I have an Imac. On startup I get the blue screen. An apple Tech told me I need a new hard drive? Is he right?

My Imac has the dreaded blue screen on start up. To avoid this, I unplug the machine each night which solves the problem. I have contacted an Apple service rep who says I need to replace the hard drive. Nothing I have read indicates this. I have not added new hardware, not changed anything. Could it be my hard drive is bad?
Thanks

You could try a few things (if you haven't already) before giving up on the HD. You could try a Safe Boot:
Restart holding down the shift key until you see the grey progress bar. When the Mac has finished booting, restart as normal from the Apple menu.
Boot from your install disk and verify/repair the disk using Disk Utility (let us know if you're unsure how to do this).
Try an SMC reset and a PRAM reset:
SMC Reset
Shut down the computer.
Unplug the computer's power cord and disconnect attached devices.
Wait fifteen seconds.
Attach the computer's power cord.
Wait five seconds, then press the power button to turn on the computer.
Reset PRAM
Shut down the computer.
Locate the following keys on the keyboard: Command, Option, P and R.
You will need to hold these keys down simultaneously in step 4.
Turn on the computer.
Press and hold the Command-Option-P-R keys. You must press this key combination before the gray screen appears.
Hold the keys down until the computer restarts and you hear the startup sound for the second time.
Release the keys.
Try these things one at a time, and test the machine after each step.

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I just got a new mac and use my external hard drive to save all my images to but whenever I go to save my photo to my hard drive it says I do not have write access....Whats wrong how do i fix this or do i need a new hard drive??

I just got a new mac and use my external hard drive to save all my images to but whenever I go to save my photo to my hard drive it says I do not have write access....Whats wrong how do i fix this or do i need a new hard drive??@

This is a Mac question not a Photoshop question, and I am a Windows users, but I can Google and this might be what you need to do:
http://www.makeuseof.com/answers/change-read-permision-external-hard-drive-mac/

I now get the blue screen after apple update

Hi,
After spending the last 2 hours searching im still no better off!
OK so today my system update thing pops up and says i should download and install itunes 7.1.1 and and apple update which i belive was 10.4.9 but i could be mistaken on that.
Anyway after install all i get is the blue loading screen with the apple logo and the spinning bar. Ive tried holding c to boot from tiger install disk...nothing happens. Ive tried holding shift key for safe mode...nothing happens!
Im really getting p'eed off now. When apple give me an update i would expect to improve things not ruin them!
Anyway if anyone has any ideas please please let me know.
Thanks
Wayne

Hi, we all understand the frustrations..OK, 1st I would TURN OFF your mac.
Then unlug ALL peripherals except K/B & M. Then I would Restart. If it restarts OK I would Repair Permissions & reboot again. Then if ALL was well I would d/load OnyX (free) and do a FULL maintenance etc...After that I would go for doing the updates One at a Time & Repairing Permission before & after rebooting...L

Imac wont boot - i get a white screen with apple logo, and it loads to about 10%, then screen goes black

imac wont boot - i get a white screen with apple logo, and it loads to about 10%, then screen goes black

Hey there mtriest,
It sounds like you are unable to boot the iMac successfully as it keeps shutting down when you try to boot. I suggest the troubleshooting from the following article named:
Mac OS X: Gray screen appears during startup
http://support.apple.com/kb/ts2570
Disconnect, test peripheral devices and network cables
Note: "Peripheral devices" refers to external devices other than what came with your Mac, such as hard drives, printers, or hubs that you connect via a USB or FireWire cable.
Shut down your Mac. If necessary, hold your Mac's power button for several seconds to force it to power down.
Disconnect all peripheral devices such as external hard drives or printers (leave only the display, a keyboard, and mouse connected).
Disconnect any Ethernet cables.
Start up your Mac.
If you can start up this way, one or more of your peripheral devices (or installed software related to the device) is probably causing the gray screen issue. Connect one device, then restart your Mac to test for the issue. Repeat the process until you locate the device at issue. Make sure the device is powered if it needs to be to operate correctly. Check with the manufacturer of the device for support or possible software driver or firmware updates that may be available for the device. Try a different cable with the device if possible (such as a different USB or FireWire cable).
Note: If you have multiple peripheral devices and the issue only occurs when they are all connected, but not when each device is the only peripheral connected, see the Additional Information section below.
If you are using a desktop Mac with a third-party keyboard and/or mouse device, and the issue still occurs, try starting up with an Apple keyboard and mouse connected instead. Try starting with no keyboard and mouse connected, then connect them after start up. Also, try a different USB port on your Mac.
If the gray screen issue persists with no devices connected, go to the next section (with the peripherals still disconnected).
Perform a Safe BootSimply performing a Safe Boot may resolve this issue.
Shut down your Mac. If necessary, hold your Mac's power button for several seconds to force it to power down.
Start your Mac, then immediately hold the Shift key. This performs a Safe Boot. Advanced tip: If you want to see the status of a Safe Boot as it progresses, you can hold Shift-Command-V during start up (instead of just Shift).
Note: A Safe Boot takes longer than a typical start up because it includes a disk check and other operations.
If your Mac starts up as expected, immediately try restarting.
If the Safe Boot does not work, or the restart after a successful Safe Boot does not work, go to the next section.
There is additional information in the article with further troubleshooting if needed.
Thank you for using Apple Support Communities.
Cheers,
Sterling

