Gray screen (no verbose mode, na target mode, no nothing)
My late 2007 Macbook Pro just freezed on the spinning ball while browsing Internet.
After forced shutdown, I now have the gray screen (without the Apple logo or the spinner) and it won't go past it, while maxing out RPMs on the fans.
Strange thing is that it won't go into verbose mode, safe mode or FW target mode (no reaction on the keys combination).
If I try to force startup drive selection (ALT while booting) it ends up in showing just the mouse pointer (no drives list or even the question mark).
Can't fire up the repair utility from the install CD as my Superdrive has been dead for months now.
Tried reseting the PRAM and nothing changed.
Tried replacing the RAM with the exact 2x512MB factory chips and nothing changed.
Any suggestions?
Thanks in advance.
Try Resetting the System Management Controller (SMC)
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Reinstall OS X. What version do you use?
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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.comI'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 -
OS X 10.8.3 fails to reboot - gray screen
After the 10.8.3 update I am unable to boot mac pro.
I get stuck on a gray screen after hearing the starting chime sound.
Nothing further happens.
My boot volume is a software RAID.
I tried:
-start up manager (option key)
-save mode (shift key)
-recovery mode (command R)
-verbose mode (command V)
-reset of NVRAM
I also had just tried to install a 10.6. system on an older mac via fire wire traget mode.
For this I tried to start my mac pro from the 10.6. disc, which did not work.
How can I reset to boot my mac pro from the internal software raid drives with 10.8.3 installed.
I also have a proper time machine back up, but would like to avoid an entire rebuild.
Would be very happy about any input!Glad you got your Mac fixed. But I hope you realize that an update can always go awry; corrupted download, stray voltage spike in your AC power, even a bug in the Installer of the Update. That's why it's never a good idea to update anything that affects your business for at least a week or even two AFTER the update comes out.
And this applies not just to the OS Update, it may be even more important with an update to one of the apps you need for your business! 8-| There's hardly ever a valid reason to make an Update while working on a clients task. Certainly no reason to make an Update during the work week. That's what Week Ends are for! LOL!
Basic rule for the OS Update, for me, anyway, is to NEVER use the Software Update version. I ALWAYS go to the Apple site and download the Combo Updater. It's often much larger, but it's never failed me. Maybe just that fewer people are hitting that server! Who knows? Who cares?
Second basic rule, WAIT a few weeks to see if there are problems associated with any update. What's the advantage of being the first one on the block with a problem?!
Third basic rule, try the download a second time. Bits/electrons are very slippery! Some have been known to fall out of the Internet "tubes!" -
Early 2011 MBP stuck on gray screen, verbose mode shows SMC error too
Hi!
I have and early 2011 MBP, running on OS 10.7.5 is continuously stuck at grey screen upon start-up.
I tried the steps as mentioned in Mac OS X: Gray screen appears during startup - Apple Support article apart from reinstalling OS X. The laptop started after every step, but then stopped again. I tried SMC update, that also worked for once, and on the second start up I ended up with a blue screen. During a later attempt, it worked again for a while, but ended with a distorted graphics after 15 mins. AHT (short version) doesn't show any hardware errors. Now the laptop doesn't go further than grey screen at all, and after a minute or so there's a heavy fan activity. The verbose mode also shows and SMC error, smc: : smcinithelper error: mmio regmap ==null - fall back to old smc mode (AHT Shows SMC version as 1.69f4)
What do you advise?Try this:
Reset the SMC and the NVRAM:
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201295
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204063
Then try a safe boot:
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201262
Any success?
Ciao. -
Macbook Pro 2009 has gray screen, safe mode won't work
I have a Macbook Pro 2009, with a new hard drive installed in August of 2013. I opened my computer a couple days ago to a gray screen with a prohibitory sign and a spinning gear that will not disappear. I have no backup and tried to backup my hard drive to an external drive in Recovery Mode, but I got an error message and the backup did not work: the image could not be created. So I decided to try Safe Mode, but the Macbook will not enter safe mode. Is there any way to get onto the computer just to backup a handful of files onto an external drive before I format my drive and start over? Am I doing something wrong by trying to enter safe mode? (I held down the Shift key after the chime and released it when the Apple logo and the gear appeared) Any help is appreciated. I've read all the topics in the forums I could find on this issue, but none of the directions seem to help. Thank you.
LisaLoParo,
no, you’re not doing anything wrong in trying to boot into Safe mode.
