GREY SCREEN ISSUE HELP

help! i keep getting a grey screen saying my mac needs to be restarted its happend for the first time today and done it at least 5 times this is my business pc and is backed up but its only 18 months old i need help!

It's ok, you likely just have a incompatible at boot third party kernel extension file.
Reboot holding the Shift key down, and go around and update all your third party software, especially something you suspect or know may install something at boot time.
Big culprits are any always on anti-virus or the MacKeeper junkware, just uninstall these totally, it's really not needed, ClamXav is good enough to clean files off of Windows and not run all the time causing problems.
But because of 10.7.4 update could be any number of other things, VMFusion, Parallels or some other specialized software.
If that doesn't work, then simply #8 Reinstall Just OS X, it's rather painless too, that will do the trick and kick out everything in OS X, then all you have to do is reinstall a few pieces of software no longer working when they issue a update that works with 10.7.4
Simple enough, but here's the link to my User Tip with awhole bunch of fixes.
Step by Step to fix your Mac

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Just updated to mountain everytime I do to my dock I get a grey screen? help!

Just updated to mountain everytime I do to my dock I get a grey screen? help!

OK... that's good!
Now, we know it's limited to your user account.
Try starting in Safe Mode and see if the problem still occurs?
Restart holding the "shift" key.
(Expect it to take longer to start this way because it runs a directory check first.)
If this works look in System Preferences > Users & Groups > Login items and delete any third party login items (-), you can always add them back with the (+). Also look in /Library/Startup Items. Nothing is put in that folder by default, so anything in there is yours.

MacBook Pro won't boot up past grey screen! Help!

Long story short, my Mac was working fine yesterday and then it froze. I held down the power button and didn't think twice about it. Now it won't start up past the grey screen. Actually, I just recently held down the "d" key before it started up and now I'm at Apple Hardware Test but I'm not sure what I'm suppose to do. My hardware is testing for something. Does anybody have any troubleshooting things I could try to help make it come back? I am very depressed it's not working. I tried calling Apple Support but the guy only sent me an e-mail telling me how to fix it.

AHT test can take up to 4 hours...
Intel-based Macs: Using Apple Hardware Test
You can also try Disk Utility (fsck)
Resolve startup issues and perform disk maintenance with Disk Utility and fsck

Stuck at grey screen issue: with an Afghanistan twist

First time post, so please go easy. I apologize for loading so much into the first post, but I believe it's better to give you all the information about my situation so I don't waste your time having to ask me questions about it, that I could have already provided.
Background: I bought my 17" MBP from a friend in late 2007 after he convinced me how superb it was in comparison to a PC. Since then I've been on a mission to convert everyone I can, as I personally view Windows as a self sustaining virus and will never use one for personal use again.
I'm in the Army, and my MBP has survived three long deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan, and has not once ever had any kind of problems...until now. I'm currently in Afghanistan with my MBP and do not have any of my systems disks. A week ago, the CD drive stopped reading disks of any kind and ejects them after attempting to read them. Additionally, I can now hear the right side fan sounding like a lawn mower.
Today, my biggest nightmare came to fruition. I restarted my MBP after making some folder organizational changes, and it now refuses to start. It sticks at the grey screen with apple logo and spinning wheel. The wheel does spin. (I say that since in other threads I've noticed most people say their wheel does not spin).
I've already read countless blogs and discussion boards, and have tried many recommended solutions. I have particularly enjoyed Kappy's help to others. But I feel as if I'm in an near Apollo 13 situation, in that I do not have my installation CD and it wouldn't help anyway with my CD drive not responding and having nothing else to use to get my MBP to start up.
I've tried the single user startup using command "s" and attempted some solutions suggested by Kappy with the following results:
/sbin/fsck -fy
This ends by telling me "The volume MAC HD appears to be OK"
AWESOME
So then I tried this:
:/ root# /sbin/mount -uw /
:/ root# cd /Library/Preferences
:Preferences rm com.apple.loginwindow.plist
and could not go any further because it responded with: "No such file or directory"
When I tried using command "V" it kept repeating the following:
chad-squires-macbook-pro-32 com.apple.launchd[1] (com.apple.mDNSResponder[31]): posix_spawnp("/usr/sbin/mDNSResponder', ...): No such file or directory
So at this point, I have no idea what to do. I have internet access through a friends MBP (thought it's about as fast as dial up), but that's the extent of my problem and availability of resources to fix.
Please tell me that there is something I can do to get my baby working again, and most importantly get some irreplaceable family photos off and other documents back.

