IMac crashes into white screen

iMac (Early 2008), OSX 10.8.2 randomly crashes, displaying only a white screen. Is there any indication what this could be or how to approach the problem? Also, where can we find the Apple Hardware Test (AHT) for the iMac?

The next time you have the problem, note the exact time: hour, minute, second.
If you have more than one user account, these instructions must be carried out as an administrator.
Launch the Console application in any of the following ways:
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Console in the icon grid.
Make sure the title of the Console window is All Messages. If it isn't, select All Messages from the SYSTEM LOG QUERIES menu on the left.
Scroll back in the log to the time you noted above. Select any messages timestamped from then until the end of the episode. Copy them (command-C) to the Clipboard. Paste (command-V) into a reply to this message.
When posting a log extract, be selective. In most cases, a few dozen lines are more than enough.
Please do not indiscriminately dump thousands of lines from the log into this discussion.
Important: Some private information, such as your name, may appear in the log. Anonymize before posting.

Similar Messages

IMac boots into white screen

I have a 2005 20" iMac that's started to just show a white screen on start up. A folder with a question mark on it pops up after a while (10-20 minutes). I tried putting in the Snow Leopard install disc (It was on 10.6.8) and pressing c on startup. It didn't do anything for a minute so I gave it awhile and when I came back it went into a kernel panic. I suspect the hard drive inside failed. Is this most likely the cause? If so, will any 2.5 inch drive work in its place?

Did you do this:
Booting From An OS X Installer Disc
1. Insert OS X Installer Disc into the optical drive.
2. Restart the computer.
3. Immediately after the chime press and hold down the "C" key.
4. Release the key when the spinning gear below the dark gray Apple logo
appears.
5. Wait for installer to finish loading.
You can also try:
Boot Using OPTION key:
1. Restart the computer.
2. Immediately after the chime press and hold down the "OPTION" key.
3. Release the key when the boot manager appears.
4. Select the icon for the Snow Leopard DVD.
5. Click on the arrow button below the icon.
If you cannot get it to boot from the Snow Leopard DVD and have no other OS installer DVD that can boot the computer, then you can boot from a bootable system on an external drive.
A scenario such as you described could just mean there are damaged OS files. At this point you don't have enough information to determine that the HDD has failed. iMacs use 3.5" drives, not 2.5" notebook drives. They are not interchangeable.

Logic 9 keeps crashing with white screen flash!!!

Hi all,
Lately Logic has been crashing consistantly every 15-30 min since updated to 10.7.4. It has become absolutly unbearable now and is constantly ruining work and flow. Everytime it crashes a white screen flashes up and if im lucky i can save just in time before it completely freezes and the rainbow ball of death starts spinning. I have to then force quit logic. The crashes happen randomly in time and in task. The one reocurring act that i've found it tends to crash alot on is when trying to move some in the arrangement or the piano roll. I have no idea what the problem is and would post a crash report but since im force quiting EVERY time i am unable to obtain one.
Is anyone else experiencing the same problems and if so is there a fix.
MRADERZ

Repair Disk Permissions did not work but so far so good on reinstalling the update.
Seems to be working fine on my macbook pro.
No crashes since reinstall so will do this on my imac when i get home from work.
Fingers crossed works the same as it is my main producing computer.
Thank You AnaMusic unbelievably appreciated.
mraderz

2007 intel based iMac has the white screen of death with the mouse visible?? WHATSUP

My 2007 Intel based IMAC has the white screen of death with the mouse cursor as the only visible item. What is up with this? Is this the equivalent of the windows blue screen of death?
Doug

Read the "More Like This" thread links located at the bottom left of this page.

Imac has a white screen

my imac has a white screen when I power it up. It was working. The screen froze so I powered it off. When I turned it back on, i get a white screen. periodically a folder with a question mark appears and disappears. Anyone know what the problem is.

Have you read for possible solutions over in the "More Like This" thread over here?----------------------->
============
How To Fix White Screen On Your iMac
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4aZ71BGTkPs

Intel Imac stuck at white screen and 3 beeps sound continously....

