About imac (early 2008 24") stuck on grey screen apple logo spinning wheel

HI all just wondering if any body has experienced the grey screen apple logo spinning wheel and also switches off and back on all by itself after 5-10 minutes in the past or recent.
how did you get on did you sort it?would like to read some feedback on this subject thanks

Generally that indicates a serious problem with the hard drive.
Power down, hold alt key at power on, what shows as boot choices?
"Try Disk Utility
1. Insert the Mac OS X Install disc, then restart the computer while holding the C key.
2. When your computer finishes starting up from the disc, choose Disk Utility from the Installer menu at top of the screen. (In Mac OS X 10.4 or later, you must select your language first.)
*Important: Do not click Continue in the first screen of the Installer. If you do, you must restart from the disc again to access Disk Utility.*
3. Click the First Aid tab.
4. Select your Mac OS X volume.
5. Click Repair Disk, (not Repair Permissions). Disk Utility checks and repairs the disk."
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106214
Report what happens or doesn't please.

Similar Messages

Help! Stuck on white/grey screen apple logo spinning wheel

Hi, I wonder if anyone can help me?
I have a MacBook pro snow leopard 10.6 It won't start up it freezes on the white/grey screen with the apple logo. I have tried it in safe mode it has the bar underneath as it loads up to half way it goes off & the spinning wheel just carries on spinning forever!
I have tried cmd & v typed in a few things that I saw other people do then on the black screen white text the page is full of Disk0s2: I/O Error   tried rebooting but same thing happens doesn't start up.
Then I put my mac os x snow leopard 10.6.3 installation, features and refinements disc in but still nothing! I'm stuck anybody know what to do?
Thanks in advance if you can help me.

If it won't boot with the just the c key held down off the disk, it could mean there is a firmware password set.
If it won't boot off the disk with just the option/alt key held down, that means firmware has been wiped if all you see is a white screen.
If it has a firmware password, it should have asked you for it with a screen with a lock icon on it.
However it also could mean there is a hardware problem or the 10.6 disk is dirty, scratched, defective or not from Apple (warz).
Or your keyboard is bad or your using a external one and not the built in keyboard.
I think you might have to look into the possibility your EFI firmware has been hosed.
See this section of my User Tip here: ..Step by Step to fix your Mac
Need machine/operating system identification help?
Find the serial number, thus the model number and thus gives the operating system that originally came with the machine. However gives not what operating system version the boot drive was later upgraded to. Do not use older OS X verisons to repair newer verisons. It is possible to use the original operating system version installed on another boot drive to recover files from a later operating system non-booting drive.
https://support.apple.com/kb/HT1159#MacBook_Pro   https://support.apple.com/kb/HT1349
https://support.apple.com/kb/HT1559   http://www.everymac.com/ultimate-mac-lookup/
If the computer just ignores the at boot key commands (without showing the firmware password request) especially if you boot to a white screen (no initial boot screen), it might be your EFI firmware stored in NVRAM memory has been wiped. EFI is like a powerful operating system type firmware that loads before OS X or Windows in Bootcamp loads, programs can be installed in EFI, even malicious ones. (why it's very important to trust the source of your instaled software)
To restore EFI you need to use the identification links above to find the exact model of your machine. Then use another computer to download the correct EFI firmware from this Apple.
https://support.apple.com/kb/HT1237
Then follow these instructions to burn it to a cd or USB (untested) and apply it to the non-booting Mac. It likley will take 2 reboots for it to take hold and return the at boot key commands.
https://support.apple.com/kb/HT2213
..Step by Step to fix your Mac

IMac Will not boot up grey screen, apple, and spinning wheel

Help. Tax time is a good time for this.

