G4 gray screen, pin wheel

new to mac.
installed microsoft laser mouse 6000, prompted to reboot system after installation. upon the system rebooting in came up to the gray apple on the screen, then the pinwheel or gearwheel appeared, and no further action taken by the system. locked in limbo. tried clear-all function at the prompt with no results. what to do, what to do.

Hello mac_john:
Welcome to Apple discussions.
I suggest you boot from your software install DVD and run repair disk.
When things are running again, I also suggest you update to OS X 10.4.10 - if your profile is correct.
Barry

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Question about the gray screen and wheel that keeps on spinning !

After an update (I now have Mavericks 10.9.3) Safari froze. I tryed starting it again, nothing.
I restarted my computer (imac early 2008) and got a gray screen,an apple logo and a spinning pin wheel!
I could get into Disk Utility to 'verify and repair', everything was apparently OK.
I saw a letter from a few years ago (where it was from, i can'nt remember) it suggested restarting with cammand+v
to show where the fault was, it then scolled down a lot of witten material and stoppe at :-    'Bootcachecontrol : unable
to open/var/db/Boot cache. Playlist :2 no such file or dirictory.     I have no idea what it means !
Can anybody help me ? I miss my Mac !
Best Wishes from Jonathan Sandberg.

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

Mac boot issue; gray screen, spinning wheel, and progress bar

Recently I shut down my Mac only to find when I tried turning it back on it was very slow and unresponsive. I proceeded to shut down a couple more times and this resulted in a gray screen upon startup with a spinning wheel, apple logo, and a progress bar. The progress bar did not fill at all at first, and as I left my laptop for about 40 minutes, it still hadn't moved. I proceeded then to boot in recovery and tried to repair my disk. This resulted in another issue, and would not repair, so I decided to just erase my HD, since there was not anything important on it anyways. I really just wanted my laptop to turn on so I could start my paper. Well it wouldn't erase my hard disk and this led to me becoming very impatient and just quitting the process. On the next attempt to boot in recovery, the hard disk doesn't even show up. Only the recovery disk (previously there were two disks as options, as well as the wifi selection). I'm now using safari through the recovery option. I'd like to simply get my computer back. If i can't get anywhere on here, i'm just going to bring it to the apple store and return it, most likely, as i've had nothing but problems with this thing. I've had it since the middle of September, and I can't hardly believe i've already encountered such an issue. Any help is much appreciated. Thanks.

I'd make a trip to the Apple Store - your hard disk may be dying (the Recovery partition is very small) or there might be something corrupt in your system. They'll be able to evaluate it.
Clinton

IMac shuts down after gray screen/spinning wheel

Every time I start my iMac G5, I hear the chime and then see the gray screen Apple with the spinning wheel, but then it shuts down, never making it to the blue screen and desktop.
Can anyone tell me what the cause of this might be?
Thanks!

Are you able to boot into safe mode? Are you able to boot from your OSX installation disk?

Gray Screen w/ Wheel...Tried Everything...

I am trying to repair a computer from work that was about to be tossed. It's an older Mac. I am not sure what version of OS X it is running as it doesn't go past the gray screen with the wheel. The first few times I turned it on, it went all the way to the alternating blue screens with the cursor appearing and not appearing.
I've tried resetting permissions in single user mode. I've tried rebooting from a USB (it never recognized it), I've tried rebooting from a CD that I have from my MacBook which is around the same age. It doesn't allow me to enter safe mode. I can only enter single user mode. I run fsck and by the second time it says the volume is ok. There is no recovery hd option either. Is there any hope for getting this computer back up and going?
Thanks

Please carefully read Apple's advice article on Gray screen appears during startup

