Flashing Icon - not booting

The Mac Mini started to a make a loud clicking noise (hard disk?) and we attempted to re-boot. Now the monitor only shows a flashing icon (file folder with a question mark) and the machine is not responding to any key strokes. New to Mac machines, please help.

The OS can't find a boytable drive. See:
A flashing question mark or globe appears when you start your Mac - Apple Support
Fro you description of the sound it may be that your HD failed.

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6730b boot problem. Flash icon lights up 11 times. No screen. [RAM missing. ?]

Yesterday my father gave me his friend's laptop for me to look into why it isn't booting. I removed the HD, tried to reseat the RAM modules. When I wanted to remove the RAM I was in shock when I saw it didn't have any. I suppose that's an expansion slot?
tips via http://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Notebook-Hardware-e-g-Windows-8/HP-6735s-won-t-boot-power-LED-blinks-7-...
The flash icon blinks 11 times till it turns white on the 12th time after which the ( i ) LED (on the right to the power button) flashes once.

NesteaZen wrote:
The notebook still isn't working and it's lying unscrewed next to me.
The RAM is there. It was the expansion slot that puzzled me.
Another member said one of his notebook's screws caused some sort of short. I couldn't find such a screw.
Do HP notebooks work without their batteries?
I browsed the 6730b manuals and guides but there wasn't a list explaining the meaning
of how often a light is blinking.
This was the only sentence with some sort of a help.
Blinking amber: A battery that is the only available power
source has reached a low battery level. When the battery
reaches a critical battery level, the battery light begins blinking
rapidly.
Thank you for your time AttackofZaq.
Hello again!
I'll be honest, I do not recognize that blink pattern. Most consumer notebooks made by HP follow a set pattern for the blink codes, which you can view here. None of these match your error.
It may be a good idea to post your question on the HP Business Boards. These forums deal specifically with Enterprise products (such as this notebook) and may be able to offer insight which I do not have. Here is a link to the boards.
Have a great day!
Please click the white star under my name to give me Kudos as a way to say "Thanks!"
Click the "Accept as Solution" button if I resolve your issue.

My apple tv 1st gen will not boot up the light just keeps flashing yellow

I turned the power on to my 1st gen apple tv about a week ago and the indicator light just kept flashing yellow it would not boot up I tried unplugging it letting it cool and plugging it back in, I left it plugged in for the day and it still wouldn't boot, I listened for hard drive clicking there was none, I looked at the Ifixit teardown and saw what looked like a CMOS battery, I've had a pc before with the same symptoms and replaced the battery and everything worked fine after. If anyone can provide a second opinion it would be much appreciated.

Welcome to the Apple Community.
The most likely problem is a hardware failure.

Macbook Air mid-2013 suddenly not booting - showed battery icon then died

Hi all,
This morning, I used my Macbook Air (mid-2013) to send an email and check up on my usual stuff, nothing I've not done hundreds of times. I then closed the lid and went to work. Again, nothing I've never done before.
When I got home though, I opened the Macbook and it didn't wake up, which I thought was odd. So I pressed the power button. For a few seconds, it showed an icon in the middle of a black screen that was related to the battery - sorry I can't recall exactly what it looked like, its the first time I've seen it, but it showed an empty battery with a small red part of it left - obviously understood as meaning the battery was flat.
I was puzzled at this; it should have been asleep since I'd closed the lid, how could it have run out? I was only gone for about 8 hours as well, I usually get more battery life than that out of it when I'm actually using it, never mind when its sleeping.
But I thought whatever, and plugged it in for a few minutes to charge it up enough to turn on and maybe see why it had done this. The orange light came on the Magsafe end, but after a few minutes, still nothing.
Cue much panicking and looking around at things, and this is what I've discovered/tried:
- The battery appears to be charging, the light eventually went green.
- When I press the power button, the Mac does power on; I can hear the fan inside if I put my ear to it (note that this means its really quiet, its not blowing at full power or anything), and the Mac is getting hot on the left hand side where the power adapter plugs in. It turns on both when plugged in and when its not. So the battery has power and the machine is turning on, it just isn't booting or doing anything. I can turn it off if I hold the power button down for about 3 seconds, the fan stops. But everything else is completely unresponsive. Also, it gets quite hot pretty quick, hotter than it normally does when in use.
- I've reset the SMC, several times. When I do this, the light on the Magsafe goes green for a second, then back to orange, as though I've just plugged it in. I guess this means it is responding to the SMC reset, but it does nothing in terms of getting the thing started. This is the first thing people suggest with this problem, but I've already done it and while it seems to be doing its thing, it doesn't fix the problem.
- I've tried resetting the PRAM/NVRAM. This has no noticeable affect on anything.
- I've tried holding a bunch of different keys when starting up (cmd+R etc.) but again, nothing.
- I've tried something crazy suggested in another thread; leaving the Macbook partially opening and shaking it, which supposedly does something to the "sudden motion sensor". I wouldn't have tried this but a whole bunch of people said it worked for them, but it does nothing for me. The fact this step didn't work is why I made a new thread; because the issue with those people seemed to be that their Macs wouldn't wake up from sleep/hibernation and shaking it somehow did that, or they just magically woke up on their own.
And at this stage I seem to have run out of thing to try.
I've made an appointment at the Genius bar but the earliest they could do is Saturday, which is pretty crappy and I'm going travelling in less than 2 weeks, so I really need my Macbook to sort out the details since a lot of info about it is on there exclusively.
Does anyone know any reason why this might have happened?
Why would the battery drain so fast when it was supposed to be sleeping?
Why will it now not boot at all, even though it's powering up in some way? Could it not booting be related to the fact the battery seemed to run completely flat, and this has done something to the software or hardware?
Any suggestions beyond what I've tried already?
If I can't get it working before my Genius appointment, I'll post what happens here just in case any one else has this issue so people will have an idea of what might have happened to them.
Thanks in advance!