Oh boy, you've gotten some all-over-the-board responses.
Let's start here.
Someone mentioned above that it sounds like the NVIDIA issue. Rest assured, unless you have no video, graphics artifacting (lines, distortion, etc.), or kernel panics (messages that tell you you have to power off/restart), you don't have the NVIDIA issue. People love to toss that out when you have a model that may be affected, your symptoms don't sound anything like this.
You're not necessarily SOL without your install discs per se, but if it does look like you need to reinstall, there's not much that can be done without...well...some kind of installer. You can install from a USB drive but you'd need a working machine and an operating system disc of some kind to clone it.
That said:
:/ root# /sbin/mount -uw /
:/ root# cd /Library/Preferences
:Preferences rm com.apple.loginwindow.plist
Unless I'm reading this wrong, you've got a typo.
Should be:
/sbin/mount -uw /
cd /Library/Preferences
rm com.apple.loginwindow.plist
I saw the line
:Preferences rm com.apple.loginwindow.plist
Was expecting you to have root# in front, that makes me think you typed 'preferences rm', you don't need to type 'preferences' first.
Also: is your account set to automatically log you in (take you to the desktop) or does it have you type your username/password first? That might be important.
Have you tried a safe boot?
Safe boot: this can be helpful if the issue is with your account, a font cache, or a third party kernel extension/driver. Boot this way by holding Shift when you hear the chime, let go when you see the spinning gear. If all goes well, this should take you to the login window. If you can't boot in safe mode or if it does the exact same thing, again, let us know.
The results you saw in verbose mode make me think it's hanging because something got moved. mDNSresponder is important and you can't start without it.
There are other preference files that we can troubleshoot, I find verbose mode to be the most helpful in diagnosing the spinning wheel that goes on forever, a lot of times it's a corrupt driver and there's not much that can be done except reinstall.
Lastly: you mentioned you restarted after organizational changes and that's when the problem started...what did you move? Anything in the System folder or Library folder(s)?
You mentioned you have a friend with a MBP. Any chance either of you has a firewire cable? Does he have his discs? You can use another computer's superdrive in target disk mode hooked up to your computer, that's always one way to reinstall if your own superdrive doesn't work.

Grey screen issue with 10.5 & 10.5.1 - bad experience with Leopard

Here's a quick overview of my bad experience with installing Leopard:
*1st attempt:* Upgraded Tiger 10.4.10, was greeted with the blue screen. This was an APE issue.
*2nd attempt:* Archive and installed above install. This is where the continuing issue first occurred. The issue being on the first or second reboot after a 'successful' installation, I get the grey screen and spinning gear loop. In verbose mode I see this recurring loop:
Mez com.apple.launchd[1] (com.apple.nDNSResponder |xxx|) : posix_spawnp("usr/sbin/mDNSResponder", ...): No such file or directory
xxx = incremental value, it adds 1 each time the error cycles, which happens roughly ever 10 seconds).
Additionally, Disk Utility reports this error: Error: The underlying task reported failure on exit.
*3rd attempt:* Erase and install. Same issue as 2nd attempt occured.
*4th, 5th, 6th attempts:* Bought a brand new hard drive to replace the old one. This was an idea that was raised on another one of my threads. People thought I could have bad sectors. Tried upgrading and archive install from 10.4, no. Erase and install, no. Same issue as before.
*7th attempt:* Tried swapping out the RAM from a friends MBP (who has successfully upgraded to Leopard). No, same failure as before.
*8th attempt:* Tried using his Leopard disk. NO!
*9th attempt:* My last attempt so far... Erase and install, then applied the 10.5.1 update. It all went well, but it always has, until the point where I reboot. It successfully rebooted once, but to be sure all was fine (before using the migration assistant) I rebooted again... Oh what a surprise, it doesn't work anymore. Same enraging loop.
*Any new ideas people, I have faith that there is some genius out there who can provide me with a solution. I will love you forever if you can help me.*
*Quick question:* Do other people see the dialogue box that appears before the computer restarts...
"Updating Boot Caches - The Boot caches are being updated, the system will shutdown when this task is complete" (It's sort of along those lines. I don't have enough time to write down exactly what it says)??
Oh well, back to my newest backup (10.4.11).
*Fingers crossed for 10.5.2 :D*

