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

In the reset SMC procedure, it does show to start with it shut off, but also step 3 says, it says if your Mac is on it will shut off. Step 4 says Keep holding all 4 keys for another 7 seconds:

• Keep holding all three keys for 7 seconds, then press and hold the power button as well. If your Mac is on, it will turn off as you hold the keys.
• Keep holding all four keys for another 7 seconds, then release them.

Reset the SMC of your Mac - Apple Support

Have you tried that to see if the Mac does shut off while holding the keys? Some Macs do start on keypress.

The NRAM is reset while it is starting up so it is OK for the Mac to start when holding those keys for 20 seconds.

Reset NVRAM on your Mac - Apple Support

Diagnostics are performed on your Mac by following these steps and again is performed while starting up.

Use Apple Diagnostics to test your Mac - Apple Support

The codes given in diagnostics are referenced in that Support Article and also available here:

Apple Diagnostics reference codes - Apple Support

ethylmermaid wrote:

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.

Unfortunately this is the new normal for Macs. Even touching the Trackpad will wake up or power on the Mac now.

Also, connecting or disconnecting external devices may also wake up or power on the Macs.

All very annoying and pointless.

Provide Apple with product feedback here:

Product Feedback - Apple

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

More than likely the Logic Board is failing which is common with the T2 Logic Boards, but especially with the Intel (USB-C models)MBAirs from 2018-2020 since they have a joke of a cooling system. While these MBAirs have a fan, the fan does not move air directly over the CPU heatsink.....in fact the CPU heatsink has no heatpipe which is used to allow a fan to cool the heatsink & CPU. Ask any repair tech and they will not be surprised these Logic Boards fail.

Even without the cooling issue, the T2 Logic Boards for all of these 2018-2020 Intel Macs tend to have a higher rate of failure than older non-USB-C Macs with some models having a muchhigher failure rate than others.

You can try to run the third party app EtreCheck and posting the complete report here so we can examine it for possible clues.....maybe you will get lucky & have issues with third party software.....maybe. However, the graphical glitches you are reporting sound a lot like a bad GPU which means a bad Logic Board. The EtreCheck report will probably show some Kernel Panic log summaries as well which may help to confirm.

If it is indeed a hardware issue as I suspect, then I do not recommend repairing this laptop (or any Intel Mac) for multiple reasons (already provided one above about the joke of a cooling system)....the money spent on repairs is much better put towards a new computer. The M-series Macs will run circles around your 2020 Intel MBAir.

Edit: @Mac Jim ID has also provided you with great information, so try those things out as well.

A couple of things to check in the EtreCheck report:

• Unsigned files have no place. Microsoft is very good about maintaining signed files, so if you are seeing unsigned files that may indicate they are very old and they need to be updated.
• If you have Google Keystone files, get rid of them.
• Review the CPU usage section to identify processes consuming resources and will cause your fans to speed up.
• Review the last section on crashes/hangs to see if there is a particular process causing problems also noted with high CPU use.
• I have also seen where having multiple backup solutions or external storage such as Time Machine, One Drive, and Dropbox will compete against each other. When files are "touched" for backup status with one service, another may identify that action as a change and back up the file resulting in a race condition.

Ok that does provide a bit more information and I agree that Sync may be a culprit here. Many of those processes noted as high CPU usage in the Diagnostic Information is related to Spotlight indexing of files. The other troubling thing I notice is the high use of resources by AppleSpell. This has been a topic in some other discussions here, although a clear cause has not been seen that I have been found. I have seen it speculated that Evernote and Atom text editor were causing a conflict to happen, but don't know if that relates to you. Sorry, I can't be more helpful at this time for the reason, but do think it deserves some attention.

From everything you provided, I can offer these additional steps to take.

• Start up in Safe Mode. This will do additional cache clearing in case there is any corruption there causing a problem. Also suggested by some for the high AppleSpell usage. It is also a good opportunity to see if you are still getting the high fan usage when in Safe Mode, which may point to a Software conflict. Restart again normally to exit Safe Mode.

Start up your Mac in safe mode - Apple Support

• Rebuild the Spotlight Index. I would try excluding any folders where you are also syncing files such as a specific OneDrive/Dropbox folder or even external drives.

Rebuild the Spotlight index on your Mac - Apple Support

• Also in the EtreCheck report there is a section, there is a section under performance that shows Read/Write speeds. While it depends on the drive you are using for startup, generally these should be greater or close to 1000 MB/s. When they fall to low levels it may mean that there is a lot of activity going on syncing files or the drive is actually failing. I haven't seen the fan usage with a drive failure, but certainly would confirm increased syncing going on.

Of course these steps are to try and prevent a clean install of the OS that can be time consuming, although is the single most effective way to determine if Software is the cause. Also when determining if a problem is Hardware or Software, it is often much easier to rule out Software first. The happy medium is to work a bit backwards by uninstalling software that you may suspect one at a time where you can maintain your data and reinstall easily.

Removed my post since it ended up double posting when I tried to make an edit. My other post appears next when "Sort By" is configured to "Oldest".