MacBook :: Computer Crashed - Greeted Upon Start Up With Gray Screen
Jun 10, 2010
Allright so my girlfriend accidentally spilled a drink on her macbook the other day. We thought we had cleaned it off and everything was fine. We were mistaken. During normal usage the computer crashed so we restarted it and are now greeted upon startup with a gray screen and a gray application folder with a question mark on it flashing repeatedly. What is the course of action guys? I'm not computer whiz and I'm wondering if we can fix this ourselves without having to take it in for repair. And FYI she does not have apple care
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Feb 21, 2009
My roommate just lost his data, so I realized I needed to back up. I plugged in an external hard drive (it was an internal that we put into casing bought from OWC, if that matters). I wasn't thinking about Time Machine but it displayed a message, so I said yes, backup onto the hard drive. Then while it was backing up I was just reading a document, the machine crashed. I swiveled my desk to get something and this caused the external hard drive to fall, for a second it was dangling from the USB. (I'm not sure if that's relevant but.)
I first restart (held down the power button), since nothing was happening. At that point the hard drive was making a weird rhythmic clicking sound. Then it wouldn't start up! I tried this twice. Blank gray screen. I reset the PRAM (was that a bad idea?) and when it started again, I get a folder icon with a blinking question mark, over a gray background. Then I freaked out because this was what happened to my roommate, so I haven't touched the computer since.
What could have gone wrong? What to do now? (Local help centers only open on Monday..) Is it worth it to take a train for an hour to go to an apple store right now?
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Feb 1, 2010
I have a 2.2 GHz MacBook Pro, one of the Santa Rosa models with the 8600M GT. It's run perfectly for nearly two years - up until about two weeks ago. Since then, it's experienced three pretty drastic system-wide crashes. Each time, the screen flashes white three times and freezes, requiring a hard reset - the mouse still moves, but the computer doesn't recognize any input. Curiously, each time I've reset, the computer has had an instant kernel panic at the white boot screen with the Apple logo, requiring another hard reset. After this it's booted fine.
Each time I've had a reasonable amount of stuff running - Safari with, say, 15 tabs, Quicksilver, Ableton Live 8, Newsfire, iTunes, iCal - but nothing excessive. I can't really make head or tail of the panic logs, but each of them seem similar, and all mention kernel extensions com.apple.NVDAResman and com.apple.iokit.IOGraphicsFamily repeatedly. I've also had a couple other occasions where vertical lines have flashed down the screen momentarily. Am I right in thinking this is all most likely related to the graphics card starting to die?
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Jun 25, 2012
Well gang the problem has been resolved by starting up while pressing command V. Worked like a charm. I don't know why the "genus bar" folks did't try it but it worked...I'm just saying.
Info:MacBook Pro with Retina display, Mac OS X (10.7.3), in safe mode QT,Iphoto,photo booth
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Aug 2, 2010
first i'd like to give you a few pieces of information on what was going on before I restarted my mac. 1. My mac is a 13'' late 2008 mb with 2gb of ram (running leopard). 2. I JUST had my hard drive replaced due to a failure. 3. Before i restarted my computer i was having several "system extenstion" errors and when i tried to repair i recieved the message 'Underlying task reported failure on exit.' At the time, i was also trying to install Adobe CS5 Master Collection trial and i couldn't get past a password screen. This also prompted me to restart. Once the computer began to restart, it began updating boot caches. This was taking a very long time so i walked away from the mb. When i came back i realized the battery had died and when i plugged it back in and tried to get it to boot, it would get to the gray screen with the apple and the spinning logo underneath. But then it simply reboots.
I've tried restarting the pram. I've tried rebooting in single user mode (cmd + S) and got to the point where i could rebuild the tree (fsck_hfs -r /dev/disk0s2) and that did it's thing for about ten minutes and it didn't fix the problem. I don't have my install disk but apple is sending me a new one and will be here by friday.
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Mar 17, 2012
I was browsing with safari reading email from my msn account when safari failed to load the page. I then decided to do a force quit. Usually, when I hit command option escape, it will show me the programs then show which program was not responding, this time, it did not say that Safari wasnt responding. After waiting for at least a couple of minutes, I decided to restart the Mac by pressing on the power button to shut down. When I powered up after a minute, the gray screen with the apple in the center appeared and the cursor was forever spinning. After waiting, I decided to shut down again and then tried to zap the PRAM. This did not work so I shut down again and tried to reset the SMC.
Info:
MacBook, Mac OS X (10.7.1), 2 gb ram
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Jun 17, 2014
I bought a used MBP (early 2011) with OS X 10.6.8. It's been running just fine, but last night moving files the screen suddenly went black. I rebooted and it will come up to a gray screen and then sit there. The fans start revving up and it gets really really hot. Of course I haven't done a backup recently, so I need the information on the computer.
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May 21, 2012
what should I try? I did try restting the eprom by removing he battery and hoding the power button for 30 seconds.
