Blank grey screens on bootup?

On bootup  of my Macbook Pro with an external monitor connected via HDMI, I get blank grey screens on both my retina display and the monitor.  If I remove the HDMI cable, I get the normal logon screen  - I can then plug the monitor back in, log on, and everything works like normal.  Anyone else experience this?  I'm running OSX Mavericks - this did not happen before the upgrade.

Hello again,
In order to try to resolve this I need to connect the laptop to a projector to be able to see the desktop image and open such things as System preferences. This takes me bait longer than it should thus the delay in adding to this discussion.
I did connect it up to the projector. Switched off the mirroring and tried a few switching off and on's etc. I have also tried resting the PRAM and the PMU but to now avail. There appears to be a disconnect between the screen and the system. I reckon it is maybe to do with the fact that the last time is was used and functioned as usual was when I was using the laptop with the projector.
It is of course frustrating as the laptop in question though of a certain vintage is in very good condition and operates very well other than this issue.

Similar Messages

  • Hi, After I try to load either an existing or new project in Adobe Premier Elements 9 I just get a blank grey screen with none of the timeline, etc. boxes on view. This has suddenly happened, one day OK next not! At the top of the screen I get the normal

    Hi, After I try to load either an existing or new project in Adobe Premier Elements 9 I just get a blank grey screen with none of the timeline, etc. boxes on view. This has suddenly happened, one day OK next not! At the top of the screen I get the normal Pre icon, File, Edit, Clip, etc.
    I am planning on purchasing Premier Elements 13, would it be better if I bought a new program rather than download an upgrade, just in case the upgrade doesn't load properly due to the error with my existing program?
    If I the deleted Premier Elements 9 on my PC would I lose all my existing videos that were produced using Premier Elements 9 or would they be saved so that they can still be worked on in Premier Elements 13?
    Does Premier Elements 13 work with Windows 7?
    Thanks
    Terry

    Premiere Elements 13 absolutely works with Windows 7!
    In fact, I'd highly recommend you download the free trial and give it a test run.
    Meantime, go to Windows Update and make sure you have all of the latest Windows updates, including those that don't install automatically. Then go to the nVidia or ATI site and ensure you have the latest driver for your graphics card, and go to Apple.com and ensure you have the latest version of Quicktime, per the program's requirements.

  • Can't open PDF on iPhone - blank grey screen appears

    Hi. I have downloaded the latest reader on my new iPhone 6. I cannot view PDF douments. If I try to open a file, Safari opens to a blank grey screen. I can see the "open in" prompt but cannot click on it. Any suggestions?
    Thanks.

    Yes, that is a well-known problem: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2716529
    The Fixit on that article only works on Windows 8, but I can give you a script that makes the registry modification on Windows 7.  Download, unzip, then run the attached registry script.

  • My MacBook pro will not startup.  I get a blank grey screen no logo appears so I can't chooseadiffer t drive nor boot from DVD.  Safe mode and verbose mode also don't change blank screen.

    It was running slow with the colored spining appearing often.  This started happening weeks ago with Yosemite so I formatted the disk with the DVDs that came with the mid 2011 MacBook pro, 10.6.8.  I then installed Yosemite on an external drive and this morning i was booted from the external hd with Yosemite and it stopped recognizong mouse clicks so I forced a restart and now I'm stuck with the blank grey screen.  Safe mode and verbose mode also do not work.

    Lao Bo,
    yes, you can locate and copy a file from your HD to a USB key using UNIX commands. If you know the exact name of the file which you’re trying to locate, try this:
    find / -iname filename -print
    This command will search your entire internal disk for the particular filename. If you know that it’s within a particular user account, then you can save search time with this variation:
    find /Users/username -iname filename -print
    Either variation of this command will print all files found which have the given filename. Presuming that you’re able to identify the correct file, you can copy it to a USB key using the command
    cp -p filename_returned_by_find /Volumes/USB_volume
    If you’re not sure which volume name your USB key has, this command will show you what the possibilities are:
    ls /Volumes
    Please let me know if you have any trouble with these commands.

  • Photoshop CS6 CC liquify just has blank grey screen.

    hi i am currently on a trial for CS6 CC version on Windows 8 but every time i try to liquify an image all that happens is a blank grey screen. The weird thing is i can click and edit the area of the grey screen and if i click OK to finish the liquifying it has edited the image! Why can i not see my image whilst in the liquify screen? I've tried to change all the settings and stuff but still nothing?
    tom

    You have Show Image unchecked and Show Backdrop checked, but I suspect the problem is a stale video card driver. Make sure you have the latest driver by downloading it  directly  from the video card company website. As another test, if you press the Alt key  immeadiately  after starting Liquify, it will start in slow CPU mode which does not use the video card or its driver. If that works your driver is the problem.

