TL;DR: Does a clean install reset everything (like SMC, for example)? If not, what else should I do to be sure the computer is completely reset, like it just came from the factory?
My macbook has been acting weirdly for the past few weeks, so I decided to give it clean install with Yosemite.
I think I messed up the SMC and resetting it does not help. I have a Bootcamp partition that I used to play games. My macbook pro would get very hot while gaming on Windows, so I installed Lubbo's Fan Control. That worked for a couple days, until I realized that while booted in OSX the fans were not working at all or working full speed. I tried resetting the SMC, but that didn't help. So I installed iStat Menus, and controlled my fans manually (yeah, a lazy solution). Now I have one fan controlling app on Windows and one on OSX, and neither work as expected (in iStat when I set it to 'default' the fans stop working).
Also, I have been installing a lot of things, and leftover files are all over the place.
So, now I'm getting rid of Bootcamp and clean installing Yosemite. How do I go about doing this properly and thoroughly? I'd like to make the computer fresh as it just came out of the factory. Should I do anything besides a clean install?
Best Answer
A fresh OS install won't reset the hardware, SMC or PRAM. It might be well worth checking both those are correctly reset before going so far as a wipe & install.
Reset the PRAM first - hold Cmd/Opt/P/R at the chimes & wait for the chimes to happen a second time.
SMC varies per machine, Mac Pro is sufficient to power off & leave the mains plug out for a minute. MacBooks are different - http://support.apple.com/kb/ht3964 covers all the variations.
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