HT2470 Grey screen after reboot and keychain password problems..

It's hard to believe I have only had my iMac 1 week and already I have managed to lock myself out of my user account and now after following online advice to unlock the keychain within utilities, I have a grey screen and spinning pointer. I remember deleting something from the keychain but now I can't even log on?
Is there anyway I can resolve this myself ( very little technical experience) or will Apple phone support be my best option? Any answers would be greatly appreciated.............. thanks in advance.

You paid for 90 days of phone support. Might as well use it.

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Stuck at grey screen after reboot

I seem to be stuck at the grey screen after a reboot of my server. Here are the symptoms and I'm wondering if anyone has experienced them before or has some idea of where to look:
1) Over the last couple of weeks, I've noticed the entire system freezing up for 10-20 seconds. The spinning pinwheel pops up and when my office is really quite, it sounds like either a fan is starting on the system or a hard drive is spinning up. Note that I've turned off all 'spin drives down when possible' in energy savings.
2) After the 10-20 seconds, a bunch of disk activity occurs and everything goes back to normal.
I've tried repairing permissions, checking for errors with the drive, etc. I've got two drives striped in Raid 0 (yes, the system is backed up--so I'm not worried about loosing data).
After a recent software update, I had to reboot it, and that's where it got stuck. Could be something there for some time, but my server usually runs for months at a time, unless an update requires a reboot.
Thanks for any help or suggestions!

Could you be more specific about what disks you used to boot with and exactly what programs you ran...
I cannot seem to get it to boot from the "Admin Tools" disk using the "D" key.
Also, when booting from the "Mac OS X Server" disk I can access Disk Utility, but do not see Raid Utility anywhwere.

10.5.2 Grey Screen after Login (and never goes away)

I installed 10.5.2 late last night on my January 2008 Mac Pro and since hitting 'reboot' to install the update I haven't been able to use my system.
I get to the Login Prompt, login with my username and password, and then all I get is a grey screen with a spinning colored cursor. It was that way still this morning when I woke up, as well as when I got home from work several hours later.
I have subsequently shutoff my machine several times and it still does it everytime I login.. has anyone experienced similar issues and is there a fix besides re-installing from the restore CD?
Christopher

I read several threads and tried several things and this is what fixed it.
I was able to boot up into single user mode.
I then tried safe mode.. it took about 10 minutes but I got to the desktop after logging in.
I then ran Software update again and it installed "Leopard Graphic Drivers Update". I then rebooted. Now everything works again! Still a pain!
Christopher

Computer froze...Now just grey screen after reboot

Hi all,
After installing leopard on my machine (1.5 yr old Macbook), it has worked fine for me since dec. Today at work, my mail froze, but unlike usual, I couldnt even force quit. So i held down the power button to reboot.
It rebooted the first time with a ´´do not enter´´ symbol.
After that, it reboots BLANK GREY SCREEN.
eeK! Help, please! I am out of the US right now in a land of very few mac repair centers. Suggestions...

I was going to suggest you maybe experiencing the same slow boot up as me.
The screen appears first blank grey for almost 2 minutes then after a protracted blue screen for another 4 minutes I finally get to the log-in.
But it appears you may have received other technical advice.