  • Have a blank grey screen on start up?

    Guys, Help I have a blank grey screen on start up?

    See Here >  http://support.apple.com/kb/ts2570

  • Blank Grey Screen on start up cannot access MAC OSX frozen up

    Blank grey screen on start up Cannot get into the Mac osx side, even if I do not hold down the option key it goes to the Windows side but key boad / mouse does not work. I want to get into the mac side so I can delete the windows partition. HELP PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    See Here >  http://support.apple.com/kb/ts2570

  • MBP 10,1 - Blank grey screen before login (Landing Zone Dock)

    MBP 10,1, i7 core, 2.4 GHz, 8 Gb
    OS X 10.9.2 (13C64)
    Also running VMWare 6 with Win7 Pro when needed
    I got the Landing Zone dock in December, and it has been working fine.  An external "vga" monitor connected through the display port, and when needed an HDMI monitor to make 3 with the MBP display.
    I always set the MBP display as the login screen.
    This week, I started having problems on boot / restore from sleep.
    Restoring, the screens are grey and the keyboard is unresponsive, except for the power key (I think except for).
    Booting, the blank grey screen comes on after the startup tone, but will not provide the login screen.
    When I disengage the dock, the login screen appears.
    Help? Advice?

    MBP 10,1, i7 core, 2.4 GHz, 8 Gb
    OS X 10.9.2 (13C64)
    Also running VMWare 6 with Win7 Pro when needed
    I got the Landing Zone dock in December, and it has been working fine.  An external "vga" monitor connected through the display port, and when needed an HDMI monitor to make 3 with the MBP display.
    I always set the MBP display as the login screen.
    This week, I started having problems on boot / restore from sleep.
    Restoring, the screens are grey and the keyboard is unresponsive, except for the power key (I think except for).
    Booting, the blank grey screen comes on after the startup tone, but will not provide the login screen.
    When I disengage the dock, the login screen appears.
    Help? Advice?

  • My computer on startup is stuck on blank grey screen

    My iMAC is stuck on blank grey screen at startup. Keyboard is not active, won't function at all. Anyone have any suggestions to resolve?

    Please begin troubleshooting using Apple's Gray screen appears during startup advice letter.
    Also please complete your profile, we know nothing about your system, what version of OS X, the specific model etc. Here is how you do it, click the Your Stuff link in the upper right of this page then select Profile and look on that page where you can add and edit. The process will take less than a couple of minutes.

  • Blank grey screen on startup issue

    I have started up my G4 powerbook and am met with a blank grey screen.
    I had previously been using the laptop for connecting to a projector for a presentation and having been met with this problem I reconnected the laptop to a projector and the image of the desktop was viewable on the projector screen and thus I could manage the laptop via this. How can I get the screen on the laptop back to where it should be that I can see the what I am doing?
    I am sure its something obvious and possibly relating to screen sharing or such like but I cannot think of the solution just now. Any thoughts?
    Many thanks for you time.

    Hello again,
    In order to try to resolve this I need to connect the laptop to a projector to be able to see the desktop image and open such things as System preferences. This takes me bait longer than it should thus the delay in adding to this discussion.
    I did connect it up to the projector. Switched off the mirroring and tried a few switching off and on's etc. I have also tried resting the PRAM and the PMU but to now avail. There appears to be a disconnect between the screen and the system. I reckon it is maybe to do with the fact that the last time is was used and functioned as usual was when I was using the laptop with the projector.
    It is of course frustrating as the laptop in question though of a certain vintage is in very good condition and operates very well other than this issue.

  • Pages is not responding.  Showing a blank grey screen?

    Any suggestions?

    Sounds more like your Mac is showing a blank grey screen. Is anything else working? Have you tried rebooting?
    btw I helps to actually provide some details, we are just appaulingly bad guessers here and a quick look around you will confirm that we are not looking over your shoulder at what is going on.
    No Pages version. No OSX version. No background to what lead up to this. No description of how you installed Pages. No description of what you were trying to open. So a full house of non-description.
    Peter

  • 20" imac won't start up-flashes between blank grey screen and black screen

    20" imac
    2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
    Was running system 10.5.8 just fine. Worked great.
    But then I wanted to give the imac to a relative. And so, I tried to boot from the original grey mac install dvd to wipe the hardrive and set the imac back to factory specs.
    But it wouldn't boot off the dvd. All It would do at restart was to flash slowly back and forth between blank grey screen and black screen. So, I tried the Leopard update dvd. Same results. So I zapped the pram and tried again. Same results.
    If I just pushed the start button tho.. the imac would start right up and run fine. However, I didn't want to give it to someone else with all our information on it.
    I finally restarted it and held the "T" key to turn it into a giant firewire drive, hooked it up to our other 20" imac, and used the disk utility from the second imac to erase the drive of the first imac. Then I inserted the grey install dvd into the second imac and selected the drive of the first imac and ran the install process.
    Now, the first imac won't start up at all. Just a continual grey screen for a bit, than a couple of buzz sounds in the machine and then the black screen... than back again.
    It ran great before I erased the drive and re-installed OS 10.5
    What's wrong? How do I get the machine to either boot off the install cd?

