Reset your Mac's EFI Extensible Firmware Interface) password

So you're locked out of your mac because a firmware password has been set and you forgot it. Don't worry, there is hope and you have several options:

Firmware Password Utility: 

• Boot from OS X Recovery (Time Machine, USB, internet recovery, etc.) 
• Go to your Utilities Menu and choose Firmware Password Utility to either reset your password or to turn it off. 

Firmware Password Utility

 EFI Reset Tool (I also take no responsibility for any illegal use nor do I condone this). 

• Go here to read about the tool: http://hackaday.com/2013/02/26/mac-efi-pin-lock-brute-force-attack-unsuccessful/. Sometimes this method doesn't work and there is a reason. 

Reset PRAM/NVRAM three times:

• Add or remove a stick of ram. Obviously if you have one stick in, add one and if you have two in remove one. 
• Power on the mac and immediately press and hold command-option-P-R. 
• The system will restart with the ‘bong noise’, allow it to do this 3 times. On the third ‘bong’ you can let go of the keys. 
• The machine will now boot with a cleared password and reset PRAM/NVRAM. 
• You can shut down the machine and replace the original ram configuration. 

Hold in the power button:

• Press the power button for ten seconds until the front indicator flashes. 
• Keep holding the button till the mac starts up; this way your Mac EFI is reset. This will help in a lot of problems. 

If nothing works, I am afraid you will need to go to the Apple store and show proof of purchase before they reset the EFI for free. Here is a little more information on this topic.

Gray screen instead of login screen

I was hoping you could help with my MacBook Pro issues. First, my left fan was grinding so of course i blew out the fan (they were dusty). The laptop was also getting hot. After login I would also be presented with a white screen and no login screen would show.

I did every troubleshooting technique possible from:

1. repairing permissions - all fixed

2. resetting PRAM - was advised to release after 7 chimes

3. ran Techtool Pro 6 - no problems, not even video (card, memory... nothing)

4. ran Onyx (kinda like CCleaner). I cleaned EVERYTHING

5. took to Apple Store and they ran diagnostics and everything checked out. The fans even checked out

6. I was advised that my Hard drive was failing, but the SMART passed

7. As a last resort, I backed up, erased and reinstalled Snow Leopard thinking it may just be a something I installed (driver or something) causing conflicts. I'm still getting the white screen.

This is the funny thing, I safe boot the laptop and I get the login screen and everything is hunky dory. This happens every time I safe boot (no white screen)

I have done extensive research and tried everything presented to me to no avail.

Icons galore!

If you are looking for the perfect icon for your Mac then look no further than your CoreServices folder.  This folder holds every imaginable icon your Mac has to offer, and depending on which version Max OS X you're using, you will be able find 2000+!  My folder, for example, has 2,370 icons!  To get to all these icons all you have to do is:

• launch Preview
• Go to your MacintoshHD folder (this is your startup drive and you may have renamed it).
• Double-click the System folder
• Double-click the LIbrary folder
• Now look for the CoreServices folder

• Now drag that folder on top of the Preview icon that's on the Dock

As you can see, you may get presented with 2,300+ icons, which is great for getting the perfect icon.  Now you'll want to select the icon by enabling the Edit Toolbar, if it's not already.

• click on your View menu
• Now click on Show Edit Toolbar

Now select any selection tool you wish, Lasso Selection, for example on the left side of the Edit toolbar.

• Now drag your selection tool around the icon.  

Easily find your Mac's model number

Last week I was asked if there was an easier way to find your Mac's model.  There is, in fact, a very easy way.  Just follow these simple instructions:

• Locate the Apple Menu and option click About This Mac so it reads System Information...
• In the Hardware section, look for Model Identifier.

• Head on over to everymac.com and scroll down and make sure the By Identifier tab is open and click on Model Identifier.
• Now look for your Identifier in the list.  My iMac, for example, would be iMac12,1.  A friend I know has a laptop with an identifier of MacBookPro2,2

Note: you may have a version of MacOS X that has System Profiler instead of System Information.

You can also download an application equivalent of EveryMac.com called MacTracker. 

If you are on a Windows system, the utility you want is msinfo32.  Just click the Start menu and immediately type msinfo32.  After you press return, the utility will show up

Every Mac spec

There is a website called everymac.com that lists all the specifications of every mac ever made. It also has specs to every iPod, iPhone, iPad and Mac clone in the world, with technical, configuration, and pricing info. Get specs on every Mac, answer your Mac questions, compare Macs side-by-side, lookup Macs, and more!

Clean out your Windows PC computer

I was asked not too long ago to clean out an increasingly slow Windows computer.  CCleaner (formerly Crap Cleaner), developed by Piriform is a utility program used to clean potentially unwanted files and invalid Windows Registry entries from a computer.  A beta version for the Mac OS X has been released, but if you want a free, fully developed software package for the Mac, give Onyx a try

Macs can write to NTFS volumes now

I just recently bought a portable hard drive that was formatted with the NTFS filesystem and I was wondering if there was a way to write to the drive with my mac.  Well, not natively, Macs can only read such a filesystem, but fear not!  Go to MacGuy4.Us for the full solution.  Basically, you have to download two pieces of software (one if you already have Parallels Desktop installed).  For an added bonus, the new extension, NTFS 3G, you install will give the Disk Utility application the option to partition a drive with NTFS