Q: Parallels Windows 10 install froze my iMac?
Greetings. I've got a late 2013 21'' iMac that beautifully ran El Capitan and then Windows 8.1 using Parallels. I have never had a single issue with the iMac or Parallels or Windows until last week.
However, after Parallels put Windows 10 on the machine, I cannot log on to my iMac because I cannot get the iMac to read the USB keyboard. Regrettably, I didn't have the bluetooth keyboard paired with the machine previously because the bluetooth mouse works perfectly. The USB keyboard works fine on other machines, but all of my USB ports appear to be dead when I boot up the iMac.
If I boot the iMac in Recovery Mode, power to the USB ports comes back, but the keyboard and other peripherals still do not function. Reading through other message boards, I successfully used a USB extender dongle with an external power source for a week when first confronted with this problem, but even now that does not work to get the keyboard to be recognized.
I did an SMC reset, but that did nothing.
I tried a NVRAM reset, but could not get that to work since the iMac does not recognize the keyboard and the inputs I'm making on it.
I would just use the bluetooth keyboard, but I can't get past the iMac log-on screen to pair the devices.
So my question is, did the Parallels install of Windows 10 cause this USB problem? And if so (and if not) how do I go about getting back access to my iMac so it isn't just a beautiful paperweight here on my desk?
Thanks
iMac, OS X El Capitan (10.11.1)
Posted on Dec 8, 2015 3:24 AM