The following support article is somewhat outdated. Where it refers to booting from an installation disc, you should boot from your recovery partition (if running 10.7 or later) by holding down the key combination command-R at the chime.
Mac OS X: Gray screen appears during startup

Grey screen / apple logo / spinning gear

Hi problem as above....
Disconnected all items
Tried the install cd
Nothing
Computer sounds like it is trying to boot but won't
Tried to boot from disc
Currently using my touch to type this?
Help!
Alan (Ireland)

Edit: Oops. I just realized this post was 2 months old. I suspect you have moved on.
This sounds similar to a problem I was having this morning. It would be really useful if you could have a look at the system log (system.log) for any more clues. You can try to boot the machine into Single user mode to do this. I believe the key sequence during boot for this is to hold down the Command and S keys.
Once you find yourself at the "root" prompt, you should find the system.log at
/private/log/system.log
You can easily view the log without having to navigate from where you are with the following command:
cat /private/log/system.log | less
That vertical symbol before the "less" is the "pipe" symbol. You can see it on you backslash key.
Once the log comes up, you can navigate forward and backward through the log with the "F" and "B" keys. To exit, use the "Q" key.
The log can be confusing to read, but in my case I was able to see a section of errors that were repeating over and over.
In the end, for me, it turned out to be a permissions issue. Somehow, the root directory "/" had its permissions corrupted which made it so that one of the boot processes was unable to access a required file.
At this point I really don't want to give you a bunch of commands to try if you're not familiar with the system. I don't have enough information anyway. I'm just offering you another place to look for the problem. One thing that makes me think it's permissions related is that you said you can't reinstall the system. Neither could I, though I was attempting an archive and reinstall, not erase and reinstall. For the erase option, I wouldn't think permissions should come into play.
To reboot from the prompt, type: shutdown -r now
Good luck,
Kevin
Message was edited by: kpowick

My imac won't start up past the grey screen, apple and spinning clock

Hi there. First time posting - usually either apple support website or previous threads solve the problem. Alas, not this time.
I have an intel imac - can't tell you much about the details as I can't get any info out of it. I installed snow leopard about a year ago - no issue since then other than occassionally the screen goes black but nothing major.
Yesterday, I backed up to my usual passport backup and then today, it froze. I couldn't turn it off or restart at all so resorted to the power button. Since then, I can turn it on, it goes to the grey screen (no blue screen) and I get the apple logo and the spinning clock/wheel. For hours and hours....
So, I tried one of the apple support pages and worked through - peripherals, safe boot, NVRAM, PRAM, tried to reboot with mac osx disc (the original not snow leopard) - nothing. Absolutely nothing changes - same old grey screen, apple logo and spinning clock/wheel.
HELP - do I try and reboot with the snow leopard disc? I don't know what to do next - I am no techie so half the threads don't even sound like English to me.
Thanks in advance, hope you geniuses out there can help me out.
abcvic

Thanks for the reply.
I had tried to reboot with the original disc but it never worked. The imac just spits out the disc and eventually, I am back at the grey screen, apple logo and wheel spinning. I tried it one more time following your reply. Same outcome.
My instal disc 1 had the instruction re hardware test which I have also tried with no success. I can't remember if it came with a disc 2 though I seem to have a couple - I also have a macbook and that seems to be still alive even if it is slow.
I tried to reboot with Snow Leopard disc - power on, chime then hold down C key. Same old - grey screen, apple logo and wheel spinning. Disc spat out eventually.
Any other suggestions welcomed or I am off to Apple tomorrow.

HT3964 Without warning, my iMac (early 2008) will freeze. The screen will either go white or green and black strips. I have to hold the power button to reboot the machine. Any ideas as to what is causing this?

Without warning, my iMac (early 2008) will freeze. The screen will go white or black and green vertical stripes. I have to hold the power button to reboot. Any thoughts as to what may be causing this?

Reset the SMC and PRAM. If it doesn't work, boot in safe mode -Mayús button during boot- and do your normal activity

An old MacBook Air, on start up just have a grey screen with a spinning wheel? please help

I have a mac book air. On start up I get just a grey screen with a spinning wheel. This lasts for about 15 minutes then I have just a deep blue screen. can anyone help please?

You should find the USB stick that shipped with your MBA and hold the Option key while rebooting. This will allow you to boot up and try doing a Repair Disk. If yours is an early model with a HDD your drive may have died. You can get a repalcement drive from OWC. They are pretty easy to install and the tools come with the kit.

