Genius

Question 1

SMC

Answer 1

System Management Control:

Low level management (communication) subsystem in intel-based Macintosh system.

Question 2

Resetting SMC

Answer 2

1. Removable batteries:
   remove battery + hold power button 5 seconds
2. Batteries you should not remove:
   Shift + Control + Option
3. iMac, Mac Pro, Mac Mini:
   Shut down + unplug + wait 15 secs + attach + wait 5 secs + power up

Question 3

Shortcut: Force Quit

Answer 3

Command + Option + Escape

Question 4

Symptoms of SMC Resets

Answer 4

Fans, Power, Lights, Power, System Performance, Video

Thermal management, sudden motion sensors, ambient light sensing, keyboard backlighting

Question 5

NVRAM and PRAM

Answer 5

Your Mac stores certain settings in a special memory area even if it is turned off. On Intel-based Macs, this is stored in memory known as NVRAM; on PowerPC-based Macs, this is stored in memory known as PRAM.

Question 6

What’s stored in NVRAM / PRAM?

Answer 6

1. Speaker volume
2. Screen resolution
3. Startup disk selection
4. Recent kernel panic information

Question 7

Resetting NVRAM / PRAM

Answer 7

1. Shut down
2. Reboot
3. Command + option + P + R
4. Hold down until you hear the startup sound for the second time

Question 8

POST

Answer 8

Power On Self Test.

Error codes determines if RAM is physically damaged, incorrect, or not installed.

Question 9

POST: Error Codes

Answer 9

1. Detects No RAM or not within specs:
   Screen will remain black but the power LED on the front of the computer will blink once per second to signal the error.
2. RAM passes POST but still cannot be used by OS.
   Displays gray screen, sound three tones and blink the power LED on the front three times, pause, and repeat the blinking until the computer turns off.

Question 10

Startup Tones:

1 tone, a 5-second pause, repeat

Answer 10

No RAM installed

Question 11

Startup Tones:

3 successive tones, a 5-second pause, 3 successive tones

Answer 11

RAM does not pass data integrity check

Question 12

Startup Tones:

1 long tone when holding down the power button

Answer 12

Firmware upgrade in process.

Question 13

Startup Tones:

3 long tones, 3 short tones, 3 long tones

Answer 13

Firmware restoration from CD in process.

Question 14

Startup Sequence:

1. Power On

Answer 14

Event:

Boot-ROM/RAM check initialized

Question 15

Startup Sequence:

2. BootROM-POST

Answer 15

• Black screen, power LED on - POST or BootROM failure
• Flashing power LED once per second - bad RAM, no RAM
• Three flashes, a pause, and three more flashes (occurs continuously) - marginal RAM

Question 16

Startup Sequence:

3. BootROM-EFI

Answer 16

Boot Chime

Question 17

Startup Sequence:

4. Boot EFI

Answer 17

• Metallic Apple
• Circle with Slash - could not load boot.efi, or some other issue
• Flashing globe - looking for booster/kernel on network server
• Broken Folder that blinks - no bootable device has been found

Question 18

Startup Sequence:

5. Kernel

Answer 18

Grey screen with Metallic Apple and spinning gear

Question 19

Startup Sequence:

6. launchd

Answer 19

Blue screen

Question 20

Startup Sequence:

7. loginwindow

Answer 20

Login window appears

Question 21

Status Sequence:

8. User Environment Setup

Answer 21

The text “Logging in…” appears in login window along with a progress bar. Upon successful login, the Desktop and Dock appear.

Question 22

Mac OS X: Firmware

Answer 22

The name given to software that is written into memory circuits such as flash memory, that will hold the software code indefinitely, even when power is removed from the hardware.

Question 23

Troubleshooting

Answer 23

To isolate the source of a problem and fix it.

Question 24

Template-Matching

Answer 24

Troubleshooting method that draws a conclusion based Ailey on past experiences.

Question 25

Evaluate

Answer 25

Systematic determination of merit, worth, and significance of something or someone to something using criteria against a set of standards.

Question 26

Isolate

Answer 26

To select from among others; especially: to separate from another so as to obtain pure or free state.

Question 27

Resolve

Answer 27

To reduce by analysis

Question 28

Open-ended questions

Answer 28

Questions that will solicit additional information from the inquirer

Question 29

Closed ended questions

Answer 29

Questions which can be answered by either "yes" or "no."

Question 30

MRI

Answer 30

Mac Resource Inspector: provides a fast check of internal and external hardware in intel-based computer systems.

Question 31

DG

Answer 31

Diagnostic Gateway: consists of a software package that runs on a dedicated intel- based Mac using Mac OS X server 10.5 (leopard) or 10.6 (snow leopard) and serves up tools to triage computers via NetBoot, recording test results as log files.

Question 32

What do you need to successfully POST?

Answer 32

RAM, Speaker, Power Supply, Logic Board

Question 33

What is needed for Data Migration?

Answer 33

1. Start up properly 2. Be virus free 3. Have a working Ethernet port or Wi-Fi connection (PC) 4. Have a working Ethernet, FireWire, Thunderbolt, Wi-Fi connection, or USB port (Mac)