Booting Freezes on Gray Logo Screen

After a failed installation of a Lion 10.74 update, my computer freezes on the gray logo screen when booting up. Does anyone have some commands that may help resolve this issue without completely restoring my systems?

Your directory is corrupted. It could be from a bad block on the hard drive, incorrect shutdown procedure, or even hardware issues (possible but not likely).
You will either have to reinstall (not fun) or purchase a utility like Disk Warrior.
I checked further and found this post on another web site:
DiskWarrior and invalid key length on Mac OS X hard drives
I had a problem where a hard disk of mine wasn't mounting -- it just wouldn't appear in the finder. It did show up in Disk Utility, where it reported that it had an "invalid key length", but Disk Utility would not repair it. I tried to use Tech Tool Pro 3 and Tech Tool Deluxe for OS X, but neither of those would even let me select the volume.
Some searching on the web suggested DiskWarrior. It retails for about $100, but I was able to get it on a special for $80. I ran it, it found the volume, and fixed it right up. I highly recommend the program to anyone with an invalid key length error.

Similar Messages

MacBook won't boot past the apple logo screen!

So my MacBook started freezing up and I went to restart it and it wouldn't boot past the grey logo screen with the spinning gear. Its pretty old and therefor still has the Leopard operating system. I've been trying to run Disk Repair using a Snow Leopard install disc but it just gets about 30% done and then doesn't go any further. Eventually I stopped the disk repair and just tried installing OSX but when it asks me what drive I want to install on there are no options available to click. I've got alot of unsaved work on this old thing and would love to get it running soon! Any help would be extremely appreciated! Thanks

I've been trying to run Disk Repair using a Snow Leopard install disc
Install discs are "machine specific" .. you can only use the install disc that came with the Mac for repairing the hard disk.
You may not have enough free space on the startup disk.
Follow the directions for starting up in Safe Mode
A Safe Mode boot can take a little longer then a normal boot so be patient.
When you see the Desktop, right or control click the MacintoshHD icon. Click Get Info. In the Get Info window you will see Capacity and Available. Make sure there's a minimum of 15% free disk space.
If there isn't enough free space, help here > Freeing space on your Mac OS X startup disk
You can use Disk Utility to verify the startup disk from Safe Mode but you can't repair the disk. You will need the install disc that came with your MacBook for that. While you have Disk Utillity open check S.M.A.R.T. status at the bottom of the window. Make sure it says: Verified
When you are finished, click the Apple menu icon top left in the screen. From the drop down menu click Restart.
If you don't have the original install discs you may be able to request a replacement. You can get replacement System Install & Restore CD/DVDs from Apple's Customer Support - in the US, (800) 767-2775 - for a nominal S&H fee. You'll need to have the model and/or serial number of your Mac available.

Boot freezes on Apple logo no matter what I try

The problem began when I was playing a podcast. Things started locking up on the screen, and I was getting fragments windows while trying to back out and force quit. I was able to start up once more after that incident, but things froze again while playing music on iTunes. The music continued to play, but the screen and keyboard were locked up. Since then, I have not been able to boot past the white screen with the Apple logo. What I've tried:
1) Booting from OS cd (with original HDD, new HDD, and even no HDD). Still freezes.
2) Replacing upgraded RAM with the original RAM.
3) Reseting PRAM (commandoption+pr) Heard second chime, but problem persists.
4) Started while holding option (I get the choice of startup drive, and mouse works, but still freezes on logo)
5) Boot to a drive that has Windows installed (dual boot system). Get black screen.
6) Held power button for 5 seconds with cord unplugged
7) Unplugged all periphials.
8) Tried different monitor and keyboard
9) I can startup in verbose mode (command+V) and see info, but still freezes at logo

I just got exactly the same problem with my MacPro (2009) last night, exactly the same errors Rich666 have. The oddest thing is that I can access trough my local network within a Mac G5 and see the entire hard drives with all its documents??!! this means, the computer is working, but the screen shows only the gray screen with the logo, but frozen.
I've tried reseting the P-Ram, The Apple Hardware test, Boot with shift pressed to make the system load in limited version and I can't boot from the dvd, nothing works, always the same, the grey screen with the logo.
Last night I ran the Apple Hardware Test and after finishes didn't show any error, I decided to do "hakuna matata" turn the computer off, and try again the next day, this morning, it worked!... for just a few minutes, I saw the finder, and when try to open a finder window, again the odd windows frozen, the screen turned like it was 16bits and crashed again, and right now is like last night, frozen screen, tried the same over and over, I still can see the damaged computer hard disks through the network, the computer sounds like the regular working sound, but the only I can see on its monitor is the gray logo frozen. Frustrating

