OS X :: Macbook Won't Boot / Just Goes To Grey Screen?
Aug 29, 2009
When my son's computer is turned on it just goes to grey screen.. I've tried a number of troubleshooting things...starting while holding "c" to boot with install disk...starting holding "shift" for safe boot. I did the PRM (?) reset thing holding Apple-option-p-r keys while starting and that did add the start up chime...before it would just go to the grey screen, no chime no spinning wheel...but still no boot.The computer is still under warranty but soonest appointment at Apple Store is 3 days from now!!!
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Jun 4, 2009
My macbook wont boot up for some reason. When trying to turn it on it goes to a grey screen and nothing pops up, eventually a little picture pops up that has what looks like a folder with a question mark in the middle. I then tried booting from the CD and when trying to do that a picture of the world pops up and then also the folder with the question mark in the middle. I thought i may have been the harddrive so i bought a new one and it still has the same problem.
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Apr 1, 2012
My wife has a Macbook with an Intel Core 2 Duo processor (Macbook4,1). I am trying to replace the original SATA hard disk (160 GB) with an SSD. I have two SSDs here with me:
1) Intel 320 series, 160 GB
2) Crucial M4, 128 GB
In both cases, after replacing the hard disk with the SSD, I am unable to get the Macbook to get any further than the "Mac sound" and grey screen.
In my first attempt, I cloned the original disk to the SSD on another computer, verified the data got on there OK, and installed the SSD into the Macbook. In subsequent attempts, I just formatted the SSD to see if the Mac would recognize it at all.
When the original hard disk is installed, and my Snow Leopard install DVD is in the DVD drive, during the boot, I can hold down the option key and get a boot choice of booting from the hard disk or the DVD. With either SSD installed, when holding down the option key I get no choices at all, it just sits there (it does access the DVD for a few seconds but then nothing).
I have another 160 GB "regular" hard disk here as well and when I install that I also get the choice to boot from the hard disk or the DVD (although booting from the hard disk does not work since it's a hard disk from a PC).
combination of Macbook and SSD, installing into the hard drive bay? I've seen many posts from people who have had success putting an SSD into their Macbook so I am assuiming it's possible.
Some more information about the Macbook:
Boot ROM Version: MB41.00C1.B00
SMC Version: 1.31f1
Info:
MacBook, Mac OS X (10.6.8)
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Apr 19, 2012
Mac book is stuck on the grey screen with the apple logo and the spinning timer?
Info:
MacBook
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May 26, 2012
I was having trouble submitting an assignment on the American Military University website. After I finally submitted and verified my submission was successful, Finder popped open a window, without being prompted, with a specific part of my "private" folder showing. In the info window it showed that I had read only privleges, but that a user named "wheel" had permissions. Thing is, there is no such user. I am the sole user, and that is not my user name. I panicked, thinking I was being hacked, and moved the entire "private" folder to the trash. It was over 5 gigs. I had to input my admin password after dropping the folder in the trash. Then, my system froze. Now I can't get past the grey boot screen with apple logo and spinning wheel.
I've tried zapping PRAM. I ran disk utility from both the install disk and the startup disk for live verify. NO errors found. Still won't boot. I tried safe mode, and got a status bar below the apple logo but it vanished before filling completely and then the MacBook just continued to hang there spinning the wheel without a status bar. Tried rebooting while holding shift-command-v and got to watch as the computer tried to boot in safe mode, but I got the following messages before the darn thing just began to hang there again:
getaddrlinfo(): node name nor username provided, or not known
getaddrlinfo(): node name nor username provided, or not known
getaddrlinfo(): node name nor username provided, or not known
getaddrlinfo(): node name nor username provided, or not known
launch_msg(): Socket is not connected
launch_msg(): Socket is not connected
Info:
MacBook Pro 13.3", Mac OS X (10.6.6)
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May 28, 2012
Today I was using my MacBook 2008 aluminum, and I ran out of battery so the system shut down the computer to save the files. I plugged in my computer to start it up but the screen turned grey for a while. I shut down my computer and turned it on and it started up to the grey login screen but it won't let me boot passed it. I have tried to get passed it in safemode but it did not work. I have tried to repair my hard drive and my permissions and reinstall osx lion but it didnt work.
