hoakley Macs, Technology

Persistence: EFI, SMC and NVRAM (formerly PRAM)

Most of your Mac is operated by software which is loaded from your startup disk. But in order to boot it up sufficiently to be able to load that up, and to enable certain hardware features controlling the cooling fans, battery charging, etc., every Mac has firmware and persistent storage for some key settings. These include the EFI firmware, the SMC, and NVRAM.

Extensible Firmware Interface (EFI) firmware is the runtime environment that gets your Mac going. Some models have updates which patch bugs and other issues in their EFI firmware. These days any updates should be delivered via the App Store, and Apple explains how to check that yours is up to date in this article, which contains links to updaters if you need them.

The System Management Controller (SMC) is a custom chip(set) with its own firmware which may sometimes be updated separately from the EFI. This chip(set) controls some of the extended hardware features like the cooling fans. Aside from ensuring that its firmware is kept up to date (as for EFI firmware), the SMC may on occasion need to be reset when one or more of its functions has gone awry, such as the fans are stuck on full blast all the time. Apple explains these in its article on the SMC.

The features which are controlled by the SMC are:

  • the cooling fans; if these seem stuck full on even when your Mac is just idling, then that is suggestive of an SMC problem.
  • accessory lights, such as keyboard backlighting, status indicator light, battery indicator lights on non-removable batteries, those around the I/O ports on recent Mac Pros.
  • power button; if this is not a mechanical problem (older models), suspect the SMC.
  • opening and closing the lid of a notebook.
  • sleeping and shutdown; if your Mac sleeps or shuts down when you don’t think it should, suspect the SMC.
  • battery charging (laptops), and the MagSafe power adaptor light.
  • napping and processor slowing; if your Mac performs very poorly but the CPU is not showing high load, suspect the SMC.
  • target display mode; if this does not work properly, or it switches unexpectedly, suspect the SMC.
  • the Sudden Motion Sensor (SMS), ambient light sensing, and selection of an external video source for some iMacs.

How you reset the SMC depends on the Mac, with different routines for laptops with and without a removable battery, and for desktops.

To reset the SMC in a laptop with a non-removable battery:

  1. shut the Mac down.
  2. connect its mains adaptor and ensure that power is being supplied to it.
  3. on the built-in keyboard, hold down Shift-Control-Option on the left side and press the power button with them held down.
  4. release all the keys, wait a few seconds, then power up normally (preferably to reset the NVRAM next).

To reset the SMC in a laptop with a removable battery:

  1. shut the Mac down.
  2. disconnect the mains adaptor.
  3. remove the battery.
  4. press and hold the power button for 5 seconds.
  5. insert the battery, then connect the mains power adaptor and ensure that power is being supplied to it.
  6. power up normally (preferably to reset the NVRAM next).

To reset the SMC in a desktop:

  1. shut the Mac down.
  2. disconnect all peripherals apart from any Ethernet cable, keyboard, mouse/trackpad, and any display. Then disconnect the mains power cable from the back of the Mac.
  3. wait for 15 seconds, then reconnect the mains cable.
  4. if you are going on to further system diagnostics or testing, leave peripherals disconnected. Otherwise you can reconnect the peripherals that you need.
  5. wait for 5 seconds, then power up normally (preferably to reset the NVRAM next).

Although you do not have to reset the NVRAM straight after resetting the SMC, because of potential overlap between their functions and problems, it is usually wise to do so.

Disconnecting peripherals is an additional measure which is not included in the standard SMC reset procedure. I recommend it because you may well want to have those peripherals clear when you are trying to sort this type of problem out. If you are sure that you will just proceed to reset the SMC (and possibly the NVRAM), you do not need to do that.

Non-Volatile Random-Access Memory (NVRAM, formerly Parameter Random-Access Memory, PRAM) stores some key settings which your Mac cannot obtain from disk during startup. Apple explains it in a separate article about NVRAM.

The NVRAM contains settings for:

  • sound output volume,
  • display resolution, and sometimes other display settings,
  • startup volume (disk),
  • any recent kernel panic, to enable a kernel panic log to be constructed,
  • other model-specific features.

If you are curious, you can use the shell command
nvram -p
to list all the variables which are stored in your Mac’s NVRAM. In my iMac17,1, they include:

  • Bluetooth internal controller information,
  • the display configuration,
  • the computer name,
  • EFI recovery information,
  • System audio volume DB,
  • Bluetooth active controller information,
  • System audio output volume,
  • Backlight level,
  • Whether Location Services are enabled,
  • EFI Bluetooth delay setting,
  • Details of the last run of Apple Hardware Test.

To reset the NVRAM on any model of Mac prior to the MacBook Pro late 2016:

  1. if your Mac is running, shut it down.
  2. position your fingers on the Command, Option, P and R keys ready to press and hold them down.
  3. power your Mac up using its power button as normal.
  4. as soon as you hear the startup chime (chord), press and hold those four keys until your Mac restarts and sounds the startup chime a second time.
  5. release the keys. If you do not release them now, your Mac will restart again, and may reset the NVRAM a second time.
  6. allow your Mac to start up normally.

Resetting the NVRAM on the MacBook Pro late 2016 is different, because it doesn’t have a startup chime. Apple advises users of that model:

  1. if your Mac is running, shut it down.
  2. position your fingers on the Command, Option, P and R keys ready to press and hold them down.
  3. power your Mac up as normal.
  4. as soon as you have turned your Mac on, press and hold those four keys for at least twenty seconds.
  5. release the keys, and allow your Mac to start up normally.

Resetting the SMC and NVRAM are not panaceas for any problem. They will not fix disk problems, or failing graphics cards. Used appropriately, they can transform a Mac which seems to be dying into one that is in fine fettle.