Freeze at Toshiba logo screen on M35X-S149

My friend's Toshiba M35X-S149 was working just fine until Today. When it's powered up, it comes up to the Toshiba logo screen with "Press [F2] for SETUP, Press [F12] for boot device selection menu" on the left status bar and "phoenix" at the right of status bar, and freezes. Pressing those keys won't respond and just sits there locked up.
I'm a tech, so naturally, disassembled the notbook to look for anything unusual, such as loose connections, bad cables, cold solder joints, etc., but found nothing. It's nice and clean.
Anyone with suggestion?

Hi
It is very suspect if the user is not able to enter BIOS settings. Usually in this case it must be something serious. The only thing that you can try is to remove the battery for a short time and try it again.
If you have disassembled the notebook did you also try to remove CMOS battery?
Sorry but I dont see other solution as to contact Service partner in your country.

How to fix booting problem (white/grey logo screen)

How can I fix the white/grey logo screen running contineously...I've re-install the mountain lion twice but still having problem with the booitng...PLEASE HELP...

Startup - Gray, Blue or White screen at boot, w/spinner/progress bar
Startup - Gray Screen
Startup Issues - Resolve
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Startup freezes on gray apple screen

I've restarted twice and it freezes on the gray apple screen. No kernel panic message, no error message, nothing. No peripheral devices plugged in. No new RAM installed. It just decided to start doing this today.
Any suggestions?
thanks.

Your directory is corrupted. It could be from a bad block on the hard drive, incorrect shutdown procedure, or even hardware issues (possible but not likely).
You will either have to reinstall (not fun) or purchase a utility like Disk Warrior.
I checked further and found this post on another web site:
DiskWarrior and invalid key length on Mac OS X hard drives
I had a problem where a hard disk of mine wasn't mounting -- it just wouldn't appear in the finder. It did show up in Disk Utility, where it reported that it had an "invalid key length", but Disk Utility would not repair it. I tried to use Tech Tool Pro 3 and Tech Tool Deluxe for OS X, but neither of those would even let me select the volume.
Some searching on the web suggested DiskWarrior. It retails for about $100, but I was able to get it on a special for $80. I ran it, it found the volume, and fixed it right up. I highly recommend the program to anyone with an invalid key length error.

IMac start up freezes on gray apple screen.......

I was re-installing OS X. Part way through the installation the computer froze. Once this happened, I turned off the computer. To my surprise, when I tried to start it up again, the computer wouldn’t get past the opening window of the gray screen with the apple. I’ve tried the holding down “c” thing, and that didn’t work. I’m not sure where to go from here. Any suggestions?

It could be the drive, but it very well could be another hardware component.
At this time, I would try booting up on your Apple Hardware Test disk, that came with your Mac, or Tech Tool Pro ,if you have it, and see if they flag any of your hardware.
I would hate to see you buy a hard drive and then find out it was something else making it freeze. If the AHT disk freezes also, personally I would take it in for repair. Trying to guess which component is bad is an expensive guessing game.
I would try to backup your stuff before going to the shop.
Cheers!
DALE

Radeon 5770 in 2008 Mac Pro, won't boot - hangs at Apple logo screen??

Okay, so I had the Radeon 2600 XT and it kept giving me issues with pink & white checkerboards and freezing, then eventually wouldn't let me boot past the white/grey apple logo loading screen. Now, today I installed Apple Radeon 5770, just installed, got the MiniDisplay to DVI-D adapter and everything, but it STILL won't let me get past the white/grey apple screen! I can't seem to get the DVD drive to open either. Both of my hard drives have been working fine and I've even swapped slots and i still can't get past the white screen! What gives? I just dropped over $300 for this, so you can imagine my dismay and frustration. Can someone please help me with some ideas? Would be GREATLY appreciated.
It's a 2008 Mac Pro dual 2.8Ghz (3,1), running 10.5.8
M

