Booting to Darwin screen

My sister's iBook froze (I think its probably running some variant of Panther, but may be Tiger) and now its booting into the Darwin/text log-in screen.
She can log in find, and can reboot (via "sudo reboot"). I had her boot from her install disk and run Disk Utility. It found and fixed a bunch of problems but still found a leaf problem that it couldn't fix.
I have TechTool Pro and am going to bring it to her and see if we can straighten out her disk error. But even so, what if it doesn't straighten out the boot issue? Is there something I can do? Or would a fresh system install be the best option?
- Fred

If you can repair the drive completely then you can reinstall by doing an Archive and Install that does not erase the drive. However, if the drive cannot be repaired then you will need to erase it and reinstall from scratch.
How to Perform an Archive and Install
1. Be sure to use Disk Utility first to repair the disk before performing the Archive and Install.
Repairing the Hard Drive and Permissions
Boot from your OS X Installer disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Installer menu (Utilities menu for Tiger.) After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported, then quit DU and return to the installer.
If DU reports errors it cannot fix, then you will need Disk Warrior (4.0 for Tiger) and/or TechTool Pro (4.5.2 for Tiger) to repair the drive. If you don't have either of them or if neither of them can fix the drive, then you will need to reformat the drive and reinstall OS X.
2. Do not proceed with an Archive and Install if DU reports errors it cannot fix. In that case use Disk Warrior and/or TechTool Pro to repair the hard drive. If neither can repair the drive, then you will have to erase the drive and reinstall from scratch.
3. Boot from your OS X Installer disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When you reach the screen to select a destination drive click once on the destination drive then click on the Option button. Select the Archive and Install option. You have an option to preserve users and network preferences. Only select this option if you are sure you have no corrupted files in your user accounts. Otherwise leave this option unchecked. Click on the OK button and continue with the OS X Installation.
4. Upon completion of the Archive and Install you will have a Previous System Folder in the root directory. You should retain the PSF until you are sure you do not need to manually transfer any items from the PSF to your newly installed system.
5. After moving any items you want to keep from the PSF you should delete it. You can back it up if you prefer, but you must delete it from the hard drive.
6. You can now download a Combo Updater directly from Apple's download site to update your new system to the desired version as well as install any security or other updates. You can also do this using Software Update.
Maintaining backups can help recover from unrecoverable problems:
Basic Backup
Get an external Firewire drive at least equal in size to the internal hard drive and make (and maintain) a bootable clone/backup. You can make a bootable clone using the Restore option of Disk Utility. You can also make and maintain clones with good backup software. My personal recommendations are (order is not significant):
1. Retrospect Desktop (Commercial - not yet universal binary)
2. Synchronize! Pro X (Commercial)
3. Synk (Backup, Standard, or Pro)
4. Deja Vu (Shareware)
5. PsynchX 2.1.1 and RsyncX 2.1 (Freeware)
6. Carbon Copy Cloner (Freeware - 3.0 is a Universal Binary)
7. SuperDuper! (Commercial)
The following utilities can also be used for backup, but cannot create bootable clones:
1. Backup (requires a .Mac account with Apple both to get the software and to use it.)
2. Toast
3. Impression
4. arRSync
Apple's Backup is a full backup tool capable of also backing up across multiple media such as CD/DVD. However, it cannot create bootable backups. It is primarily an "archiving" utility as are the other two.
Impression and Toast are disk image based backups, only. Particularly useful if you need to backup to CD/DVD across multiple media.
Visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQs on maintenance, optimization, virus protection, and backup and restore. Also read How to Back Up and Restore Your Files.

Similar Messages

Crashed: Now boots to Darwin screen

While doing a software update (and running a couple other programs at the same time...) the screen froze. I hit the power button to reboot, and now I get the Darwin screen (black screen, white text. Asks for Login and Password).
I can enter my name and password successfully, but how do I get OSX to boot? I've tried Save Mode, but end up with a text screen again.
Suggestions?