Intel Imac stuck at white screen and 3 beeps sound continously when power on. Pls help......

Well Barry, as for the Ram, all this while are install by apple technician since very day i bought iMac on july 2008. Just wondering What's actually went wrong..
Very first day I bought iMac, few days later, system cant even on. AppleCare Centre exchanged a new set of iMac.
two weeks later, i notice several dead pixels appearing on screen, call to log a case with them, later on, they changed a new panel.
After several months pass, been using happily with iMac... but since now, this problem occurs. So fastrating... My third time encounters problem with iMac. sign
Any suggestion? If not, I guess i have to bring this bulky iMac to applecare centre again. sign

IMac Stuck on White Screen with Apple Logo

Currently own: iMac 21.5" 2009 version with Snow Leopard, 4GB Ram, 500 GB Hard drive
This computer was sitting in storage of my basement for 2 years because I was out of town on business.
When I came home the computer worked fine. But earlier this evening it was on sleep mode and the dreadful color wheel was on. So I rebooted it, only to see that it was stuck on the white loading screen with the Apple logo. And nothing more. Panic struck me and I tried restarting it again, to no avail. Then I tried rebooting in Safe mode- but it won't respond. THEN I called Apple Care, and they tried to have me go through the process where it checks the Hardware. It took 45 minutes and then the screen said "It was modified", or something to that degree. But when we reboot it, it returned to the white screen.
I am so upset. I now have an appointment with the Apple store on Monday. I don't have a warranty anymore. How much is it going to cost if they have to replace to hard drive? I thought Apple computers were meant to last! This is beyond ridiculous! I had not downloaded anything wrong, wasn't on crazy websites. It still had over 350 GB of space left. Why didn't the tests we did over the phone work? Is my computer broken? I do have an external hard drive with Time machine, so I am not concerned about losing my data. I am, however, concerned about shelling out another $1500 for a new computer!

If you are taking it to Apple they will fix it for you, but they will install Snow Leopard. If you want the current Mavericks you can download that yourself from your home and install it. This is dependent somewhat on what model you actually have.
Upgrading from Snow Leopard to Lion or Mountain Lion
You can upgrade to Mountain Lion from Lion or directly from Snow Leopard. Mountain Lion can be downloaded from the Mac App Store for $19.99.
If you sign into the App Store and try to purchase Mountain Lion but the App Store says your computer is not compatible then you may still be able to upgrade to Lion per the following information.
A. Upgrading to Mountain Lion or Mavericks
To upgrade to Mountain Lion or Mavericks you must have Snow Leopard 10.6.8 or Lion installed. Purchase and download Mountain Lion or Mavericks (Free) from the App Store. Sign in using your Apple ID. Mountain Lion is $19.99 plus tax. The file is quite large, over 5 GBs, so allow some time to download. It would be preferable to use Ethernet because it is nearly four times faster than wireless.
     OS X Mountain Lion — System Requirements
     OS X Mavericks- System Requirements
       Macs that can be upgraded to OS X Mountain Lion
         1. iMac (Mid 2007 or newer) — Model Identifier 7,1 or later
         2. MacBook (Late 2008 Aluminum, or Early 2009 or newer) —
             Model Identifier 5,1 or later
         3. MacBook Pro (Mid/Late 2007 or newer) — Model Identifier 3,1 or later
         4. MacBook Air (Late 2008 or newer) — Model Identifier 2,1 or later
         5. Mac mini (Early 2009 or newer) — Model Identifier 3,1 or later
         6. Mac Pro (Early 2008 or newer) — Model Identifier 3,1 or later
         7. Xserve (Early 2009) — Model Identifier 3,1 or later
To find the model identifier open System Profiler in the Utilities folder. It's displayed in the panel on the right.
Are my applications compatible?
         See App Compatibility Table — RoaringApps.
B. Upgrading to Lion
If your computer does not meet the requirements to install Mountain Lion, it may still meet the requirements to install Lion.
You can purchase Lion by contacting Customer Service: Contacting Apple for support and service - this includes international calling numbers. The cost is $19.99 (as it was before) plus tax. It's a download. You will get an email containing a redemption code that you then use at the Mac App Store to download Lion. Save a copy of that installer to your Downloads folder because the installer deletes itself at the end of the installation.
     Lion System Requirements
       1. Mac computer with an Intel Core 2 Duo, Core i3, Core i5, Core i7,
           or Xeon processor
       2. 2GB of memory
       3. OS X v10.6.6 or later (v10.6.8 recommended)
       4. 7GB of available space
       5. Some features require an Apple ID; terms apply.
I can't help you any more if you don't have the installer DVD, so you will have to wait until Monday. I had hoped we might get you working before then, but that isn't going to happen, I"m afraid.

