Level 1

5 points

Every key restarts MacBook (interfering with SMC and NVRAM/PRAM resets?)

In the process of trying to do SMC and NVRAM/PRAM resets to attempt to fix some problems I've been having with my MacBook, I've discovered every key on my keyboard will restart my computer. I'm not talking about waking the computer from sleep. I mean I've clicked "shut down..." and the computer has in fact shut down. But then, pressing any key (I haven't tried literally all of them, but enough to catch the pattern) the computer will restart. At first I thought it was just the left command key doing it, because every time I attempted to press and hold the keys necessary for the resets, the computer would immediately restart. Which I assume means none of my resets have worked? It's hard to tell, but certainly none of the problems I was trying to address have been fixed.

The problems: the fan running constantly (and loudly); blocks of colors periodically flashing across the top of the screen (the kind of color flashes you get, or used to, when a computer suddenly crashes). These have both been going on for a while, at least a year. There's also (this is more recent) excruciating slow browser (Safari) processing, which a cache clearing doesn't seem to have done anything to fix. It feels like the computer is constantly working at maximum capacity, even though I'm not using power-hungry programs, nothing involving graphics. Just normal office software. In activity monitor, the main source of usage is consistently Sync (the program).

The computer: MacBook Air, 2020, 1.1 GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i5, Sequoia 15.7.2

Posted on Dec 17, 2025 3:25 PM

26 replies

ethylmermaid Author

Level 1

5 points

Dec 20, 2025 1:51 PM in response to HWTech

Great, thanks, done.

The only item which I don't recognize is "bourgeoisbits" & "Cloak Holding LLC". Whenever I see something unusual, it is a red flag when someone is complaining of system issues.

I think these are remnants of a VPN I already deleted.

Run Disk Utility First Aid on the hidden Container. Within Disk Utility you may need to click "View" and select "Show All Devices" before the hidden Container appears on the left pane of Disk Utility. Even if the First Aid summary says everything is "Ok", click "Show Details" and scroll back through the report to see if any unfixed errors & warnings are shown. If there are any, then run First Aid again until they are gone, but if they remain after several scans, then you will need to run First Aid while booted into Recovery Mode.

This turned up a lot of warnings and errors. But they don't seem to be getting fixed, even after running First Aid in Recovery Mode:

First Aid report

ethylmermaid Author

Level 1

5 points

Dec 20, 2025 1:58 PM in response to MrHoffman

Pragmatically, this whole install is an immense pile of stuff for an 8 GB Air to try to deal with, too.

If I can't get this fixed and this machine ends up a trade-in for something newer, what amount of memory do you think would be a better fit?

Dec 20, 2025 2:16 PM in response to ethylmermaid

ethylmermaid wrote:

Pragmatically, this whole install is an immense pile of stuff for an 8 GB Air to try to deal with, too.

If I can't get this fixed and this machine ends up a trade-in for something newer, what amount of memory do you think would be a better fit?

While the older M-class models were 8 GB minimally (and probably still some Apple refurbs), recent Apple silicon Mac models are usually (always?) 16 GB minimum.

I’d go with 16 GB or 24 GB, as additional memory cannot be retrofit, and as approximately no software apps and no operating systems are getting smaller and sleeker.

HWTech

Level 9

68,762 points

Dec 20, 2025 2:17 PM in response to ethylmermaid

ethylmermaid wrote:

HWTech wrote:

Run Disk Utility First Aid on the hidden Container. Within Disk Utility you may need to click "View" and select "Show All Devices" before the hidden Container appears on the left pane of Disk Utility. Even if the First Aid summary says everything is "Ok", click "Show Details" and scroll back through the report to see if any unfixed errors & warnings are shown. If there are any, then run First Aid again until they are gone, but if they remain after several scans, then you will need to run First Aid while booted into Recovery Mode.

This turned up a lot of warnings and errors. But they don't seem to be getting fixed, even after running First Aid in Recovery Mode.

This can be a huge problem (some file system issues don't seem to cause any noticeable issues, while others completely break the system).