Gray screen, spinning wheel and nothing else

Man if it ain't one thing its another lol. just recently bought a early 2009 Mac Pro with 12 GB memory, 4 hard drives (total 8TB) stock graphics board and one superdrive (stock) and one pioneer Blue ray drive installed, the system had been running fine until I rebooted last night. I had added the program pathfinder and it was running fine before rebooting so that is the only thing I can think of that I have added to the system since the last reboot. anyway now all i get is the gray screen with the apple in the center and the spinning wheel near the bottom of the screen. I even tried rebooting holding down the "shift" key and the only difference is I got a hollow bar centered near the bottom along with the apple and spinning wheel above it. it started filling in the center and then half way through it went away and once again I was where I was with all the other attempts to boot the system. Can someone give me an idea of what is causing the problem and some possible solutions.
Thank you
Ed

OK I've tried rebooting using the shift key, no luck same gray screen and spinning wheel
tried booting using the cmd+shift= V keys, nothing at all
then I tried cmd+shift= V to watch what was happening dfuring a safe reboot and it came to the line
unable to open: /var/db/bootcache.playlist: 2 no such file or directory
then nothing. I have also disconnected all usb externals while doing all this.
I'm beginning to think that the new (boot) hard drive is having an issue and am trying to figure out how to boot from an external back up of the boot drive.

Gray screen, spinning wheel of death?

Hi - I have poked around a little hoping someone else might have had this exact problem, and I do apologize if this has been posted before. Anyway-
My sister had a hard drive failure on her ibook G4; the Apple store just replaced her hard drive. Her symptom was the grey spinning wheel, which just kept spinning for five minutes. When I got her computer back a couple of days ago, the extra memory chip I'd gotten from OWC had been removed. The Apple techs gave us a note stating this had caused her problems.
Of course, I got worried because my trusty g3 has a similar chip in it! I'd bought them both from OWC at the same time and had someone (who was rather rough - but I couldn't get it in myself) install them for us. So I grabbed the Techtool Deluxe disk from work, booted from the disk, and ran the tests. Everything passed except that there was some volume damage. I then elected to let techtool repair the drive - which took forever. Stupidly, perhaps, I aborted the repair about 3/4 of the way through and checked my email. (It was then after midnight, and the disk had been spinning away, between tests and repair, for close to five hours.) The machine rebooted and got my mail, but was extremely sluggish. I forced mail to quit, then shut it down. But I had a bad feeling.
This morning, I tried to boot up, and got the normal chime and then the spinning wheel - for five minutes. I could hear no sounds from the hard drive.
Fortunately, I have much of my data saved to my .mac com account and to an external firewire drive. So I haven't lost everything. But I'd really like to save this little machine if I can. I thought about removing the memory chip and trying to boot, but I can't remember if it's the upper chip or the lower one! Should I try to do this? (Taking out one chip at a time?) And should I take it in to have the backup battery replaced (I've owned it for nearly four years now, and, so far as I know, the battery has never been replaced.) Is there anything else I can do, or is this machine dead?
I have the original system disks, Jaguar, and a tiger DVD - not sure, however, if I can boot it from the external dvd drive, or any disk at all at this point. The only symptoms I'd had previously were a failure to shut down after I'd backed up stuff to my idisk and one previous cranky (but perfectly normal, once it got going) startup. I'm afraid I may have made matters worse by interrupting the repair in progress. It's a dual boot g3 700 mhz, running Tiger 10.4.11. Including the possibly defective chip, it has 768 megs of ram. It's been a great machine, and I was counting on having it for another year or two. TIA for your help!