I can think of three possible alternatives to Safe mode to try:
If you have an external disk, you could boot from the grey Mac OS X Install DVD which came in the box with your MacBook Pro, and try copying files from your internal disk to the external disk;
If you have a bootable external disk, you could boot from it using Startup Manager, and try copying files from your internal disk to the external disk;
If you have access to a FireWire 800 cable and a second Mac with a FireWire 800 port, you could try booting your MacBook Pro into Target Disk mode so that it can be used as an external disk from the second Mac, and try copying files from your MacBook Pro to the second Mac.
You’d only need to try one of these three alternatives; if you try one of them and it doesn’t work, then you’d get the same result by trying either of the other two. Good luck. -
My mac doesnt start. All i get is the gray screen with the apple and the loading icon but nothing more happens. I tried to start it in safe mode but it doesnt help. What can i do?
If you have a external USB enclosure - trying installing your hard drive in that enclosure and connect it to your usb port - restart your macbook while holding down the options key. If you Macbook boots to your desktop then you have a faulty cable. If you get the same error, then your hard drive just died on you.
good luck. -
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. -
My computer has been acting weird lately. Shuts itself off, the mouse goes off in all directions, does not go into sleep mode sometimes, instead shows a gray screen with word definitions in large 3" letters that continuosly flows across the screen. Do I have a virus?
Doesn't really sound like a virus.
See if the Disk is issuing any S.M.A.R.T errors in Disk Utility...
http://support.apple.com/kb/PH7029
How many of these you can answer...
Open Activity Monitor in Applications>Utilities, select All Processes & sort on CPU%, any indications there?
How much RAM & free space do you have also, click on the Memory & Disk Usage Tabs.
Open Console in Utilities & see if there are any clues or repeating messages when this happens.
In the Memory tab, are there a lot of Pageouts? -
My MacBook Pro will not start. When I started it goes to a gray screen with the Apple logo and has the spinning dial. When I started in safe mode it will not start. In safe mode it as an error message that says MacBook Launch_msg(): Socket is not connected
If running 10.7 or later hold down Command-R at Startup.
This should invoke recovery Mode.
Choose Disk Utility.
Select your Hard drive. Inspect the SMART Status in the lower right of the window for "Verified".
Select the Mac OS X Volume (originally Macintosh HD) click (Repair Disk)
If errors, run again until it comes clean or gets stuck.
Report any error messages. -
It was running slow with the colored spining appearing often. This started happening weeks ago with Yosemite so I formatted the disk with the DVDs that came with the mid 2011 MacBook pro, 10.6.8. I then installed Yosemite on an external drive and this morning i was booted from the external hd with Yosemite and it stopped recognizong mouse clicks so I forced a restart and now I'm stuck with the blank grey screen. Safe mode and verbose mode also do not work.
Lao Bo,
yes, you can locate and copy a file from your HD to a USB key using UNIX commands. If you know the exact name of the file which you’re trying to locate, try this:
find / -iname filename -print
This command will search your entire internal disk for the particular filename. If you know that it’s within a particular user account, then you can save search time with this variation:
find /Users/username -iname filename -print
Either variation of this command will print all files found which have the given filename. Presuming that you’re able to identify the correct file, you can copy it to a USB key using the command
cp -p filename_returned_by_find /Volumes/USB_volume
If you’re not sure which volume name your USB key has, this command will show you what the possibilities are:
ls /Volumes
Please let me know if you have any trouble with these commands. -
My 4 year old macbook won't boot up. Stays in the same mode . Gray screen, apple logo and spinning wheel. Tried booting in safe mode but reverts back to same. Also tried resetting by removing battery. Nothing is working!! Any advise before I take it to Apple?
Try this:
Reinstall OS X without erasing the drive
1. Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions
Boot from your Snow Leopard 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 Utilities menu. 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.
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. Reinstall Snow Leopard
If the drive is OK then quit DU and return to the installer. Proceed with reinstalling OS X. Note that the Snow Leopard installer will not erase your drive or disturb your files. After installing a fresh copy of OS X the installer will move your Home folder, third-party applications, support items, and network preferences into the newly installed system.
Download and install Mac OS X 10.6.8 Update Combo v1.1.
Or, if you have Lion or Mountain Lion:
Reinstalling Lion/Mountain Lion Without Erasing the Drive
Boot to the Recovery HD: Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the menu screen appears. Alternatively, restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD and click on the downward pointing arrow button.
Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions: Upon startup select Disk Utility from the main menu. Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions as follows.
When the recovery menu appears select Disk Utility. 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 main menu.
Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion: Select Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion and click on the Continue button.
Note: You will need an active Internet connection. I suggest using Ethernet if possible because it is three times faster than wireless. -
This is the second time this has happened, since installing OS X (9 mos. ago). (I can't recall the fix from the last incident.) Upon waking the pc up from sleep mode, I get a gray screen. Nothing works except using the Command and P & R keys to get to "reinstalling OS X", to no avail. What do I need to do to get it back to normal?
