Grey screen and sounds like harddrive is skipping

I had it running roughly 72 min ago then put it to sleep went to watch a movie came back opened the screen the lock login showed up i logged in then hooked up a mac keyboard then the hard drive started to skip. I then tried to reboot via the menu and the computer froze from there i disconnected the keyboard and got control back but the hard-drive still was clicking, so i did a hard restart and when the screen came back it was black and the drive was constantly skipping and nothing is happening now.
What do i do to fix this problem?

I assume your important data is backed up and/or archived? Do you have a HD clone or Time Machine backup?
If so, (i assume its out of warranty), consider replacing the HD yourself for $65, or having Apple do same for you.

Similar Messages

HT4904 I need to repair my start up disc so I have to start up from installation disc. In doing so, my computer restarts, I hear the mac sound, then a grey screen and then turns off and goes on in this cycle endlessly. Why can't I restart from disc?

I need to repair my start up disc so I have to start up from installation disc. In doing so, my computer restarts, I hear the mac sound, then a grey screen and then turns off and goes on in this cycle endlessly. Why can't I restart from disc?

Booting From An OS X Installer Disc
1. Insert OS X Installer Disc into the optical drive.
2. Restart the computer.
3. Immediately after the chime press and hold down the "C" key.
4. Release the key when the spinning gear below the dark gray Apple
logo appears.
5. Wait for installer to finish loading.

Grey screen and no sound when i play digital copy

i recently bought a copy of "family guy: something, something dark side" andd it came with a digital copy disc so i can put it on my itunes. i followed all the steps and downloaded it but when it came to playing it all i got was a grey screen and no sound, plus when i try to transfer it to my ipod it says my computer is unauthorised when it is... i done some research and it seems a common problem but i have updated my software on my itunes, ipod and quickplayer and still it doesnt work. im pretty fed up of this and i want a solution to this problem that acctuly works...

The solution to your problem should be the following.
As found in the I-tunes help section:
"If you double-click a video in iTunes but it doesn't play, check the following:.......
......To play videos purchased from the iTunes Store, you must have QuickTime 7.1.3 or later. You can download the latest version of QuickTime from the QuickTime website (click the link below) or by choosing Apple menu > Software Update.
You can't edit videos purchased from the iTunes Store. Videos purchased from the store can be viewed only in iTunes and QuickTime Player.
Open
QuickTime website
Was this page helpful? Send feedback."
Success to you!

Grey screen and clicking sound at start up

Lately when I start up my mac it takes about 6 tries to get it to start. The first few times before it works there is just a plain grey screen and there is a clicking noise being made. Any ideas on what is going on and how to fix this?

Hello and Welcome to Apple Discussions.
I hope I am not being overly alarmist but I believe your hard disk is set to fail at any moment. Use the computer as little as possible. Get hold of an external firewire hard disk. Connect to the iMac and then boot the iMac from your OS X install disc. Install a fresh copy of Leopard onto the external drive. You can now use the iMac from the external drive only by setting the External drive as the boot volume in System Preferences > Startup Disk.
Now in order of personal value transfer your documents and files across to the external drive. Once you have good backups you should then take a look at Disk Utility (Utilities folder) and see what SMART status the drive is being reported as.
mrtotes
Message was edited by: mrtotes

My mac shows a grey screen and spinning gear and nothing else. please help! i want my mac to work again :/

My mac needed new updates and after clickign update it soon told me there was an error and it froze. I then let it sit fo about 15 minutes adn nothign changed so I restarted it and ever since then all my computer will show is the grey screen and a spinning gear :/ can anyone help me with this problem?

