Intel Mac :: Gray Screen With Question Mark In Center Of Display
May 15, 2012
When my wife starts her iMac the screen stays gray and in the center of the screen is a folder with a question mark. I am not sure how to get it running.
I just bought a new iMac. I have been trying all week (with no success) to transfer files and apps from my previous iMac. The last time I tried to transfer, I used target mode on the old computer. It looked as if it was finally working, so I left with 2+ hours remaining on the transfer. When I returned, the computer was frozen and nothing would work. So I held the power button to turn it off. When I tried to turn it back on, there was only a gray screen with a flashing folder with a question mark. I feel like I have tried everything listed in other discussions. The only thing I am not able to try is to reinstall Lion because the new computer did NOT come with an OSX disc of any type.
I'm selling my old iMac and while cleaning the hard drive it froze. I forced shut down and when I turned it back on a circle with a diagonal came up initially, followed by flashes of that, a question mark and the apple symbol. Now it won't get past the grey screen and the flashing symbols. Â
Yesterday while I worked on the mac it had froze up. After the restart it shows one folder with question mark in the center of the screen and can't load the OS.
I am trying to reinstall the os from my leopard cd but when i have to choose where to put system folder in Disk utility, there is no hdds there. The only device i can see is my dvd rom. I tried to attach external hdd but it doesnt shows too.
I have a new imac. I was stuffing the web, tried to upload a picture, the website locked up, so I hard booted my iMac. Then when it came back on, and I get is the start up sound, and a gray screen, nothing else. Its been 5mins now!
I have my mac pro finder screen it has a question mark in the gray bar I can't get rid of it.
I created the problem by downloaded a few hundred screen saver photos. they were a mess.
after weeks of deleting cloning and fixing files. I had everything removed except on the finder bar a little Flag of Israel . I managed to get rid of the little flag but now have a question mark instead. If I click on the mark it says the item can not be found.
Running Leopard 10.5.8, 15" MacBook Pro with an additional Apple Display. Plugged into projector � the resolution/display went bonkers/everything was thrown off-center The resolutions are accurate for both screen and display Software is kept updated/Repaired permissions The screen and display are off-center by about 2 inches in width and and 1 inch in height I can move about the screens to bring my dock and/or menu bars into view, but they are no longer fitting into the confines of the screen/display
I have an issue with selecting (restart). If i choose restart after a software update, from the apple drop down, or when i select the drive in startup disk in preferences, it will boot into a gray screen with ? mark. if i choose (shut down) from apple drop down menu and then start up from the power button on the air, it boots up with no problem. I have checked with the SSD maker and i have the latest firmware I cannot use the old HD to see if it is a drive issue. Its dead.Â
I am currently getting a gray screen with a folder and question mark. I have tried resetting the PRAM and when I hold down the option key, no drives show up at all. I also can't boot into OS X in safe mode. I don't hear a clicking noise that you usually get from dead hard drives.
I recently upgraded to Lion on my MacBook Pro but it didn't sit well with my compuer. It became sluggish and would take forever to load applications, pictures, music, movies, etc that only took SL a few seconds at most. I decided to downgrade back to SL so I put in my Install DVD (version 10.6.6) and tried to format the hard drive so I could start new. However it would not work with the CD, so I continued looking around online and I came under the impression that if you erase the hard drive it will allow you to start new (in my case, with SL). However now I get a gray screen with a folder with a question mark.
I do not have my files backed up through Time Machine.
How hard is it to replace the hard drive? I have a disaster recovery company step up to get all my info off of it if they can. But I really don't want to spend the money to have someone pull out the HD and put a new one in if I can do it myself. I have experience building pc towers but I haven't ever pulled apart an iMAC. Its an iMac 23(or 24) inch from Dec 2007 (I don't have the model info on hand as the box is in storage).