My imac is a 21.5", mid 2011 item.Those keys do not reinstall OS X. To do that:
Reinstall Lion, Mountain Lion, or Mavericks without erasing drive
Boot to the Recovery HD:
Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the menu screen appears. Alternatively, restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD and click on the downward pointing arrow button.
Repair
When the recovery menu appears select Disk Utility. 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 click on the Repair Permissions button. When the process is completed, then quit DU and return to the main menu.
Reinstall Mountain Lion or Mavericks
OS X Mavericks- Reinstall OS X
OS X Mountain Lion- Reinstall OS X
OS X Lion- Reinstall Mac OS X
Note: You will need an active Internet connection. I suggest using Ethernet
if possible because it is three times faster than wireless.
COMMAND-OPTION-P-R keys resets the PRAM. OS X keyboard shortcuts. -
Grey screen on startup - verbose mode:"We are hanging here..."! Please help
Dear everybody!
I'm cross-posting from the iBook forum, because I found some helpful posts over here after posting my problem there. I hope someone can help with these NEWS:
Here´s the short version:
Two days ago freeze during dragging a pdf to a USB storage. I shut down all other apps, then also finder, iBook becme unresponsive, so I shut it down with the power button. Since then, I permanently get the grey screen with four language "You need to restart your computer..." on normal startup, no problems starting in safe mode, but then some other strange things happen (e.g. no volume adjustable, no speakers and no mic in sound prefs).
AHT from original disc: no problems found
Tried Command S during startup with fsck -fy, same problem on reboot.
Tried Verbose mode, below is the very interesting last lines:
Latest stack backtrace for cpu 0:
Backtrace:
0x000954F8 0x00095BF8 0x00026898 0x0028D204 0x00296090 0x0029585C 0x0029929C 0x00292520
0x00297790 0x00297C24 0x002ABDB8 0x000ABD30 0x02461200
Proceeding back via exception chain:
Exception state (sv=0x3154D500)
PC=0x9002FD20; MSR=0x0200F030; DAR=0x0007B39E; DSISR=0x00002C1B; LR=0x9002F95C; R1=0xBFFFF8F0; XCP=0x00000030 (0xC00 - System call)
Kernel version:
Darwin Kernel Version 8.11.0: Wed Oct 10 18:26:00 PDT 2007; root:xnu-792.24.17~1/RELEASE_PPC
panic: We are hanging here...
Am I having a kernel panic? If yes, why does the console panic log not state any panic since more than a year? What's my next step?
Thanks for any useful ideas in advance!
KeywanAs for now, only thing that helped was an archive and install with preserve user settings. Seems after the reinstall of 10.4. everything that was weird has become normal again. I hope very much this state stays on for a while - or ever!
A comment to everybody: with problems that are common you get a lot of help from friendly users in here, but if like in my situation things get a bit more uncommon than the usual querks and troubles your bound to go through a whole workflow of tests and algorithms - i did learn some new things but eventually I had to go for the ultimate - the reinstall (of course, erase and install would have been more work.) and it's frustrating not to find out how it came to this problem. I wish I could nail it down to something I did mistakenly - i guess I'll find out next time.
THANKS THOUGH to those who replied.
Keywan -
Installed Mavericks - restarted, but didn't finish iphoto update - force quit - restart gray screen stall, powers off - safe mode says disk full -recovery mode says mac and receovery HDs locked - verify disk says - recovery ok - repair says no live support?
When you see a beachball cursor or the slowness is especially bad, note the exact time: hour, minute, second.
These instructions must be carried out as an administrator. If you have only one user account, you are the administrator.
Launch the Console application in any of the following ways:
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
☞ Open LaunchPad and start typing the name.
The title of the Console window should be All Messages. If it isn't, select
SYSTEM LOG QUERIES ▹ All Messages
from the log list on the left. If you don't see that list, select
View ▹ Show Log List
from the menu bar at the top of the screen.
Each message in the log begins with the date and time when it was entered. Scroll back to the time you noted above.
Select the messages entered from then until the end of the episode, or until they start to repeat, whichever comes first.
Copy the messages to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C. Paste into a reply to this message by pressing command-V.
The log contains a vast amount of information, almost all of it useless for solving any particular problem. When posting a log extract, be selective. A few dozen lines are almost always more than enough.
Please don't indiscriminately dump thousands of lines from the log into this discussion.
Please don't post screenshots of log messages—post the text.
Some private information, such as your name, may appear in the log. Anonymize before posting.
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