Pamtri:
Check out this thread about how I dealt with Darwin: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=1047613&#1047613
Hope it helps.
Good luck.
cornelius

Computer Boots to Darwin Screen

I have a iMac running os 10.4. When I restarted it, it went straight to the Darwin interface. I did a search for this, and tried the suggestions for os 10.3, but could not find anything for os 10.4. It is stating that it cannot find a valid username. After trying the tips for os 10.3, the computer no longer goes to the Darwin screen, it begins the start up process, and get stuck (freezes) on a blue screen. I tried to startup using the os install DVD, but it will not start up using the DVD, I also cannot eject the DVD either.
Please help

Hi Party Medics, and a warm welcome to the forums!
Which iMac anyway, there are tons of them!?
Might try fsck...
To use fsck, you must run it from the command line. Unlike using your mouse to open an application to do something, you'll need to type a text command at the prompt (#) to tell fsck what to do. The Terminal application (/Applications/Utilities) and single-user mode are two examples of command-line interfaces in which you can type such commands. To use fsck:
1. Start up your computer in single-user mode to reach the command line. Hold CMD+s keys down at bootup. Note: If necessary, perform a forced restart as described in the Emergency Troubleshooting Handbook that came with your computer. On desktop computers, you can do this by pressing the reset/interrupt button (if there is one) or holding down the power button for several seconds. On portable computers, simultaneously press the Command-Control-power keys. If your portable computer doesn't restart with this method, you may need to reset the Power Manager.
2. At the command-line prompt, type /sbin/fsck -fy
3. Press Return. fsck will go through five "phases" and then return information about your disk's use and fragmentation. Once it finishes, it'll display this message if no issue is found: 
The volume (nameofvolume) appears to be OK  
If fsck found issues and has altered, repaired, or fixed anything, it will display this message: 
*** FILE SYSTEM WAS MODIFIED ***   Important: If this message appears, repeat the fsck command you typed in step 2 until fsck tells you that your volume appears to be OK (first-pass repairs may uncover additional issues, so this is a normal thing to do).
4. When fsck reports that your volume is OK, type reboot at the prompt and then press Return.
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106214
Tough without a Tiger Disk, but try fsck...
To use fsck, you must run it from the command line. Unlike using your mouse to open an application to do something, you'll need to type a text command at the prompt (#) to tell fsck what to do. The Terminal application (/Applications/Utilities) and single-user mode are two examples of command-line interfaces in which you can type such commands. To use fsck:
1. Start up your computer in single-user mode to reach the command line. Hold CMD+s keys down at bootup. Note: If necessary, perform a forced restart as described in the Emergency Troubleshooting Handbook that came with your computer. On desktop computers, you can do this by pressing the reset/interrupt button (if there is one) or holding down the power button for several seconds. On portable computers, simultaneously press the Command-Control-power keys. If your portable computer doesn't restart with this method, you may need to reset the Power Manager.
2. At the command-line prompt, type /sbin/fsck -fy
3. Press Return. fsck will go through five "phases" and then return information about your disk's use and fragmentation. Once it finishes, it'll display this message if no issue is found: ** The volume (nameofvolume) appears to be OK  If fsck found issues and has altered, repaired, or fixed anything, it will display this message: *** FILE SYSTEM WAS MODIFIED ***   Important: If this message appears, repeat the fsck command you typed in step 2 until fsck tells you that your volume appears to be OK (first-pass repairs may uncover additional issues, so this is a normal thing to do).
4. When fsck reports that your volume is OK, type reboot at the prompt and then press Return.
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106214
Then Safe Boot , (holding Shift key down at bootup), off the HD & use Disk Utility from there to Repair Permissions, reboot once more.

