The Basics - Quick Fixes

The easiest places to start with Apple Macintosh troubleshooting are the 4 quick fixes. These fixes take care of a lot of small problems with Macs, some of which are quirky and others that may seem to be major. In the interest of time, it is often best to try these options on your Mac before trying to further isolate and troubleshoot the issue.

1. Reboot your Mac

This one may seem obvious, but it often works. Apple's Mac OS software issues and some hardware issues can often easily be solved with a simple reboot. To take this one step further, I prefer to disconnect all devices from your Mac and reboot. If the problem stops, you can reconnect your devices one by one and see if the issues start again. If they don't show up on your Mac again even after connecting all of your devices, you have also ruled out any device conflicts as well.

2. Reset the PRAM.

This fix will not be uncommon to most Mac users but some may still be unfamiliar with it. The PRAM is the "parameter RAM." PRAM is used to store certain system and device settings in an area that Mac OS can access quickly. The exact parameters that it stores vary from one Apple model to the next but some common settings include: video settings, time zone, speaker volume, and DVD region. Mac OS X does not store networking settings in PRAM. To reset the PRAM, shut down your machine. While pressing and holding the P, R, Command (Apple key), and Option keys, press the power button on your computer. Continue holding these keys until the machine restarts itself again and you hear your Mac's startup chime a second time. Your PRAM has now been reset.

3.Reset the PMU.

The PMU (Power Management Unit) in Apple Computers does pretty much what you would think it does. The PMU oversees all the power functions of the Mac. It is used to tell the computer things like when to turn on and off, or sleep. It also manages the PRAM and the real time clock. The procedure for resetting the PMU varies by your hardware. For most portable computers (iBooks, and Powerbooks) it can be done without having to open the machine at all, for the desktop machines (PowerMacs, iMacs, and eMacs) you may have to open the machine and press a small button on the logic board to reset the PMU. As the procedure varies based on the model of your Macintosh, I would recommed finding the specifcs for your model in Apple's documentation.

4. Reset the NVRAM.

Resetting the NVRAM requires booting into the open firmware of your Mac. Open firmware is a command based interface for setting hardware parameters. Open firmware is not something you want to interface with much unless you know what you are doing. For simplicity I will only address how to reset the NVRAM, other topics involving open firmware will be addressed elsewhere. To enter you mac's open firmware, you will need to shut down your machine. While booting up your machine, press and hold the Command (Apple key), Option, O, and F keys all at the same time. This will cause your machine to boot to all all white screen with text in black. To reset the NVRAM at this point, type "reset-nvram" at the prompt and press return. After that, to reboot the machine type "reset-all". This will cause your Macintosh to reboot and it should come up normally.

These 4 quick fixes are definitely something you should have in your troubleshooting repertoire. In the smoke and mirrors that fixing Macs sometimes appears to be, these 4 techniques can often solve problems "like magic". Sometimes these take care of very specific things but they also get rid of some problems that you often just can't put your finger on. While nothing can replace a solid, logical, step-by-step, torubleshooting procedure, these quick fixes for your Apple Computer can often fix what ails your Mac (and irks you) without spending a lot of time with more in depth procedures.