Info:
MacBook, Mac OS X (10.1.x)
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Jun 29, 2012
So yesterday i turned my laptop on to find out it wasnt booting up past the grey screen. Later on i did some trouble shooting and finally got it past to the main desktop screen. Now, recently i had just uninstalled and deleted my Windows 7 Pro partition i had put onto my laptop a while back but when doing so, when i tried getting my hard drive back to full storage amount by deleting the partition,it gave me some error. I believe i figured out the error and was able to use my laptop from then. Once my computer was letting me get to the desktop screen, once i would click on an app it would often give me the pin wheel and stop me from clicking on anything else for a good minute.
Today,i had backed everything up and thought that i would just reformat and re install OSX to remedy the whole issue. This was not acheived. I had been able to get to the desktop screen a few times but still got the pin wheel situation going on. A couple tries later im stuck here at my grey boot screen. No Apple sign showing up, just stuck. Im usually a very computer savey person but this is kind of just making me wonder. I ordered a new hard drive (which i was going to upgrade anyways)but wanted to know if this even could possibly be the issue. I upgraded from my stock hard drive about 6 months after i had gotten my laptop (mid 2009 model). The last 3 years ive been traveling very often, flying frequently and using it often for playing my DJ gigs. Im wondering if alltitude and hot clubs could take a tole on a hard drive when its running hot?
Info:
MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.8), 2.2 C2D,8GB RAM,320GB WD 7200RPM HD
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Mar 5, 2012
MacBook pro wont boot up. I followed steps posted on other threads:
1) command r
2) repaired hard disc (there were 3 errors, now all fixed) if I try to restart, computer still doesn't boot past the grey screen.
Info:
MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.7.3)
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Apr 24, 2012
2007 MBP won't boot. Spinning on grey screen
Info:MacBookPro, Mac OS X (10.5.1)
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Nov 24, 2008
My Macbook will not boot up. I am now faced with a plain grey screen with no apple logo, chime sound or activity wheel appearing.
Like most Macbook users I know, I rarely go through the booting up process from day to day use unless the System Updater requires a restart, but this time there was a different reason for me restarting the system.
When I was expanding an archive with Stuffit Expander, the app froze up. I went and deleted the archive file knowing that it was corrupt, but I did this too soon before the app had a chance to close down properly. It became stuck as a process that couldn't be closed down. Its dock icon didn't have a 'Force Quit' menu option so, I chose to perform a restart.
The Macbook went through the startup process but took a very long time. (I guess after reading around the forums this was fsck attempting to scan and repair the potentially damaged hard drive). I mistakenly performed a hard reboot thinking the system had hung.
The second time, it displayed the apple logo and wheel for about 2 minutes before showing a circle with a line through it and no further activity. When I rebooted again the apple logo and wheel were displayed with the hard drive activity audibly in a repetitive on and off state. I left this for about 15 minutes before deciding to turn it off. At the present moment it starts up to a plain grey screen as mentioned at the beginning. I tried experimenting with removing the extra 2gb memory module but there was no difference with or without it. I tried resting the NVRAM with Option-Command-P-R but all I got back was the startup chime (i.e. the muted volume I had it at has now reset to the default level).
When Option is held down on booting, the mouse cursor is visible over the same blank grey screen. No volumes show up. I have selected the Finder Preferences option to hide all volumes from showing up on the desktop, but I doubt this would affect volumes from showing up on the boot up screen.
I have tried booting from the 10.4 CD that came with the Macbook and the 10.5 (retail) DVD. The 'C' or 'D' keys do not have any effect either.
