Gray screen shows after sleep when lid is open

Sometimes when my computer falls asleep when the lid is open, I try to wake it up and it shows as a gray screen. The only thing I can do is force a shutdown at this point. I usually have some USB device plugged in when it happens, but it's a different USB device every time.

Is there a way to non-destructively remove this magnet from my 17" PowerBook (older one with 1440x900 display)? I don't like that my PowerBook sleeps when I close it, and I've asked Apple if there is a way to disable this functionality. Short of plugging in an external display, they told me no.
This option is built in to the Windows OS, and I've grown quite accustomed to putting my laptops to sleep manually. I'd really like to be able to have the lid closed and still let programs run, downloads continue, etc.

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Gray screen appears after sleep?

Hi Everyone! I received a brand new 13 inch. Macbook Pro Retina, 1 week ago. Until today, things have been working fine. I used it straight out of the box with no need to charge for a few days, left it off for a few days, and then on Saturday evening, I used it again, only having to charge once for an hour on Sunday. The computer was working great, until this morning, when upon waking the computer from sleep, a completely dark gray screen appeared. After 30 sec., the login screen loaded. I shut down the computer and restarted it, thinking that might help. Unfortunately, this same issue has happened 3 - 4 other times today. When waking from sleep, a dark gray screen appears for a minute before loading the login screen. Is this a common issue? Is it hardware or os related? Is there a fix for it? Should I return the computer and get a new one? I need this computer to last a few years. Any help is appreciated!

The warranty entitles you to complimentary phone support for the first 90 days of ownership.
If you bought the product in the U.S. directly from Apple (not from a reseller), you have 14 days from the date of delivery in which to exchange or return it for a refund. In other countries, the return policy may be different. If you bought from a reseller, its return policy applies.

MBP often refuses to wake from sleep when lid is opened.

Hello!
Well, my MBP (2.2 Ghz, 15", Core2, 2 weeks old, 10.5.2) has been having trouble. That is, when I close the lid, the MBP properly sleeps. However, when I open the lid, it sometimes (Maybe as much as 40-50% of time!) won't wake up. The screen stays black, the keys won't do anything, and the sound wont' come on, but the sleep light turns off - as if it woke up. If I close the lid, it happily sleeps.
The only way out of this "mode" is to hold the power button for a forced-shutdown, and reboot. Its become worse after the 10.5.2 update. In addition, if I select "Sleep" from the apple menu before I close the lid, it seems to sleep and wake properly. On the other hand, if I just close the lid, it often won't wake up properly.
How can I fix this?
Thanks, Dan

Hi Daniel, I haven't had any significant sleep problems with my own MBP, but in general with other models sleep problems often come down to:
1) third party hardware 'add ons" (USB, FW, BlueTooth or ethernet) that "poll" the computer when it is either going to sleep or waking up. Some USB hubs and USB based ADSL modems were particularly notorious for this a little while back, but other devices, even memory sticks, have been known to produce such issues too. So if you have anything else connected see if the problems persists when it has been removed.
2) Third party "background" software, especially drivers associated with USB and bluetooth devices. Some earlier Logitech keyboard and mouse software could do this, for example.
3) Some specific other software that loads at startup - virus checkers, things like iStat, HD integrity checkers etc.
Remove all externals and then start up in "Safe Mode" (to disable log-in items etc - see http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=107392 for more info), and see if the problem persists.
If it still occurs you may have a problem with a third party 'haxy" of some kind which has actually modified your system files.
Cheers
Rod

My Imac is showing gray screen with red line when booting and restarts again

My Imac is showing gray screen with red line when booting and restart again, I can load it in windows 7 safe mode with red lines across the display, pls help

The graphic card is damaged. You can't do anything more than taking your computer to an Apple Store or reseller and getting your graphic card replaced.
Sometimes, when the graphic card is damaged, operating systems can't start. That's caused because the drivers that make the graphic card work detect an error, telling the operating system that the graphic card is unusable, so the operating system can't start and it restarts. However, you can start in safe mode because operating systems use a basic driver in this startup mode

Not waking up after sleep when i close the lid of my mac book pro.

Not waking up after sleep when i close the lid of my mac book pro.

Starwin,
Try an SMC reset:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3964
Follow the directions that apply to you battery you should not remove yourself, or battery you can remove.
Best

Computer not going to sleep when lid closed

My wife's new MacBook Air has a couple of problems we can't figure out. First sometimes the computer is not going to sleep when lid is closed and when we lift the lid everything is frozen.
Second, the user Library folder is not seeable in her user account. I know it's there because on the side bar there's a short cut to Preferences folder which we can open.
Strange behavior.
Thanks,
Ron

Ron,
The user library folder (~/Library/) is hidden by default in Lion. I assume Apple doesn't want people mucking around with the sensitive files in there. So this is normal behavior.
As for the freezing issue, I would suggest you reset your power management and perform a safe boot to clear out caches. You should also see if the issue persists after disconnecting USB perhipherals.
Here's how:
Power Management:
Shut down the computer.
Plug in the MagSafe power adapter to a power source, connecting it to the Mac if its not already connected.
On the built-in keyboard, press the (left side) Shift-Control-Option keys and the power button at the same time.
Release all the keys and the power button at the same time.
Press the power button to turn on the computer.
Note: The LED on the MagSafe power adapter may change states or temporarily turn off when you reset the SMC.
Safe Boot:
Be sure your Mac is shut down.
Press the power button.
Immediately after you hear the startup tone, hold the Shift key. The Shift key should be held as soon as possible after the startup tone, but not before the tone.
Release the Shift key when you see the gray Apple icon and the progress indicator (looks like a spinning gear).

