2-finger combo [which on the bluetooth keyboard doesn't work half the time].I can't seem to fix it. I've done all the usual things (ie: manual PRAM reset with 4-finger combo, SMC reset, reseating hardware, disconnection hardware) and I've also gone ahead and installed OS X on a new volume for testing. Nothing is working and this getting a little frustrating.I try not to restart my computer, but recently I've needed to it a couple times. Apple Support doesn't know what to do and they're reluctant to send a on-site tech because they're not sure what the issue is. They want me to take my computer to the Apple Store, but (1) I don't have a car, (2) it's windy and snowing like crazy outside so there is no way I'm walking a mile to the Apple Store carrying the Mac Pro by hand, and (3) even if it was sunny outside my computer weighs a lot.Anyone know what's going on here? The computer passes all hardware tests and disk scans reveal no bad sectors.
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Jun 5, 2012
Is it ok to have a PRAM and NVRAM reset two times a week?
Info:
MacBook Air, Mac OS X (10.7.4)
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Jun 20, 2014
I had my 2008 Mac Pro unpugged for a few days. When I turned it back on the USB ports weren't functioning. I can't reset the PRAM as my keyboard is not working.
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Nov 2, 2009
I have a February 2008 MBP and am having issues with keeping it asleep. I currently have it set up as a desktop connected to an external monitor, keyboard and Magic Mouse (along with a variety of other peripherals) and I've recently noticed this issue. I'm running 10.6.1, I have tried everything from resetting the PRAM, SMC and repairing disk permissions to even installing a clean copy of Snow Leopard and restoring from Time Machine backup.
For power management, I have it set to never sleep, since I manually set it to sleep and don't want it sleeping on me when in use. I also have Wake on LAN activity disabled. Yet when I set it to sleep, at approximately noon the next day it wakes up by itself. I've even turned off the Magic Mouse to make sure it wasn't being moved by vibration and waking up the Mac. I'm completely stumped!
For troubleshooting purposes, I've installed a clean copy of SL without restoring TM backup to see if it's a program that's causing this issue or if it's a problem with a peripheral. I've yet to check back on it as I'm at work, but I'm hoping it's just software related. I'm at a loss as to what to do.
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Apr 26, 2012
I used to reset the PRAM by restarting and holding alt+command+p+r My new iMac came with a wireless keyboard and this way of resetting is not working. Apparently the Mac starts before it hooks with the keyboard.
Info:
iMac (21.5-inch Mid 2011), Mac OS X (10.7.3)
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Aug 3, 2010
What does everyone mean when they say this?
What does it do?
Basically, all the general information about it.. I've been reading people's problems and I see this all the time, and I'm totally confused on what it.
Also, what is PRAM? What does resetting it do?
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Sep 3, 2010
I have a 2006 Mac Pro and recently my firewire ports stopped working (front and back). I did a little searching around found a suggestion to try resetting the Mac's PRAM and NVRAM by holding the Cmd-Option-P-R keys down while booting. I have tried this numerous times and it doesn't seem to do anything (i.e. the Mac just loads OS X and doesn't re-boot like the instructions say). I'm using a MS Wireless Comfort Keyboard for Mac. Can you reset using a wireless keyboard?
Since I wasn't making any progress with that, I was toying with bringing in the Mac to a genius bar. Never having used the genius bar before - how does it work? Do I bring the computer in and leave it with them? Do they work on it while I'm there? I don't have an extended warranty so do they charge time and materials? I'm wondering if that might get awfully expensive and if I ought to just buy a PCI-X firewire card instead.
Any suggestions?
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Aug 7, 2009
Man, what's up with this? Shut down on my early 2008 MacPro (10.5.7) takes forever! I've tried resetting the PRAM and it did this with earlier versions of Leopard as well. I've reinstalled the OS twice, changed hard drives and wish I could fix this.
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Apr 29, 2012
Firmware password will not reset. Resetting PRAM fails. Resetting NVRAM in Open Firmware fails. Resetting PMU fails.