I think my options now are either to try and obtain a firmware reset CD which might make it possible to recognise volumes again, or there's the possibility that I'll have to get a new hard drive. Can you suggest anything else I might be able to try?
On the subject of hard drives, if it turns out that the Macbook's hard drive is beyond repair and I need a new drive I only have a caddy for 3.5" PATA drives which I use for Time Machine. With an appropriate 2.5" SATA caddy is there any way I could access the filesystem in Windows? How else could I format the drive to the correct FS?
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Jul 11, 2009
My MacBook Pro will not boot up any more. It just suddenly happened. It turns on and comes up to the gray screen with the apple logo and then the circle progress icon comes up and spins.
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Mar 27, 2012
After partitioning my hard drive, I was not able to boot up my computer. Currently it is stuck at the white screen when it boots up. I tried using the USB Recovery Disk to boot up however it does not seem like it is responding to anything
I pressed C while having the USB inserted I also tried pressing D to go in to the Apple Hardware Test nothing happened.
I also tried resetting the VRAM? It did beep and it reset however I still can't bootup
Info:
MacBook Air, Mac OS X (10.6.8)
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Nov 30, 2014
My computer died last night with each application not responding. I couldn't shut down normally so I held the power button to turn it off.
Next morning, I tried to boot the MacBook Pro and the boot process stalled at the grey screen with the Apple Logo and spinning wheel. I let it go for an hour and there was no change on the screen. Based on Apple's desk I ran Hardware diagnostics (extended with looping disabled) and got the following error
4HDD/11/40000000: SATA (0,0)
The screen shot is below
I ran this again with standard testing (no looping) and standard with looping and all gave the same results.
Info:
MacBook Pro with Retina display, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.2)
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Oct 1, 2010
The other day my 1st gen MBP functioned without any probs, until it suddenly powered down. After I removed the question marks from my eyes, I offcourse tried to reboot it.
But it never makes it beyond the grey screen, sometimes untill the apple logo, sometimes not even that far.
Offcours I googled around first to gather some info before I decided to put this problem down on this board. I found this could be a HDD failure, but in those cases, with other people, it could be powered holding apple + s, and doing some checks that way.
Mine doesn't even come that far
I have a second hand 1st gen MBP with upgraded HDD and RAM, snow leopard, and coincidently since last week no more battery... so i may have powered down a completely unprepared mac by tripping over the wire, once or twice...
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Mar 20, 2012
My macbook pro doesn't boot beyond the grey screen with apple icon and spinning wheel. I used the "Option" button to access the Disk Utility function and run Repair Disk and Repair Disk Permissions. Should I restart my computer?
Info:
MacBook Pro, iOS 5.1
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Nov 12, 2007
I have a 1.83 Ghz MBP with 512 mb of RAM (lame I know). The other day someone was using my computer to burn a CD on iTunes when all of my programs began failing. On instinct I rebooted my computer to solve the problem. Alas, now I cant boot past the grey apple screen, and the gear is spinning away. Saddest part of the story is that I had time set aside to back up my computer the day after this happened . Anyway what is the best thing to do from here? I haven't made any moves to fix it yet really, so what is the best thing that I can do to try and get my files back?
Information:
MacBook Pro
Mac OS X (10.4.10)
Grey Screen, Spinning Gear
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Mar 30, 2010
I just restarted my MacPro2,1 (8 core 3 GHz, snow leopard) and well... I saw this bar that I haven't seen before
I was wondering what the hell this is because it also took longer to restart (the progress bar thingy)
I took a picture of it with my phone: Picture!
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Mar 24, 2012
I have an imac from late 2008 with snow leopard. Late saturday evening 24 Mar I had powered down my imac then later turned it on. Now only a grey screen appears, nothing more. If I leave the imac on a folder with a question mark appears and blinks.I have tried the following to fix the problem and ALL HAVE FAILED:they are:
1. resetting the pram. it doesnt work.