RAM can go bad after it's been working, although it's not that common. I don't think it's ever happened to me. OWC has a lifetime warranty on RAM, so your sister may want to contact OWC.
I installed Tiger from the DVD using my firewire LaCie DVD/CD writer/reader. It's the same way I've installed other programs from DVD, but I never attempted to boot the machine this way.
Since you have to boot from the installation disc to install Tiger, you must have used that external DVD drive to boot the iMac before.
If you can run boot from the Tiger DVD, do so. Then, at the first Installer screen (after language selection), go up to the Installer's menu under Utilities and select to run +Disk Utility+. Then, select the internal drive in the sidebar and run +Repair Disk+ in the +First Aid+ tab. Note if any errors are reported and, if so, see if Disk Utility was able to repair the damaged.
If Disk Utility is not able to fix the error, you can let TechTool have another shot.
Alternately, before any more repair attempts, you can do the following to try to save your data that was not backed up before attempting repair. Start up your iMac in +FireWire Target Disk Mode+.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1661
This procedure turns your iMac into an external FireWire hard drive. Then connect it to your sister's iBook using a regular FireWire cable. The iMac's hard drive will hopefully appear on the iBook's desktop; disk directory damage sometimes prevents startup, but the drive may still be accessible if it's not the startup drive. If it does mount to the iBooks desktop, save off those important files right away.
Once you have all the files you need, the best course of action may be to erase the drive and give the iMac a fresh start.

IMac G4 starts up to gray apple screen progress wheel, then shuts down.

I was trying to boot to an external drive when this started. I was holding down key combinations (I think at the time it was Option-Command-Del), and the screen went black. Power Off.
Now, even after resetting PRAM and PMU, among other things, the same process occurs:
1) I press Power Button.
2) Chimes.
3) Gray screen, progress wheel. Little sound inside. Wheel stops.
4) iMac shuts off by itself.
When trying Verbose mode, I see it says "CPU Halted" the second before it shuts off.
Any ideas, masters of mac?

Try using Disk Utility to repair your startup disk (hard drive) as shown in Dr.Smokes Resolving Disk, Permission, and Cache Corruption.
It's worth trying the repairs several times with fsck or DU, you never know. But, more then likely you will need a more robust utility, DiskWarrior, to repair that fairly serious error. It costs a few bucks, but if your data is worth saving DW may fix it.
We always recommend users, here, have at least one backup drive. I have two bootable backups. I have had backups also go bad, so two seems safer to me!
Cheers!
DALE

On Gray screen boot up I get a filefolder with a ? in it. FLASHING!!

My macbook kept locking up. Then the next phase was when I would force quit and turn it off it sounds like it is going to boot up then no apple gray screen or wheel turning just a file folder with a question mark in it that flashes. I tried to boot up from a disk and reinstall OS X but it won't give me a destination to click to continue with the install. I also did the reset holding down PR and OPTION COMMAND. That worked one time then it just all started over again. Now I can't get the disc to come out and I am stuck on the install screen. Please help.

Almost the exact thing happened to me a little over a month ago. I checked with the install disk, which couldn't find my hard drive, and it turned out it was totally gone. Kaput. No way to recover my data, and my last backup was from July...
The Genius at the store was great, though - he gave me a new hard drive for free and installed Leopard for me while I shopped elsewhere.

When I turn on my imac all I see is a white screen, the apple icon and a spinning pin-wheel that never stops spinning. My computer is stuck! Any Suggestions?

When I turn on my imac all I see is a white screen, the apple icon and a spinning pin-wheel that never stops spinning. My computer is stuck! Any Suggestions?

Follow all the steps at > Mac OS X: Gray screen appears during startup

White screen with apple logo and rotating pin wheel. Carried to Peach Mac store and it worked perfect. Now it is doing it again.

White screen with Apple logo and rotating pin wheel. Carried unit to Peach Mac and it worked perfect there. Justed started doing this again. Any help?

Have a look at > Mac OS X: Gray screen appears during startup

Shuts down after start tone and grey screen with pin wheel...!???