I have a new iPhone 4 and every time I plug it into my laptop I get the "blue screen of death", it didn't do this the first time because I downloaded all my music from iTunes but ever since it has done this. Anybody have any insight?

I have an iPhone 4 and downloaded all my iTunes music to it. Now when I connect it to my laptop I automatically get the "blue screen of death", does anyone have any insight into this problem?

This will happen if you have photos in your camera roll and an out-of-date scanner or webcam driver. See this: http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1502

I did not install bonjour when I installed itunes now everytime I go to the itunes store I get the blue screen. How to download bonjour? Do I have to re install itunes? If I do, will my music be lost?

I did not install bonjour when I installed itunes now everytime I go to the itunes store I get the blue screen. How to download bonjour? Do I have to re install itunes? If I do, will my music be lost?

I'd try the following document first:
iTunes for Windows: System restarts, blue screen, or quits unexpectedly when accessing iTunes Store

MacBook pro will not boot. I get the gray screen, an apple icon and spinning wheel. Tried to start in safe mode but get the same screen. The only thing different was that I loaded the zedge sync app yesterday. Now getting this problem.

Macbook pro will not boot. I get the gray screen, an apple icon and spinning wheel. I tried to start in safe mode, but get this same screen. The only thing different is that I added the zedge update app to do a sync for adding ringtones to my apple cell phone. How can I get a good boot. I am fairly new to apple computer.

Reset PRAM: http://support.apple.com/kb/PH4405 and then try a normal boot.
Run the Startup Manager to select Startup disk: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1310
If those did not work your disk may be sick or dying. The top priority at this point is to make a backup copy of your data.
Check the health of the disk. Boot in Recovery Mode (Boot, Command-R). Run Disk Utility. Click on the upper left disk icon. Does the S.M.A.R.T. status say “Verified”? If not the disk/SSD is unhealthy and needs to be replaced. Even if it does not show “Verified” you can still attempt a backup.
Click on the icon indented below, usually called “Macintosh HD” and Verify Disk. If it finishes with a green “OK” message then all is well with the disk. If it shows errors in red then you have found a problem to address once the system is backed up. Do not attempt software repairs until you have secured the data.
If the disk will not show up at all in Disk Utility as your ran the tests above then it may be dead or it may have a bad internal SATA cable. A trip to an Apple store for confirmation would be in order.
If you have an external disk drive you can use as a backup drive then do so. If not Google “Hitachi USB 3.0 external hard drive 1TB” to purchase one or go to a brick-and-mortar store (including an Apple store) to pickup one. Any 1 TB external drive will do.
Assuming it is still breathing you can try to recover the data without booting from the sick disk.
Reformat the external disk. (This will erase all data on the external disk.)
Boot in Recovery Mode. Start Disk Utility. Plug in the new disk. Select it’s disk Icon (the second one down, left justified). Select the Partition tab.
Partition Layout > Single Partition
Name: Emergency Recovery 1 (or whatever name you wish to use)
Format: Mac OS Extended (journaled)
Options… > GUID Partition Table > OK
Apply
Select the Restore tab.
Drag the old system volume (Macintosh HD) to Source.
Drag the new disk volume (Emergency Recovery 1) to Destination.
Click on Restore.
It may take a long time for the backup.
If that will not complete post back for other emergency data recovery methods, including those from a brody.
If the backup succeeds, use the First Aid tab in Disk Utility to select the old volume (Macintosh HD) and Repair Disk. If it does not finish with a green OK message try to repair it once or twice more. If it repairs with a green OK message, will it boot normally? If not, boot from the Recovery Partition and reinstall OS X.
If it is still not healthy, post back for further instructions.

I have a macbook pro, a little over 2 years old, have been advised I need a new hard drive....after 2 years!!!!

My macbook pro is just over 2 years old....for the last couple of months it has been running very slowly,the beachball is in permanent residence!
I have been advised I need a new hard drive....after only 2 years I'm not at all impressed. Is this normal?

