When something goes wrong with your Mac, there are a bunch of different tricks that the folks
at AppleCare are going to tell you to try. Before you bring your Mac to the genius bar.
Today, I'm going to walk you through many of those tricks,
and I'm even going to give you a free resource guide that you can print out at home.
That's coming up next on Tech Talk America.
Is your Mac acting weird? For example, you might notice that Bluetooth isn't working the way that
it's supposed to, or the fans won't stop running. Maybe your Mac isn't charging correctly or airdrop
just isn't quite dropping the way that it's supposed to. Or maybe your Mac is just really... really...
slow. If you answered yes to any of those previous items, I hope this video helps you.
And if it does, I would really love to hear your feedback down below in the comment section,
there are a lot of different steps that we're about to go over that all involve shutting
down your computer and holding down different combinations of keys. When you go to turn your Mac
back on now, because these combinations of keys can be really difficult to remember,
I've created a free PDF guide that you are welcome to download.
You will find the link to that down below in the video description, that PDF guide is free,
but that being said, if you want to send a little love my way via Venmo or PayPal,
that is certainly welcomed, especially now that I have an entire house to furnish
and redecorate. The first thing that we're going to go over is how to reset the
NV Ram or P Ram NV Ram also known as non-volatile random access memory is
a small amount of memory that your Mac uses in order to store certain settings.
P Ram also known as parameter Ram store, similar information and the steps to reset
both of them. Are the same. The first step is to completely shut down your computer
and then press and release the power button. As soon as you release it,
you're going to hold down these four keys on your keyboard command option.
The letter P as in Paul and the letter R as in Randy, you're going to hold down those keys for
around 20 seconds. And during that time, it's going to sound like your Mac is going to restart
again. Just ignore it and keep holding down those keys. Once the 20 seconds have passed,
just release those four keys and your Mac should boot up as normal.
When your Mac finishes booting up. I strongly suggest that you go into system preferences
and then go into date and time and just make sure that the date time and time zone are all correct.
Since those settings can be affected during this reset process. One last thing on the topic of
NV Ram and P Ram, you do not actually need to do this on the new silicon-based max.
So please be aware that that trick only works with Macs that have an Intel
processor. Let's say your Mac is having power related issues. So for example,
maybe it isn't charging properly, or maybe it's not putting out enough power to the USB ports,
or maybe the backlight on your keyboard isn't working or the fans won't stop running.
The second trick that we're going to cover is how to reset your computers SMC, which stands for
system management controller. Now, before you do this at home, I do have an important disclaimer,
this reset process by my own admission can be
really confusing because not only is it different on desktops and laptops,
it's also different, depending on if your Mac has one of the brand new Apple, T2 security chips.
So before we proceed, let's make sure that you are clear about which category
your Mac falls into. If you're following along at home, I invite you to click on
the Apple icon at the top left of your screen, and then click on where it says
about this Mac. Next we're going to click on where it says system report.
And finally, we're going to click on where it says controller in this next area, you will
see one of two things. It will either say this computer does not contain any controller devices,
or it may list information about the Apple T2 security chip
to reset the SMC on a desktop Mac. Regardless of whether or not it has an Apple T2 chip.
You are going to start by powering down your computer and then unplug the power cord from the
wall. Leave it unplugged for 15 seconds and then plug it back in. Then wait another few seconds.
And then turn it on to reset the SMC on a laptop that does not have the Apple T2 chip. You're going
to start by shutting down your computer and then hold down these four keys for 10 seconds.
Those four keys are the left shift. Key, the left control key, the left option key
and the power button. After you've held those down for 10 seconds,
you're then going to release them and then press and release the power button. To reset
the SMC on a laptop that does have the Apple T2 security chip. You are going to start by shutting
down your computer and then press and hold the power button for 10 seconds before releasing it.
Now, if your issues still persist, there is actually another step that you can try.
So shut down your computer and then hold down these three keys,
which include the option and control keys on the left side of the keyboard
and the shift key on the right side of the keyboard. Hold those down for seven seconds.
And then additionally, add the power button and hold that down for another seven seconds.
At this point, the computer should turn all the way off. You'll then want to wait a few seconds
and press and release the power button. If your Mac is running slow, this next one is for you.
The final trick that we're going to go over today is a setting that if you
accidentally turned on, will dramatically slow down every aspect of your Mac.
Now, if you're following along at home, let's go to the Apple icon
at the top left and go into system preferences. From here, let's click on security and privacy.
And finally, let's click on the tab that says file vault in for this button right here. Says,
turn off a file vault, then get ready because you are about to love me.
So in a nutshell file, vault is a feature that Apple rolled out years ago,
and yes, it does make your Mac more secure, but frankly,
there are so many other important things that you should be a lot more concerned about.
I'm not saying that everyone should turn off fireball because there are exceptions to the
rule which usually include people in high power positions that should be using this technology.
But for the average Joe or Jane or Jose or whatever your name is, you can probably turn
it off. Now. Please note, if you have file vault turned on and then go to turn it off,
your computer has to decrypt all of your information.
So this is a process that you might want to consider doing overnight. Before we go.
I have one last thing that I wanted to say on the topic of max security.
I realized that a lot of people find this topic to be especially confusing.
Because it's constantly changing and you never know what data of yours
might be at risk. And that is the reason why I decided to make a video to help explain
what security issues Mac users should be aware of and what you should do to protect yourself.
The name of that video is called is my Mac infected. And while I don't normally have guests
on this channel for this special event, I'm going to be joined by Thomas Reed. Who is the director
of Mac and mobile security at Malwarebytes. So if you have questions about security,
I hope you'll tune in all of course, put a link to that class down below in the video description.
Thank you so much for watching everyone. If this video helped you,
I really appreciate it. If you let me know about it down below in the comments section,
make sure you take a quick moment and hit that thumbs up light button. And if
you haven't already done so please subscribe to my YouTube channel.
Thank you for watching everyone. This is David de Cox with tech talk America. Class dismissed.