Hp pavilion hpe h8-1070uk - cant boot past post screen - help!!!!!!

Hello,
Please help me HP!
I have a hp pavilion hpe h8-1070uk and recently upgraded the boot disk to a SSD and also installed Windows 8 64 pro. The system ran very well indeed.
After a few months of problem free usage, windows update said that Windows 8.1 was ready to install and all I need do is reboot to install it.
I selected to postpone the install for 4 hours and continued worrking away - I then went to bed and when I came back to the computer 6 or 7 hours later - the Win 8.1 install process was 52% completed but had hung...
On power cycling the system, the PC halts at the post delay screen and if I press Escape as the system boots, the screen shows 'start up menu' on the lower right of the screen (the post delay text remains unchanged) and the systems just hangs...
The lights and fan are on
The keyboard num lock key is on
No disk activity is shown (HD led, etc)
There are no errors displayed on screen or beeping sounds made
I have removed all usb devices and the HD (SSD) to see if this would at least allow the machine to boot and show a missing disk\OS message - this had no effect although the post screen does show a keyboard error - on replugging the keyboard (but not the SSD HD) the system still halts at the post screen with no error shown.
If you can please advise what I can do to resolve this problem - I really need to use the computer and can not see how it could have become damaged - Please, please help!!!

SUCCESS - at least for me (after already shopping on Amazon and Ebay for replacement motherboard).
After reading MANY posts about this in various forums, a common theme was removing hardware. I tried that, and as OP had done, at one point I removed everything including cables from MB to front panel USB ports.
What worked was plugging in the old HDD I had cloned from a couple days ago. Yes, this fixed a booting problem at the POST phase. And I was able duplicate the works/doesn't work circumstances repeatedly after that.
If you haven't solved your problem (it's been a month), I would try a different HDD or putting a bootable DVD or attaching a bootable USB drive (of anything). SOMETHING bootable for a confused boot loader to find (I suspect the boot loader on your HDD got corrupted when Win8.1 didn't install completely).
My setup was a Compaq Vision CQ2723w with Win7 and an EFI boot system. Part of the boot loader resides in NVRAM (presumably on the MB). Things worked fine until I got done setting everything up (including booting from F9 boot menu very often) and removed the thumb drive with a bootable Win7 Install on it and rebooted. Based on what I saw later (bcdedit /enum firmware), there are many duplicate boot manager and USB HARD DISK entries. There is even an entry from the Acronis loader used during disk cloning ... and neither disk was plugged in at the time. Hence my belief that boot loader stuff is stored on the MB. (Microsoft Tech blog talked about the firmware version, but didn't mention physical location).
Long story getting longer ...
I suspect
(1) BIOS searches for bootable devices. How else can it present a newly installed boot source (and it lists HDDs by model number) in the boot menu.
(2) the thumb drive was causing "it's" boot manager settings to be first choice in the MB firmware. When I could get into BIOS, I would put the EFI entry for USB HARD DISK after other EFI entries in the boot order. Whenever I booted Win7 Install from the thumb drive, it would be back on top.
(3) when I booted without the thumb drive installed, the overall boot process was "confused" or partially corrupt somewhere (like on the 250 GB Seagate HDD). I would see 6 entries for "Windows Boot Manager" in the F9 boot menu.
(4) When I put in the old 500 GB Seagate HDD, F9 Boot Menu and F10 Setup worked again. Boot Manager would come back with "no system found" and I had to manually select the 500 GB Seagate from the F9 boot menu. Once that happened, the default choice of Boot Manager in the startup menu worked again. Did the HDD load "it's" boot manager settings at the top of the MB firmware????
At the end, with a "working" system, I replaced the HDD with a cloned SSD (the goal at the beginning of this journey), kept the bootable thumb drive in my pocket, booted from the SDD (listed in the F9 boot menu), and repeatedly booted. A quick peek at the boot menu showed one of the Boot Manager(s) to be the default choice.
I still have multiple Boot Managers listed in the F9 Boot Menu. "bcdedit /enum firmware" still shows a display order with four duplicates for <bootmgr> and six of the GUID associated with USB HARD DRIVE. BUT THE SYSTEM BOOTS!!!!
Now, I just have make sure bootable USB drives do not come within 10 feet (and I'm hanging on to the original 500 MB Seagate that "fixes" the problem when its connected.
Hope this helps you or someone/somewhere/sometime to solve their problem or get one step closer to understanding how all this booting crap really works (or doesn't).

