Gray Screen of Death - trying to save what I can...

Hey Apple Discussion,
My mac has had ZERO problems. Was trying Bootcamp earlier today and couldn't partition.
Restarted computer CMD + R for Disk Utility. Verified then ran repair. Was given the "Disk Utility stopped repairing Macintosh HD". Thought, "that's weird...I don't need bootcamp that badly. I'll deal with this some other time."
Went to Start-Up Disk and there was nothing displayed. Couldn't figure out how to get back to my computer so I shut down.
Got the Grey Screen with the Apple and spinning icon. A fraction of the bar loads then the computer shuts down. Hitting 'shift' - 'shift + CMD + V" nothing works to get in EXCEPT I could hit CMD + R to get back to Disk Utility.
What can I do to try and salvage my files? I had a Time Machine back-up on a terabyte I can't find anymore (recently moved). Nothing else is backed-up. I have a smaller 500GB HD I could possibly use (it's been finicky).
Is there anything I can do from this screen to try and get back to my normal lovely Mac? Or is all hope lost...

About the only suggestion I have would be to pull the drive and put it in an external enclosure to see if you can get files off with another machine. Something like this:
http://www.amazon.com/Vantec-NexStar-2-5-Inch-External-Enclosure/dp/B002JQNXZC/r ef=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1388312417&sr=8-2&keywords=2.5+enclosure

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Hi i am having a big trouble. MY mac wont start past the gray screen. I tried starting on safe boot, single user user mode , recovery mode. Everything it gets stuck on the gray screen i even tried reinstalling it , same thing what should i do?

MY mac wont start past the gray screen. I tried starting on safe boot, single user user mode , recovery mode. Everything it gets stuck on the gray screen i even tried reinstalling it , same thing what should i do? it lets me reinstall sometimes Sometimes.... it is weird.

orshikhfromsc,
boot from the Mac OS X Install DVD that originally came in the box with your MacBook Pro (by holding down the C key as it starts up). When the desktop appears, select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu and erase your internal disk. After it’s been erased, reformat it. After it’s been reformatted, exit Disk Utility and reïnstall the version of Mac OS X from that DVD onto your internal disk. After that version of Mac OS X has been reïnstalled, boot from your internal disk and run Software Update to get it up-to-date within that version; that should allow you to redownload and reïnstall Mavericks, if desired. If Mavericks is reïnstalled, run Software Update again to get it up to date.
If you no longer have the two grey installation DVDs, you can purchase a replacement set from either Apple or iFixit.

Gray screen of death on boot-up

I have a 2.1 GHz MacBook with a 120GB hard-drive that I bought last November. I've been doing a lot with video and music and I keep running out of disk space. So, I keep deleting files that I thought I didn't need. Unfortunately, I must have deleted something important (for the OS) yesterday, and now, when I try to boot the machine, I get the "gray screen of death". And, to make matters worse, I cannot find the boot-CD that came with the MacBook. I don't have back-ups for many of my files and am hoping that I'll be able to recover my files. So, I've just bought an external hard-drive (which I should have done before). Any ideas how I can get the MacBook to boot and repair the problem without the original boot-CD? Will I have to erase the hard-drive to repair the problem, and if so, will I be able to save the files first? Thanks!

Hi MB-GSofD,
Without the disc(s) that came with your machine, I'm afraid your options are extremely limited. You can try to startup the machine in Safe Mode (Hold Shift immediately on startup, until you get to the login window) but based on what you deleted out of the /System or /Library folders, you might just be dead in the water.
Are you near an Apple Store? Do you have access to another Mac, say a family member, friend, roommate, co-worker, etc? There is Target Disk Mode if you can get access to another Mac and a Firewire cable.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1661

Gray screen of death.... Please help.

Wife's 27" iMac is giving us the gray screen of death. I tried everything I could:
Command + Option +P + R
Holding Option at boot to try Recovery
Command + Option + R (Internet Recovery)
Holding shift to get to Safe Mode
Inserting install disc while holding "C"
Installed Mountain Lion on my Flashdrive to try to boot from that….
ALL FAILED. Any ideas, guys? Please help. This Mac is just a little over a year old. just out of the one year warranty.

Thanks for telling us everything you did. However, you haven't given us any information on what the computer did. So there's not much to go on except a gray screen. Assuming the drive has not failed:
Install or Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion from Scratch
Be sure you backup your files to an external drive or second internal drive because the following procedure will remove everything from the hard 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.
Erase the hard drive:
1. Select Disk Utility from the main menu and click on the Continue button.
2. After DU loads select your startup volume (usually Macintosh HD) from the
      left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
3. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Optionally, click on
        the Security button and set the Zero Data option to one-pass. Click on
      the Erase button and wait until the process has completed.
4. Quit DU and return to the main menu.
Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion: Select Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion and click on the Install button.
Note: You will need an active Internet connection. I suggest using Ethernet if possible
            because it is three times faster than wireless.
If you are not able to perform the above then the drive has most likely failed and will have to be replaced. Take the computer in for service..