    So, I've figured out a little more on the first machine. It's a 20" 2.6 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo running 10.5.8.
    It ran great. But, I wanted to erase the hard drive and reinstall the OS system before giving it to a relative.
    I found that although the optical drive would read and write to normal cds and dvds, the machine would NOT boot from the grey start-up disks I had on hand. ( I have two imacs, and I tried both sets of dvds without success.)
    I zapped the PRAM, and used disk utilities via firewire connection from my other 20" imac to check the hardrive and make repairs. Disk Utilities couldn't find any problems. So, using disk utilities from the other imac, I erased the first imac's harddrive and then used the install dvds on the second imac to install the original OS to the hard drive of the first imac.
    (looking on the hard drive of the first imac, I can see all the contents)
    However, the first machine will not start up. It just switches from grey....to black..... then grey..... and then black again.... over and over
    Why won't it boot from the newly installed OS on it's own hard drive?
    And Why won't it boot from the original install dvds?
    How can I get it to start up again?

  • After my latest update my music wont load on ipad i just get a blank grey screen and no music titles yet when i check usage it says music is there, ive tried unsync it then redoing and still nothing

    after my latest update my music wont load on ipad i just get a blank grey screen and no music titles yet when i check usage it says music is there, ive tried unsync it then redoing and still nothing

    Rebooting will not make you lose any content. Rebooting is when you hold the home button and the sleep button down at the same time until the Apple logo appears on the screen.
    You can these suggestions. One might work for you.
    Make sure that you do not have a stalled download in iTunes - a song or podcast .... if you have a download in there that did not finish, complete that one first. Only one thing can download at a time on the iPad so that could be what is causing the problem.
    If that doesn't work - sign out of your account, restart the iPad and then sign in again.
    Settings>Store>Apple ID. Tap your ID and sign out. Restart the iPad by holding down on the sleep button until the red slider appears and then slide to shut off. To power up hold the sleep button until the Apple logo appears and let go of the button.
    Go back to Settings>Store>Sign in and then try to update again. Tap one waiting icon only if necessary to start the download stream.

  • When I open up my MacBook Pro only appear a blank grey screen, and I try to hold my buttons,but my buttons have no reaction.

    start up with a blank grey screen,The buttons have no reaction.

    Try these steps:
    https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204325
    Ciao.

  • How to go to finder from blank grey screen with apple icon and spinning gear

    My Mac desktop won't start up,  it showed blank grey screen with an apple icon and spinning gear for ages. Due my computer is vintage so I would need to backup my user files before I could re-install OS X via NetBoot. My question is how can I access to the finder to back up my user folder from the grey screen.  Thanks