Yeah, ok thanks for the response about the screen! So, I don't have 10.6.5. I'm running 10.5.8, which the Radeon 5770 says it needs 10.6.5, but -finally- I got my computer to boot up with the 5770 in it, on 10.5. Al I did was hold OPTION+ Power button and it took me to a blue screen, then to my 500 GB new HD. I then switched over to my other username on Macintosh HD (drive that came with the MacPro) and OSX loads fine! I can tell that it still needs to be on 10.6.5, so I can download the drivers because the text is ever so slightly fuzzy, and the color isn't tuned well (too much contrast) and images take a little longer to load/ are a bit laggy. I'm just glad it's up and running! No more pink transparent checkerboards, and loud *** fan sounds! I am wondering though, what was causing this hold up? Is it only booting up because I have the 10.5.2 install disc in the SuperDrive? I almost don't want to take it out and try without it, after the trouble i've had, just in case lol. I'd like to have an idea as to why, because I don't want to mask a problem, and have it eventually turn into a catastrophe.

Mac wont boot, hangs at apple logo screen

Hello everyone,
I have a 2006 Imac. This morning I tried to boot and it hung at the silver/white screen with the Apple logo and the spinning circle of lines below it. The computer will just hang at this screen.
Every time I tried to boot I can eventually hear the hard drive turn off. I recognize the sound when the computer was working and I put it to sleep it made the same sound. Anyways, it will hang on that screen for however long before I turn it off. I am no expert with macs, I tried loading the install disc but it wouldn't even load that and now I can't seem to eject the disc either. Please help!

I have been having this problem for the last several weeks on my MacBook Pro–I think a 2006 also. Mine will hang just before the Apple logo so the whole screen will be silver. Every time this happens I turn it off using the power button and just try again. Usually on the second try it works, sometimes the third. I've been experimenting with how long I hold the power button down, although it shouldn't be too sensitive to that and I don't think I am finding a correlation. I have had this occur in the past but only as flukes, not as a consistent pattern like lately. I'm getting worried that someday this thing will just not start up.

Computer won't start up, stuck on gray logo screen.

Hey I have been having this problem for about 2 days now. When I try to turn on my computer, it won't fully start up, it gets stuck on the grey screen with the apple logo and stays like that forever. I tried to fix the problem using single user mode, typing "/sbin/fsck -fy" as well as trying to go on recovery mode and pressing "repair" on disk utility, MacHD ect. Now I have a backup from a month ago but is there any way to fix the problem? The error is: incorrect number of thread records. Oh and I have bootcamp, windows on Mac that run fine, I'm guessing that might have messed with my computer a bit though. Please let me know how to fix this soon. Thanks!

If you want to preserve the data on the boot drive, 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, you can skip this step.
There are several ways to back up a Mac that is unable to fully boot. You need an external hard drive to hold the backup data.
1. Boot into Recovery (command-R at startup) or from a local Time Machine backup volume (option key at startup.) Launch Disk Utility and follow the instructions in the support article linked below, under “Instructions for backing up to an external hard disk via Disk Utility.”
How to back up and restore your files
2. If you have access to a working Mac, and both it and the non-working Mac have FireWire or Thunderbolt ports, boot the non-working Mac in target disk mode by holding down the key combination command-T at the startup chime. Connect the two Macs with a FireWire or Thunderbolt cable. The internal drive of the machine running in target mode will mount as an external drive on the other machine. Copy the data to another drive. This technique won't work with USB, Ethernet, Wi-Fi, or Bluetooth.
How to use and troubleshoot FireWire target disk mode
3. 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.

Boot freezes at blank blue screen

I am completely stuck. I have a Powermac G4, which just today became suddenly unstable---apps crashing when I tried to quit them, everything freezing, logging out didn't work. So I shut it down and restarted.
Now I get the chime, the apple screen, and then the blue screen (and a mouse pointer) but at that point nothing else happens. No window showing services starting up, just a blank blue screen.
I can log into single-user mode, and the file system checks out ok. I did the cmd-opt-P-R, I reset-nvram from the Forth interpreter, all that.
I can boot verbosely, and it doesn't tell me anything because the hanging happens after it leaves the text screen and the UI starts.
Question: what should I do? Here's a related question: from single-user mode, is there any way to get files off the computer, towit accessing a USB drive or the network?
Xcott