Kernel Panics, Gray screen of death, and hard drives, oh my!

Last week, while performing multiple tasks on my G4, Safari froze up and completely locked up the entire computer. I rebooted by manually pushing the glowing power button the front of the tower. During reboot, I got the gray screen of death with the "you need to restart your macintosh... by holding down the power button for several seconds" message.
After a couple tries and getting that exact same gray screen of death, I started to worry about all my data.
I took both drives out of the G4 Quicksilver - one, a 500gb Barracuda Seagate (Master/bay 1), the other a 200gb Hitachi (slave/bay 2). I hooked them up to an older G4 and ran DiskWarrior and DiskUtility on both of them. The master drive had serious (>34%) fragmentation, which has since been cleaned up. The slave drive was relatively fine.
here's my current problem:
When I hook up:
1. Just the Master with no jumper pins, the drive runs fine, no problems, all settings and prefs are there, etc.
2. Just the Master with the correct pin settings, I get the kernel panic screen of death
3. The Master with correct pin settings and Slave with correct pin settings, kernel panic screen of death
4. If I swap the Master and Slave, and make the correct pin settings, the booting process starts and then I get a light gray screen with the "ghostbusters/do not enter" circle.
I put the original Slave drive in an external HD firewire enclosure, and it will mount on the desktop after the original Master drive has booted up - BUT - if I have the external drive powered up before I boot the Master, I get a gray screen with nothing on it - no message, nothing but grayscreen.
I've backed up my critical data, but would like to get these two drives back into their normal operating Master/Slave relationship that served them well for the last couple years.
Any help greatly appreciated.

New wrinkle:
This morning trying at boot up, the Mac chime sounded, the gray screen w/the apple logo appeared, and then the machine sounded like either the main fan or one of the two drives spun down. Shortly thereafter, I got the prohibitory sign again.
I rebooted and then got something completely different: a black screen with a small blinking vertical rectangle in the top left of the screen, with nothing else happening for a long time, so I manually rebooted and tried to boot into safe mode.
Trying to boot into safe mode gave me the chime, the apple logo, and then the sound of either the fan or drive spinning down and leaving me at the prohibitory sign once again.
Finally I option-booted to the slave drive and upon startup, received the following crash report, which might as well be in Swahili as far as my being able to make sense of it:
Sat Apr 11 09:59:48 2009
Unresolved kernel trap(cpu 0): 0x300 - Data access DAR=0x0000000003DFFF70 PC=0x000000000032F68C
Latest crash info for cpu 0:
Exception state (sv=0x2d409780)
PC=0x0032F68C; MSR=0x00009030; DAR=0x03DFFF70; DSISR=0x40000000; LR=0x00287A40; R1=0x2D3BFDD0; XCP=0x0000000C (0x300 - Data access)
Backtrace:
0x2D3BFE20 0x00287AA0 0x00288658 0x0030C5AC 0x000B34C8 0xFFFFDFFF
Proceeding back via exception chain:
Exception state (sv=0x2d409780)
previously dumped as "Latest" state. skipping...
Exception state (sv=0x24459500)
PC=0x93091180; MSR=0x0000D930; DAR=0x00100AE4; DSISR=0x40000000; LR=0x000067FC; R1=0xBFFFED50; XCP=0x00000030 (0xC00 - System call)
BSD process name corresponding to current thread: launchd
Mac OS version:
9G55
Kernel version:
Darwin Kernel Version 9.6.0: Mon Nov 24 17:39:01 PST 2008; root:xnu-1228.9.59~1/RELEASE_PPC
System model name: PowerMac3,5
panic(cpu 0 caller 0xFFFF0003): 0x300 - Data access
Latest stack backtrace for cpu 0:
Backtrace:
0x0009BCF0 0x0009C694 0x00029EA0 0x000AFA90 0x000B32F8
Proceeding back via exception chain:
Exception state (sv=0x2d409780)
PC=0x0032F68C; MSR=0x00009030; DAR=0x03DFFF70; DSISR=0x40000000; LR=0x00287A40; R1=0x2D3BFDD0; XCP=0x0000000C (0x300 - Data access)
Backtrace:
0x2D3BFE20 0x00287AA0 0x00288658 0x0030C5AC 0x000B34C8 0xFFFFDFFF
Exception state (sv=0x24459500)
PC=0x93091180; MSR=0x0000D930; DAR=0x00100AE4; DSISR=0x40000000; LR=0x000067FC; R1=0xBFFFED50; XCP=0x00000030 (0xC00 - System call)
BSD process name corresponding to current thread: launchd