Are the unfixed errors & warnings for the hidden Container, the "Data" volume, or a TM APFS snapshot? Sometimes this can be difficult to determine. If you are unsure, then you may need to post the entire First Aid report so we can try to figure it out.

If issue is a TM APFS snapshot, then the problem will go away as soon as the snapshot is deleted.

If it is an APFS snapshot for the system/update volume, then that can go away with a macOS update/upgrade, otherwise you will need to erase the disk using Disk Utility.

If it is the hidden Container, then it will require erasing the disk using Disk Utility.

If only the "Data" volume has the file system issues, then you should be able to just use the "Erase All Content & Settings" option which I believe will delete the current "Data" volume & create a new APFS volume which won't have any issues. I would suggest running First Aid afterwards to make sure there are no file system issues since Apple's documentation is not entirely clear. If there are issues, then you would need to use the Disk Utility erase disk option.

Here is an Apple article with instructions for the "Erase All Content & Settings" and "If you cannot use Erase All Content & Settings" options which you will need for the above using the criteria above:

Erase your Mac and reset it to factory settings - Apple Support

Make sure you first have good backups before attempting to erase anything.

ethylmermaid Author

Level 1

5 points

Dec 20, 2025 2:25 PM in response to HWTech

Are the unfixed errors & warnings for the hidden Container, the "Data" volume, or a TM APFS snapshot? Sometimes this can be difficult to determine. If you are unsure, then you may need to post the entire First Aid report so we can try to figure it out.

For the container, I think. Here's the whole thing:

First Aid Report

ethylmermaid Author

Level 1

5 points

Dec 20, 2025 2:27 PM in response to MrHoffman

MrHoffman wrote:

I’d go with 16 GB or 24 GB, as additional memory cannot be retrofit, and as approximately no software apps and no operating systems are getting smaller and sleeker.

16 is still adequate given the I'm assuming even larger OS we're getting now?

HWTech

Level 9

68,762 points

Dec 20, 2025 6:50 PM in response to ethylmermaid

ethylmermaid wrote:

Are the unfixed errors & warnings for the hidden Container, the "Data" volume, or a TM APFS snapshot? Sometimes this can be difficult to determine. If you are unsure, then you may need to post the entire First Aid report so we can try to figure it out.

For the container, I think. Here's the whole thing:

<First Aid Report.log>

It appears the unfixed errors & warnings are for the "Data" volume.

This means you should be able to use the "Erase All Contents & Settings" option in the Apple article I linked previously which hopefully deletes the existing APFS "Data" volume which I would expect will be recreated when you go through Setup Assistant again. This option should only take minutes before you are asked to restore from your backup.

After the "Erase All Contents & Settings", I would definitely run First Aid again just to make sure those warnings & errors are gone.....if they still remain, then you will need to go with the second option "If you cannot use Erase All Content & Settings" which will take a lot longer to perform because it requires reinstalling macOS before you can restore from a backup.

Erase your Mac and reset it to factory settings - Apple Support

Make sure you first have good backups before attempting to erase anything.

ethylmermaid Author

Level 1

5 points

Dec 21, 2025 1:24 PM in response to HWTech

HWTech wrote:

After the "Erase All Contents & Settings", I would definitely run First Aid again just to make sure those warnings & errors are gone.....if they still remain, then you will need to go with the second option "If you cannot use Erase All Content & Settings" which will take a lot longer to perform because it requires reinstalling macOS before you can restore from a backup.

Erase your Mac and reset it to factory settings - Apple Support

So far so good. Post-erase, First Aid came up clean, and despite the strain of reloading all that data, there's been no sign of graphical glitches. Will have to wait and see what the effect on fan is once everything's back in place. Cautiously optimistic...

HWTech

Level 9

68,762 points

Dec 21, 2025 4:19 PM in response to ethylmermaid

ethylmermaid wrote:

So far so good. Post-erase, First Aid came up clean, and despite the strain of reloading all that data, there's been no sign of graphical glitches. Will have to wait and see what the effect on fan is once everything's back in place. Cautiously optimistic...

Please keep us updated.