Similar Messages

Cant boot past White screen

Cant boot from internal hard drive, stops at white screen with apple and spiral. I can boot from an external hard drive, and when i press alt on start to choose the external hard drive it shows both the macintosh hd and my external hard drive. Is there any way i can back up my internal hard drive from while booting from my external hard drive?

If you were running Snow Leopard then you can reinstall as follows:
Reinstall OS X without erasing the drive
Do the following:
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 the Combo Updater for the version you prefer from support.apple.com/downloads/.
If you boot from your external drive and if the internal drive mounts on the Desktop and can be accessed, then you can copy your files onto the external drive or onto a second external drive.

Cant boot past EFI Screen

Hi,
After changing a few things in the bios (voltage) I get stuck on the black efi screen with no option of moving forward. It does however let me enter commands but I dont know any so basically Im stuck there until I reset my cmos.
What I want to know is what am I doing wrong that is causing this. All I did was change my voltage down 1.11 from 1.13 I believe (multiplier at 42x). Also is there a way of getting into the bios so that I can undo my changes without having to reset the cmos?

Sorry for the vagueness. Here are my specs:
Board: MSI Z77A-GD65
Bios: V10.7
VGA: HD4000
PSU: Seasonic m2s 620w
CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K
MEM: G Skill Sniper Series 1866Mhz 2x8Gb
HDD: Samsung 830 120Gb + WD 320Gb + Seagate 2TB
COOLER: Cooler Master 612S
OC: None so far
OS: Windows 8 Pro
So I have no other choice but to clear my CMOS if I want to proceed further. I assume my voltage was to low for the multiplier that I had selected 1.11v for 42x multiplier. I was wondering if I were to save this as an OC profile would it be wiped if I clear my CMOS? I ask because I dont want to have to re do all my settings again after I clear my CMOS

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.com

I'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

My system won't boot past POST after I plugged in my new SATA drive. (SATA noob

I have a MSI K8n Neo 2 Platinum mobo with a Athlon64 +3500 and 1gig dual channel DDR 400. I currently have 2 drives set up a IDE primary (MAxtor 6Y120) and a IDE slave (Maxtor 6L080).
I recently purchased a Maxtor DiamondMax 10 6L300S0 300GB Serial ATA 7200RPM Hard Drive w/16MB Buffer.
It is my first SATA drive ever so non the less I am a newb. I want to use it as a non Raid media storage device while my primary IDE remains my boot OS drive.
I plugged the SATA in to the sata one port and powered it. I enabled the SATA in the bios with RAID disabled. When the system boots up it does the memory chech and lists all the IDE devices. Then it says "Detecting IDE drives..." and just hangs there. The new drive spins so it definatly has power but occasionaly it make occasional clicking sounds.
Once it actually booted up and windows detected it. I decided to reboot it just to play it safe but it never would get past post screen again. I can boot up the system normally when I unplug the SATA cable.
Please help I need to know if I am doing something wrong or I should RMA the drive. THANK YOU!

