I am having problems with resetting the PRAM (or technically NVRAM). I am trying to do this using the Cmd+Option+P+R on my mid-2011 iMac which shipped with Lion and is currently running Mountain Lion. Whenever I do this key combo it either turns on normally (let's assume I have bad timing) or it enters the recovery screen (as if I pressed cmd+R only).
Since again, this is a mid-2011 iMac, I do not have any discs. Any ideas/suggestions?
iMac, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.4)
Bootup holding CMD+r, or the Option/alt key to boot from the Restore partition & use Disk Utility from there to Repair the Disk, then Repair Permissions.
If that doesn't help Reinstall the OS.
Do you have another KB to test with? USB better than wifi by far.
I don't need to boot into the repair screen. The disk is fine. Just need to reset the NVRAM. Tried with a USB keyboard and got the same. I guess by wifi you meant bluetooth 😉
Yes, likely worthless BT, but...
One way to test is to Safe Boot from the HD, (holding Shift key down at bootup), run Disk Utility in Applications>Utilities, then highlight your drive, click on Repair Permissions, Test for problem in Safe Mode...
PS. Safe boot may stay on the gray radian for a long time, let it go, it's trying to repair the Hard Drive
Reboot, test again.
If it only does it in Regular Boot, then it could be some hardware problem like Video card, (Quartz is turned off in Safe Mode), or Airport, or some USB or Firewire device, or 3rd party add-on, Check System Preferences>Accounts (Users & Groups in later OSX versions)>Login Items window to see if it or something relevant is listed.
Check the System Preferences>Other Row, for 3rd party Pref Panes.
Also look in these if they exist, some are invisible...
/private/var/run/StartupItems
/Library/StartupItems
/System/Library/StartupItems
/System/Library/LaunchDaemons
/Library/LaunchDaemons
Cheers for that. Will try that out. The problem I'm encountering is some random red/blue pixels (not stuck as if dead). Suspecting to be graphics drivers.
Resetting PRAM