Hi all, first time here so please bear with me,
even though i have had my imac for so long now, i have only in the last three to four months started playing around with it, i really am a newcomer to macs, and pc's come to that! so far i have only connected up to the internet and put a couple of home video's onto dvd, and play music.
i have been reading a lot of the other posts and frankly i'm lost!
it is about 20 months old and was bought in the uk, i live in cyprus and for that reason i did not purchase an apple plan.
we do not have an apple store here although there is an apple dealer, however they are not soley apple and over here service leaves a lot to be desired! so i am reluctant to take it to them as they are likely to just keep replacing parts and eventually present me with a huge bill!!
anyhow this is the problem:
several times the screen went dim and froze, with a message saying to "push the power button to switch off and and then switch on again", it seems this happened each time when i opened azureus? after this happened a few times it would no longer open the desk top, it would load normally,ie. grey screen with pin wheel followed by blue progress bar and then just a blank blue screen, the blue tooth mouse however was still connected as the cursor would move. it has now changed again! start up tone and grey apple screen with pin wheel for about 30secs or so, then the fan seems to go into turbo mode for a few secs before switching off....i feel sick!! i was really getting to like my mac.
i did recently install tiger, but there were no problems at all with that and it is running on a friends apple with no problems at all, more recently i added more memory which coincided with when i started using torrentspy and azureus,
i did read in another forum something about possible memory probs, so i followed the tip to remove the memory and the back up battery and leave the computer unplugged for 24hrs, i replaced the battery but not the memory, i'm still getting exactly the same shut down result.....
can anyone shed some light on this pleeease? i'm feeling rather desperate right now.....thanks.
imac G5 20inch Mac OS X (10.4) airport card fitted, 1.25gig mem.

Hi ino,
My suspicion is that you have serious hard drive directory corruption caused by the crashes when using azureus.
First step is to see whether you can boot up from your Mac OS X DVD . Put it in the drive while its on, and start up the computer again while holding down the "c" key. The computer should now start up from the DVD.
Select the language you wish to use, and then choose "Disk Utility" from the menu bar (which menu it is in depends on which version of OSX you are using).
Your HD should appear in a panel on the left hand side of the window which opens. Select it and then click on the "repair disk" button in the right hand section of the window.
If Disk First aid is able to complete the repair now click on the "Repair permissions" button.
Once this process has been completed try restarting the computer.
If it still doesn't work, you may have to try an "archive and install", while booted from the OSX DVD.
Be very wary with software like "azureus".
Cheers
Rod

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.

IMac G3 Gray screen w/logo & Spinning Progress Wheel only!

When turning on my iMac G3 DV SE 400, Slot-Load, Graphite (1999-10), OS 10.3 (Panther), it only goes as far as a gray screen with the Apple logo and the spinning wheel (gear) (Progress wheel) below the logo, and that's it.
I've started up in Target Mode and transferred everything to my PowerBook.
I've started up from disk 1 of 10.3, went to Utilities and did a disk repair a few times.
I did a Restore from the same disk, but only that disk; there is no way to eject, except for manual, and then when the second disk is inserted (and re-starting, holding the "C" key), it just goes into the spinning Progress wheel routine.
My next step is to Erase the Hard drive, and then reload the 4-disks of 10.3.
Is this the correct thing to do? Is there something else I should be doing?
I suspect there is a corrupted piece of data that is preventing the computer from advancing during start-up, and erasing and re-loading 10.3 will clear it up. Wishful thinking?
Thanks in advance for any help.

You have already started up from Disc 1 and run Disk Utility from there. All you have to do now is go to the Erase tab. Make sure you have selected the internal DRIVE, not the volume indented below the drive, in the Disk Utility sidebar. If you want to be able to boot Mac OS 9 from the drive, check the checkbox to install Mac OS 9 drivers (there's no harm in checking it either way). Click Erase.
This will reformat the drive and any disk directory error should go away, assuming there are no underlying hardware issues with the drive.
You can then return to Installer and install Mac OS X on a clean drive. This will make any problems you may have had with the previous system go away.
After your system restarts, it would be a good idea to run Disk Utility (from the internal drive) and use the +Repair Disk Permissions+ routine. Then, immediately run Software Update to install the latest OS updates. You may have to restart and run it a second time to pick up all the dependent updates.

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