Blue screen - after booting into Darwin/BSD

Hi,
after I had the problem of my iMac G5 only booting into Darwin/BSD (which I posted here: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1093517&tstart=0), I followed the instructions for recreating the user accounts, as described here: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=320663&start=0&tstart=0
Now I'm able to get to the blue screen, and the system doesn't exit into Darwin/BSD any longer. However, the Setup Assistant doesn't start either.
I only see an empty blue screen (I guess it's the GUI base screen) and the menu bar. The menu bar only has to items: one menu 'loginwindow', which doesn't have any entries. And the Apple-logo menu, which has the following menu entries:
- About This Mac
- Software Update...
- Mac OS X Software...
- System Preferences...
- Dock >
- Location >
- Force Quit...
- Sleep
- Restart...
- Shot Down...
- Log Out System Administrator...
The 'Restart...' entry doesn't work. I can, however, launch the System Preferences window.
Tail command of /var/log/System.log shows:
configd[41]: WirelessConfigure: 88001003
kernel[0]: Registering For 802.11 Events
kerner[0]: [HCIController][setupHardware] AFH Is Supported
kernel[0]: ATY,Aphrodite2_A: vram [98000000:08000000]
mDNSResponder: Couldn't read user-specific Computer Name; using default bMacintosh-0014513219B8b instead
kernel[0]: ATY,Aphrodite2_B: vram [98000000:08000000}
mDNSResponder: Couldn't read user-specified local hostname; using default bMacintosh-0014513219B8.localb instead
/System/Library/CoreServices/loginwindow.app/Contents/MacOS/loginwindow: Login Window Application Started
loginwindow[141]: [Login.m:1867] Failed to launch /Applications/Server/Server Assistant.app/Contents/MacOS/Server Assistant (error -1)
mDNSResponder: Adding brows domain local.
Any recommendations on what to do next?
Thanks!
Torsten

Apologies, was a little vague. and as far as my profile goes i have loads of mac's here in the studio.
using MBP latest model, Snow Leopard with latest updates.
1. boot up in windows XP SP3 (bootcamp NTFS formatted 32GB partition) - all ok
2. shut down windows and re boot in OSX
3. boots up but fails to complete and hangs on blue screen (just prior to desk top picture loading)
4. press and hold power button to shut down
5. reboot in OSX - boots up fine this time

My iBook G4 only goes to a black 'Darwin' screen when it boots up. How do I get it to boot up normally again?

Last night, my iBook G4 started showing odd glitches on the screen. When I restarted it, there was a file with a blinking question mark, so I consulted the manual and it said to shut down, hold 'Option' and turn on the computer, then click the hard disk icon and then the rightward arrow. When I did these things, it led me to a black screen where something called 'Darwin' asked me for my login and password. I managed to restart from the OSX install disc and repair the hard disk volume that way, but the black 'Darwin' screen shows up every time I turn the laptop on! What should I do to get it back to normal? My iBook G4 has OSX 4.11 installed, and I bought it refurbished in June 2005.

Thank you so much for replying; unfortunately, my screen had already gone gray by the time I read your reply and I had to take in to the Genius Bar. My laptop's up and running, but the main problem is still unknown and I'll have to buy a new one soon. Thanks again!

Michael C stopped my MacBook booting into Darwin/BSD, but it is now sloooow

I am testing a MacBook 2.16 GHz for possible use at work. Upgraded to 3GB RAM and Hitachi 200GB HD. Performance was great after a week, but one day I got a dark screen at bootup with the Darwin/BSD-login-password message that a lot of people seem to get. I followed Michael Conniff's advice (http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=4550428) and got the system to boot into the GUI properly. But ever since then performance has been very slow: e.g. selecting the Date and Time takes 5 seconds to launch and clicking on the AirPort icon takes the same amount of time to produce the drop-down menu. It's like the MacBook is running in slow-motion. The exception is the Dock: it pops up quickly and the Apps scroll by quickly. Launching the Apps is another matter, though.
NO OTHER APPS INSTALLED. Really. No MS programs or even freeware. Just iLife '08. All the current updates have been installed. Zapped the PRAM, ran Disk Utility to check the disk and verify permissions--even booted into single-user mode and ran fsck (disk was okay). Tonight I reinstalled the OS in a clean install, installed all the updates, and afterwards the MacBook is just as slow. What is going on? If it's this slow, I guess I won't be using Parallels anytime soon to replace my Dell!

Well, this has been frustrating. The original hard disk also will occasionally boot into Darwin and menu selection is still very sluggish. The local Apple Store won't touch an Apple recertified MacBook--even one that was just delivered a couple of days ago from the Apple Store Online. I then spent several hours on the phone, mostly on hold, but sometimes transferred in a closed loop from Customer Support to Tech Support and back to Customer Support. Sadly, the case number I was given by a rep (the third one I spoke to) isn't showing up as valid either. At this point I just want to return the MacBook (which I think I still can), but I can't reach anyone to arrange for this!