    Take each of these steps that you haven't already tried. Stop when the problem is resolved.
    To restart an unresponsive computer, press and hold the power button for a few seconds until the power shuts off, then release, wait a few more seconds, and press it again briefly.
    Step 1
    The first step in dealing with a startup failure is to secure the data. If you want to preserve the contents of the startup drive, and you don't already have at least one current backup, you must try to back up now, before you do anything else. It may or may not be possible. If you don't care about the data that has changed since the last backup, you can skip this step.
    There are several ways to back up a Mac that is unable to start. You need an external hard drive to hold the backup data.
    a. Start up from the Recovery partition, or from a local Time Machine backup volume (option key at startup.) When the OS X Utilities screen appears, launch Disk Utility and follow the instructions in this support article, under “Instructions for backing up to an external hard disk via Disk Utility.” The article refers to starting up from a DVD, but the procedure in Recovery mode is the same. You don't need a DVD if you're running OS X 10.7 or later.
    b. If Step 1a fails because of disk errors, and no other Mac is available, then you may be able to salvage some of your files by copying them in the Finder. If you already have an external drive with OS X installed, start up from it. Otherwise, if you have Internet access, follow the instructions on this page to prepare the external drive and install OS X on it. You'll use the Recovery installer, rather than downloading it from the App Store.
    c. If you have access to a working Mac, and both it and the non-working Mac have FireWire or Thunderbolt ports, start the non-working Mac in target disk mode. Use the working Mac to copy the data to another drive. This technique won't work with USB, Ethernet, Wi-Fi, or Bluetooth.
    d. If the internal drive of the non-working Mac is user-replaceable, remove it and mount it in an external enclosure or drive dock. Use another Mac to copy the data.
    Step 2
    If the startup process stops at a blank gray screen with no Apple logo or spinning "daisy wheel," then the startup volume may be full. If you had previously seen warnings of low disk space, this is almost certainly the case. You might be able to start up in safe mode even though you can't start up normally. Otherwise, start up from an external drive, or else use the technique in Step 1b, 1c, or 1d to mount the internal drive and delete some files. According to Apple documentation, you need at least 9 GB of available space on the startup volume (as shown in the Finder Info window) for normal operation.
    Step 3
    Sometimes a startup failure can be resolved by resetting the NVRAM.
    Step 4
    If you use a wireless keyboard, trackpad, or mouse, replace or recharge the batteries. The battery level shown in the Bluetooth menu item may not be accurate.
    Step 5
    If there's a built-in optical drive, a disc may be stuck in it. Follow these instructions to eject it.
    Step 6
    Press and hold the power button until the power shuts off. Disconnect all wired peripherals except those needed to start up, and remove all aftermarket expansion cards. Use a different keyboard and/or mouse, if those devices are wired. If you can start up now, one of the devices you disconnected, or a combination of them, is causing the problem. Finding out which one is a process of elimination.
    Step 7
    If you've started from an external storage device, make sure that the internal startup volume is selected in the Startup Disk pane of System Preferences.
    Start up in safe mode. Note: If FileVault is enabled, or if a firmware password is set, or if the startup volume is a software RAID, you can’t do this. Post for further instructions.
    Safe mode is much slower to start and run than normal, and some things won’t work at all, including wireless networking on certain Macs.
    The login screen appears even if you usually log in automatically. You must know the login password in order to log in. If you’ve forgotten the password, you will need to reset it before you begin.
    When you start up in safe mode, it's normal to see a dark gray progress bar on a light gray background. If the progress bar gets stuck for more than a few minutes, or if the system shuts down automatically while the progress bar is displayed, the startup volume is corrupt and the drive is probably malfunctioning. In that case, go to Step 11. If you ever have another problem with the drive, replace it immediately.
    If you can start and log in in safe mode, empty the Trash, and then open the Finder Info window on the startup volume ("Macintosh HD," unless you gave it a different name.) Check that you have at least 9 GB of available space, as shown in the window. If you don't, copy as many files as necessary to another volume (not another folder on the same volume) and delete the originals. Deletion isn't complete until you empty the Trash again. Do this until the available space is more than 9 GB. Then restart as usual (i.e., not in safe mode.)
    If the startup process hangs again, the problem is likely caused by a third-party system modification that you installed. Post for further instructions.
    Step 8
    Launch Disk Utility in Recovery mode (see Step 1.) Select the startup volume, then run Repair Disk. If any problems are found, repeat until clear. If Disk Utility reports that the volume can't be repaired, the drive has malfunctioned and should be replaced. You might choose to tolerate one such malfunction in the life of the drive. In that case, erase the volume and restore from a backup. If the same thing ever happens again, replace the drive immediately.
    This is one of the rare situations in which you should also run Repair Permissions, ignoring the false warnings it may produce. Look for the line "Permissions repair complete" at the end of the output. Then restart as usual.
    Step 9
    If the startup device is an aftermarket SSD, it may need a firmware update and/or a forced "garbage collection." Instructions for doing this with a Crucial-branded SSD were posted here. Some of those instructions may apply to other brands of SSD, but you should check with the vendor's tech support.  
    Step 10
    Reinstall the OS. If the Mac was upgraded from an older version of OS X, you’ll need the Apple ID and password you used to upgrade.
    Step 11
    Do as in Step 9, but this time erase the startup volume in Disk Utility before installing. The system should automatically restart into the Setup Assistant. Follow the prompts to transfer the data from a Time Machine or other backup.
    Step 12
    This step applies only to models that have a logic-board ("PRAM") battery: all Mac Pro's and some others (not current models.) Both desktop and portable Macs used to have such a battery. The logic-board battery, if there is one, is separate from the main battery of a portable. A dead logic-board battery can cause a startup failure. Typically the failure will be preceded by loss of the settings for the startup disk and system clock. See the user manual for replacement instructions. You may have to take the machine to a service provider to have the battery replaced.
    Step 13
    If you get this far, you're probably dealing with a hardware fault. Make a "Genius" appointment at an Apple Store, or go to another authorized service provider.

Maybe you are looking for