I had the same issue, and I had recently backed-up my files (mostly because the mac was acting wonky before this even happened), so I did an erase and install. Then I ran through all the software upgrades and installed all of them. When I did a required restart (for the Mac OS X 10.4.11 update) it went BACK to grey screen with spinning ball. Talk about frustrating!
I think there is something weird going on with the iTunes update and the Mac OS X 10.4.11 update. But one can't be used without the other. So I'm not sure how to update everything safely and get an up to date system, without having all the problems I had before. So now I'm using Mac OS X 10.4.7 so I can have a stable system to do my work, but I can't run iTunes 7.0. I'm too scared to update OS b/c I can't waste another day re-installing everything (for like the third time).
I'm a pretty new Mac user (year and half) so this may sound really dumb, but any suggestions would be very welcomed. I may start a new thread instead of hijacking this one...

20" imac won't start up-flashes between blank grey screen and black screen

20" imac
2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
Was running system 10.5.8 just fine. Worked great.
But then I wanted to give the imac to a relative. And so, I tried to boot from the original grey mac install dvd to wipe the hardrive and set the imac back to factory specs.
But it wouldn't boot off the dvd. All It would do at restart was to flash slowly back and forth between blank grey screen and black screen. So, I tried the Leopard update dvd. Same results. So I zapped the pram and tried again. Same results.
If I just pushed the start button tho.. the imac would start right up and run fine. However, I didn't want to give it to someone else with all our information on it.
I finally restarted it and held the "T" key to turn it into a giant firewire drive, hooked it up to our other 20" imac, and used the disk utility from the second imac to erase the drive of the first imac. Then I inserted the grey install dvd into the second imac and selected the drive of the first imac and ran the install process.
Now, the first imac won't start up at all. Just a continual grey screen for a bit, than a couple of buzz sounds in the machine and then the black screen... than back again.
It ran great before I erased the drive and re-installed OS 10.5
What's wrong? How do I get the machine to either boot off the install cd?

So, I've figured out a little more on the first machine. It's a 20" 2.6 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo running 10.5.8.
It ran great. But, I wanted to erase the hard drive and reinstall the OS system before giving it to a relative.
I found that although the optical drive would read and write to normal cds and dvds, the machine would NOT boot from the grey start-up disks I had on hand. ( I have two imacs, and I tried both sets of dvds without success.)
I zapped the PRAM, and used disk utilities via firewire connection from my other 20" imac to check the hardrive and make repairs. Disk Utilities couldn't find any problems. So, using disk utilities from the other imac, I erased the first imac's harddrive and then used the install dvds on the second imac to install the original OS to the hard drive of the first imac.
(looking on the hard drive of the first imac, I can see all the contents)
However, the first machine will not start up. It just switches from grey....to black..... then grey..... and then black again.... over and over
Why won't it boot from the newly installed OS on it's own hard drive?
And Why won't it boot from the original install dvds?
How can I get it to start up again?

Macbook pro stuck on grey screen and making buzzing noise

hi,
Lately my mac has been playing up (1 year old), ever now and then it would make a funny buzzing noise, coming from the left side.. and i noticed it was running slower than usual. Im Running Mountain Lion and have 566GB of disk space left... after using it for about 5 minutes the buzzing noise would start and it would become unresposive with the spiral beach ball. So i would have to hard restart it. Now ever time i turn it on it gets to a grey screen and doesnt load further. eventually the sound starts again!! i have tried starting it in safe mode and verifying my disk in utilities where everything "seems to be ok" !! someone please help!!!

Ethan997,
define “an average disk”.
Your question regarding fault is akin to asking “is it my fault or the car maker’s fault that my spark plugs no longer work?” — disks, like spark plugs, don’t last forever, and fault doesn’t come into it. Similarly, the fact that your disk (or spark plugs) worked yesterday and doesn’t work today is not a sudden “breakage” — by their nature, they have a finite, variable amount of time in which they do work. This is why (in the case of disks) making regular backups is important; when the disk stops working, you’ll have an easy way to recover from such a situation.
That being said, if your MacBook Pro is still under warranty, you should be able to get a replacement disk from Apple. And even if it isn’t, you could still try reformatting your current disk, to see if you can squeeze some more use out of it — but if the reformatted volume keeps needing to be repaired (and you have the patience to deal with recovering from the same situation again and again), that’s a sure sign that a new disk would be your best option.