Got the same problem:
pata Maxtor Diamond Max =9 200 (40/160) Boot drive
AMD 64 x2 3800
Bios 1.2 090905 using MSi online auto update utility
2x 512 DDR double sided
X850 pro 128mb
PSU Sweetex 650w
Switched power supply
110/220 V switchable (220 V: 5 Amp/ 110V:10 Amp)
+ 3.3 V 28 Amp
+ 5 V 45 Amp
+ 12 V 25 Amp
-5 V 0.5 Amp
-12 V 0.8 Amp
- 5 Vsb 2 Amp PEAK 2.5
Max. 650 Watt
CE, FC
Boots perfectly with 1 pata, adda sata to sata 1 or 2 or 3 or 4
Boot stalls in bios at Raid setup. Tried enable raid with no drives enable , system booted twice, turned off overnight, then failed to start the next day. Will only restart with a cold reboot. Hot reboot produces a long BEEEEEP & power is on but nothing happens no post nothing.
SATA drive was taked from a working system (ECS 755a - AMD 64 3000 - PATA 200 / SATA 200), configured 40/160 40=OS Winxp 64 / 160 = data. System will not boot if this is the sole drive connected.

IMac Does not boot past Gray Screen

iMac does not boot past Gray Screen. 2008 24" Intel iMac running Mountain Lion with 1TB hard drive.
Problem started yesterday while I was web surfing, and my iMac frooze and shutdown. I rebooted and could only get as far as the gray screen.
On bootup the following things happen:
Startup tone
Gray screen with Apple, and gear spins below Apple.
Once the gear stops spinning, nothing happends.
Troubleshooting steps I have tried:
removed all devices connected to iMac and rebooted, but same symptons occur.
booted into Safe mode and run disk utilites.
     Disk Utilities found no errors on the drive, but did find two permission issues that it was able to fix.
          First permission issue:
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          Second permission issue:
                    "Permissons differ on library; Should be drwxr-xr-x; They are drwxrwxr-t"
Disk Utilities says it fixes these issues and then I reboot, but get the same problem.
I reboot back into Safe Mode and run Disk Utilities and it discovers the same problems listed above with Permissions. It says it fixes them, I reboot, but the same problem occurs. Its as if we are stuck in some sort of loop process.
Booted into Single User Mode and ran the following command:
     /SBin/fsck -fy   it reports back, Volume Apprears to be ok.
I reboot, same issue !
Performed SMC Reset, Rebooted, same issue
Performed PRAM Reset, Rebooted, same issue.
Booted into Recovery Partitioin (Command R) and ran disk utilities. It found the same permission issues listed above. It fixed them. I rebooted. Same problem still.
While in safe mode, I preformed a full time machine backup.
I am out of ideas. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Hello,
I reboot back into Safe Mode and run Disk Utilities and it discovers the same problems listed above with Permissions.
You can ignore repeated "fixes" it's not really a problem, if it says completed repairs that's all that's needed.
Luckily it boots in Safe Mode, here's basically the steps to try to find out what it is...
One way to test is to Safe Boot from the HD, (holding Shift key down at bootup), run Disk Utility in Applications>Utilities, then highlight your drive, click on Repair Permissions, Test for problem in Safe Mode...
PS. Safe boot may stay on the gray radian for a long time, let it go, it's trying to repair the Hard Drive
Reboot, test again.
If it only does it in Regular Boot, then it could be some hardware problem like Video card, (Quartz is turned off in Safe Mode), or Airport, or some USB or Firewire device, or 3rd party add-on, Check System Preferences>Accounts>Login Items window to see if it or something relevant is listed.
Check the System Preferences>Other Row, for 3rd party Pref Panes.
Also look in these if they exist, some are invisible...
/private/var/run/StartupItems
/Library/StartupItems
/System/Library/StartupItems
/System/Library/LaunchDaemons
/Library/LaunchDaemons
Though I'm suspecting some corruption to your OS at the moment.

After running mac tuneup got a red dot on the hard drive icon, nothing would respond, now on restart cant get past white screen with apple logo, mac tune up disk still in laptop

after running mac tuneup got a red dot on the hard drive icon, nothing would respond, now on restart cant get past white screen with apple logo, mac tune up disk still in laptop

Restart your MBP holding the trackpad down and hopefully the disk will be ejected. Then try to return it and get a refund or put it in the trash. There is nothing that software does for your MBP that you cannot do yourself or with free software.
If can get your MBP started, delete all traces of the offending software. Worst case is that you may have to erase the HDD and reload the OS and your user data. I trust that you have a backup (minus MacTuneUp).
Courcoul has given you his opinion in a very succinct manner, and as you might surmise, I agree with him.
Ciao.