FIX: IPad turns on and off in a loop during charging, boots to home screen and reboots

Ok, after having my ipad 2 3rd Generation for about a year, its bombed out on me,playing on it until battery drained. Didn’t think anything of it, plugged into charge thinking it would be charged by the morning. This didn’t happen.
It was stuck on the apple sign, booted to home screen and switched off again due to low battery. Continued on this loop for the whole day……
I searched the internet and it seemed all doom and gloom that I would need to by another one. Then I stumbled upon a forum where the advice so far has worked for me.
The reason why it gets stuck in a loop is because the IPad was not shut down manually, so therefore keeps trying to boot up soon as it has some battery power. Problem is, its gone beyond a point and now and there isn’t enough battery life to boot to main or home screen after apple logo.
The remedy is quiet simple, follow these steps to get the ipad to home screen to power it down so it has sufficient time to charge up and boot normally and get off the endless loop.
Plug into wall socket to get it charging.
Wait until the apple logo appears and wants to boot up.
QUICKLY hold down home button and reset/ sleep button at the same time until it reboots.
Release buttons now. should now power down and reboot
Repeat step 3 at least 30 to 40 times which is about 10 minutes in duration everytime you see the logo appear on the screen.
Now Let IPad boot up fully, should see home screen with about 2% battery life
QUICKLY hit the rest/ sleep button down for about 2 to 5 seconds.
Swipe the screen to when slider appears to switch off the ipad.
This will now power down the IPad which now will not reboot by itself so it can now charge without any interruption’s.
Allow battery to charge for a least an hour or two without trying to put it on.
Switch the IPad on
You should now have about 10 to 20% battery Life
Power it down again by holding the reset/ Sleep button down again and swipe the screen to power down, let it charge fully to 100% now which will take few hours
Enjoy your IPad again
Lesson learnt. When your battery power is low, dont wait for it drain completely, rather power the pad down manually and let it charge when there is only about 2 to 4% battery life left.
Hope this guide helps people with the same problem as I had. Took me about 2 days of research and searching until I found a solution that worked. Hopefully this will assist anyone going through the same pain, and possibly not have to buy another one which seems to be the case when people take the pad to an istore with the same issue.
Cheers,

I tried to restore using recovery mode it give error 4013, also tried the same with iMac with my friend again error.
Let me give little more details:
1. After iOS 8.2 upgrade, 2-3 days often 3-4 times a day it used to restart again and again then will get Home screen.
2. Also at times it happened, it boots again and again left the device as it is then it comes to Home screen.
3. Lastly it did the same behavior but it did not boot up, but keep booting again and again apple logo is shown then restart
4. Tried to get into recovery mode, windows PC error 4013, now in the recovery mode.
My Battery was in good condition, when it happened it was ~80% now may be very less did not charge until now.
I read somewhere in the forum keep re-starting manually again and again, someone said since it did not shutdown properly there is a problem, please help.
The device is 1.2 yrs old ONLY.
Best regards
Prabu

Lenovo G560 - Issue with won't boot and black screen after HDD upgrade

Lenovo G560 - Issue with won't boot and black screen after HDD upgrade.
What happen: My laptop was working fine, no blue screen issue, no funny business at all. I bought a new SSD Intel 120 GB and thought it would be a good idea to replace the HDD. I shutdown and disconnected the power adapter, waited a couple of minutes and removed the battery. I opened up the back case and replaced the HDD. And put all the screws back and put the battery back in.
Problem: The very first time I turned the power on, nothing happens besides a black screen. I pressed the dvd drive it works and opens up and closes. I waited for about 30 mins and still has blac screen. When I mean black screen, no bios menu, no logo, just a black screen with the fan sound on.
I have tried these:
1. Unplugged everything - battery, adapter, and pressed the power on button for about 60 seconds, nothing, the laptop turns on with the LED display on for both on and battery LED's. But nothing but black screen, no sound of windows loading just the fan and black screen.
2. I tried putting back my old 2.5" and nothing but black screen.
Thoughts and suggestions?
Solved!
Go to Solution.

