Remember Your Resets

With so many Macs in everyday use at Small Dog, we’re bound to run into hardware failures from time to time. We also follow our own advice and ensure that every company-owned computer is covered by AppleCare. Last week, I returned from my lunch break and clicked my Magic Mouse to wake my laptop, but nothing happened. Knowing the batteries in the mouse were low, I grabbed some new batteries and tried again.

After an attempt to re-pair the mouse failed, I asked Jon to try pairing the mouse with his iMac. When that failed, I went ahead and ordered a new Magic Mouse with my laptop’s AppleCare coverage, and dusted off my old wireless Mighty Mouse to continue working through the afternoon.

FedEx showed up early the next day with my new mouse, which I unpacked and tried to pair with my laptop. It wouldn’t pair. So, I tried the new mouse on Jon’s computer. No luck. Turns out that Jon’s iMac had a failed Bluetooth card, because the new mouse paired just fine with a laptop in our Waitsfield showroom. But, so did the old mouse.

I restarted my laptop, and reset the PRAM for good measure; no luck. By now you’ve probably guessed from the title of this article: all I needed to do was reset the System Management Controller (SMC).