2. booting from the installation cd. The imac doesn't even READ the cd, the screen remains grey and doesn't read the cd at all.
3. booting in the safe mode. nothing happens, the screen remains grey.
4. booting in apple hardware test mode: nothing happens screen remains grey.
5. boot with option key pressed, so as to choose mac HD or my windows partition. nothing happens, the screen remains grey.
When I power on my imac I heard the chord, a slight spin of the HHD I'm sure that's what it is,and then nothing.grey screen.I have tried unpluggling the power cord for 15 seconds, reconnecting it, waiting five secondsand then powering up the imac. it doesn't do any good.do you think it is a hard drive error or failure? why doesn't it read or boot from the instillation CD?? and yes I am using the correct disk.
Info:
imac 2.8 ghz int core 2 duo, Mac OS X (10.5.6)
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Sep 15, 2006
I have seen this talked about a fair bit, but i thought i'd start my own thread because it seems slightly different.
To start, when the computer was last running, the (what sounded like fan) started making a terrible noise, then stopped, and the computer turned off.
After that, when booting, it just goes to a grey/blue screen and sits there.
I have an iBook G4, 1064mhz, 256/30.
I dont know what model that makes it, but from the Mac website, I have tried to reset the PRAM to no avail. All of the methods listed do not seem to do anything on my ibook.
I tried using this link to reset the [URL]
I dont know which one is for my model, but i see no reset button under the keyboard, or on the case. There is a little tiny hole on the case beside the LCD???
I have tried the shift-ctrl-opt-power but it doesnt do anything.
As well, i did hold down the "option" button when booting, and it brings me to a screen which shows an image of a hard drive with a green "x"
I dont know if the green means good or the X means bad..
I have read that resetting PRAM and/or changing the resolution seem to help the problem, but I do not know how to do either.
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Jun 8, 2009
It makes the startup chime, and I've tried resetting the PRAM and PMU and none of it works. Apple store said they thought it was hard drive failure, but I doubt it because it won't boot from CD either. Do you think it's logic board failure?
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Jun 24, 2009
I booted the machine like it said, and heard some beeps - didn't think much of it, but then it just went to the grey screen with Apple logo and the loader, and hangs there.ow what I can do to solve this, is there a key combination that can reset something or an restore EFI file
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Jan 25, 2010
Sometimes, when I turn on my iMac (10.6.2), the system will not load, you can see the grey screen but empty, no apple logo there. I have to force a shutdown pressing the power button and when I turn it on for the second time it will work properly.
It only happens once in a while but I cannot understand why, since nothing changes.
PS.- I have verified my disk with the disk utility and everything seems fine.
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Aug 19, 2009
24" imac. leopard system. the system was frozen (which was the first time in two years) a couple of days ago, so i turned the power off to reboot the system. then it's stuck at the grey screen. to make it worse, i have a dvd inserted in the drive. please tell me what seems to be the problem and how to solve it.
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Mar 17, 2012
My IMAC will not boot up. It was working fine this morning and I was working away then suddenly a MUSIC file wouldnt play, so I restarted the computer, and this is what happens now...It starts out like normal but after a period of showing me the APPLE logo it goes to the "NO" symbol. url...
Info:
iMac, Mac OS X (10.7.3), Snow Leopard
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May 20, 2012
IMac has snow leopard and does not boot has grey screen
Info:imac dual core 2.4 ghz, Mac OS X (10.6.4)
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Jun 28, 2014
iMac os x Mavericks 10.9.3. I tried to boot up yesterday morning after completely shutting dwn the night before. Stays on grey screen with Apple logo. I tried safe mode, no luck, will not boot up in safe mode. I tried backing up to external hard drive from utilities, but it stopped and said something like couldn't perform function... I never used or set up Time Machine.