Booted into white screen

Yesterday I have been using my MacPro a lot for music applications.
I also installed a VSTi plugin. All worked fine.
But today I booted into a white screen. Uhhh.
Pushing the start up button on the Mac solved the white srceen symptom, but I like to know the reason for it. And should I worry?
My MacPro is 2 months old.

Hello,
*"but I like to know the reason for it. And should I worry?"*
A crash log might shed some light on the problem...
How to locate a crash log:
1. Open Finder.
2. Click "Go" in the menu, then select "Go to Folder".
3. Copy and paste this path into the Finder dialog: ~/Library/Logs/CrashReporter/
4. Click the Go button.
5. Finder opens the folder containing the crash log. Look for a the crash file with a date field that *looks like the most recent*.
If that happens again, use your install disk that came with your MacPro to check the hard disk.
Restart your Mac while holding down the C key, pressing the power button and inserting your install disk all at the same time. An Installer window will open, but do not proceed with any installations. Instead, from the Menu Bar, select Utilities > Disk Utility. In the Disk Utility window click First Aid, and then click Verify. If Disk Utility reports errors, click Repair. When Disk Utility is finished, from the Menu Bar, select Utilities/Startup Disk. Select MacintoshHD 10.x.x and click Restart.
Considering you were able to restart without any problems, I wouldn't worry.
Carolyn

IMac Freezes at white screen during startup

Hello,
I was off of my iMac for an hour or two so my screen saver when on. I went to wake the computer and it was frozen. I tried using the keyboard and mouse to wake up the computer from the screen saver, but it would not work, so I powered the iMac down manually from the button on the back. I let it sit for 15 minutes, then I tried to start the computer up again. Now at start up, I get to a blank white screen with the spinning moving pin wheel, and that is it. Any suggestions?

You could try to use SafeBoot mode on startup, essentially you'd hold the Shift
key down on startup, perhaps you may need to login after waiting quite awhile,
then continue holding the shift key down until you see a traditional desktop.
And then use Disk Utility to verify HDD, & repair disk permissions.+ Restart.
Or if you have a system install-restore DVD, boot from that and have the
Installer's version of Disk Utility check verify repair the hard disk drive.
It can also repair disk permissions, too, from the booted version of D.U.
Then when it is done, choose the startup disk from installer menu options.
The DVD should eject, but if not, it should be ignored as a boot volume
after you've chosen the Mac HD as a boot system.
PS: If your computer is now running a system later than Snow Leopard,
where no DVD would be needed if it has a Recovery partition in the HDD
then you could see about booting into Recovery (command + R) to access
the later system's OS X Utilities, and choose Disk Utility to check/repair, etc.
These may help.
Good luck!
edited

My iMac has a white screen with a flashing file folder with a question mark in the middle. What does that mean?

My iMac is completely unresponsive. Whenever I restart it, it's just a white screen with a flashing file folder with a question mark in the middle. What does this mean?

this means the mac cannot find the startup disc. which more times than not means you need a hdd replacement.
try starting holding the option key, then using utilities try to repair the disc.

IMac starts shows white screen and shuts off

my iMac starts fine, I hear chime, white screen with apple shows, but also shows a bar under the apple...
it stays on a minute then shuts off...

It's most likely the macbook pro 2011 denied by apple GPU problem many many others suffer from too.
you can read about it here if you have a few days.
2011 MacBook Pro and Discrete Graphics Card:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4766577
728 Pages long allready, still no repsonse from apple.