I updated Efi firmware, but force quit twitter to install. Now system won't come on, it just shows grey screen with the spinning wheel loading. I am running lion 10.7.3

I updated Efi firmware, but force quit twitter to install. Now system won't come on, it just shows grey screen with the spinning wheel loading. I am running lion 10.7.3.
Thank you

The following support article is somewhat outdated. Where it refers to booting from an installation disc, you should boot from your recovery partition (if running 10.7 or later) by holding down the key combination command-R at the chime.
Mac OS X: Gray screen appears during startup

Grey screen /apple logo won't open reinstall 10.6

Grey screen /apple logo won't open reinstall 10.6

The internal hard drive may have failed.
You should be able to boot from the Snow Leopard DVD by inserting it and holding down the c key while it boots. From there you can select the Disk Utility app to check the internal drive.

My MacBook pro will not load past the grey screen with the spinning wheel. What do I do?

My MacBook will not load past the grey screen with the spinning wheel of death. Anyone have any solutions?

Invoke Safe Mode by holding down the shift Key as you restart. This will do a Disk Utility "Repair Disk" as it starts up (so it takes a few minutes longer) and then load with minimal extensions loaded, and request your login username and password, even if you normally do not use them to log in.
Safe Mode runs the screen using simple, unaccelerated commands. Most things are available in Safe Mode, but things that rely on extensions will not be.
Acomputer that works in Safe Mode, but fails again after you restart, often implicates your extensions and add-ons.

Help - Grey Screen & Apple Logo aft fixing internal DVD Writer

My DVD writer started to play up a few months ago and eventually stopped reading any discs. After routing around the various forums I had a go at fixing it by taking my Powerbook apart, removing the DVD writer and using an air cleaner and optical cloth cleaned the DVD writer out. Full of dust!
I put the DVD writer back leaving the top of the Powerbook loose and started it up. Excellent result, not only did it play a DVD film, but it burnt a disc which I could read in my aging Power Mac. RESULT!
I then preceded to screw it all back together. It went to the grey screen with the Apple Logo and spinning wheel. I have not been able to get it past this.
I have tried resetting the PMU & PRAM by removing the Power and battery and holding the power switch on for 5 secs.
I have tied to restart and then hold down Command-Option-P-R, wait for third chime and release and press the shift screen. But it stays on the grey screen/Apple Logo.
I did get it to go to a blue screen once but it won't go further.
I have tried to pop in Techtool Pro Disc 4.5.1 and Disk Warrior but the DVD writer just spits these out again.
I have taken it apart again to check that all my connections are OK and they do seem OK. I don't understand how I could get it to play/burn and then it goes all awry only after I screw the keyboard back.
Anybody got any ideas short of taking it in for repair!

I would just get it repaired.

TS3148 my mackbook air starts up with a persistent grey screen, apple logo and spinning gear

my mackbook air starts up with a persistent grey screen, apple logo and a spinning gear. It will not show the login window

Press and hold the power button down to force a hardware shutdown (emergency use only!)
Next find the Shift key and hold it and press the power button, the machine will boot into Safe Mode.
Next backup your files to a external drive just in case.
Emergency backup procedure
Drag and drop copy your users file folders (music, pictures, documents etc) to a regular external powered drive as soon as possible.
Do not use, setup or trust only TimeMachine at this troubled time as it will copy corrupted data and we need just your users files safe just in case. TimeMachine cannot be used with a Windows PC.
Unmount and Disconnect all external drives once the backup process is completed.
Note:
If you have any over 4GB sized files, those won't copy to a standard formatted FAT32/MSDOS drive from the factory, if you need to save these 4GB+ files use another blank/empty drive and use Disk Utility to format it 1 Partition, Option: GUID, Format: OS X Extended Journaled (or the standard default one for older Mac's).
Mac's cannot copy to nor format a NTFS drive. ExFAT format to be used with a Windows machine must be right click formatted by Windows, not OS X (does it wrong) XP macines can install a free exFAT update from Microsoft. Vista-Win 8 can format exFAT.
Formatting a drive will erase all data on it.
Most commonly used backup methods
Your problem is likely due to a incompatible third part at boot kernel extension file that some program installed into OS X at some time.
If you can recall which programs you installed using your Admin password then that's a good place to start and update or uninstall those programs.
The next solution is a #8 Reinstall Just OS X + Software Update fully, this will replace OS X with a new copy, fix OS X if it's the cause and kick out ALL third party kext files out of OS X.
You also can manually drag and drop the third party kext files (if you know what they are) out of of the System/Library/Extensions folder and reboot.
..Step by Step to fix your Mac
Solving at boot kext issues in Snow Leopard