THANK YOU!!! At least preliminarily...
I've spent the last three hours researching and troubleshooting my greyscreen dilemma, and your post is the only one that seemed to work so far.
I installed Leopard 10.5 onto my G4 Dual 1.25 Mirror, successfully restarted after the install, then had glitchy problems including being unable to run Software Update or even run the Leopard Update after downloading it from the apple website. So I restarted the computer (after removing the Install DVD and shutting the drive door) and found myself stuck at the grey screen with the spinning ball.
Nothing worked. I couldn't do anything to get it to boot.
After researching, I booted into single user mode and ran mount -o rw,remount / # (from this thread: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=5796214&#5796214) and when I exited and it began to boot I saw it get stuck at mDNSResponder line prompt, repeating the line prompt every 5 seconds or so and never getting anywhere.
Then I found your post and changed permissions as you mentioned, exited and it booted up successfully. I then immediately ran Software Update and installed the Leopard 10.5.1 update and now all is well again.
Insane for this to be required. I barely know what single user means and would have sent this computer in to Apple if I hadn't found your solution.
Hopefully the next person who searches on this problem will find this and save themselves a horror story too. Thanks again.
Jeff

MacBook Air stuck on grey screen! Help! Help!

I was trying to uninstall Firefox so I moved the icon into the trashcan but it wouldn't delete. So I moved the two files I found in the trash to the desktop and then I restarted. Now my mac is stuck on the grey apple screen with the little timer. I did the PRAM restart thing...it chimed and went to the grey screen again. I am pretty sure the problem is that the Firefox is screwed up and Firefox is supposed to be the first app to load. What can I do???? Please please please help! I am totally lost here. Thanks!

Being stuck at the grey screen generally means there's something wrong involving reading something from or writing something to the hard drive. Letting the battery die may be something that is sometimes useful for a phone or iPod, but never for a computer.
Step 1: try restarting in Safe Mode. Reboot and when you hear the chime and/or the LCD backlight comes on press and hold the shift key until you see the Apple icon. The bootup will take longer than normal because the hard drive is being examined and repaired. If this works you'll get to the desktop but Safe Mode only loads a minimal number of drivers so some things won't work. Reboot normally and see if you can get to the desktop now. If Step 1 failed or if after rebooting you returned to the gray screen try step 2.
Step 2: try restarting in Recovery Mode. Reboot and when you hear the chime and/or the LCD backlight comes on press and hold the command and R keys. You should boot into a utility mode where you can a) check the hard drive directory and repair it if need be and b) download and reinstall the operating system and that's what you should try doing.
If step 2 fails reboot holding option, command and R. This is Internet Recovery mode which is similar to Recovery mode except the drive will probably need to be formatted or partitioned before the OS can be reinstalled. This will erase all your data.
And if this fails call AppleCare or make an appointment at the Apple store.

"Grey Screen" issue attached to Third Party RAM?

Ran into an issue with my iMac. A few weeks back, when I started up my Mac, I got the "grey screen" brick wall, where the machine, for some reason, isn't seeing the operating system. Sometimes the flashing folder question mark, sometimes just grey. After a hard-reboot, things were okay.
But got progressively worse over the last three weeks. One reboot, went up to between 5 and 6 reboots just to get the CPU to see the hard disk. Stripped the machine, reinstalled the OS, did okay for only a day, and then back to the usual grey screen madness. Ran Disk Utility to repair my hard drive, sometimes I cant start-up without this process.
Did everything possible from the online troubleshooting pages on this issue... and finally pulled out my "third party" 1G RAM card... just as a final hoorah before packing it into the box for the Mac Store visit...
And now she starts up like a dream.
SO... would anybody know why in the heck a third-pary RAM card would affect my computer's ability to see the start-disk OS? Why, after pulling it out, would things be just fine? Should I just replace the RAM, or is it something else?
Strange, eh? --- Hit me with any thoughts you guys have. Thanks!