Hi Autoexit173,
Welcome to Lenovo Community!
As per the query we understood that you are facing issue with system not booting in your Lenovo G560 laptop.
As you have mentioned that the system not booting, please try to remove the RAM and turn on the system and check if you can hear any beep sound. Also try to clean the RAM slots and check for the issue.
Click here for the steps to remove the RAM and refer page number 40.
Hope this helps. Do post back if issue persists!
Best regards,
Ashwin.S
Did someone help you today? Press the star on the left to thank them with a Kudo!
If you find a post helpful and it answers your question, please mark it as an "Accepted Solution"! This will help the rest of the Community with similar issues identify the verified solution and benefit from it.
Follow @LenovoForums on Twitter!

Intel iMac will not boot past gray screen

Intel iMac will not boot past gray screen
my system:
new (month old) 24" intel imac, 2.8 ghz, 4 gb ram.
running: leopard (upgraded from tiger, which was pre-installed at purchase), installed 10.5.1 update right before this huge problem occurred.
install discs on-hand: two-disc tiget set, single leopard upgrade disc.
what led to this:
i wanted to install windows using bootcamp on a 50 gb partition.
at this point i was running leopard 10.5
i followed all bootcamp instructions, printing out the guide, as well. once i got into the windows setup, i was prompted to choose a partition to install windows. unlike the bootcamp guide, which showed three partitions, one clearly labeled "bootcamp", i saw only one partition. not wanting to risk writing over my mac partition, i quit the setup and rebooted the mac os. after some googling around, i looked for firmware updates (didn't need any), and then software updates. i decided to try updating to 10.5.1.
i then ran through boot camp again, deleting my previous windows partition, creating a new one, and moving forward as before. once again, i was only shown one partition to choose from in the windows setup. i exited the setup again to reboot through the mac os, but this time, i was only given a blank gray screen.
here's what i have tried so far:
booting from a CD, holding down the C or D keys: no response (in fact, i have to restart the computer holding down the mouse button to be able to eject the CD)
booting with option key held down: gray screen
booting with option key held down with external bootable firewire drive attached: the firewire drive appears as a boot icon, and i can click on it within a five second window, but then the screen freezes after that time period, and nothing changes
booting into target mode while attached to another mac: gray screen (no firewire icon, and drive never shows up on other mac)
resetting NVRAM: i'm able to hear the boot chimes, but no difference in performance. gray screen every time
Safe boot: nothing but a gray screen
Verbose mode: gray screen
Single user mode: gray screen
Single user mode with firewire drive attached: occasionally (not every time), i am able to get the white on black terminal to show up. from here, i'm able to run fsck, but it appears to only be checking the firewire drive. i have tried several times to boot from here, and once it took me to a blue screen with movable arrow cursor, but it never went beyond this.
is there anything else left to try before taking it to apple?
any help would be greatly appreciated.
thanks,
Casey Burns
Casey Burns Illustration and Design
http://CaseyBurns.com

I'd call Apple support at this point. You'll need
to put this issue on the record.
Call U.S. iPod and Mac technical support: 1-800-APL-CARE (1-800-275-2273)
The wait may be long for an agent to come on the line
so expect that and have some other stuff to do in the meantime.
If you have the applecare protection plan, I'd ask about "onsite"
service.
I like your work ! Good luck !
Slim
Message was edited by: slimpikkunz

Boot Camp: Early 2011 MacBook Pro boots to black screen with blinking cursor after windows 7 installation.

I bought and downloaded the windows 7 ultimate edition 64 bit iso, then proceeded to perform a correct burn to a DVD one at the slowest speed and one at the fastest. all went well. so I open Boot Camp assistant and follow the instructions to the letter, downloaded the driver support to the flash drive. partitioned my drive with more than enough room 150 gb. its starts its install. I get through everything seamlessly where I put in my info all with the exception of my activation code. yet it still continues to finalize the install and does another restart. boots back up to either A. black screen saying press any key to boot to my install disk. B. if I take it out just a white curser. also I read it may be because I had the flash drive in while I was trying to boot so I removed it as well, same result. any input would be much appreciated.

