I Want to reset my PRAM every time I go to Command Option P & R it gives me A BIG FAT LOCK with a place to login? Which I never gave it a PRAM setting how do I change it?
os x mountain lion 10.8.4-OTHER, Other OS, MAC OS X 10.8.4
You have to disable firmware password. The only way to disable firmware password is to start in Recovery, and if you don't know the password, you can't start in Recovery. Reset the SMC > http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3964
The only way to disable firmware password if you don't remember this firmware password is to take the Mac to an Apple Store or reseller
Log into a Admin account on the machine and open your Applications/Utilities folder and launch Terminal program.
Paste this line in, press enter and enter your admin password, you might be lucky and not have to open the machine.
python -c “print ”.join(chr(int(c, 16) ^ 170) for c in ‘`sudo nvram security-password`’.split(‘%’)[1:])”
This should hopefully give you the firmware password, so write it down.
Reboot holding command and r keys down and under the Utilities menu is the firmware reset, so use the password and unlock it.
Now reboot and the reset PRAM should work.
If not then your going to have to remove one memory stick from the machine, reset the PRAM 5 times in a row by holding it down for 5 chimes, then shutdown the machine and reinsert the RAM, then boot normally.
LOL - I sure hope it's not THAT easy to get the firmware password! Otherwise it ain't much of a password, is it!?
For me I get "security-password": (iokit/common) data was not found.
And I just set my firmware password after having to unset it so I could do a PRAM reset.
That's cause the thread dates back from a distant age when cats still roamed the OS X landscape and Macs could still be cracked open. It is a very different world nowadays.
I Want to reset my PRAM