Grey screen, wiped mac and still same problem

About 2 weeks ago my son accidentally pulled the power cable out of the back of the iMac. He then suffered quite a bit of freezing on several applications and even force quit was not working. He had to hold the power button in to turn off. He then had quite a bit freezing but force quit was working, albeit quite slowly. One day I could not login to my user account, my son had his open and the shared account we use for the iPad and I thought this might be causing my account to start logging in but just ending up back at the login screen. I logged out of the other two accounts and tried again and it worked. It was fine for a few hours but then I logged out and later my son tried to log in to be met with a grey screen and spinning cog. After looking on line we first tried safe boot which worked but then after restarting the same grey screen. It then seemed that we should insert the cd and try disk repair but this was greyed out so we could only verify disk and then the disc would not eject. I couldn't eject from the keyboard or from utilities but finally did it from starting up and clicking left side of mouse. After quite a few more start ups where we had grey screen followed by blue screen then nothing we then got it to start up. I quickly backed everything up using time machine and tried a repair disk again. This time it said the dusk could not be repaired so we prepared to wipe the iMac. I did this with relative ease until an error message showed the installation had failed. Back to the Internet for more help. Verbose mode threw up an error message of disk02 i/o error so we started again with doing a reinstall. It worked and seemed ok for a day or so, then freezing, spinning beach balls etc. I tried a verify permissions and about 50 needed repairing which it did. Worked fine and we started to copy our music and photos back (I don't actually know how to bring back everything but we were running out of space anyway so it seemed ok to just bring things back slowly). It seemed ok though start up was atrociously slow even with nothing on the system but it was working. Then Christmas day and my son has a new iPod which he wants to sync. It starts up fine, he syncs and then turns it off for Christmas lunch. He turns it back on and grey screen but this time nothing else, it can sit with spinning cog for over 10 mins. We've tried the power supply trick, draining the power and waiting but nothing. Is it the hard drive? And if so is it worth repairing or should we be thinking about a new iMac?

Update on my iMac, apple rang today to say they have replaced the hard drive too and let it run on and off since Saturday as the problem was intermittent and they had to make sure it did actually boot up properly. Anyway it seems the pulling of the cable from the back of the iMac caused a power surge which in turn caused problems on the hard drive, I have been saying this since day one but no one would listen! Apple are replacing the hard drive free of charge as they have caused us some inconvenience in not fixing it properly first time. That's what I call excellent customer service.
Quatchi, it sounds like there are similar issues on your hard drive to ours, apple said bad sectors and I'd guess you'll need to replace the hard drive.
Message was edited by: GG31568

Mac stuck at grey screen after rebooting to install windows 7

My mac refuses to start installing Windows 7 from a disc after I finish going through the "Install Windows 7" option of Bootcamp assistant. I have not got any special devices plugged in during the reboot, just a screen. What do I do with the Drivers on the flashdrive? Please someone help me.

Which specific model of iMac do you have? If the installer refused to install, then there must be a reason, such as lack of hard disk space, RAM, etc.
Did you eject the DVD, or is it still in the optical drive? If it's still in the drive, you should try booting from it by turning on the iMac and holding down the 'C' key until you see the spinning radian and see if it will boot from the DVD.
Post back with more info and results.

Hi guys. I've had my MacBook Pro for 2 years now. Last night it suddenly kept glitching to a dark grey screen every now and then, then it would flash yellow / blue spots, and now it won't go past the grey screen even when I reboot it. I don't think I can

Hi guys.
I've had my MacBook Pro for 2 years now. Last night it suddenly kept glitching to a dark grey screen every now and then, then it would flash yellow / blue spots, and now it won't go past the grey screen even when I reboot it.
I don't think I can access my disk anymore as I've moved across countries since I've first gotten my laptop. it was working perfectly fine before it kept going to the dark grey screen with a little blue on the bottom.
If it helps, my camera light is still on, and it seems that my computer is working properly itself, but won't go past this grey screen.
I'm a college student and am really panicking about this - can anyone please tell me what to do?
Thank you & sorry for the long post.

What operating system are you running on it? (iOS 5.1 is for iPhone, iPad...not a Mac).

I am having trouble with iMessages. I cannot connect iMessage from my iPhone to my macbook air. This happened after I changed my apple id and keychain password last night.

I am having trouble with iMessages. I cannot connect iMessage from my iPhone to my macbook air. This happened after I changed my apple id and keychain password last night.

Hi geraldinefromjersey city,
I'm sorry to hear you are having issues with Messages. If you are having issues linking your Messages accounts between your iPhone and MacBook Air, you may find the information and troubleshooting steps outlined in the following articles helpful:
iOS and OS X: Link your phone number and Apple ID for use with FaceTime and iMessage - Apple Support
Connect your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, and Mac using Continuity - Apple Support
Regards,
- Brenden

Mavericks grey screen AFTER login on MBP?