olliemilne wrote:
- I've tried holding a bunch of different keys when starting up (cmd+R etc.) but again, nothing.
You could try booting the MBP using the OPTION+COMMAND+R keys and see if it will connect to the Apple servers. This would allow you to install the original OSX . I have my doubts though.
- I've tried something crazy suggested in another thread; leaving the Macbook partially opening and shaking it, which supposedly does something to the "sudden motion sensor".
The Sudden Motion Sensor is applicable for conventional Hard Drives, not the SSD that is in a MBA. Doing that will serve no useful purpose.
You have exhausted all reasonable options and will just have to have the MBA evaluated at the genius bar.
Ciao.

My Macbook aliminium unibody from late 2008 will not boot. I reach the grey screen with the apple icon and the spinning grey gear. I used disk utility to boot it but it said integrity test failed. I don't know what to do can anyone please help?

My Macbook aliminium unibody from late 2008 will not boot. I reach the grey screen with the apple icon and the spinning grey gear. I used disk utility to boot it but it said integrity test failed. I don't know what to do can anyone please help?

Sounds like you may have a harddrive issue. You are probably going to need to get that changed out and then install the OS X again to get it going.

Xserve will not boot up, all lights flash rapidly

Just bought a lightly used Intel Xserve. This unit was in a business that failed, and was set up, but never used. Was powered off and unplugged for approximately 18 months. When we tried to plug it up to check it out & configure it, we noticed the following:
System will not post and won't boot
Hard drives do not appear to spin
CD Drive appears to have no power - will not grab disk
All fans do work, and run on high RPM
All lights on back of server and front of server, as well as next to SDRAM slots, and on back of main board flash / flicker (regular quick flashes, no pattern evident). The only light that does NOT come on at all is the light next to the power button.
Anyone heard of a similar condition? Is this server toast?
Thanks,
Rob Hogan

I'm sorry to say I don't have a solution, but I can commiserate.
I have a G5 and two G4's, and so far within a few days / couple of weeks of getting them home and getting them up and running, they seem to fail.
Usually spectacularily.
The G5 operates very much as yours in that power on, fans rev high, and no post or other activity; I don't get any system light status action however other than flashing. I've replaced CPU's and logic board on this.
The single CPU G4's does much the same, but this I've had up and running and then it went down when I upgraded the memory to max (very careful to make sure it was within Apple spec's), and despite swappinbg the original memory back in,nothing.
My latest, a dual core G4, was bought in working order, and I upgraded this from 10.4 to 10.5. Running nicely as a internet gateway. Went away for weekend so put it into sleep mode. Came back, power button on front panel stopped working, and one of the raid slices on the system drive failed.
Tried to repair this and system now no longer boots, but freezes on loading OS (spinning disc stops in mid spin) and it will not boot from installation disc via firewire or internal DVD drive (swapped in a replacement to ensure it works). The installation disc stops at the apple splash screen, but goes no further.
I can, helpfully, get into Open Firmware mode, so something is working on some level. Sadly, I can't seem to find a copy of the Apple Hardware Test for this machine (see my post on this) to check it out.
I can tell you that I'm getting very adept at working with Xserve hardware, if not very effectively.
My working hypothesis on this is that there is some issue with these units being used 27/7x365 for however long, and then being left 'off' for a prolonged period.
Thinking that whilst they are designed to operate reliably as constantly on and working under load, so facet of being 'off' breaks 'something'.
If really pushed to go out on a limb, I'd theorise that under load the electronics/IC's settle into position, but then when switched off things cool down, contract, and causes weaknesses in electrical connections to occur. When next used, these then start to fail, giving a pattern of initial operability followed by delayed failure with a cascade of increasingly servere symptoms until terminal failure is reached.
But that is wild, uneducated, conjecture.
So, no help, but I comiserate.
XD Andy
btw, is anyone has some useful advice for me on where to find the AHT 2.0.1 for Xserve or even just the part number ... ... ...