Gray screen of death ... macbook boot failure

Three weeks old and getting the gray screen of death. Power up works but MacBook just keeps trying to read a video disk I left in the ROM drive. Gray screen with nothing else (no processing circle, no apple logo, just a plain gray screen). I could hear the rom drive cycling.
I worked with support via telephone and their solutions failed also:
1. power up, hold down the eject button (nada)
2. power up, hold down the mouse button (nada)
3. power up, hold down the apple key, the cntl key, the P and the R keys for two chimes (got the two chimes but nada)
Now it chimes when i start up but still sits there cycling the cdrom which has a movie disk in it.
The support rep asked me if there was a small extraction hole by the drive. HELLO: are you really Apple ??? On the new macbook?
The MacBook was delivered with 10.4.8. Wanting the large 10.4.9 update on CD for any future need, I downloaded the 10.4.9 intel combined update (larger than the other choice) and went with that not knowing which to use. However this was three weeks ago and the computer has been perfect. my session yesterday was perfect but I did 'brag' on the new macbook when a friend saw me using it. why does bragging cause boot failures? Murphy?/??????// HELP.
Black MacBook intel core 2 duo 120gb drive 2 gb memory Mac OS X (10.4.9)

My apologies to everyone if I raised an alarm. The hardware (i.e. the MacBook) is fine and the problem was that I am a new user. I have to say that Apple Support was unprepared to address the issue but I did resolve it myself by accident. Here is the resolution:
I looked up the SMC reset instructions on the Apple Support site as a next step and the instructions said to try 3 things before doing the SMC:
1. Force Quit (Option - Command - Escape)
2. Restart (Control - Command - Power)
3. Force Shutdown (hold down pwr button for 10 seconds
As a new user I could not know that the key with the Apple was the Command key, but I guessed since the words control and option were called out, it had to be the Apple key with the Squiggle.
I did each step but nada. I did get a different alert tone (lower pitch) after doing step 3. Each time I turned the computer off.
I then started over and tried again turning on the macbook from being off each time. I did step 1 and turned the machine off and then did step 2 and the computer came alive.
The system is just like I left it and the rom drive works fine. Again, my apologies to all you macbook users for raising any alarms. We are new to using Apple and have much to learn. I did not have any cheat sheets to work from so it took time. Many thanks for the responses.
Black MacBook purchased in March 2007 Mac OS X (10.4.9) I love this MacBook

Gray Screen of DEATH?

i just got a GRAY screen of DEATH for my iphone today. i was wondering what can i do to fix it other than restoring? have anybody got this before? tyvm for your help!

i just got a GRAY screen of DEATH for my iphone today. i was wondering what can i do to fix it other than restoring? have anybody got this before? tyvm for your help!

Gray screen of death at start up

Hello all,
Today when i was downloading the latest updates for my mac and iTunes my system froze while trying to access my BAD hard drive. So i restart my mac and after the apple logo appeared the gray screen of death showed up. I tried every thing from PRAM reset to disk and permission repair. So please help me with this problem.
Thank you

If you are on Mountain Lion you can boot from the Recovery Disk that is installed hidden from your internal HD. You can Use the Disk Utility from there to repair disk and you can also use that on OS re-installation of your ML.
"OS X Lion or OS X Mountain Lion includes a built in set of utilities in the Recovery System. Restart your Mac and hold down the Command key and the R key (Command-R), and keep holding them until the Apple icon appears, indicating that your Mac is starting up. After the Recovery System is finished starting up, you should see a desktop with a OS X menu bar and a "Mac OS X Utilities" application window."
Check this link
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht4718

Gray Screen of Death (moving from Java 1.1 to 1.4)

I am in process of moving my applet from Java 1.1 to modern Java 1.4 with Swing. My concern is that users on MS IE with the ancient MS JVM will get the "gray screen of death" and no hint that something is wrong. The best option I've found so far seems to be this:
http://www.chaingang.org/code/util/AppletLaunch.html
where you have one applet start up, check the version, and then either report "you need a new version of java" or launch the next applet. I'm not sure whether this will work when the first applet is compiled for Java 1.1, and the second is for Java 1.4 (they use different class file formats).
What are the recommendations for dealing with this situation? I've seen that Sun has some very complicated stuff about using OBJECT, EMBED, and APPLET tags:
http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.5.0/docs/guide/plugin/developer_guide/contents.html
Also stuff about "Java Web Start Applications":
http://java.sun.com/developer/technicalArticles/JavaLP/javawebstart/AutoInstall.html
I've also seen something about the "HTML Converter".
This is all looks way complicated!! As long as I can tell users "go update your java" and direct them to the java install web page I'm happy... I don't want to try to get their install started automatically. And I'd rather keep my HTML code simple and clean if possible.
Thanks in advance...