On power startup my Imac shows a white screen then subsequently a flashing question mark-- will not open

My iMac shows only a white screen and then a flashing question mark on power start up and will no open display

Help here > A flashing question mark appears when you start your Mac

My imac stuck on white screen on startup

hi i got a late 2009 27" imac with i7, recently i restart the imac, it just keep stuck on the white screen right after i hit the power, no apple logo no chime, just blank white screen. i unplug the power cord for 1 hour and plug back in still the same.

Start your computer with the original DVD that came with system and repair your disk with disk utility, also repair permissions. http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1417

Imac 21.5 white screen on boot up

I have the A1311 2009 21.5" iMac. The computer was running fine. I changed startup disks to boot off of a friend's external USB backup to get some files off for them (I needed to export their address book and get other various files)
When I finished getting what I needed under system preferences I changed the boot up drive back to my imac's internal drive and clicked restart.
The computer restarted gave the startup chime and stayed at a blank white screen. No spinning sprocket.
I am using a usb keyboard and usb mouse.
The only boot keyboard command that works is command+option+p+r and when I do that I get the chime and a reboot.
I've tried resetting the SMC by unpluggin it.
I've tried inserting a disk warrior cd to boot off of it, but it doesn't boot. And holding the mouse button on startup does not eject the CD.
I've tried holding c when booting to boot of the CD drive.
I've tried holding option when starting. I've connected my own bootable USB backup and held "option" when starting.
I've tried holding shift when starting. I've tried command+r when starting.
Nothing happens. I always get the chime and then a white screen.
Looking online, it looked like several macbook air/pro owners with a similiar problem disconnected their HDD and then were able to boot off an external source. So I took off the glass and LCD and disconnected the 3 hdd connectors, put the screen on and tried booting again using all the steps above and every time always the same, a chime and then white screen.
I took all the ram out and when it was turned on got a low intermitent beep and black screen. Put the ram back in and get the startup chime and white screen.
I'm at a loss as to what else to try. I can't see how booting off my friend's external usb hdd would lead to this.
Any suggestions.

I reopened the imac, removed the optical drive (hdd was already out). Restarted with my USB external HDD connected, nothing happened, white screen still. I then reconnected the friend's USB HDD also and restarted and got the screen to choose a startup disk.
Computer then boots fine from my external hdd. Turn it off, reinstall my HDD and optical drive.
Turn it on again and am greeting with the same blank white screen again.
I then remove the optical drive again and am able to boot from the internal drive. BUT when I go to system preferences to change startup disk, if I check the internal drive or the external USB drive and click reset I got the error "building boot caches on boot helper partition failed". I have no idea what is going on. I repair permissions several times.
I then restart the computer several times and it seems to restart consistently from the internal drive. I then put the optical drive back in and it now appears to be working.
The original external drive I booted from was a 10.5 macbook pro cloned drive. So I don't know if that somehow corrupted my 10.8 imac drive or some firmware that made it such that it wouldn't boot.
What a hassle.
And for anyone who cares and has read this far, I am living in a remote town in Mongolia at the time and didn't have any suction cups to remove the front glass from the imac. I do have an iSesamo tool to open up ipod touches and such, and was able to use that to get the front glass off.
If anyone has an idea of what happened I'd be interested in hearing.

21.5" imac boot up - white screen

Is it normal behaviour for the new imac 21.5 (10.6.1) to display a white screen for 7-8 seconds at power on, prior to the apple logo appearing and the system booting?

I've been having exactly the same problem as you, with my brand new 21.5-inch iMac.
I had the delayed startup problem. I heard the Apple chime but wasn't seeing the Apple logo until 35 seconds later. A quick reset of the PRAM solved the problem. My iMac now shows the Apple logo after 5 seconds (30 seconds quicker).
But I have one problem that still remains. The high pitched whistle noise which is linked to screen brightness. I also only hear it when I have my display brightness set to one of the 3 top bars. The brighter the screen, the higher the pitch of the whistle. I've never known an Apple display to whistle before.

IMac crashes into white screen

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