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Oct 30, 2008
I had been using my iMac all night, when all of a sudden the bouncing beach ball appeared and everything became unresponsive, apart from the mouse cursor itself. It might be worth noting that a few hours prior to this, I plugged in an external hard drive to burn off a DVD. This external hard drive has two partitions, the first being a restored image of Leopard; and the second, my out of date backup ("yes, I know").
I subsequently restarted my machine, enjoyed the chime, pondered the excessively long start up and looked bemused at the Leopard Setup wizard. I realised that the restored Leopard partition had booted up instead of the internal disc. So, I unplugged the external drive, pressed reset on the iMac and was immediately greeted first by the reassuring chime, then by the Apple logo and a lingering grey screen and finally by a flashing dark folder icon with a question mark in the centre for eternity.
I tried rebooting a few more times. Same. I've been frantically Googling but only found the PRAM reset and a very frightening iMac disassembly guide. I've tried plugging the external drive back it, but it refuses to boot Leopard from that now. What can I do? I feel so helpless on a Mac, on a PC I'd at least be able to open the sucker up before panicking! I've been working on a client's flash web dev project for months, and not made a back up in about half that time. The website is supposed to be going live tomorrow! Luckily I have the site uploaded, but the entire source code is potentially lost, so in the long term this is a major catastrophe!
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Jul 18, 2009
I have a Mac Mini that my sister gave me because she said it stopped working. She said she wanted me to get all her photos off of it. Its a Model A1176 1.66/2X512/80/COMBO/AP/BT I tried playing with it and it powers up, shows the Apple on a grey screen with a spinning little icon.. It does that for about 30 sec and then turns off. I opened it up, took the hard drive out, put it into an external USB case and hooked it up to my Windows PC and loaded MacDrive 8 software. Got the drive to be recognized on the PC and backed up all her photos.
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Jan 12, 2011
I own an iBook G4. I could not get it to boot up, it would just go to a grey screen with the apple symbol and a timer/clock that looked like a gear.FYI: I may provide more information than necessary in the text below. I'm not sure what is and isn't relevant.
Following some advice I found in this forum I got out my old OS disks to boot from the disc instead of the hard drive. I intended to archive the old hard drive and install my latest OS (10.4.6 on the disc, 10.4.11 was the version I had been running on the machine, I believe). The machine told me it needed 4.5 Gb to install 10.4.6 Tiger, but I only had 4.0 Gb left on the hard drive. So instead, I archived and installed with the OS that came with the computer originally, 10.3.4.
I got things going, did the archive and install, and got to the log in screen. Unfortunately, I could not remember the password, so I booted up in single user mode, and entered the following to get into the machine:
1. mount -uw /
2. rm /var/db/.AppleSetupDone
3. shutdown -h now
This got me in with a new admin login, and I started up in 10.3.4. I soon noticed that I could still see all of the files that I put on the hard drive on my old operating system. I thought I shouldn't be able to see them, but since I could I decided to try to copy them to an external hard drive. When I did, I got an error message saying that there was a read/write error. I was not entirely surprised, but I decided it was time to turn back to the forums for help.
What I want to do is copy everything from my old hard drive onto an external hard drive, make room on the iBook hard drive to reinstall my latest operating system (10.4.6). Once I've done that I'd like to get the essential files back onto the iBook from the external hard drive and continue using my computer (even though it is a dinosaur).
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Jan 13, 2008
I'm a film composer in the middle of a deadline, and my G5 crashes won't boot again, only get grey screen with Apple and spinning logo.Boot from Applecare disk, run tech tool, hardware fine, disk is corrupted. Catalog B-tree stuff. Cannot re-build without destroying data.Of course I have a clone of my system drive and try to boot from that, but IT is corrupted too of course!Go to Apple Store (I have ProCare), then run diagnostics and find the same. Advice? Wipe the drive and start from scratch.I do just that. I own about 35 plug-in instruments for Logic 8, so it took two days. The same thing happens. Disk won't boot.
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