Power Manager Reset
Sunday June 08th 2008, 6:03 am
Filed under: OS X

If you’re getting odd hardware errors with a Mac laptop, try the old voodoo trick of a power manager reset before you assume it has a mechanical fault. For instance, recently I started getting “Error Code 0x8002006E” when I tried to burn a DVD. This code is supposed to report a bad blank disc–but if you get the message no matter what you have in your drive, that obviously isn’t your problem.

The specific instructions for a power manager reset vary by model, but it involves turning off the machine, unplugging it and taking out the battery, and holding down a certain key combination for a few seconds. (On newer models, the secret key is mercifully just the power button.)

Here are step-by-step instructions for various models of:
68K Macs
PPC Macs
Intel Macs (note that the Power Manager is called the “System Manager” now)