MacBook pro will not boot. I get the gray screen, an apple icon and spinning wheel. Tried to start in safe mode but get the same screen. The only thing different was that I loaded the zedge sync app yesterday. Now getting this problem.

Macbook pro will not boot. I get the gray screen, an apple icon and spinning wheel. I tried to start in safe mode, but get this same screen. The only thing different is that I added the zedge update app to do a sync for adding ringtones to my apple cell phone. How can I get a good boot. I am fairly new to apple computer.

Reset PRAM: http://support.apple.com/kb/PH4405 and then try a normal boot.
Run the Startup Manager to select Startup disk: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1310
If those did not work your disk may be sick or dying. The top priority at this point is to make a backup copy of your data.
Check the health of the disk. Boot in Recovery Mode (Boot, Command-R). Run Disk Utility. Click on the upper left disk icon. Does the S.M.A.R.T. status say “Verified”? If not the disk/SSD is unhealthy and needs to be replaced. Even if it does not show “Verified” you can still attempt a backup.
Click on the icon indented below, usually called “Macintosh HD” and Verify Disk. If it finishes with a green “OK” message then all is well with the disk. If it shows errors in red then you have found a problem to address once the system is backed up. Do not attempt software repairs until you have secured the data.
If the disk will not show up at all in Disk Utility as your ran the tests above then it may be dead or it may have a bad internal SATA cable. A trip to an Apple store for confirmation would be in order.
If you have an external disk drive you can use as a backup drive then do so. If not Google “Hitachi USB 3.0 external hard drive 1TB” to purchase one or go to a brick-and-mortar store (including an Apple store) to pickup one. Any 1 TB external drive will do.
Assuming it is still breathing you can try to recover the data without booting from the sick disk.
Reformat the external disk. (This will erase all data on the external disk.)
Boot in Recovery Mode. Start Disk Utility. Plug in the new disk. Select it’s disk Icon (the second one down, left justified). Select the Partition tab.
Partition Layout > Single Partition
Name: Emergency Recovery 1 (or whatever name you wish to use)
Format: Mac OS Extended (journaled)
Options… > GUID Partition Table > OK
Apply
Select the Restore tab.
Drag the old system volume (Macintosh HD) to Source.
Drag the new disk volume (Emergency Recovery 1) to Destination.
Click on Restore.
It may take a long time for the backup.
If that will not complete post back for other emergency data recovery methods, including those from a brody.
If the backup succeeds, use the First Aid tab in Disk Utility to select the old volume (Macintosh HD) and Repair Disk. If it does not finish with a green OK message try to repair it once or twice more. If it repairs with a green OK message, will it boot normally? If not, boot from the Recovery Partition and reinstall OS X.
If it is still not healthy, post back for further instructions.

Macboook pro will not boot up. I get a flashing "?" How do I resolve this?

My Macbook Pro will not boot from the HD. I have a flashing "?" when it tries to boot. How do I resolve this?

Get your OS X install DVD, reboot holding down the "C" key, see if you can use disk utility to verify & repair your hard drive.,

Mac Pro will not boot, power light flashes once and then Mac switches off

One of our Mac Pro's will not boot. When pressing the power button the light will come on briefly and the Mac will just turn off again.
I have unplugged the power cable and held down the power button for 10 seconds but this did not help.
Any suggestions for me before I call up Apple?

Most indications from flashing power lights are telling you that there is not enough working memory to start up.

Laptop will not boot, no display and flashing caps key

Hi,
I am attemping to repair a laptop for a family member, their baby threw up on the keyboard, although after they cleared it up they said it was still working (booting into windows, mouse working etc). They took the old keyboard out themselves but it looks like they were a bit heavy handed with it; there are quite a few scratches on the metal plate underneath the keyboard and the plastic surround. I have not yet been able to confirm if the laptop was still booting after the keboard was removed.
Anyway - I went to their house to do what I thought was going to be a relatively easy job, simply connecting the new keyboard. Now the laptop will not boot, there is no display on the screen and we get a flashing CAPS/F12 key. I have looked at the table for LED codes, but I am not sure if it is one flash lots of times, or six flashes. The warranty has also run out so sending to HP not really an option.
There are six short flashes, with quite a long pause between each one. After this the laptop powers off and after another pause turns itself back on and starts over. If it is one flash (CPU) then I guess they must have shafted something on the board by shoving the screwdriver in underneath the keyboard to prise it away from the laptop. There is however not an awful lot of stuff exposed - there is a fairly substancial metal plate under where the keyboard would sit to protect the laptop.
I am hoping at the moment that it is showing six flashes - which is BIOS authentication error. I am not that familiar with HP products, but could this be caused by installing a non-genuine keyboard? The keyboard looks the same from the top, but was bought for less than a tenner on ebay.
If anybody has any ideas that would be great.
Aaron