Empty,Blue Screen.
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106464
1. Start up in Safe Mode.(shift key at startup)
a. Drag the Fonts folder from the Mac OS 9 System Folder (not the Mac OS X System folder) to the desktop.
b. Drag the Fonts folder from ~/Library/Fonts to the desktop.
b. Restart the computer in Mac OS X.
c. If this solves the problem....you have a corrupt font in one of the above font folders
2. Remove incompatible third-party startup items.
a. Start up in Safe Mode.(shift at startup)
b. Open the Mac OS X hard disk.
c. Drag third-party items out of ....
/Library/StartupItems .......
/System/Library/StartupItems ... Place them on the desktop .... If you're unsure whether an item is a third-party item or an Apple-installed item, don't move it.
d.Restart the computer.
Note.. If this resolves the issue, add the Startup Items one at a time until the symptom occurs again. That way you'll know which one is incompatible. Repeat these steps and remove the incompatible item.
george

IPOD touch freezes on Apple logo screen

I already know how to restore it, I've done it a dozen times last week. I am just tired of it. Does anyone know how to resolve this? When restoring, I have alternately tried both the "Restore as New" and "Restore from backup" options .. and also have tried deleting past copies .. no matter what, it still freezes a lot. I am awaiting an email reply from Apple but does anyone know if Apple is doing anything to fix this problem? Do they even acknowledge the problem? Is there a phone number to successfully contact Apple, because when I called (the Apple store), I was told to write them an email about the problem.
Some background info which may or may not be useful:
I have a 16 G Itouch and the 1st time it froze was during the play of the App game "Diamond Twister". The freezes now occur at random.
Thanks for anyone's help.

hold the power and home key for 10 seconds until the ipod is powered off.
plug in the usb cord into the computer WITHOUT the ipod
then while connecting the ipod, hold down the home button until the itunes connect logo appears on the ipods screen
then in itunes it will telll u to restore
restore and set up as a NEW ipod and it should be fixed DONT RESTORE FROM A BACKUP.

IMac won't boot, hangs on white logo screen and wheel stops spinning

I have a 4 year old 24" iMac - 4GB RAM, Lion 10.7.3 - that froze up in the middle of opening a PDF file in preview. I powered it off by holding in the button only to discover it will not restart. It gets as far as the white screen with the Apple logo and the "spinning" circle of lines and the this stops spinning after about 15 seconds and it will not do anything else.
I have tried:
resetting the SMC
resetting the PRAM
Booting:
with only keyboard plugged in
in safe mode
from USB (Lion) Recovery thumb drive
from MBP in target mode
from Time Machine backup
from Leopard and Snow Leopard DVD's
In all cases with the boot the HDD is shown along with the other drive(s) connected and I can select these other drives but the result is always the same. In safe mode it just hangs after going through everything.
As the iMac isn't under warranty I decided to swap the HDD out with a 1TB working one from my old (deceased) Time Capsule. I know this drive still works. Still the same problem though. Whilst the imac was apart I checked the onboard CR2032 battery was OK and for any obvious board problems. Nothing.
I haven't been able to find anything that relates to not being able to boot of an external drive from searching the web and I now conceed this is most likely a board level failure. I haven't lost anything as I backup routinely. My intention was to upgrade when the next model iMac comes along, just wish it ends up being very soon as my MBP is not great for editing photo's.
If I could get the iMac limping it would help whilst I wait for the next generation iMac, so if anyone can help it would be appreciated.

I have a 4 year old 24" iMac - 4GB RAM, Lion 10.7.3 - that froze up in the middle of opening a PDF file in preview. I powered it off by holding in the button only to discover it will not restart. It gets as far as the white screen with the Apple logo and the "spinning" circle of lines and the this stops spinning after about 15 seconds and it will not do anything else.
I have tried:
resetting the SMC
resetting the PRAM
Booting:
with only keyboard plugged in
in safe mode
from USB (Lion) Recovery thumb drive
from MBP in target mode
from Time Machine backup
from Leopard and Snow Leopard DVD's
In all cases with the boot the HDD is shown along with the other drive(s) connected and I can select these other drives but the result is always the same. In safe mode it just hangs after going through everything.
As the iMac isn't under warranty I decided to swap the HDD out with a 1TB working one from my old (deceased) Time Capsule. I know this drive still works. Still the same problem though. Whilst the imac was apart I checked the onboard CR2032 battery was OK and for any obvious board problems. Nothing.
I haven't been able to find anything that relates to not being able to boot of an external drive from searching the web and I now conceed this is most likely a board level failure. I haven't lost anything as I backup routinely. My intention was to upgrade when the next model iMac comes along, just wish it ends up being very soon as my MBP is not great for editing photo's.
If I could get the iMac limping it would help whilst I wait for the next generation iMac, so if anyone can help it would be appreciated.