Start up problem-can't get past Apple grey screen and spinning gear

Upon trying to start up my laptop, got nothing but the apple logo, grey screen and spinning gear. I tried several things to resolve the problem on my own (hardware test said it could not verify the disk/could not start up from the OS X install disk/reset the power mgmt. unit/disconnected all peripherals)and finally went to the Apple store. Genius bar said they were able to start up from their hard drive and suggested that I buy an external hard drive, go home, start up again and back up all files. I bought a My Book. Got home and same thing happened: Apple logo and spinning gear. I am an Apple user of 18 years, but have not had to do much in the way of diagnostics. Have tried fsck routine today that I found on another posting here today. If the Genius guy got it going, I assumed that I could too. I was wrong. Any advice would be appreciated. It looks like this is the end of the road for my Powerbook, but I'd like a shot at recovering data.
Message was edited by: Debbie Wach

Hi Debbie/Gregg -
I may have missed something but can't you just put a new hard drive in your laptops? You may not be able to recover your data but it doesn't mean the end for your computer. The same thing happened to my TiBook and I put a new 120Gig hard drive in and it's had a new lease of life.
I bought a new internal hard drive along with an external enclosure and connected it up to my computer and from there cloned it. Then I transferred the external into the TiBook and put the old drive into the external and I use that as an external now. I realise your hard drives are dead but you could use another computer to so the same thing and just install the OS on it.
I bought this -
http://www.macupgrades.co.uk/store/productinfo.php?productsid=452
Then followed the instructions here -
http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Mac/PowerBook-G4-Ti-DVI/HD-Replacement/33/6/
Once your new hard drive is installed you may be able to try and repair the old one in the external enclosure?

I have a white/grey screen and none of the suggested operations have helped, what should I do?

I have a white/grey screen and none of the suggested options have worked - I have tried all the suggestions on Apple support

Ok, I've had this problem before and contacted Applecare support and they told me that it was an issue with the RAM inside the Mac or something like that. They told me to refresh the ram, and it fixed the problem so that's what I'd recommend. Here's how to do it.
Hit Power button, then press and hold Command + R + Option + P at the same time.
This resets the residual ram that is causing the start up to hang.
Try that, I hope it works for you.
broken_mirror

Grey screen and artifacts in VLC playing h264

I have the problem that when I watch h264 encoded Videos in VLC I get a grey screen and alot of Artifacts every now and then.
I looked in the output and get sth like this when an error occurs
[h264 @ 0x7f3884cb08e0] reference picture missing during reorder
[h264 @ 0x7f3884cb08e0] reference picture missing during reorder
[h264 @ 0x7f3884cb08e0] reference picture missing during reorder
[h264 @ 0x7f3884cb08e0] Missing reference picture, default is 14
[h264 @ 0x7f3884cb08e0] Missing reference picture, default is 14
[h264 @ 0x7f3884cb08e0] Missing reference picture, default is 14
[h264 @ 0x7f3884cb08e0] reference picture missing during reorder
[h264 @ 0x7f3884cb08e0] reference picture missing during reorder
[h264 @ 0x7f3884cb08e0] reference picture missing during reorder
[h264 @ 0x7f3884cb08e0] Missing reference picture, default is 65600
[h264 @ 0x7f3884cb08e0] Missing reference picture, default is 65600
[h264 @ 0x7f3884cb08e0] Missing reference picture, default is 65600
[h264 @ 0x7f3884cb1260] reference picture missing during reorder
[h264 @ 0x7f3884cb1260] reference picture missing during reorder
[h264 @ 0x7f3884cb1260] reference picture missing during reorder
[h264 @ 0x7f3884cb1260] Missing reference picture, default is 14
[h264 @ 0x7f3884cb1260] Missing reference picture, default is 14
[h264 @ 0x7f3884cb1260] Missing reference picture, default is 14
[h264 @ 0x7f3884cb1be0] mmco: unref short failure
[h264 @ 0x7f3884cb1be0] number of reference frames (0+9) exceeds max (8; probably corrupt input), discarding one
[h264 @ 0x7f3884cb1260] reference picture missing during reorder
[h264 @ 0x7f3884cb1260] reference picture missing during reorder
[h264 @ 0x7f3884cb1260] reference picture missing during reorder
[h264 @ 0x7f3884cb1260] Missing reference picture, default is 65616
[h264 @ 0x7f3884cb1260] Missing reference picture, default is 65616
[h264 @ 0x7f3884cb1260] Missing reference picture, default is 65616
[h264 @ 0x7f3884cbff80] mmco: unref short failure
The Videos work fine in Smplayer and Kodi. The problem only occurs in VLC.
I dont really know how to fix this, any help is appreciated

