How to Reboot a Mac Computer
Most of the time, rebooting your Macintosh computer is as simple as clicking a button. Sometimes, though, your Mac may lock up and the normal way to reboot won't work. Then you will have to manually restart your computer.
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Instructions
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Rebooting a Working Mac
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Click the Apple Menu in the top-left corner of the screen and choose "Restart." Select "Yes" in the resulting dialog that asks you if you really want to restart your computer.
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2
Find your Mac's power button. On MacBooks, PowerBooks and iBooks, it's in the top-right corner of your keyboard area. On the iMac, reach to the back right side of the unit and feel for a button. On the G5 or Mac Pro, the power button is on the front of the tower. Push the button briefly. In the dialog that asks if you would like the machine to shut down, restart or sleep, click "Restart."
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3
Press the "Control" and "Eject" keys at the same time to bring up the Sleep, Restart and Shutdown menu.
Rebooting a Malfunctioning Mac
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Hold down the power button for 5 to 7 seconds until it turns off. Use this option when the computer is stuck -- the color wheel icon spins for minutes -- and the computer refuses to shut down safely. Your work will be lost, and this procedure may damage the operating system software. Press the power button again to boot the Mac.
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Unplug the main power cord from the wall if the Mac won't shut down any other way. Cutting the power turns the computer off. Use this method as an absolute last resort, as you could potentially damage the computer's hardware. Plug the Mac back in and press the power button to boot it.
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Remove the battery if using a laptop. Doing this may damage your computer, your data and your battery. Replace the battery and press the power button to boot it.
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Comments
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purpleslurple
Jun 12, 2010
I occasionally run into the situation where a misbehaving application has hung and will not die and forcing the application to quit via the Apple menu doesn't work (because the Apple isn't responding to mouse clicks). Restarting fails because of the hung application. In this case, assuming your keyboard is working, you can call up the Force Quit menu by using Command-Option-Esc key combination and kill the hung app there.