1. Write an applet in 1.4 that simply displays a small image.
2. Place the image on the webpage beside the applet.
3. Put a line of html beside or under the image and the applet saying "If you cannot see this image here (as in applet loaction) then you must download the 1.4 jre here"
Yahoo provide an applet as a means of editing ones geocitys website. This is how they ensure the user has the required jre. Crude but very effective and without complication.

Gray screen of death on third-gen iPad...

I'm caught in a bit of a circle and am needing a little help re if/how to get out of it. Hoping the community here might be able to help - or confirm that I'm out of luck.
My third-gen iPad gave me the gray screen of death this morning, while downloading an app from the app store. I'm unable to reboot from the iPad itself (more gray screen, before shutting off). Based on the advice provided in the archives, my next step was a restore. Unfortunately, iTunes wants the passcode - which, of course, I'm unable to enter.
Is there a workaround for this that anyone has found to get past this particular challenge?
Not that I'm looking for an excuse for an updgrade....

NPMaven wrote:
Unfortunately, iTunes wants the passcode - which, of course, I'm unable to enter.
Why are you unable to provide the passcode? You are using the computer's iTunes, aren't you?
If you're unable to do the Restore, go into Recovery Mode per the instructions here.

Gray screen of death....after 3 reinstalls!!!

Ok so i have the infamous gray screen of death after installing snow leopard but i think mine is slightly different. I don't have the circle going round and round. I only have a gray screen. For some odd reason the first time it happened i held the mouse button, then the cd drive (empty) came out and then it booted up (odd). Then i reinstalled, still happened, and i held the mouse on restart and again it worked. But now this time i reinstalled again, obviously it isn't starting up but even if i hold the mouse button it still won't load. Any ideas?

If you can get it to start, go into System Prefs and check your startup volume...

My screen turns gray stays with the ball going around what I can do to boot right?

my screen turns gray stays with the ball going around what I can do to boot right?

Hello,
Which version of the PowerBook do you own?
Which version of Mac OS X do you ave installed?
Here is a guide to gray screens and some steps you can take to help you get our PowerBook to boot into Mac OS X
http://support.apple.com/kb/ts2570

IMac won't boot! (gray screen of death?)

Hello,
I just had a kernel panic on my main iMac computer, so I had to restart it...
When it logged in automatically, it restarted again (by itself)...
Now, once it booted, I'm staring at the horrendous Gray Screen of Death/Doom...
No apple logo, no loading wheel, nothing... just a blank gray screen.
Please help! I have no idea how to fix this!
Thank you. All help is greatly appreciated.

Hi mik.e245
Pop in the Install Disk 1 that came with your iMac and run disk repairs as described in the articles below:
http://kb.wisc.edu/helpdesk/page.php?id=3810
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=DiskUtility/10.5/en/duh1018.html
Not always, but many times Kernal Panic's are associated with a ram issue's. If a ram module was recently added it may have become partially dislodged/unseated and needs to be reseated.
If your still having trouble run the Hardware Test from the same install disk as per this article.
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=303081-en
Dennis

Hi my ipod got the white screen of death i hear thats what its called i was wondering if anybody new how to fix it? If someone knew it would be great to have a feedback

Hi my ipod got the white screen of death i hear thats what its called i was wondering if anybody new how to fix it? If someone knew it would be great to have a feedback

OMG that happened to my ipod as well... when i checked to see if there was anything that i could do alsmost everyone would tell me to hold the home and power button until it turned off then turn it back on... it didnt work with my ipod but worked with my friends... hopefully it works with yours. And if not but another one thats what i did and now the other one cracked i guess its just luck

IBook g4 only sleeps on battery power. Other than putting never sleep in the energy saver what else can be done?

iBook g4 only sleeps on battery power. Other than putting never sleep in the energy saver what else can be done?

Do you mean it will only go to sleep when running from the battery? Or do you mean it won't do anything except sleep when running from the battery?
You could try resetting the PMU. The PMU has control over the Sleep function, so resetting it may help.

Gray Screen of Death - trying to save what I can...

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