Welcome to the Forum.
If your 3rd party ram, or indeed any party ram was faulty then you might experience strange issues like this. Contact the people you got it from and see what they have to say - think of it as a faulty item and they should just offer to replace it for you.

Blank Grey Screen Issue

Hi,
I tried to upgrade to Yosemite last night and I think there's something wrong.
At the last step process gets to a grey screen with Apple Logo with a filling bar below it. As soon as the bar hits quarter way everything disappears and I'm left with a blank grey screen...
I don't have much on this iMac few folders and pictures.
Anyone experiencing the same issue? Any advice?

I just tried to install 10.10.1 and ran into the same problem, however, in my case, I found that the login form disappeared (invisible). If you're able to move the mouse pointer, try moving it around the middle of the screen where the username and password text fields are supposed to be. If you see two places where mouse pointer turn into a keyboard prompt, type your user name in the upper one and your password in the lower one and hit the return key. You should be able to complete the installation.

My imac g5 is stuck on grey screen, please help :(

it started with the **** spinning wheel that wouldn't come unstuck, i had to shut down from the start button at the back. i restarted & now comes to grey screen, then the folder with '?' icon blinks. i put install disk and manage to try repair disk through disk utility, it said it couldn't repair some files(i 4got to take note...idiot). i figured to try archive/re install but it failed. i restarted and it managed to get to the desk top, so i used cocktail to do general house clean. i left and came back in 15min and the imac was shutdown, i powerd back up and now its just grey no folder'?' icon....nothing. i have pram 'd it still no go. has it bricked up?

Your drive is dying, back up now and then get a new one. Daddy Paycheck is absolutely correct.

My MacBook won't boot past the grey screen.. help!

Today I was having a problem with Safari. For some reason, it kept restarting. This annoyed me, so I restarted my MacBook. Unfortunately, it won't boot past the grey screen, with the thing spinning in the middle. I've been into disk utility and it says my HDD is fine. I restarted from this, and yet it still won't boot. Can anyone suggest what's wrong/what to do?
Thanks in advance

Retrieving data using Target Disk Mode:
1) Shut down both computers
2) Connect the two computers using a Firewire cable
3) Start up the working computer.
4) Once the working computer is ready, startup your MacBook with the T key held down.
5) Your MacBook's hard drive should appear as an external hard drive on the working Mac. Drag & drop any files you want to save.
~Lyssa

Can't fix Grey Screen issue

Hello,
My Mac Book seems to have a grey screen/OSX problem. The computer boots up fine, but after a few minutes the screen will go grey and I will get a warning stating there is a problem with OSX and I need to shut down. After shutting down and rebooting the computer will work fine for a couple of minutes and then the same thing happens again.
I took it to a local Mac reseller and they said it was the hard drive and since it is under warranty they replaced it for me. However the problem continues. It sounds like an OSx problem, but I would have thought they would have re-installed the operating system when they replaced the hard drive.
Any thoughts? If the hard drive has been replaced and the operating system has been reinstalled, what else could it be?

Sounds like you are having kernel panics. Here are a couple of resources to start with:
http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/kernelpanics.html
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1392
Good luck!

More on the G5 Won't boot, no chime, no grey screen issue....

OK, so in the last thread, I had taken it to the apple store, where the g5 (DP 2.5) dutifully started up on their firewire drive, whereupon they declared it a faulty hard drive.
I pressed them pretty hard, but it made sense at the time, and certainly never failed while they were there.
So now I have it back home, a new WD SATA drive installed, and guess what?? same thing... boots, no chime, no power LED, just fans.
I have set/reset the SMU, I have removed everything including the batter (which checks good at 3.7 volts BTW)
Here's the weird part - it seems like once per day (always the first time) I do get one good try out of it. By this I mean, it will chime and at least get to the grey screen, and i can eject a CD. However, up till now I have not been prepared with the right thing to give it. Once that opportunity has passed, its back to the old black screen with no chimes for at least 24 hours.
I don't detect any overheating or that sort of problem - anyone ever seen this - where you can only get one good boot out of it for a day?
Thanks,
adam