Boot Camp- Windows installation boots to black screen with blinking cursor.

Hp 8560w booting into black screen, seems to be booting without display

Hi,
Ive got this elitebook 8650w from a friend who asked me to help him try to get it to run.
First thing noticable that something was wrong with this machine is when it started shutting down/rebooting randomly, i suspected overheating since it hadnt been cleaned and doing these shutdowns while it was running 3d games.
I told my friend he had to get it cleaned or it could sustain damage.
The next day the system started to reboot right after it completed windows logon, getting into a loop.
I suspected the temprature failsafe was doing this, because after the system did one cold start,it would boot to windows,reboot on its own and then wouldnt get through the boot process alltogether and just showed a black screen with the cooling fan running at top speed, capslock blinking.
It wasnt even showing the hp bios startup screen anymore.
I tried hooking up a monitor to the external vga, but the monitor goes into standy and remains black.
I know it did boot onto windows eventhough it was showing a blackscreen because i could type in the logon password, wait a bit and then shutdown the system with pressing alt-f4, enter.
clearly the system boots but just the display isnt working. but it isnt giving off any beeps or showing anything on boot.
So i took out the cooling parts and cleaned it to redo the thermal paste.
the job had previously been done by hp, and turned out to be done very very poorly,   half the GPU didnt even have thermal paste onit, a big airbubble prevented contact for more then 2/4th of the gpu surface.
i feared a burnout, but the surface didnt show discoloration and it had been working like this since he got it.
Eventhough it was a poor job done, it didnt seem to be burnt and the temperature failsafe just saved it from burning out.
After thouroughly cleaning the big blobs of paste hp put there most of it ending up next to the gpu and cpu instead of onit,blobs big enough to cover atleast 4 of the same type gpu's/cpu's
I redid the thermal paste using arctic silver number 5, the way it should be done and then reinstalled the blocks and heatpipes.
It all went smoothly into place and i reassembled the parts taken off the laptop.
Confident i rebooted, nothing changed and the problem persisted, it seems to be booting, but the screen doesnt display a thing, and stays completely black.
Shining a light onto the screen doesnt reveal any unlit graphics due to a broken backlight or anything.
Since it went through this loop often and me and my friend have been pressing keys to see if it would boot into a bios screen or anything i suspected the bios might have gotten screwed up, so i decided to try and restore default bios.
But how to do that without a screen?   i tried locating a bios jumper to do this but didnt find any.
Then i found a text the hp forom saying i could force factory setting by pressing f10 repeatedly 5x times during startup, then f5 for default and then f10 to safe and exit,enter.
I did try that a couple of times, but the machine doesnt reboot as it should when you safe an exit bios, s i dont even know if i get into bios in reality.
Now ive come across a few known problems with this machine in my forumcrawling.
2 problems wich results in the same behaviour are : 1 a faulty mobo and 2 a faulty board for the webcam behind the top of the display somehow preventing the screen to work properly.
So , dear hp support -  are there any known problems and sulotions to them other then, drain power and boot again?
If this machine did appear on the market with some of em having a faulty mobo, like some mssges say, why is that not on the official forum, and could i be dealing with such a machine, how do i find out?
If im dealing with a broken display, could that have been caused by a videocard overheating?
You can help me by telling me:
-Can i force bios default without having an active screen? if so, how? just pulling the battery and draining power didnt change a thing.
-Can i find out if GPU is broken (the system does seem to boot in the dark on a cold start)
-Can i find out if the display is broken by blinking messages or someting?
-Are there other known problems with this machine that give these failures as a result?
Can it be theres a broken inverter for the backlight? i geuss not, the vga port would be working then.
hopefull for an answer,
A friend's computer fixer.

I brought it into the Apple Store and I was completely denied of the 8600m GT recall. I am not paying $800 for a **** logic board replacement! Seriously, what the ****!?
I find this problem just as bad as the 8600m GT failures because this isn't the only forum I've been too that have people complaining about the same thing.
I don't know what to do anymore. Money doesn't grow on trees and I need a working laptop for school.
If anyone has any other suggestions please don't hesitate to let us know here.
Good luck to the rest of you!