Single-User Mode Copying Files/System Does not Boot Past Apple Logo Screen

I have a Macbook 2.0GHZ, 2GB RAM, that recently tried to download a secuirty and keynot update. Following the download the system will no longer boot past the Apple Logo Screen with the spinning wheel. I do not have access to a OS disk yet or to a firewire cable either. I've have seen posts from others that describe how to use traget disk mode to reinstall the secuirty update manually and then they can boot their computer. Safe mode will not work. I did boot into single-user mode and run the disk utility there and it says my HD is OK. Since I do not have a firewire or an OS Disk, I am wondering if there is a way to copy those files i need to a USB pen stick then install them onto the computer via single-user mode, considering this is the only way I can boot and manipulate the machine at this time. If this is not possible please let me know so I can find a way to scrounge up a firewire cable or disk. Thank you in advance for any assistance.
Ted K

Thanks to Limnos and BDAqua I know you guys have helped others with these kind of problems from the other posts I read. I just want to list what I did exactly in case anyone wants to try to do this with a usb drive or does not have access to a boot disk or firewire cable.
1: Install security update on a pen drive
2: Boot in single user mode, CMD-S on startup
3: /sbin/mount -uw /
4: mkdir /Volumes/usb (usb can be any name, name of usb drive or anything you want)
5: ls /dev (you need to get the drive listing for the usb drive to mount it appropriately, it should be disk#s# but this is close to what the HD and Cd drives are listed as so you may need to list once before you put the usb stick in and once ater. I had issues inserting the usb drive in single-user mode and it would freeze up the root drive)
6: /sbin/mount_msdos /dev/disk1s1 /Volumes/usb (this mounts the usb drive, i had to use msdos because of how my usb drive was formatted, you may need to check your usb drive format, hfs is the apple format for usb drives but it did not work for me)
7: cp /Volumes/usb/SecUpd2009-001Intel.dmg (this copies the files from the usb drive to the root drivel, at this point you no longer need the usb drive)
8: hdiutil mount /SecUpd2009-001Intel.dmg (this mounts the disk image)
9: cd /Volumes/"Security Update 2009-001" (after i mounted the image this is how it appeared in the Volumes directory, you might need to do ls /Volumes to get the name, the quotes are important to get the whole file directory changed)
10: installer -pkg SecUpd2009-001Intel.pkg -target / (this installs the acutal update, i used the SecUpd2009-001Intel.pkg and it worked though I think you might be able to use "Security Update 2009-001" with quotes as well.)
11: reboot
i hope this helps anyone looking to do this. Thanks again to those who helpes and all the other posts that had information that helped me identify and then fix my issue! I still love my mac.

Won't boot past grey logo screen

I have a refurb dual 2Ghz powermac G5. New in March 2006.
It will not boot past the grey logo screen. I have tried all of the regular stuff: reset pram, reset nvram, reset-all, pushed the PMU button, etc, unplugged; reset ram; removed and reset ALL cards/memory. And nothing.
When trying to boot in single user mode, it freezes when almost getting to a prompt.
I CAN boot to open firmware. Though booting from the OS X install cd yields the computer to freeze at the grey logo screen.
I am dual booting Gentoo Linux, and the curious thing is that if I select Gentoo at boot, the computer freezes when loading the kernel for Linux.
So it's not an OSX thing it seems like; probably hardware.
I ran the 40min extended apple hardware test from the PMG5 OS X disc which passed everything with NO errors.
I then booted the disc in target mode with my iBook, and repaired permissions: it said was all okay, nothing to fix.
I removed the battery, and placed it back in. The battery tests fine with my voltage meter-tester.
I am a PC technician, but am stumped in trying to get my powermac to boot. Let me know if you have any other ideas. Thanks,
Dual 2Ghz Powermac G5
1.5GB ram
stock Radeon 9600
stock 160GB hard drive
airport card
Dual 2Ghz Powermac G5 Mac OS X (10.4.6) Logic 7.2 Gentoo PPC

Okay my powermac is at the local mac repair center. All hardware checked out okay; the tech is unsure of the issue. He's pulling parts and going to see what part is failing. He thinks the power supply is freaking out and sending out too much voltage, causing the computer to freeze at boot.

Booting Freezes on Gray Logo Screen

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