G5 won't boot past grey screen

G5 2.0 Dual will not boot past grey screen. Running 10.5.8 on an old maxtor 160gb drive, drive is available as a startup disc in StartUp disk in system preferences. But when it is chosen the machine shuts down in the usual manner then switches to the maxtor disk and only gets to the grey screen with the apple log no progress clock appears. Using disk utility from install disk reports that drive is ok, running techtool pro 4.6.2 reports the drive is fine and all file structures, volume structures and directories are fine. So of course i am keen to find out what the issue is and wether it can be resolved without resorting to a clean install. When booted from another internal drive the icon for the errant drive is visible and all files and folders are visible and readily accessable.
It would be great to get back to booting from this drive as it is the main drive I use and has so much more on it than the secondary drive.
Any help will be of immense use
Thank You

I assume you have already tried a PRAM reset. If so, then the following three items may yield a clue.
Number one thing to try is a Safe Boot by holding the shift key down at boot. You may have a something in the non-minimal Apple kext set that is causing the hang. (If it safe boots, you may have a problem in kext caches which can be cleared. See below.)
Second is to disconnect all peripherals except monitor, keyboard and mouse and see if something there is contributing to the hang.
Third is to use verbose boot (hold down cmd-V at boot until you see a black Unix terminal screen come up) and see where the system is hanging.
Clearing the kext Caches (if indicated)
This is probably easiest done booted from the other drive, so I'll describe that method.
Open the Maxtor's System folder, then open the Library folder and drag the following two files to the trash:
Extensions.kextcache
Extensions.mkext
Empty the trash.
Open a Terminal session from the Terminal application in the /Applications/Utilities folder.
Type cd followed by a space in the command line and then drag the icon for the Maxtor into the window, which will put a properly formatted Unix path into the command line, then press the return key. Type the following three commands
cd System <cr>
cd Library <cr>
sudo touch Extensions <cr>
then give your password when requested and close the terminal session. Select the Maxtor as the statrup drive in System Preferences and give it a go.

My iMac won't boot past grey screen and it didn't come with a os x disk

My iMac won't boot past grey screen with apple. I've tried booting in safemode but that didn't help and my iMac didn't come with a os x disk.