Mac Pro early 2008 boots to black screen

Four times out of five, on average, the Mac boots to a black screen -- a 30" Cinema Display.
I believe the computer is booting all the way up, because I have the front power button set to put the computer to sleep, and when I manually power down the machine using the power button, the Mac will go to sleep first.
Also, the Mac will go into Firewire disk mode when connected to my MacBook.
The "boot-to-black-screen" occurs from cold or warm boots.
I've tried both 10.5 and 10.6 OS -- no difference, results the same on both.
Here's what I've tried:
Reinstalling and updating OS both 10.5 and 10.6
Diskwarrior
PRAM zap
Pulling all USB and firewire peripherals off the computer (except the Apple Wired Keyboard that shipped with the PC) -- Mac promptly booted to black screen, so peripherals are not the issue.
Changing displays (in this case, a Samsung 17") -- same result
I have tried booting to the Apple Hardware Test on my commercial Leopard DVD and Snow Leopard DVD, but the machine will not boot to this (the Leopard disk will boot the AHT on other Macs). I no longer have the original CDs that shipped with the Mac.
I've suspected the video card, but according to other posts, apparently this is not the cause.
I'm now suspecting a motherboard firmware issue.
Before this, the Mac Pro was having a related issue pertaining to VMWare Fusion, wherein the Mac would occasionally not wake from sleep, logging a VMWare Fusion kernel crash.
For the moment, I'm not shutting down the Mac Pro, just turning off the Cinema Display. I've left this computer running for up to two months without a reboot, so I'm confident that it will stay up and remain stable.

I'll watch to see if you get an answer. I have a late 2008 Mac Book Pro 15 with the same problem. It boots xp good every time. But I often need to use external monitor to gain control of the OSX boot. It gives tone, shows gray, shows apple and gear the short blue and then strait to black and front LED seems to indicate sleep. Very frustrating. Happens on both use best graphics and conserve battery display settings. Tried the reset pram, safe boot, save boot verbose. All no good.

Have a MacBook Pro. the computer will not boot up, the screen has black and white stripes and multi color bands as well.

Have a MacBookPro. The computer will not boot up. the screen has black and white bands with multi color bands as well.

Yeah it's dead. Take it to an Apple Genius Bar and have it checked out. Then buy a new one.

My iMacG5 will only boot to white screen, gray apple and spinning gear. Help?

My iMacG5 will only boot to white screen, gray apple and spinning gear. Help?
Also not totally sure if it's an Intel based computer, but that's what I recall. Any way to check, since I can't get to About This Mac window?
It's running on OSX Leopard 10.5.4
First symptom = running slowly - then it kind of froze with color wheel spinning - thought a forced shut down would help - help power button til off, then white screen, gray apple and spinning gear.
Have tried...
1. Turn off the computer by choosing Shut Down from the Apple menu, or by holding the power button until the computer turns off.
2. Unplug all cables from the computer, including the power cord.
3. Wait 10 seconds.
4. Plug in the power cord while simultaneously pressing and holding the power button on the back of the computer.
5. Let go of the power button.
6. Press the power button once more to start up your iMac.
Then try booting from your install disc again.
- No change
And...
Booting From An OS X Installer Disc
1. Insert OS X Installer Disc into the optical drive.
2. Restart the computer.
3. Immediately after the chime press and hold down the "C" key.
4. Release the key when the spinning gear below the dark gray Apple logo
appears.
5. Wait for installer to finish loading.
- The fan just got louder.
Thanks for your help.