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May 21, 2012
Tried everything, the shift key at startup, the c key at start up, with the disk installed, disk is brand new no scratches. Gray Screen still on, no movement of the optical drive or HD apparent Is my HD screwed ?
Info:MacBook Pro (17-inch Early 2011), Mac OS X (10.6.8)
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May 24, 2012
when i start my macbook pro i get the gray screen before loading. start up is very slow.
Info:
MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.7.4)
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Mar 21, 2012
My MacBook pro freezes at start up at the gray screen with spinning gear. I did a firmware update yesterday and this happened upon restart. MacBook pro purchased new early 2011 lion
Info:
MacBook Pro, iOS 5.1
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Apr 21, 2012
my mom's Macbook Pro can't start up. it gets stuck at the grey screen w/ the Apple logo and spinning pinwheel every time. nothing else is plugged into the laptop aside from the power cord. Â
here's what i tried already, but to no avail:
 - Reset SMC
 - Reset PRAM
 - Hold shift while starting up... nothing happens. So can't start in safe mode
 - Used install disk to run Disk Utility diagnostic: Ran into a bunch of Disk Permission errors and fixed those. Nothing wrong on the Disk itself.
 - Held Command-S while starting up and typed "fsck -fy". Got "File system was modified" at first. Ran it again and got clean bill of health there
 - Held "d" while booting, ran the hardware test and it checked out fine.Â
after all of the above, tried waiting for it to restart for 15 minutes and still same spinning wheel. Â
this all started when a Skype update couldn't install, so i got rid of the current Skype. then tried downloading the new Skype. after it supposedly downloaded fully and it was automatically processing in the download pop up window (e.g. something about "writing", "image", etc.), it got stuck and froze the computer for at least 5 minutes. at that point, i help the power button until it turned out. then this started..
PS: not sure if this has anything to do w/ the problem, but after this happened, i tried to use Disk Utilities to make an image onto an external hard drive and it gave me an "operation timed out" error.Â
PPS:Â she has the following specs -
Hitachi Hard drive; partition Map Scheme: GUID Partition Table
[Code]...
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Jun 17, 2012
I turn on my computer and it has a blank/gray screen. I can turn it on and off, but that's all.
Info:
MacBook Air
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Apr 26, 2012
My Macbook Pro is not starting past the grey screen and the apple logo and the rolling circle. I have tried every method and I am desperate to do anything to start my computer even erase the entire disc. I have contacted the Apple store and they told me the cost will be equivalent to $600 to just repair it and no way I will be able to afford it. I am willing to do anything and even erase my entire disc. However, for that the instructions on the Apple page state that 'Insert your Mac OS X 10.4 or 10.5 installation disc'. However, I do not have my installation disc Is there any other way I can erase the OS system and at least reboot my Macbook?
Info:
MacBook Pro
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Apr 17, 2012
My computer is stuck on gray apple page with swirl moving and never opens-
Info:MacBook
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Sep 29, 2010
I am trying to fix a friends macbook pro. When I turn it on the screen shows the apple and the spiral underneath it spinning like it should then when it stalls for .2 seconds it goes to a white screen then there is vertical purple lines in groups across the screen. So the screen is white/purple. Then it fades to just white and I cant do anything.
I hooked up my monitor with a DVI cable to see if it was the motherboard that was possibly bad but the monitor works just fine with the cable. I can use the computer with the laptop keyboard/mouse and it works just fine. The laptop screen just stays blank the whole time. I uploaded a vid to utube for it. If anybody has any ideas for me please help. I dont know if this is a monitor problem or the inverter or the motherboard, possibly some other piece of hardware?
Here is the link to the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1JBFv-GTBmY
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Nov 12, 2009
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
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May 8, 2012
Tried all the tips I can find but no joy. Able to boot in safe mode but nothing else. Can't use Lion Recovery and unable install Snow Leopard from disk as it gets stuck on the gray screen again.
Info:Mac Pro, Mac OS X (10.7.3)
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Jun 14, 2012
My iMac won't start up beyond a gray screen w/ spinning wheel; we had massive power outage 2 days ago during a storm
Info:
iMac, Mac OS X (10.7.4)
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Jun 19, 2009
im getting a message on a grey screen asking me to restart my computer when i'm trying to start my imac? So, i hold down the on / off button to do a hard restart and i get the same message again.
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Jun 3, 2009
It will turn on and go to the white screen with the gray apple but even after several hours it wont do anything. I tried holding down C since my copy of leopard is stuck inside and it does the same thing.
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Apr 24, 2012
I have a very old IMac which I purchased back in 2005, and has been working fine. I have left it in storage about 1 and 1/2 years ago. Just now I try to restart it, the screen is forever stuck in the grey screen with the spinning wheel. I tried many times off-on, hold down the apple function key but none worked. I no longer have the rebooting CD with me. I wonder whether the computer can still be saved? I have already backed up the contents so it doesn't matter if fixing the computer requires me to delete all my old files. I think it's tiger or earlier that it's using.
