macOS
Shine a spotlight on the solutions to your most irritating Mac problems
List the contents of NVRAM in an Apple silicon Mac and it’s full of information for the system, not the user.
Reset an Apple silicon Mac
Q Howcan I reset the SMC and NVRAM in my new M2 MacBook Pro?
by SUE MURRAY
A
AlthoughApple silicon Macs do have System Management Controllers (SMC) and non-volatile memory (NVRAM), you can’t reset either in the way that you may need to in an Intel Mac, as they don’t work in the same way.
Most of the functions performed by the SMC in an Intel Mac are now performed by the SMC system within the M-series chip. This is initialised each time the Mac starts up, so if you feel the need to reset it, simply shut your Mac down, leave it for at least ten seconds, then start it up again. So far, though, there’s no evidence that’s needed to address the sort of problems that can occur in Intel Macs.