You need to do an Erase and Install or an Archive and Install depending on whether the hard drive is OK or needs to be reformatted.
Start by booting from your Leopard DVD. The rest is just following directions.
How to Perform an Archive and Install
An Archive and Install will NOT erase your hard drive, but you must have sufficient free space for a second OS X installation which could be from 3-9 GBs depending upon the version of OS X and selected installation options. The free space requirement is over and above normal free space requirements which should be at least 6-10 GBs. Read all the linked references carefully before proceeding.
1. Be sure to use Disk Utility first to repair the disk before performing the Archive and Install.
Repairing the Hard Drive and Permissions
Boot from your OS X Installer disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Installer menu (Utilities menu for Tiger, Leopard or Snow Leopard.) After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU and return to the installer. Now restart normally.
If DU reports errors it cannot fix, then you will need Disk Warrior and/or Tech Tool Pro to repair the drive. If you don't have either of them or if neither of them can fix the drive, then you will need to reformat the drive and reinstall OS X.
2. Do not proceed with an Archive and Install if DU reports errors it cannot fix. In that case use Disk Warrior and/or TechTool Pro to repair the hard drive. If neither can repair the drive, then you will have to erase the drive and reinstall from scratch.
3. Boot from your OS X Installer disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When you reach the screen to select a destination drive click once on the destination drive then click on the Option button. Select the Archive and Install option. You have an option to preserve users and network preferences. Only select this option if you are sure you have no corrupted files in your user accounts. Otherwise leave this option unchecked. Click on the OK button and continue with the OS X Installation.
4. Upon completion of the Archive and Install you will have a Previous System Folder in the root directory. You should retain the PSF until you are sure you do not need to manually transfer any items from the PSF to your newly installed system.
5. After moving any items you want to keep from the PSF you should delete it. You can back it up if you prefer, but you must delete it from the hard drive.
6. You can now download a Combo Updater directly from Apple's download site to update your new system to the desired version as well as install any security or other updates. You can also do this using Software Update.

IMac Does not boot past Gray Screen

iMac does not boot past Gray Screen. 2008 24" Intel iMac running Mountain Lion with 1TB hard drive.
Problem started yesterday while I was web surfing, and my iMac frooze and shutdown. I rebooted and could only get as far as the gray screen.
On bootup the following things happen:
Startup tone
Gray screen with Apple, and gear spins below Apple.
Once the gear stops spinning, nothing happends.
Troubleshooting steps I have tried:
removed all devices connected to iMac and rebooted, but same symptons occur.
booted into Safe mode and run disk utilites.
     Disk Utilities found no errors on the drive, but did find two permission issues that it was able to fix.
          First permission issue:
                   "Group differs on library; Should be 0; group is 80"
          Second permission issue:
                    "Permissons differ on library; Should be drwxr-xr-x; They are drwxrwxr-t"
Disk Utilities says it fixes these issues and then I reboot, but get the same problem.
I reboot back into Safe Mode and run Disk Utilities and it discovers the same problems listed above with Permissions. It says it fixes them, I reboot, but the same problem occurs. Its as if we are stuck in some sort of loop process.
Booted into Single User Mode and ran the following command:
     /SBin/fsck -fy   it reports back, Volume Apprears to be ok.
I reboot, same issue !
Performed SMC Reset, Rebooted, same issue
Performed PRAM Reset, Rebooted, same issue.
Booted into Recovery Partitioin (Command R) and ran disk utilities. It found the same permission issues listed above. It fixed them. I rebooted. Same problem still.
While in safe mode, I preformed a full time machine backup.
I am out of ideas. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Hello,
I reboot back into Safe Mode and run Disk Utilities and it discovers the same problems listed above with Permissions.
You can ignore repeated "fixes" it's not really a problem, if it says completed repairs that's all that's needed.
Luckily it boots in Safe Mode, here's basically the steps to try to find out what it is...
One way to test is to Safe Boot from the HD, (holding Shift key down at bootup), run Disk Utility in Applications>Utilities, then highlight your drive, click on Repair Permissions, Test for problem in Safe Mode...
PS. Safe boot may stay on the gray radian for a long time, let it go, it's trying to repair the Hard Drive
Reboot, test again.
If it only does it in Regular Boot, then it could be some hardware problem like Video card, (Quartz is turned off in Safe Mode), or Airport, or some USB or Firewire device, or 3rd party add-on, Check System Preferences>Accounts>Login Items window to see if it or something relevant is listed.
Check the System Preferences>Other Row, for 3rd party Pref Panes.
Also look in these if they exist, some are invisible...
/private/var/run/StartupItems
/Library/StartupItems
/System/Library/StartupItems
/System/Library/LaunchDaemons
/Library/LaunchDaemons
Though I'm suspecting some corruption to your OS at the moment.

Booting to Darwin screen

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for