Take each of these steps that you haven't already tried. Stop when the problem is resolved.
Step 1
The first step in dealing with a startup failure is to secure the data. If you want to preserve the contents of the startup drive, and you don't already have at least one current backup, you must try to back up now, before you do anything else. It may or may not be possible. If you don't care about the data that has changed since the last backup, you can skip this step.
There are several ways to back up a Mac that is unable to start. You need an external hard drive to hold the backup data.
a. Start up from the Recovery partition, or from a local Time Machine backup volume (option key at startup.) When the OS X Utilities screen appears, launch Disk Utility and follow the instructions in this support article, under “Instructions for backing up to an external hard disk via Disk Utility.”
b. If you have access to a working Mac, and both it and the non-working Mac have FireWire or Thunderbolt ports, start the non-working Mac in target disk mode. Use the working Mac to copy the data to another drive. This technique won't work with USB, Ethernet, Wi-Fi, or Bluetooth.
c. If the internal drive of the non-working Mac is user-replaceable, remove it and mount it in an external enclosure or drive dock. Use another Mac to copy the data.
Step 2
If the startup process stops at a blank gray screen with no Apple logo or spinning "daisy wheel," then the startup volume may be full. If you had previously seen warnings of low disk space, this is almost certainly the case. You might be able to start up in safe mode even though you can't start up normally. Otherwise, start up from an external drive, or else use either of the techniques in Steps 1b and 1c to mount the internal drive and delete some files. According to Apple documentation, you need at least 9 GB of available space on the startup volume (as shown in the Finder Info window) for normal operation.
Step 3
Sometimes a startup failure can be resolved by resetting the NVRAM.
Step 4
If you use a wireless keyboard, trackpad, or mouse, replace or recharge the batteries. The battery level shown in the Bluetooth menu item may not be accurate.
Step 5
If there's a built-in optical drive, a disc may be stuck in it. Follow these instructions to eject it.
Step 6
Press and hold the power button until the power shuts off. Disconnect all wired peripherals except those needed to start up, and remove all aftermarket expansion cards. Use a different keyboard and/or mouse, if those devices are wired. If you can start up now, one of the devices you disconnected, or a combination of them, is causing the problem. Finding out which one is a process of elimination.
Step 7
If you've started from an external storage device, make sure that the internal startup volume is selected in the Startup Disk pane of System Preferences.
Start up in safe mode. Note: If FileVault is enabled, or if a firmware password is set, or if the startup volume is a Fusion Drive or a software RAID, you can’t do this. Post for further instructions.
Safe mode is much slower to start and run than normal, and some things won’t work at all, including wireless networking on certain Macs.
The login screen appears even if you usually log in automatically. You must know the login password in order to log in. If you’ve forgotten the password, you will need to reset it before you begin.
When you start up in safe mode, it's normal to see a dark gray progress bar on a light gray background. If the progress bar gets stuck for more than a few minutes, or if the system shuts down automatically while the progress bar is displayed, the startup volume is corrupt and the drive is probably malfunctioning. In that case, go to Step 10. If you ever have another problem with the drive, replace it immediately.
If you can start and log in in safe mode, empty the Trash, and then open the Finder Info window on the startup volume ("Macintosh HD," unless you gave it a different name.) Check that you have at least 9 GB of available space, as shown in the window. If you don't, copy as many files as necessary to another volume (not another folder on the same volume) and delete the originals. Deletion isn't complete until you empty the Trash again. Do this until the available space is more than 9 GB. Then restart as usual (i.e., not in safe mode.)
If the startup process hangs again, the problem is likely caused by a third-party system modification that you installed. Post for further instructions.
Step 8
Launch Disk Utility in Recovery mode (see Step 1.) Select the startup volume, then run Repair Disk. If any problems are found, repeat until clear. If Disk Utility reports that the volume can't be repaired, the drive has malfunctioned and should be replaced. You might choose to tolerate one such malfunction in the life of the drive. In that case, erase the volume and restore from a backup. If the same thing ever happens again, replace the drive immediately.
This is one of the rare situations in which you should also run Repair Permissions, ignoring the false warnings it may produce. Look for the line "Permissions repair complete" at the end of the output. Then restart as usual.
Step 9
Reinstall the OS. If the Mac was upgraded from an older version of OS X, you’ll need the Apple ID and password you used to upgrade.
Step 10
Do as in Step 9, but this time erase the startup volume in Disk Utility before installing. The system should automatically restart into the Setup Assistant. Follow the prompts to transfer the data from a Time Machine or other backup.
Step 11
This step applies only to models that have a logic-board ("PRAM") battery: all Mac Pro's and some others (not current models.) Both desktop and portable Macs used to have such a battery. The logic-board battery, if there is one, is separate from the main battery of a portable. A dead logic-board battery can cause a startup failure. Typically the failure will be preceded by loss of the settings for the startup disk and system clock. See the user manual for replacement instructions. You may have to take the machine to a service provider to have the battery replaced.
Step 12
If you get this far, you're probably dealing with a hardware fault. Make a "Genius" appointment at an Apple Store, or go to another authorized service provider.

Computer won't boot past gray screen

I can't get my computer to boot past gray screen. It keeps showing the apple logo and the spinning wheel. What can I do to get into my system?