I got a 3 year old white macbook. I was surfing the net when suddenly it turned off. On restart, I got the grey screen for a while, the a picture of a file with a question mark in it, waited for ten minutes, still the file. I have done the following:
1.- Reset the PRAM: I use the combination of keys, and it reboots, but on rebboting it goes back to the picture of the file. 2.- Use the option key on startup: I get a grey screen with the curso on it, which I can move with my mouse, but no buttons to click or nothing. 3.- Use the X key: as if doing nothing 4.- Resseting the SMC: as if doing nothing
Last week my macbook pro started have gray or blue screen problem, it won't boot all the time I turn on, instead I will turn into gray or blue screen and won't do anything else, the OS is to the latest version, and if it start normally it goes blue or gray screen everytime I use final cut pro, I mainly use this mac for editing videos, I try everything like safe mode, I even format the hard drive but the problem still there...
Am getting a gray snowflake pattern on display screen (using older Mac pro). Did something fail in computer or is this a hacking job? Right now I'm using another MAC to send this.
my MacBook pro display that there are frequently horizontal grey lines going across my screen. I've noticed it mostly when the display color should be grey or white, but that's not always the case. It occurs mostly in my Google search bar using Firefox, and also occurs heavily on Facebook in the comments/reply section of a post. Outside of the browser I've also seen it when looking through some personal photos, especially of the sky, the lines will seem to sort of outline different contrasts in white or light tones, kind of like the Magic Wand tool would do in Photoshop. The lines do flicker and change when scrolling.I attempted to snap a photo with my iPhone the best I could.Â
My specs:
-13" Macbook Pro (2009) -Intel Core 2 Duo 2.26 GHz -NVIDIA GeForce 9400M -Resolution: 1280x800, 32-bit ColorÂ
I purchased my PowerMac G5 in 2003 and no problems till now. My problem is that on startup, the display first shows gray screen with a globe in a white box flashing in the center of the screen. This continues for about 90 seconds --- then the globe in box icon changes to a small file folder icon with alternating face/question mark flashing in the file folder. At about the same time, the fan speeds up dramatically. The fan continues to run at this high speed for about 90 additional seconds, then the fan returns to normal speed, and the startup continues normally to the blue screen. Once startup is complete, computer runs okay. The whole process takes about 4 minutes.
Information: PowerMac G5, 1.8 Ghz, OS X 10.2.8 Mac OS X (10.2.x)
My computer displays grey screen and apple logo for 10 minutes or more during start up and shut down. Sometimes it refuses to shut down. This issues started after installing OS lion. What do I do?
I have an 2008 iMac that displays a gray screen. I cannot get rid of it. I have done a forced shut down but it wakes up when a key is depressed. I have turned off the power. It will chime but a gray screen, not a spinning wheel or anything else. I was told it might be VMWare Fusion at fault so I uninstalled the program a month or so ago. It was fine until a few days ago. Has the display panel died? If so, is this a dyi or should I pay $$$ to repair it.Â
bought a new i mac and while using had a gray screen scroll down slowly and then said I had to restart the computer it is now happening more ofter and do not know what is causing it
This evening, quite suddenly, a gray (or black, depending on what's on the screen) vertical line has appeared across my imac screen, about a quarter of the way up from the bottom. Above that are some are three, much lighter lines (more like subtle variations or blocks of colour running across the screen). These appear on all windows I open. I took a screen shot using grab and the very definite gray line doesn't appear.
While working on the computer, sometimes the screen will turn gray (from top to bottom) and a message will appear saying the computer must be restarted.So far the local Apple store has not been able to find the problem. The last solution the store tried was to replace the Airport Card, but that didn't work. Computer was purchased in December 2011.
I have an iMac G5 stuck on the gray screen with spinning gear. I woke up to it being stuck on a blue screen, then force quit and now it's stuck on gray with spinning gear.
Unfortunately I bumped the switch on the power strip that my Mac Mini (1.42ghz G4, OS X 10.3) is plugged into while it was running. Now it won't boot up. All I get is the gray screen with the gray apple logo and the spinning wheel but no OSX.