Over a very large sample of drives, these drives are very reliable, despite being moved around inside laptops.
You do not have a very large sample, you have ONE drive. Anything that happens, from having it run for twenty years to having it die on the first day, is within the normal range.
The rapid resolution to your problem IS to replace the drive. At your leisure, you may find that after re-writing every block with Zeroes (a process that can take half a day and has no guarantee of success) enough spare blocks can be found to return the drive to service. Or maybe not. If you are willing to invest the time and energy to do this, you may get a nice backup drive, or you may get a doorstop. No one can predict ahead of time.

I get the blue screen loop when I try to start my Mac Pro dual-core intel computer. How can I get it to open?

I get the blue screen loop when I try to start my Mac-Pro. How can I get it to boot up all the way? Can anyone advise me?

Which OS X is installed?
Troubleshooting advice can depend on that information.

HT3964 I have an old Power PC iMac. When I get the blue start up screen, I get a beach ball and then the computer quits

I have an old iMac (PPC). When I now start up, I get to the blue screen, I get the beach ball, then the whole computer
shuts down, including the power.

Timesharing is back. It's called cloud computing.
1) Try a safe boot.
     Shutdown your machine. Hold down the shift key. Poweron. Wait awhile; wait awhile while you harddrive
     is being checked.
     http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1455
2) Another way to correct filesystem problems is into single use mode.
     This page will tell you how to get into single user mode.
     http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1492
    Basically, you hold down the command + s key then powering on your machine. The command key
    has a little apple symbol on the lower left. It is between the alt/option key and the space bar.
Here is a way of using an optical drive off of another mac.
You could try target disk mode if you have another mac around.
http://www.dan-taylor.com/reinstalling-mac-os-x-without-a-dvd-drive-target-disk- mode/

My iMac gets the Blue Screen, Mac OSX won't start

tried starting in the Safe Mode and in single user mode.
I can get the Unix base, and feed it commands, but so far nothing has worked.
don't know what commands to feed it.
used articles posted...but....
any advice?
Please send
Greatly appreciated.
Now on my own Mac that has sat for 6 months.
Ran Onyx and now the "Blue screen"!
René
iMac G3 Mac OS X (10.3.6)

René,
Use install CD 1 to Repair Disk.
THESE ARE THE STEPS FOR USING DISK UTILITY TO REPAIR YOUR HD
1.Insert your Mac OS X CD-ROM disc or Restore DVD disc, then restart the computer while holding the C key.
2.Once started up from CD or DVD, choose Disk Utility from the Installer menu.
Important: Do not click Continue in the first screen of the Installer. If you do, you must restart from disc to access Disk Utility.
3.Click the First Aid tab.
4.Click the disclosure triangle to the left of the hard drive icon to display the names of your hard disk volumes and partitions.
5.Select your Mac OS X volume, if necessary.
6.Click Repair. If DU reports errors it has fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported.
7.When finished, select Quit Disk Utility from the Installer menu.
8.Select Quit Installer from the Installer menu.
9.In the resulting pop-up window, choose restart.
10.After the computer has restarted, you can eject the CD.
ali b

I get the blue screen whenever I try to install the bootcamp drivers in windows 7

I just recently installed windows 7 home on my 2011 imac useing bootcamp.
Everything seemed to install fine however whenever I try to run the bootcamp drivers in windows to get my mouse and wifi and all that to work I get a blue screened.
Any Ideas?
Ive followed the exact instructions from the manual for OSX and nothing seems to work.

Question: Does the Windows disk that you are using have SP2 (Service Pack 2)? In other words, is your version of Windows a FULL version (and not an upgrade version) of XPSP2 Home Edition?
Having SP2 is a requirement to have XP installed on an intel Mac.
If you already have the right version then I am not sure what exactly the issue may be.
Axel F.

Get the blue screen but the TV doesnt find the signal from my mac via hdmi

Before my mac could connect to my TV Samsungs LE32B350 without any problem, but now it just keep saying no signal from the tv. I get a blue screen when I connect the hdmi on the laptop for one sec then nothing happens. I have tried search for more screens but aint finding anything.
Please help me

Unfortunately older G4 minis are very touchy about certain hi-res monitors when run from DVI. Hi-res in this case means any monitor whose resolution causes the pixel clock to be above 135 MHz. It is normally the case that 1680 x 1050 timing will have a pixel clock above 135 MHz, although there is no way to observe that directly from within OS X.
There are only two known work-arounds for the issue. One is to run the monitor over a VGA interface. The other is to use a program like SwitchRes X to lower the pixel clock below 135 MHz. If you choose to do the latter, write back if you'd like some guidance on how to do that.

While finalizing I get the blue screen and my laptop shuts down? HELP!