Startup - Gray, Blue or White screen at boot, w/spinner/progress bar
Startup - Gray Screen
Startup Issues - Resolve
Startup Issues - Resolve (2)

IMac wont boot Past Grey Screen, finder folder with blinking question mark

iMac G5 won't boot Past Grey Screen. The G5 froze and i restarted, It will not go past the grey screen and it has the finder folder with blinking question mark, also the fans kick on wide open. As it atempts to boot a sound plays "beepda beepda beepda beep" that starts quiet and gets louder and repeats a couple of times. I ran a hardware check on the startup disk and all hardware passed. I thought it might be the RAM any suggestions?
I have restarted using the troubleshooting methods in the guide.

Sorry for the late reply. The drive shows up when booting to disk, but it will not allow you to verify disk or repair. Also it will not allow you to select the hard drive to reinstall the software. Under disk utility Maxtor sabre shows up with total capacity:0 bytes.
I've taking the Mac to the Apple store to get looked at, and its probly the hard drive. Now Im trying to see if theres a way to recover the data myself. I've used software like "Data Rescue" the hard drive shows up "Maxtor Sabre" totally capacity: 0 bytes, and it will not recover anything.
Did this test just to see if it was power problem.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2173
Thats when noticed the beeps are coming from the hard drive. So its getting power.
Now just wondering how to recover data.
Any suggestions?

Will not boot past blue screen

The present status is that my ibook g4 will no boot past the spinning wheel screen which hangs for a few minutes and then goes to the "Mac OS X" screen with the progress bar.
My first goal is to back up all of the data. I have a second IMac. Plus, I just purchased an external 500 gig hard drive just prior to when the error started. FYI the error started when I was going through the install process of the backup program supplied with the external hard drive. The program just asked me to restart the computer and that is where we are now.
The second goal of course is to fix the start-up issue. I have tried a number of the suggestions in previous posts including the following the install disk utilities to repair the disk.

I am having the exact same problem. I was just surfing the Internet this weekend and it completely froze and now it won't boot up. I no longer get a grey screen, at boot up, it goes from black to blue and then it hangs at the blue screen.
I have a TimeMachine and a Retrospect back up of my data but I can't boot to the Leopard Install CD which would let me restore my data.
I have tried just about everything, including booting in firewire target disk mode and connected to my old clamshell iBook G3. I was able to access my files, and I even reinstalled Tiger (couldn't use Leopard because it's not compatible with the G3). So there is a fresh copy of 10.4 running on my iBook G4 but it still will not boot up on its own.
No idea what to do at this point, but I would suggest not reformatting as it really didn't seem to help.

2010 MacBook wont boot past grey screen, even after a new hard drive and install CD.

Hey guys, I received a 2010 Macbook last year as a gift (no warranty). It worked fine untill a few days ago. It wouldn't boot past the grey apple logo. I took it in to an Apple store and they said it was a bad HDD. Since I didn't have much stored on it, and I have everything backed up to my desktop, I got a new, larger capacity HDD and replaced it with no issues. I started the Macbook with the OSX Leopard install CD, but it didn't identify the HDD, and now it won't boot past the grey screen.
Any ideas? Is it the motherboard?
Thanks a lot!

House3917 wrote:
I started the Macbook with the OSX Leopard install CD...
Leopard is done for, call Apple via phone and order the 10.6.3 white retail disks and use those.
Use these install instrcutions for best operation and performance.
How to erase and install Snow Leopard 10.6

