G5 acting very strange and now will not get past grey screen with Apple log

Hi I have had my iMac G5 for a few years and it was working perfectly up until today ! When I switched it on and it started playing up. Every application I opened would randomly shut down. For instance, Safari would crash and mail would crash, as well as the finder refreshing itself. This settled after a short while. Therefore I thought things were fine until I pressed the < or > buttons in finder and the system would refresh itself ! Weird ! Fortunately I backed up all of my iTunes.
I can see the hard drive when I hook it up via firewire to my MacBook Pro.
The problem I have now is that the machine will not boot up ! It gets stuck on the grey screen and after a short while the fans kick in like the thing is ready for take off !
Any ideas ?????
Thanking you in advance !

Apple Discussions!
Which model G5 iMac do you have?
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=301724-en How to identify your iMac
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=Mac/10.4/en/mh355.html Getting information about your computer
Depending on your model, try one of the following:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=301733 (Ambient Light Sensor), iMac G5 (iSight): How to Reset the SMU
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=300341 How to reset the SMU on a Power Mac G5 (Late 2004) or Power Mac G5 (Late 2005)
If the above does not work, see if you qualify for one of the following:
iMac G5 Repair Extension Program for Video and Power Issues
The 20-inch iMac G5 Repair Extension Program for Power Supply Issues (Rev B)
**WARNING: DUE TO SECURITY REASONS, PLEASE DO NOT POST YOUR COMPUTER'S SERIAL NUMBER ON THESE MESSAGE BOARDS.**
If you do not qualify for any of the above programs hopefully, you have AppleCare and/or your computer is still under warranty & you should contact Apple and/or your local AASP.
Good luck!

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I Shut down my Mac by holding in the power button after my iMac froze and now when I try to turn it back it on all I get is the grey screen with Apple loge and the timer and doesn't get any further. I have tried the diagnostic test but nothing was found.

Take each of these steps that you haven't already tried. Stop when the problem is resolved.
To restart an unresponsive computer, press and hold the power button for a few seconds until the power shuts off, then release, wait a few more seconds, and press it again briefly.
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 a desktop Mac hangs at a plain gray screen with a movable cursor, the keyboard may not be recognized. Press and hold the button on the side of an Apple wireless keyboard to make it discoverable. If need be, replace or recharge the batteries. If you're using a USB keyboard connected to a hub, connect it to a built-in port.
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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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
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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.
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If can get your MBP started, delete all traces of the offending software. Worst case is that you may have to erase the HDD and reload the OS and your user data. I trust that you have a backup (minus MacTuneUp).
Courcoul has given you his opinion in a very succinct manner, and as you might surmise, I agree with him.
Ciao.

17 MacBook Pro is not booting up. Won't get passed grey screen with Apple wheel spinning below.

17 MacBook Pro is not booting up. Won't get passed grey screen with Apple wheel spinning below.

You may be having a hardware problem that you cannot resolve on your own. Nevertheless...
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Mac Pro - Mid 2010
Processor 2 x 2.66 GHz 6-Core Intel Xeon
Memory 8 GB 1333 MHz DDR3 ECC
Graphics ATI Radeon HD 5870 1024 MB
Software Mac OS X Lion 10.7.2 (11C74)
This is a brand new machine that I just purchased from Apple. It was delivered yesterday
The old computer is an old PowerMac G5, but my OS X install disc is a retail version of 10.5.
I also tried the OS X 10.5 install disc that came with my MacBook Pro (2.6 Ghz Intel Core 2 Dual).
Same issue - nothing but a grey screen when the system tries to boot from the DVD

Macbook Pro won't boot past grey screen with Apple logo and then shuts off

This is a long story...
This morning, I would turn it on and it'd go to the grey screen with the Apple logo for a few seconds and then go to the icon that is a circle with a line through it. After reading online, I was able to boot it up in Safe Mode. I messed around a little bit in system preferences thinking I could fix it on my own, not really knowing what I was doing (I'm a *******). I went to Startup Disk in Preferences. I chose the MAC OS X, xxxx and then clicked the lock to prevent further changes and then clicked restart.
Now when I turn on the macbook, it goes to the grey screen with the Apple logo for at least two-three minutes and then just shuts off. Won't boot into Safe Mode now. Please help. I already tried the Command-Option-P-R keys trick like five times.