I pasted the diagnostic thing below but dont understand why I keep getting that blue screen and my computer to shut down on me. I have tried a couple of different brands of c.d.'s and can't figure it out. The computer is 2-3 months old I dont get it. Please help!
Microsoft Windows XP Professional Service Pack 2 (Build 2600)
Sony Corporation VGN-FJ290P
iTunes 6.0.4.2
CD Driver 2.0.4.3
CD Driver DLL 2.0.3.2
LowerFilters: dvd43llh (3.5.0.0), PxHelp20 (2.0.0.0),
UpperFilters: GEARAspiWDM (2.0.4.3),
Video Driver: Mobile Intel(R) 915GM/GMS,910GML Express Chipset Family\Intel(R) 915GM/GMS,910GML Express Chipset
FlashMedia\MSorMSProDevice, Bus Type SSA
IDE\DiskHTS541010G9SA00_______________________MBZOC60D, Bus Type ATA, Bus Address [0,0]
IDE\CdRomPIONEERDVD-RW__DVR-K16D________________1.00___, Bus Type ATA, Bus Address [0,0]
If you have multiple drives on the same IDE or SCSI bus, these drives may interfere with each other.
Some computers need an update to the ATA or IDE bus driver, or Intel chipset. If iTunes has problems recognizing CDs or hanging or crashing while importing or burning CDs, check the support site for the manufacturer of your computer or motherboard.
Current user is administrator.
E: PIONEER DVD-RW DVR-K16D, Rev 1.00
Audio CD in drive.
Found 19 songs on CD, playing time 76:13 on Audio CD.
Track 1, start time 00:02:00
Track 2, start time 04:01:65
Track 3, start time 08:02:08
Track 4, start time 11:43:11
Track 5, start time 15:43:55
Track 6, start time 22:23:05
Track 7, start time 25:45:55
Track 8, start time 29:38:08
Track 9, start time 33:28:34
Track 10, start time 37:56:60
Track 11, start time 42:25:28
Track 12, start time 45:26:27
Track 13, start time 49:08:66
Track 14, start time 54:05:27
Track 15, start time 57:58:62
Track 16, start time 60:52:58
Track 17, start time 64:56:31
Track 18, start time 68:26:42
Track 19, start time 73:01:53
Audio CD reading succeeded.
Get drive speed succeeded.
The drive CDR speeds are: 4 10 16 20 24.
The drive CDRW speeds are: 4.
The drive DVDR speeds are: 4 10 16 20 24 0.
The drive DVDRW speeds are: 4 10 16 20 24 0.
The last failed audio CD burn had error code -128(0xffffff80). It happened on drive E: PIONEER DVD-RW DVR-K16D on -128(0xffffff80) media at speed 0X.

I recently purchased Norton stuff and loaded it but dont know how to do all that stuff you said to do.
okay.
was that Norton Internet Security 2006? if so, right-click on the yellow ticky-Norton thing down in your task bar, and select "Norton Protection Center". click the LiveUpdate button. install everything it says is available at LiveUpdate. restart the PC if it asks you to.
open Norton Protection Center again. click on "Norton AntiVirus". click on "Scans". click on "Run full system scan".
once that's finished, and you've dealt to everything that shows up, do a spyware scan. if you don't have an antispyware program, download and install the free trial version of Ewido, and scan your PC with that.
ewido anti-malware download
once that's finished, and you've dealt to anything that shows up, go to the Symantec website (they make your Norton), and run one of their online virus scans. they take an eternity, so you may want to do that overnight:
Symantec Security Check
to do a disk cleanup, go "start > all programs > accessories > system tools > disk cleanup"
to run chkdsk (that's a disk checking/repair utility in Windows), close all active programs, go into My Computer, right-click on your hard drive, select "properties", click on the "tools" tab, and click the "check now" button.
to do a disk defrag, go "start > all programs > accessories > system tools > disk defragmenter"
love, b

When I open FireFox i get the blue screen of death and then vista restarts. I get to login and then afterthe welcome window it crashes and restarts again. I can open in safe mode but if I open firefox again it restarts this loop.

The other day I opened firefox after the latest update in September. Firefox then closes and then i get logged off and vista(32 bit) restarts. I get back to login and when I try to login it gives me the blue screen and restarts again with the selection screen (start in safe mode....)I was able to login on safe mode and then on admin afterwards. Thinking the problem was just an error I went back and opened firefox on my account and the loop started again. I was forced to remove firefox but I want ti back and I want to know how this can be fixed so I can put it back on my computer.

See below -- the way I asked the question the first time may not be clear. This post was a goof but I can't figure out how to delete it

I have an Imac. On startup I get the blue screen. An apple Tech told me I need a new hard drive? Is he right?

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