Hi there,
I've bought a new MBP 13" Retina w. Mavericks installed (december 2013).
It ran like a dream, but when I tried to login via the guest account (for the guest time), it seemed to not go anywhere - freezing (w. the spinner still circling).
I held down the powerbutton until it powered up.
After this, i get to the login screen (w. mine + guest login), but nomatter if I log in as guest or my normal account i end up w. a blank grey screen after.
I've rebooted many times and tried resetting the PRAM, but with no improvement (as the "start process of the boot" is fine, until after the login).
There are no USB's or external things connected.
Any ideas? I did of course not have full backup :-((
Thank you in advance!!

Try booting into Safe mode (hold down shift while you start up). This takes five minutes to do a Dsik Utility (Repair Disk) then shows a special login screen and demands your username and password.
You can poke around and make sure things look ok. A few things are slower in safe mode, as only the most essential Drivers are loaded.
When you re-boot into regular mode, the start up may take a little longer as it rebuilds a few more things. Let us knoiw if that helps of not.

IPhone is at a grey screen after flashing for a few minutes

My iPhone is at a grey screen after flashing at the same screen for a couple of minutes.
I can turn my screen on and off, phone functions and siri both work. The screen is just grey, no error messages or anything.
This happened after I was trying to connect to a wifi hotspot and I was typing something into a field when it froze, flashed for a few minutes, and stayed on a grey screen. This has been going on for about an hour and a half.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Hi Brialex119,
If your iPhone is flashing with a grey screen, I would suggest resetting the device and resetting the network settings. If that does not resolve the issue, then you may need to back up to iCloud and restore it.
Restart or reset your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch - Apple Support
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201559
iOS: Wi-Fi settings grayed out or dim - Apple Support
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204324
Restart your iOS device.
Make sure that airplane mode is off by tapping Settings > Airplane Mode.
Reset the network settings by tapping Settings > General > Reset > Reset Network Settings.
This will reset all network settings, including Bluetooth pairing records, Wi-Fi passwords, VPN, and APN settings.
Make sure that your device is using the latest software. To do so, connect your device to your computer and check for updates in iTunes.
Back up and restore your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch using iCloud or iTunes - Apple Support
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT203977
Regards,
- Judy

MacBook Pro has a grey screen with circle and slash and will not start up or start into safe mode.

MacBook Pro has started to get a grey screen with circle and slash and will not start up or start into safe mode. This happened once previously, however, it allowed a safe mode reboot and then worked for a week or so. While utilzing the machine, it started with the spinning beach ball for about 5 minutes, went into a shut down mode and then rebooted and came back up with the grey screen with a circle and slash after a few minutes. For the past three days it has been stuck and will not allow it to boot into safe mode. Any idea or suggestions?

Try starting the MBP with the OPTION key down. If you see two HDD icons, select the recovery Icon. From the 4 option menu, select Disk Utility. Select Disk Utility>First Aid and run Verify and Repair.
If you cannot get into the recovery partition, make an appointment at an Apple store genius bar.
Ciao.

Hello my MBP 15" stops at grey screen after apple logo disappears

hello, my MBP 15" stops at grey screen after apple logo disappears, what can i do about this? ive tried booting into safe mode but screen turns blue with black lines also tried resetting NVRAM and PVRAM but still stops at grey screen, also tried using applejack, it shows no problems at all, says my disk volume is ok but the screen still stops at grey during start up, havent tried the installation disk thing because i dont have my installation disk with me

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.

Grey Screen after login- just did OS update

I am using a 15" MacBook Pro, 2011 model. I just got it back with a new hard drive and it was working fine for 3 days, then I applied the latest Mac OS update. The update caused a restart and that is where my problem started. When it restarts, the user logon screen comes up and i enter my user name and password and then hit enter. It accepts it and then a grey screen comes up and just hangs there.
Any ideas?