PowerBook G4 won't boot past blue screen

I've read a couple of posts with similar problems. The jist is, I did a security update/restart earlier and now my laptop won't boot past the blue screen after the white screen with the gray apple. I think I'm on Mac OS 10.4.11 but I had it on auto-update so that could be incorrect.
I've booted from the install disk and run a diagnostic from the First Aid bit in the Disk Utility. It says that there are no errors found and the S.M.A.R.T. status says "verified" as well. It won't let me boot into Safe Mode (although, I could be doing that wrong as I'm not exactly clear on how to do it - pressing S doesn't seem to do anything, but if I press Command + S it takes me to a text listy thing and I've run the "fsck -f" system check (which seems like the same as the disk utility check?) from there and also gotten the "volume is ok" message. There was also a suggestion to run some kind of diagnostic after booting with the D key from the install disk, but I was never able to get the disk to boot from the D key, only the C key.
I'm sure that this is kind of the "same song, different verse," kind of post, but I've not read about volumes registering as okay. I'm a little wary of a archive-and-reinstall as I've not ever done that before (so, if that's the suggestion you have, I would really appreciate loads of specifics on how that works so I don't mess up!)
I've read in several instances suspicion of a hard drive problem but I've not had any slow downs or any crashing. I did travel to the UK for about 10 days, but I didn't even change the time zone on my laptop while there, so I don't think that's it (but I suppose it could be.)
Lastly, I did recently replace my keyboard. A few keys had become non-responsive so I replaced it and have had the new keyboard for a bit over a month.
Suggestions? Ideas? Sorry if it's a repeat post -- just felt like the circumstance was a teensy bit different. And also, thanks very much for any info you can give.

Linsey:
If you can boot your computer into Firewire Target Disk Mode and you have access to a second Mac that supports firewire, you may be able to back up items that have not been backed up previously.
If you are able to back everything up successfully, and you have tested your backup to be sure it is sound, then we can proceed with re-installation of the OS. The best option is to completely reformat and erase the HDD and then install the OS from disk. (I will post complete step by step directions). This will enable you to start with a clean slate/HDD. Your other option would be to use the Archive and Install option. Think it over and let me know how you want to proceed.
cornelius

G5 ALS Won't Boot Past Grey Screen...Bad Logic Board?

Hi all-
I did a quick search, and found various answers, but none specific to my situation, so below, please find my tale of woe, and I appreciate in advance any advice you folks could provide:
I have a G5, 2.0GHz, 20" iMac (upgraded to Leopard) that recently stopped booting past the grey screen/ chime. Somewhat irked, I did some trouble shooting to include the following:
1 - Reset SMU
2 - Zapped PRAM
3 - Run Apple Hardware Test (all tests passed)
4 - Repaired hard drive by booting to the install CD ... it returned errors that were not fixable, but since the log is on the computer that crashed, I don't have the errors to post here
5 - After that repair, the computer booted, so I ran disk utility again, repaired permissions successfully, verified the hard disk via S.M.A.R.T. (arguably, not the most reliable indicator of hard disk life).
6 - Just to be on the safe side, I did an Archive and Install.
All that done, I was able to use the computer for 2 days, and this morning, I woke up to find the fans a-blazin' and the computer non-responsive...I rebooted to...you guessed it!...a grey screen.
Luckily for me, my memory (akin to a steel trap!) served me well...I had the power supply changed two months ago under the repair extension program for my model iMac (bulging capacitors)..but they did NOT replace the logic board.
If you have made it this far, thank you for reading, I am building to my crescendo....
Being a slightly balding fellow, I have very little hair left to pull out here, so in desperation and with my recent power supply repair in mind, I pulled the back off of my beloved iMac (my very first Mac!) to reveal a bulging capacitor on the +logic board+.
My question: Could my symptoms be related to the logic board (remember the AHT passed), or might it be related to a bad hard drive (remember the S.M.A.R.T. status was verified)? Any troubleshooting steps I may have missed? I am going to bring it to my local Apple store, but wanted to know if there are any other ideas out there for me to try before making the 1.5+ hour trek south to a Mall.
Thank you all in advance for any advice you may have!
Best,
jason

Not only do you have a hardware problem, you should call Apple, tell them that you had the power supply replaced two months ago (you are within the 90 day warranty period), and ask that they replace the motherboard as well, since the previous repair didn't work.

Hp pavilion hpe h8-1070uk - cant boot past post screen - help!!!!!!

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