Info:
MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.7.3), (MacBook pro 8,1)
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Sep 3, 2009
I've recently purchased a broken 1GHz Alum PowerBook G4 12", and the display isn't working. I have a total of two 12" PowerBook displays, and I've tested both. They've worked perfectly fine. Then I've tried reseting the PMU and PRAM, no luck, but they've attempted to work. Tried the Mini-DVI to VGA adapter with my display, still no luck. The keyboard, optical drive, and hard drive works as if it was booting, and there was always a clear chime, even when I've reset the PRAM and PMU (the beep sound when PRAM also attempted). I've inserted a Leopard install disk, and it sounded like it was working perfectly fine. Hopefully it's not a motherboard issue
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Jun 17, 2014
I have a mid-2011 iMac (with Mavericks OS), and am doing a clean install before giving my computer to a relative. I performed a secure erase of my entire harddrive (using disk utility), reset the NVRAM / PRAM (but it only chimes once even after I tried several times), and now I get the grey screen even when I try to boot from CD, safe boot, or any other commands. I can't even get back into the disk utility.
On a side note, I have the install DVD in the DVD drive and I can't get that out.
Info:
iMac, OS X Mavericks (10.9)
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Mar 1, 2010
With the early uMB 2.4 do you have to zap the PRAM after you upgrade your HDD? if so how do you do this?
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Mar 21, 2012
I am running Mac OS Lion (10.7.3) on a 8-core Mac Pro. As I turned on my mac this morning, I found out that I was unable to use my wireless mouse, and also that I couldn't open my bluetooth settings. Apparently, the entire module disappeared from the System Preferences, and when I went to one of the articles on here, I saw that I'm supposed to reset my PRAM and SMC in order to make my bluetooth work again. The problem is, that I don't know what PRAM or SMC are, nor do I know how to reset them.
Info:
Mac Pro (Mid 2010), Mac OS X (10.7.3)
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Apr 22, 2012
For some reason (and I'm going to assume this only occured after I hit "software upate" a few weeks back) I can no longer ZAP my PRAM. Tried everything (inclding unplugging peripherals and connected drives) but to no avail. I can NO LONGER zap my PRAM. Any ideas why this occured and how to resolve it?
Info:Quad-Core Intel Mac Pro, Mac OS X (10.5.6)
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Aug 9, 2009
I have already covered these steps:1. I have tried a safe boot. 2. I have tried to reset the NVRAM and the PRAM.3. I have tried to reinstall OSX from the Install Disk.4. I have tried to repair the HD and tried to repair permissions using the Disk Utility. he issue started out as the flashing Apple/Question Mark Folder/"No" sign. I attempted to follow the steps on the Mac Support Forums (ones listed above) and the issue developed into the picture shown.
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Sep 20, 2004
The idea for this quick GUIDE was thought up in this thread by kingjr3. Like the networking thread the idea of this is to have a quick point of reference for those common questions. How to Zap PRAM Zapping PRAM is simple, just reboot your Mac and hold down "Command(the Apple key)+Option(the Alt key)+P+R" while it is booting, when you hear the startup sound for the seond time the operation is complete, and you can release the key combination. Now just let your Mac boot as normal. How to Repair Permissions
- Navigte to "Applications > Utilities", and open up "Disk Utility".
- Select the volume where your OS resides, and hit the "Repair Disk Permissions" button.
If you are comfortable with using the Terminal (Applications > Utilities > Terminal.app), you can also enter this command to run repair permissions - "sudo diskutil repairpermissions /" (without the quotes), just enter your password when prompted. How to run FSCK
- Restart your Mac holding down "Command(the Apple key)+S" key to enter 'Single user mode'.
- Type "fsck -f", and hit return.
- Once complete type "reboot" and hit return to reboot you Mac back in to OS X as normal.
If there is anything that you think is wrong here, or you think I have missed any vital steps out, please post and let me know so that I can ammend this.
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Jan 20, 2009
I have a 17" Powerbook G4 1.5 GHZ. I lost all sound from one moment to the next. System preferences says Audio output Headphones however no sound from Headphones either. I tried to reset my PRAM, however when I hold down "Option" "Command" "r" and "P" the computer won't restart. The hard drive seems to be stuck at this point and won't go any further. I went to the Apple store and the Genius lost patience and said we should send it out. (I'd rather not)
I have also reset the PMU
Everything else works fine.
I've looked at several other threads and post. Everyone with a sound problem seems to be able to get it resolved with a PRAM reset. However I find nothing on my the problem of not being able to reset..
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Mar 6, 2012
I have a MBP 13inch from 2011
recently i zapped my Pram becuase i was having trouble with a external screen but when I turned it on again the screen when to the grey screen with the apple logo and spinning gear but after 2 hours of wating the screen is still the same. What can i do to get back onto my mac?