Jonny b Goode wrote:
When it restarts, the user logon screen comes up and i enter my user name and password and then hit enter. It accepts it and then a grey screen comes up and just hangs there.
If this was a problem with OS X or a thrid party at boot kext file, it likely would show up BEFORE the login screen.
Since it appears after the log in screen, that would suggest it's a problem with a auto-launch of a program after the account is logged into.
This is a new resume feature of OS X Lions and it's a problem obviously because you don't know what program is responsible.
At least with manual launching of programs, if the machine crashes you know what program caused it.
What you do is hold the Shift Key down upon boot, this enters Safe Mode and disables these at launch programs which you then go around and update all your third party software.
Disable the "resume windows" feature in System Preferences or use the free TinkerTool until your problem is resolved.
Apple menu > System Preferences > General >
Uncheck “Restore windows when quitting and re-opening apps“
You can look at the Console > System Diagnostic log file for a clue what program is crashing the machine.
Once you discover what it is, use the developers uninstall method to remove the program if there is no update available.
To be systematic on repairing your machine look at this User Tip,
..Step by Step to fix your Mac
Once we have some idea of what program is causing your machine to crash then it can be replaced with a new copy or sometimes it's the preference file for it has gotten corrupted or a file it's loading and that causes everything to crash once you log in.
If replacing the program with a new copy doesn't fix it, then it's likely it's preference file has gotten corupted and that's not reinstalled fresh when you reinstall the program, it's carried over from the previous install/use of the program.
See Step #12/#13 for details.

TS3148 my mackbook air starts up with a persistent grey screen, apple logo and spinning gear

my mackbook air starts up with a persistent grey screen, apple logo and a spinning gear. It will not show the login window

Press and hold the power button down to force a hardware shutdown (emergency use only!)
Next find the Shift key and hold it and press the power button, the machine will boot into Safe Mode.
Next backup your files to a external drive just in case.
Emergency backup procedure
Drag and drop copy your users file folders (music, pictures, documents etc) to a regular external powered drive as soon as possible.
Do not use, setup or trust only TimeMachine at this troubled time as it will copy corrupted data and we need just your users files safe just in case. TimeMachine cannot be used with a Windows PC.
Unmount and Disconnect all external drives once the backup process is completed.
Note:
If you have any over 4GB sized files, those won't copy to a standard formatted FAT32/MSDOS drive from the factory, if you need to save these 4GB+ files use another blank/empty drive and use Disk Utility to format it 1 Partition, Option: GUID, Format: OS X Extended Journaled (or the standard default one for older Mac's).
Mac's cannot copy to nor format a NTFS drive. ExFAT format to be used with a Windows machine must be right click formatted by Windows, not OS X (does it wrong) XP macines can install a free exFAT update from Microsoft. Vista-Win 8 can format exFAT.
Formatting a drive will erase all data on it.
Most commonly used backup methods
Your problem is likely due to a incompatible third part at boot kernel extension file that some program installed into OS X at some time.
If you can recall which programs you installed using your Admin password then that's a good place to start and update or uninstall those programs.
The next solution is a #8 Reinstall Just OS X + Software Update fully, this will replace OS X with a new copy, fix OS X if it's the cause and kick out ALL third party kext files out of OS X.
You also can manually drag and drop the third party kext files (if you know what they are) out of of the System/Library/Extensions folder and reboot.
..Step by Step to fix your Mac
Solving at boot kext issues in Snow Leopard

My hard drive crashed. Replaced my hard drive. Installed Yosemite. Restored from Time Machine most recent backup before hard drive crash. Now laptop won't start up. Grey screen with circle and slash through it.

How to start up laptop from grey screen with circle and slash through it?

After you installed Yosemite and prior to restoring from the backup, were you able to start the Mac?

HT2470 Grey screen after reboot and keychain password problems..

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