same here

At startup I get grey screen and a folder with a flashing question mark. How do I reset my MacBook Pro to the manufacture defaults?

At startup I get grey screen and a folder with a flashing question mark. How do I reset my MacBook Pro to the manufacture defaults?

Click here and follow the instructions. If the computer originally shipped with Mac OS X 10.6.8 or earlier, when you reach step 5, insert its original disk, restart with the C key held down, use the Disk Utility to erase the internal drive, and install a fresh OS.
(113954)

I used utilities to source my 10.6 snow leopard install disc to my main hardrive, and now when I turn on my computer the apple with the spinning wheel stays on the screen and stuck like that. How do I fix it Help please. I already tried all the commands

I used utilities to source my 10.6 snow leopard install disc to my main hardrive, and now when I turn on my computer the apple with the spinning wheel stays on the screen and stuck like that. How do I fix it Help please. I already tried all the commands such as Command R, Holding down the Option key, C and holding down shift at the start up but nothing happens.
initialy All I was trying to do was downgrade 10.7 to 10.6 .

You have to consider the possibility the hard drive may be dying. If your data isn't backed up, try one of the tools below:
https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-1689
Once you are sure your data is backed up, we can examine other possibilities. In the meantime call AppleCare for your original installation DVDs. You may need them.

When I am on an Internet site, the iPad will suddenly flash a grey screen and then go to the home page". I then have to go back to safari and reopen my page. Anyone else have this trouble?

When I am on an Internet site, my iPad will suddenly flash a grey screen and then go back to the home screen where I have to start Safari again and reopen my page. It does it frequently sometimes 3 times within 5 minutes. Anyone else have this trouble? It is driving me crazy!

Safari crash regularly
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2460899?tstart=30

My husband(less technologically inclined than I am), decided to delete programs from our iMac, now it has a grey screen and won't get past it. If I insert the Application Install DVD, to repair the disk, will I loose all my pictures and music?

My husband(less technologically inclined than I am), decided to delete programs from our iMac, he turned it off and now it has a grey screen and won't get past it. It won't start in safe mode and when I If I insert the Application Install DVD, to repair the disk, will I loose all my pictures and music?

With a corrupt disk, the install procedure is most likely going to fail.
How old it the disk?
You might be able to reformat it to fix the problem. Of course that means you lose all of your data.
The other alternative is to get a new disk drive and put that in your Mac and install OS X
Then put the old disk drive in an enclosure and see what can be recovered from it.
Allan

Grey Screen and Spinning Circle When Trying to open a PDF from a website

I tried to view a pdf from a website and a little window popped up. At the time i thought it was to save the pdf but i guess it was in fact asking me to find the adobe acrobat program. I quit out of it and now keep getting the grey screen and spinning circle when i try to download the pdf. How do I get it so i can open pdfs if find on websites? thanks!

themercenary12 wrote:
Found another topic and was helpful
*Hi mercenary, Welcome (Back)* to Apple's Users Help Users Forums.
It would be nice if you could explain or link to the helpful topic.
Good Luck, JP

Grey screen and sounds like harddrive is skipping

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for