If you have a full retail DVD for 10.6 you can boot from that by holding the C key during startup...but you will then be in install mode if that is what you want to do. At least go ahead and see if it will boot ok from the 10.6 disk and then you can decide what you want to do further.
Apple does not have 10.5 for sale anymore from what some other users have said on here so if you want to go that route you will have to find a copy for sale such as from eBay or one of the Mac resellers.
Before taking the machine to someone, try booting from 10.6 and see if that works...that way you can narrow down problems the machine may be having.

I LOADED NEW HARD DRIVE IN MY MAC PRO AND NOW I'M GETTING A GREY SCREEN!

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Did the computer ship originally with a Tiger 10.4.x system, and was the Snow Leopard 10.6
disc used to upgrade the OS from 10.4 to 10.6? Or are you using a Leopard 10.5 disc?
Sometimes an error can result when reinstalling a later OS in a computer that had been
running an older computer, when the former setup had seen a firmware update. And in
a few other situations, if 10.5 was skipped, and OS 10.4 to 10.6 was the path, a few users
had noted problems later on. Since you did not note if the computer was new enough to
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There is some conflicting (or missing information) in your posts; just enough
to see the problem may be in what you have and how you are using it.
Is the latest software version you have a full retail version of the OS X, or was it an upgrade
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Was a firmware update performed on the computer with the other installation of this software
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There are details missing in this discussion which may pertain to the outcome.
{And I pointed out your new thread on this same topic to forum moderators, since
you already had this one with replies; as duplicate questions are often not helpful.
That was in the Tiger 10.4 discussions area.}
Good luck & happy computing!
{ edited }

Macbook won't boot past grey screen with Apple logo and spinning wheel.

For some reason, after about 1 year and 10 months of owning my Macbook, it decided this morning not to load past the grey screen with the Apple logo and spinning cog/wheel.
I used it for a couple of hours beforehand, and it was working fine. Software Update prompted me of about about 4 or 5 updates; I can't remember exactly what was downloaded, but I think there was a Security Update and iTunes among them. I restarted, left it to install with no errors, but when I logged in, Safari and iTunes were running incredibly slowly. I also noticed that the volume keys weren't responding, as well as the power key to bring up the "Sleep, Restart, Shutdown, etc" dialog box. I forced shutdown, hoping a restart would solve my problem, and that's when my troubles started. I originally just left it, but after about an hour the wretched thing was still spinning.
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I have booted off my Leopard install disk with both option and c, repaired the hard drive a number of times, with there being no errors whatsoever. I have tried repairing permissions, but everything seems to freeze up, except the mouse.
For some reason my computer will not boot into safe mode, either, and holding cmd & s at startup doesn't get me to the stage where I can enter commands with the keyboard.
Unfortunately, because of my puny 60GB hard drive, I only have 1GB of free space left and cannot reinstall Leopard without wiping my hard drive.
I would greatly appreciate it if anyone could assist me with this unfortunate dilemma. It's such a shame that my computer has been fantastic for so long and now decides to play up. (Maybe it's just Apple trying to get me to buy a new 2.4Ghz aluminium Macbook sooner than I was planning...)
Thanks very much.