Hi gB -
Yes I tried without the cover, to no avail. Ended up taking it back to the apple store today where they now are able to see the problem (with a different monitor).
Their gut instinct is logic board, but I am asking them to do a complete test on it (whatever that means) just to make sure it isn't a flaky leg on the power supply, or a bad cable somewhere. I don't have alot of hope, but I will give it a chance.
If it ends up being procs, board, or both, I will probably sell it for parts and put the money into a new one with warranty etc!
Glad yours is up and running.
Adam

Grey screen issue

Hi
I was having grey screen, flashing folder (an icon inside) once I startup my macbook pro. Already tried safeboot, mem test, AHT test, external mac to access internal HDD. Nothing works. Have any idea?
Thanks much

Not too difficult. Take the Snow Leopard installation disk, slide it in the optical drive slot, start the MBP with the C key pressed down. Choose your preferred language and continue until you see a menu bar on top of the display.
On the menu bar, click on UTILITIES.
From the drop down menu, select DISK UTILITY.
Open Disk Utility>Erase and make certain the format Mac OS Extended (Journaled) is selected.
Click on the ERASE button.
Exit Disk Utility and follow the directions to complete the installation.
Ciao.

Stuck grey screen, need help asap!

Alright,
so I was trying to reinstall some programs by using the Startup Disk 1.
I relized how long it was taking, and quit at an early point.
I chose to restart the computer (I've done it before, and it just went back to our normal screen)
But this time around,
It went to a blank white screen,
several minutes later, a blinking globe appeared
and then a minute or two later, the blue startup screen appeared,
then turned grey,
and that's where it's been ever since.
I have NO idea how to fix this.
I've looked everything up from this other computer,
and I am pretty much desperate to get the computer fixed ASAP
PLEASE,
hah I need answers quick
Thank you so much!!!

Hi Nicole-
Don't be freaked out- it doesn't help. You need to be cool, calm, and methodical.
So, you have an iMac? Anyhow, a slot loading optical drive....
Check your keyboard. Is it plugged in?
If you are using a wireless keyboard, change to a USB plug in type for now. If you are using a wireless, this would be why previous keyboard commands didn't work.
With the OS install disc in the machine, and with the machine off (hold the power button for several seconds to make sure it turns off). Startup the Mac, and hold the C key while starting. Hold the key until you see the gray spinning wheel stop spinning. The machine should boot to the OS X install disc.
Once booted to the OS install disc, either, repair the hard drive with Disk Utility, or, Archive and Install, saving user settings.
BTW-We aren't arguing, just establishing from where the others thinking is based. Of no consequence to you, except that we are both trying to help.
Remember, cool, calm, methodical.

GREY SCREEN ERROR HELP

Hi I have a MacBook 10.5.8 laptop its a few years old & it was working/running fine up until about a week ago then it started taking ages to startup so I started it in single mode and typed "/sbin/fsck -fy then a message came up "harddrive appears to be ok" so next I typed "reboot".Now it starts as normal apple logo & spinning chime,then just before the login screen would normally pop up the screen suddenly turns mid grey with no logo only the pointer arrowwhich I can move around.I was wondering if there was a sh# command line I could use in single mode to force open startup or any other solution to fix this problem or even any other ideas would be much appreciated I just wouldn't mind retrieving my kids photos off my desktop at minimum as I made the mistake of not backing them up..I also don't have a installation disk & was wondering if its possible to download a copy onto my pendrive because my cd drives out of action,
THANKS VERY MUCH !!!

The problem with fsck and Disk Utility is that neither check for bad blocks on a drive. They correct index problems. If a file has become corrupt and it can't be indexed then and only then will they identify it as a problem, otherwise the problem persists.
I'm guessing the hard drive is bad. I'd try the following:
If you have the install media boot from it just to make sure the system will boot completely at all. If it will it's good because you know the system is working. If it won't then you've got system problems.
If you can gain acccess to another bootable external hard drive, try to boot from that. If it comes up, once again it implies the system is OK.
The odds are the HD has simply gone bad. The symptoms you're describing are those of a drive failure. We use Scannerz to test our stuff and the company that makes the product has lots of info and downloads about drive problems that may be of use to you. Here's a link:
http://www.scsc-online.com
I wouldn't rush out and buy their drive testing product without doing the other things I've mentioned first because if your system is at fault you would just be wasting your money.

GREY SCREEN ISSUE HELP

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