Spinning spokes, grey screen, apple logo

I know there are other posts on this but I have done what those suggested and I am getting weird results. This is a co-worker's computer. He ran software updates last night and then this morning he is stuck on this screen. This is what I have done:
1. boot from external drive - it brings up the drive lists and I select my drive and click the arrow under it. Three low tones sound after that, about five seconds apart. Stays at grey screen also.
2. boot from CD - hold down c key with the os disk in it but nothing happens after grey screen
3. boot from 2nd CD - hold down d key to get to hardware check but it goes to a weird different grey then a black screen with a white cursor then to a dialog box that stays there for 1/2 second and then it shuts itself down.
4. reset PRAM
5. hold power button until those quick flashes of light come on
6. took out hard drive, connected it with my usb to ide/sata adapter and plugged it into my own computer. ran a repair disk via disk util and those green letters come up saying the drive is a-ok.
7. hold shift down - a tube at the bottom with the filling grey from left to right starts going (firmware?). it finishes then finally gets to the safe boot screen after like 4-5 minutes, so I went to restart it normally but it just goes back to the grey screen and sticks there again.
8. single user mode - ran the fsck command and it said system appears to be ok. typed reboot and eventually came to login screen; logged in but got stuck before Finder, doc, menu bar, etc. could load.
9. boot into network startup (hold down n): still does grey screen; then put a random used hard drive into the bad computer and did the network boot again and it came right up just fine with our deploy studio setup.

If you can't run the Apple Hardware Test from the disc that came with the machine, with no wired peripherals connected, and the disc is not damaged or dirty, then you have a hardware fault. Take the machine to a service provider for testing.

My MacBook Pro will not start up. I only get a grey screen with the spinning wheel. No blue page appears and the grey screen remains. Tried starting with the Shift key but ineffective as well.

Can't get my MacBook Pro to start up. Have shut it down several times and tried restarting but all I get is a grey screen with the spinning icon. Apple Support online suggested starting with power button followed immediately with the shift key. Same results. Also tried power button with shift key, command, and V. Black screen appeared instead with lots of data language but still no starting. This final page was suppose to result in an internal system check and restart but nothing happened and the black screen remains.Where do I go from here? Scheduled for the Genius Bar tomorrow but would like to resolve this beforehand.

You may be having a hardware problem that you cannot resolve on your own. Nevertheless...
...hold down the command and R keys whilst booting to try to get to your Recovery partition. If you can, use Disk Utility to try to Verify your boot drive (usually named "Macintosh HD" unless you've renamed it). If the verification fails, try to repair your hard drive. If everything appears to be OK, restart.
If you can't get into your Recovery partition, your problem is likely hardware related. If so, keep your appointment and see what the Apple techs have to say.
Clinton

Gets stuck on grey screen with logo after restore.

I restored my 2008 macbook and reinstalled OS X lion onto it. It downloaded items for lion and automatically restarted. When it restarted it got stuck on a grey screen with the apple logo and a spinning circle. I turned the computer off and attempted to restart again, same outcome. I restarted it again and pressed command option p r (saw it from other posts on here) and it brought me back to the screen where I can reinstall OS X lion, go to utilities, etc. So I clicked reimstall lion and it did its thing and automatically restarted. Then like last time it got stuck on the grey screen with the logo and spinning circle.ugh! What am I doing wrong? Please help.

Restarted it again with the p r command option brought me to the installing screen again and then said "there was an error installing please try agian" please any help is aporeciated, I have my files on an external hard drive but I need to be able to access my computer so I can continue applying to jobs/access my resume on the external hard drive and it is my only way to talk to my deployed husband besides email on my phone.
I also clicked repair disk in utilities and it says "the volume Mac os x base system appears to be OK" It will not bring me to the thing where I have the option to reinstall lion. I restarted and its yet again stuck on the grey screen with apple logo and spinning circle.

About imac (early 2008 24") stuck on grey screen apple logo spinning wheel

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