Hi ds,
Sorry to hear you're having such trouble!
Unfortunately, the best thing you can do at this point is reinstall Leopard (and then attempt to install the combo updater, too). If you don't have a backup of your machine, you could boot it into Target Disk Mode (by holding down T at startup) and then attach it via FireWire to another computer to salvage your files.
I recently had to repair a machine with this exact same problem, and after messing around with that for several hours, I'd have to say that I think that an Erase and Install is the way to go. If you then migrate over your user data and start having troubles, you at least know where the problem lies. I suspect, though, that having a clean machine with all of the new updates applied will be the end of the issue.
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Hope that helps.
—Hazy

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Hi All
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Hi hitenkacha,
> tired to boot from a windows 7 disk and this does not work
In this case it seems to be a hardware malfunction because a Microsoft Windows disk should also work properly.
> i can try and flash the bios but im not sure how i can do that
This is only possible on Windows because its a Windows based update. Furthermore BIOS update will not help you if the hardware is defective.
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I was using Safari. Got the spinning beachball. Then it quit, followed by Text Edit, and Quicktime player which were running in the backround.
I was able to restart through the Apple menu, and got the Grey Screen of Death(GSoD), with the apple, and no spinning gear.
I had to shut it down using the power button and restarted holding Command-S so that I could run fsck in the Command Line, but it wouldnt go to the command line and all I got was the GSoD.
So, I started the computer from an external firewire drive, (using the option button on startup, which worked), and it booted fine and mounted my internal drive. (All my files appear to be there and are accessible. The good News...)
I ran disk utility, and it said that the internal drive was fine, no repairs needed.
I shut it down,unplugged the power cord and battery, reset the PMU, restarted, zapped the pram, and let it try to load, only to get the GSoD.
Then I booted from the firewire again, ran Techtool Pro (TTP), everything passed. I rebuilt the directory using TTP, restarted and still got the ole GSoD.
Telephone Tech Support made me use the Install disk to restart, and run disk utility, (no problems), and upon rebooting still the GSoD. They said I could take it to the Apple store, or run an archive and install.
I can't do an archive and install, (from home), because my original disk was Panther, and I can't find it, and my Tiger disk is only an upgrade disk. I don't want to do this anyway, and my last resort would be to clone my firewire disk back to my laptop, which I also do not want to do if I don't have to.
I was considering buying Diskwarrior (DW). It used to do miracles for me with OS9, but that was always when the drive wouldn't mount. I don't know how DW does with the ole GSoD, and a disk that mounts, or whether it can be reccomended to deal in this situation.
Any help would be appreciated, as well as anyone who cannot help, but can tell me what is wrong when the computer can't get past the GSoD.
Thanks in advance.
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I wanted to add to my post that I have no third party hardware attached, (RAM, etc.), and disconnected all peripheral devices, only connecting the firewire external to boot the thing.
I also made no recent software installations. The last was the 10.4.8 update on 11/22.
Austin
I looked at that article for <10.3.9
The closest symptom was the blank grey screen. Though it did not mention the addition of the apple like my case. It suggests disk utility, and PMU reset, which I did and didn't help.
I looked at some of the other symptoms fixes for the blue-screen, -OS9 is not installed on the computer, and single user and safe modes also don't work.
I have an appointment at the Apple Store for this afternoon. I have the AppleCare protection plan. What in your opinion can they do, that telephone tech support couldn't suggest, besides performing the archive and install, that I can't do at home, and don't want to do anyway?
Also, seeing as the internal drive does mount, and I can access the data, why do you think that DW might fix it? I know they have a proprietary method, but I did replace the directory with TTP.
DW did perform miracles for me in the past, but then only when the disk wouldn't mount.
Right now my plan is to see the Genius this afternoon, if he's got nothing new to offer, I can buy DW rev 39 at the Apple Store, and run it there.
I guess barring any other advice, if you feel that DW can do the trick, I could buy it before seeing the Genius, and if it works, cancel my appointment.<br>
Powerbook G4 1.67mhz 1gb RAM Mac OS X (10.4.8)

Mac will not boot past Grey Screen

Hello;
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Anyone else have any suggestions? I can't really figure it out and i need this machine up and running. I appreciate the help!

Please make a Genius Appointment and take it in for service.

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