Info:
iMac, Mac OS X (10.4)
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Feb 19, 2010
I have a 20" iMac G5 1.8 GHz which has been pretty reliable since new. A few weeks ago I fitted a new Hard-drive (Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB), other than that the computer is bog standard. For the last few days when I start up, the computer switches itself off straight away and I have to press start again. Sometimes it gets as far as the grey screen and sometimes it gets to a complete desktop screen before this happens. This may happen 2 or 3 times and then the computer works fine all day, I can even restart with no problems once it is running fine. As it stands I can live with the problem but I worry that it may get worse. Anyone know what this might be? Could it be related to the new hard-drive? Could it even be related to the cold weather?
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Mar 8, 2012
I'm getting the gray screen when I startup. I tried using the install disc to repair the utility, but it said it cannot be repaired. I had to use a plug-in mouse instead of my normal wireless mouse to get the startup disc out on a restart. I want to now startup in safe mode, but holding down shift during startup with my wireless keyboard doesn't work. Do I need to have a plug-in type keyboard for this function to work? Can you backup files using safemode?
Info:
iMac, Mac OS X (10.6.3)
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Sep 1, 2014
iMac start up... Why my imac start with question mark sign on gray screen
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Dec 16, 2006
So, recently (as of thursday or so) my PBG4 has been making weird buzzing noises, usually only when it was working hard (or watching things online). Eventually, as it got closer to the weekend, the noise started to get louder whenever it would come on, so I'd just turn off my computer for an hour or so and let it cool. Finally, today, I turn it off again and now whenever I turn it back on, all I get is the gray start up screen, sans spinner. Sometimes I even get a little folder with the mac face on it. What's wrong?
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Dec 30, 2008
A friend of mine brought over his 14" iBook G4, 1.33GHz, 60GB HDD and 1.25 GB RAM. The problem with it is that upon start-up, the grey screen with the apple/turning gear comes up, then after a few moments a blue screen will appear, though no box showing the start-up process. I've run a few basic diagnostics on this, including the lovely disk utility (which did nothing), I've run fsck, zapped the PRAM, etc, no success as of yet. At one point, I received a screen with alternating folders, one showing the smiley mac face, the other folder with a flashing "?". I cannot replicate this for the life of me. I have attempted to acquire files via TDM, though am not able to see the hard drive despite using 2 different laptops. Possibly the firewire cable itself is spent, though it's brand new! Here is where I become increasingly frustrated: I ask my friend for the boot disks as the ones for my own 12" iBook don't work (for whatever reason). He tells me that he loaded Leopard this summer (currently running 10.5.2, no updates loaded since), then proceeds to bring over boot discs for a MacBook...:headdesk: To begin with, it seemed like the HDD was fried, however, after running disk utility (and not hearing any negative sounds), it does appear that the HDD is fine. I'm thinking a kernel panic, though not sure how to resolve these.
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Aug 3, 2010
My computer has started randomly popping up a grey screen which tells me to restart. It keeps happening and obviously something is wrong. Not sure if it is a hardware failure but something's broke! Anyone know what the deal is? Here is my latest panic log:
Latest stack backtrace for cpu 0:
Backtrace:
0x000954F8 0x00095A10 0x00026898 0x000A8204 0x000ABB80
Proceeding back via exception chain:
Exception state (sv=0x2D9C6780)
PC=0x00306440; MSR=0x00009030; DAR=0x9C95F6DC; DSISR=0x40000000; LR=0x003063BC; R1=0x1787B9C0; XCP=0x0000000C (0x300 - Data access)
Backtrace:
0x003063BC 0x002B7FCC 0x004EE0A8 0x004EDB9C 0x004EDA20 0x00465CCC
0x0049A634 0x0049A338 0x0049B6E0 0x0049BA14 0x002D1B8C 0x002D0A54 0x000A9714
Kernel loadable modules in backtrace (with dependencies):
com.apple.driver.AppleUSBTCKeyboard(1.3.0f1)@0x4ec000
dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOUSBFamily(2.8.1)@0x463000
dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOUSBHIDDriver(2.5.5)@0x4e6000
dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOHIDFamily(1.4.13)@0x4a5000
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May 12, 2010
I have a few month old iMac 27" i7 quad core for music use and did an update this morning which consisted of an itunes update and update to the screen firmware and two other things I can't remember. Do the usual install and restart business and am now met with the following error:
------------------------------------------------------
panic(cpu 0 caller 0x558271): "Unable to find device driver for this platform: "ACPI".
"@/SourceCache/xnu/xnu-1504.3.12......................
Debugger called: <panic>
Backtrace (CPU 0) , Frame: Return Address (4 potential args on stack)
7 lines of numbers and letters (please let me know if you need these)
BSD process name correspoding to current thread: Unknown
Mac OS Version:
Not yet set
Kernal Version:
Darwin Kernel Version 10.3.0...............
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Feb 9, 2012
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.
Info:iMac (27-inch Mid 2011), Mac OS X (10.7.2)
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