Info:MacBookPro, Mac OS X (10.6.8)
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Mar 28, 2012
I cannot reset my computer’s PRAM anymore. What can I do to fix this myself?
Info:
MacBook, Mac OS X (10.6.8), Purchased September 20, 2008
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Dec 8, 2014
My MacBook Air has required a PRAM reset twice recently. Why is this? What can I do to prevent this?
Info:
MacBook Air, iOS 8.1
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Sep 7, 2014
I have inadvertently left my 2011 MBP running with a processor intensive music app running. The battery ran out before i realised.. When i attached the power lead to charge it, the computer automatically restarted without even pressing the power button. The computer had not entered safe sleep mode, presumably because my music software was still running.
Since then the computer will not ever enter safe sleep when the power runs down. The battery just cuts out each time when it drops to less than 5%, it does not run out at 0% like it usually does. if it is the logic board battery because i have had this issue a couple of times before but it rectified itself after a few days. I have checked that safe sleep is enabled which it is, but the computer just cuts out before safe sleep kicks in.
Info:
MacBook Pro (13-inch Early 2011), OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.5)
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Nov 30, 2007
I have tried two different brands of blank CDR in my drive and both times, they fail to mount and in Disk Utility, show up as Sony DVDs (neither of them is a Sony or a DVD), but not writable. I have no problem with media that already has content. I've tried resetting PRAM, but nothing else yet.
Information:
Powermac G5
Mac OS X (10.4.10)
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Feb 25, 2008
I tried the SMC & PRAM reset. Now, there is a delay in my keyboard and mouse. For example as I am writing this, as I type, I am observing a ~1/4 sec delay between me pressing a key and the GUI registering it. The same with the mouse. I can click-and-hold over say File and move it up and down over subsequent menu items and it the GUI doesn't highlight the menu item unless I slow down the movement.
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Oct 19, 2009
I think my PRAM battery is dead (date resets to January 1st 1970 when started up with main battery removed) but I can't find a replacement PRAM anywhere (I'm in the UK). According to iFixit the part number is 820-1686-A - is this the only PRAM module that will work in my machine? (I've seen lots of other similar looking parts on eBay, but with different part numbers). Also, is it not possible to actually just replace the battery, not the whole circuitboard? It looks like a regular watch battery I could pick up for $5 from the pic.
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Aug 15, 2010
Can someone explain to me why resetting PRAM on a machine has any effect whatsoever for networking issues? ie; self assigned ip etc. I have noticed this is a common troubleshooting step that a lot of people are recommending for issues related to networking.
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Mar 12, 2012
when i do a PRAM reset, they will prompt me for a password or serial, may i know what password or serial is that?
Info:
MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.7.3)
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Apr 3, 2012
How do you locate and/or change the PRAM battery in an iMac G5 (iSight)?
Info:
iMac, Mac OS X (10.5.8), PPC, 20", G5
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Apr 18, 2012
I persuaded a friend to go down the mac route. He now has a 2006 mac pro running Lion. When he boots up he sees the apple and the little counter thing, whatever it's called, and then the screen goes blank and his monitor tells him that there is no signal. I suspect it is as he is putting into VGA via an adaptor where previousy it was attached to apple cinema monitors and the res is set too high. I am trying to find a way to reset the screen resolution blind as he doesn't have anything else to put it through.
Would zapping the pram affect screen res, and if so what else into the bargain?
Info:
Mac Pro (Early 2008), Mac OS X (10.6.8)
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Jun 29, 2012
When exactly do you need to reset the SMC, PRAM or repair permissions?
Info:
iMac, Mac OS X (10.7.3), iMac Late 2009
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Aug 22, 2014
Updated to OS X Mavericks last week. Ever since, it has been experiencing boot problems.
- If I restart my Macbook Pro (2011 13", lowest model), it will sit at the grey screen with apple logo and spinning grey wheel forever. I notice that my HDD is NOT running (no clicking / writing sounds)
- If I restart with a PRAM reset or holding down option to select Macintosh HD boot, the hard drive starts to run (I can hear it) and it boots successfully... it takes 5+ minutes to boot up. The grey screen with apple logo is presented on my screen for about 4 minutes, then the login screen shows up but I cannot move my mouse or select a login user for 30 seconds. After this, I can log in succesfully.
-Also, switching users takes 1+ minutes. Clicking "switch user" freezes my screen.
Info:
Mac Pro
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