Smog with Check Engine Light

[Zibodo]

I just had my clutch replaced and driving home I stalled it a couple of times-guess I'm not used to the feel of a silky smooth clutch. When I got home I noticed the check engine light was on so I immediately drove back to the shop and had him check it out. He put it on the diagnostic machine and it showed lots of misfires, but after checking all the sensors, he could find nothing else wrong. He told me the engine light would go out after a few starts and sent me on my way.

That leads me up to today. I need to get a smog test to renew my registration and when I took it over to the test station, the guy said that cannot test with the check engine light on, its an instant fail. He also told me I cannot just have the shop reset the light. It will still fail. So now I want to know what is the criteria that lets the computer reset the light. Is it number of starts? If so how many? Is it drive time? If so how long? or what?

I have a few weeks to get the smog test, but I don't want this to become an issue Someone must have faced this before. Please help!