I have two problems with my 2012 13" MacBook Pro. 1. Gray screen shows at startup 2. Randomly disconnects from network. Any help will be greatly appreciated.

I have two problems with my 2012 13” MacBook Pro.
Gray screen shows at startup
Randomly disconnects from network.
Any help will be greatly appreciated.

First, open Terminal in your Utilities folder and paste this into the prompt line:
sudo update_dyld_shared_cache
Press RETURN. You will be prompted to enter your admin password which will not be echoed to the screen. Press RETURN again.
Next, boot the computer into Safe Mode.
Next, do the following:
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.

How can i get my macbook pro too stay on and not sleep when lid is closed?

how can i get my macbook pro too stay on and not sleep when lid is closed?

If the machine is asleep, lid closed, and you plug in to an external monitor and an external USB keyboard, the machine will wake, anbd reconfigure the screen resolution for the external monitor, Once it has made this configuration change, you can open the lid and it will continue to address only the external monitor. At least that's how my early MacBook Pro unibody 13" works. It seems to run a bit cooler this way. It gets quite toasty with the lid closed while doing anything demanding and you are more likely to hear the fan come on. I have not seen any temps that would cause alarm, but I do get a high speed (6000 rpm), noisy fan sometimes with the lid closed, .
If you operate in the open-lid, external monitor only mode, if you deactivate the monitor for any reason, when it reactivates it will be running both screens, with all the navigation hassles this entails, so I generally set it not to deactivate the screen when in this mode.
Thus I agree with those who say that some of the cooling air is drawn in around the keyboard, the difference in cooling performance is observable. If you activate istat pro, get the computer hot running in clamshell mode, and open the lid, you can watch the CPU temp drop by a few degrees C within a couple minutes. It isn't a huge difference, but enough the lower the fan speeds.

Gray Screen + Spinner after Yahoo BlueLithium Spam

Have ATT webmail which moved to Yahoo (YUK!). Changed cookie settings (never again)....and was hit with the Yahoo Bluelithium spam which took over when I tried to open emails but would never load. Since then I've tried hard startups but no luck. All I get is the gray screen + spinner after powering on.
Anyone else had this issue with a fix??

If you have a backup USB drive, you can boot from that and run diagnostics on the internal drive to see if it its still operational. If you don't, you can use the DVD that came with it to run Disk Utility etc. A trip to your Genius Bar would be a good idea if you don't have the above or you aren't comfortable performing the diagnostics yourself. Good luck!

How can I get my MacBook to stay on and not sleep when lid is closed?

How can I get my MacBook to stay on and not sleep when lid is closed?

try this: http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/37991/nosleep

Using NoSleep for MBP going to sleep when lid is closed

hy,
Is there any problem if I Use Nosleep (http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/37991/nosleep) to keep my mac from going to sleep when lid is closed?

1. Reset PRAM. http://support.apple.com/kb/PH4405
2. Reset SMC.     http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3964
    Choose the method for:
    "Resetting SMC on portables with a battery you should not remove on your own".

My MBP Screen goes gray and asks for restart when trying to open Adobe raw

My MBP Screen goes gray and asks for restart when trying to open Adobe raw files. Even when I try to populate raw images in the brige the scree wipes gray and says I have to restart. I am using CS2 and the latest version 3.7 of Adobe camera raw. I can however open raw images in preview. Please help! OS ver. 10.4.9 2.16ghz intel duo core processor.

Welcome to Apple Discussions!
What you are getting is a kernel panic, caused by one of the issues my FAQ* discusses:
http://www.macmaps.com/kernelpanic.html
* Links to my pages may give me compensation.

When trying to open .pdf files i get a gray screen with message"adobe reader can"t open file.If running please exit and try again 15:3"..any ideas

Cannot open >pdf files..Keep getting gray screen with following message "error trying to open file..if adobe reader is running exit and try again 15.3"

I have the same problem also but solved with the solution from http://www.brain-cluster.com/blog/orange/2011/03/06/there-problem-adobe-acrobatreader-if-it-running-please-exit-and-try-again

Receiving error after installation when attempting to open Cricut Craft room.

Receiving error after installation when attempting to open Cricut Craft room. It says 'Application Descriptor cannot be found for this application." I have tried uninstalling/reinstalling/installing older version. Any ideas?

Thanks for the help that fixed my problem for the initial error, but I
still get the same error when I am writing a U16 2-D array to a range
of cells. This is strange because the same code is used elsewhere and
does not throw the error, but the data type is instead a Dbl 2-D
array. Unfortunately, I am unable to post the code. It is
on a stand-alone classified pc.

Bought IMAC sept2012 after updates gray screen shows up with logo at start up. Please help! I don't know the system as I just start using it and the package did not come with CD to reinstall system. I tried to reboot holding shift but it does not work.

Please help.
I bought the IMAC 21.5" /2.5QC /2X2GB /500GB /6750M sept2012. After the automatic update run when restart computer the screen is on the gray screen with the logo and wont' do anything else. I tried to reboot holding the shift key without success. The package did not come with a CD so I can not reinstall the previous system. I even don't know what is the system that came with the computer because I just start using it. I bought in the US but am in Brazil. HELP PLEASE, how can I get the previous system so I can reinstall it? I do not mind loosing data but I need to work on it. PLEASE HELP! Thanks!

Try booting into the Recovery HD which is on the HD. Restart holding down Command+r and at the screen with four choices select Disk Utility>Macintosh HD and click on 'repair disk'. If any changes are made click on repair disk again until you get a clear pass. Restart as normal from the Apple menu.
More about the Recovery HD:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4718

Gray screen shows after sleep when lid is open

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