Hi there,
I have a link of HP support that you may have a look and try to find out what exact the problem of you PC, good luck.
And let me know what have you find out.
It is:
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?cc=au&dlc=en&docname=c01443371&lc=en&product=4115148& tmp_track_link=ot_search
Tomme

IPod nano 6th generation: "Do not disconnect" on white screen w/flashing icon; previously "Connected-Eject before Disconnecting" on dark screen w/USB icon; no content on iPod

Trouble began with "Reconnect to iTunes to Restore" message after I inadvertantly held down the Wake/Sleep button long enough to turn the iPod off before pausing the podcast in progress.
My subseqent actions to try to remedy:
-Restored the iPod
-while Restoring, the rotating circular arrows and "Synchronizing-Do Not Disconnect" screen appeared followed by "Connected-Eject Before Disconnecting"
-when I ejected the iPod and disconnected it, the normal icons showed but there was no content
-Reinstalled the latest iTunes 11.0.3 which I had downloaded previously a few days before my problems began
-Restored iPod again: still said "Connected-Eject before Disconnecting"
-Manually put the iPod into Disk Mode (said to be helpful in troubleshooting): "Do Not Disconnect" on white screen with flashing icon (circle with diagonal line)
-Ejected and disconnected the iPod.
-Reconnected the iPod: same message

You need to either the let the iPod finishing syncing with iTunes, or figure out what application is still using it in the back ground that prevents you from being able to properly eject the device. Just unplugging it from the computer is almost always going to cause issues when it's still in use by iTunes or another application.
So let's connect the device to iTunes one more time and let it finish restoring. Then try syncing a bit of content over to it and wait for it to finish the sync process. Then try to properly eject it from iTunes this time.
B-rock

HT1366 Macbook does not boot green light flashes for few secends

My MacBook do not boot when I press power button. The green light on the side flashes for few secends.

Dear Apple-Friends! Dear Imola!
Thank you so much for your Memorial Day Super Fast Answer. Nothing has helped though and right now the support line is closed as it is 11:10 p.m. local time. will call them tomorrow morning and see what we can do. But this ***** so much, I waited 2 weeks for the machine to arrive, almost two weeks 'cause I bought it the moment it arrived in the online store.
I called Apple USA but they are closed because of Memorial Day. ;-(
Tough luck, I guess!
Cheers,
Constantin

Display Icon not shown during a Flash is running

Hi,
I have a Display Icon with text, which is shown all the time.
Only during the Flash movies are running, I want it not shown,
because the Flashs have the same dimensions as the presentation
window.
So I tried it with a variable. I gave the Display Icon the
variable "showText", so when "showText :=1" the text is shown; :=0
the text is not shown. Before the Flash movie Icon I set it to not
shown :=0, but it doesn't work!
Another solution is to erase the Display Icon before the
Flash movie Icon and to put it in again after the Flash Icon, so
that the text is to be shown again. But it will be plenty of work,
because I have many Flashs!
Does anyone has an idea, how I can handle this?
Many thank's for help!
hannah

What if you set the display icon layer lower than the flash
layer. That way when the flash loads you will not see the display
icon contents and when you erase the flash the display icon is
still there.

Why does my Logic Icon have a question mark over it and will not boot up??

Why does my Logic Icon have a question mark over it and will not boot up??

Because it was moved, renamed, or deleted, and needs to be put back or reinstalled.
(107320)

G3 will not boot flashing image

hi i have an imac 400 mhz g3 dv edition, just put a new hard drive in, turned on imac and
got a small envelope and face flashing in the centre of the screen will not boot up from disc help anyone know why?

So you say you installed a fresh new hard drive and turned on the iMac.
Does it have an OS installed on it?
Seriously, assuming you +did remember+ to install an OS, which one? Which iMac G3 do you have (slot loader or tray loader CDROM drive)? How big is the hard drive?
If you are saying you are trying to boot from an installation disc, hold down the C key when you start it up and it should boot from the optical drive.

Flashing Icon - not booting

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