Why wont mac let me enter Firmware password?

Question

Why wont mac let me enter Firmware password?

Mid 2010 Mac Pro (though I'm having this issue with a Mid 2012 too)

Trying to remove the firmware password from some Mac Pro we have here. Holding CMD+R on boot brings up the lock icon with the space to type but both they keyboard and mouse freeze at this point.

The keyboard is obviously working because it recognised the startup command to get to this point.

So why do both the mouse and keyboard stop working when I try to enter the firmware password.

Things I have tried:

- Using different USB ports

- Using different Keyboard

- Reset PRAM <-- This can't be done because it requires me to enter the Firmware password...which I cannot do.

What is the next step?

Thanks.

Mac Pro, OS X Yosemite (10.10.4)

Posted on Sep 1, 2015 8:17 AM

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Answer 1

Oct 30, 2017 8:38 AM in response to DisappointedMan

This is the article about setting and entering (and removing firmware password:

How to set a firmware password on your Mac - Apple Support

Another thought:

When you use Terminal and enter your sudo password, it is not echoed back to the display. Could this be another case where the keys are just NOT Echoed, but work fine?

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Answer 2

Oct 30, 2017 2:03 AM in response to DisappointedMan

But you can select recovery drive from which you can then disable the password.
For me this option worked as I was able to enter firmware password.

Still don't get why I (and also you) was not able to enter firmware password using CMD + R and CMD + OPTION + P + R shortcuts :-(

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Answer 3

Oct 30, 2017 8:55 AM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

No, I tried that (Fill password and press Enter. Nothing happened). The window is freezed. There is also mouse cursor visible, but It cannot be moved via mouse.
If I tried to boot with option key (that worked for me, I was able to boot recovery partition and remove firmware password from there) I was able to fill in password (full circles was filling for every character) and also mouse cursor was working (I was able to move it with mouse).

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