IMac will only safe boot (blue screen when not safe booting).

A buddy asked me to help with his Intel based iMac. It was giving a blue screen when trying to boot up (and an odd cursor along with the blue screen). The cursor moves around the blue screen but looks like two cursors. One cursor is a normal arrow pointer, the second is a rectangle about .25 inch wide and 1 inch tall made up of about 10 horizontal lines.
I'm very familiar with Macs and OS X and was sure it was probably a messed up preference file (most likely login preference). It wasn't.
Here's the odd circumstances:
I have an intel macbook that if I use firewire target disk mode I can boot just fine off his iMac.
His computer will not boot off my Macbook that is in firewire target disk mode.
We cloned his hard drive to an external firewire hard drive (using Carbon Copy Cloner), my Macbook boots off it just fine, his iMac will not.
He's been wanting to go to Leopard so we upgraded his computer (did basic upgrade), but it still blue screened (with odd cursor).
Then we did an erase and install. Still no difference in behavior.
I would almost be convinced that it's a hardware failure, but it will safe boot every time.
Here's what happened when it died. His son was playing a Star Wars game (I'm not sure which one). The kid was in the middle of the game and paused it when it was time for dinner. When the kid went back to play, the computer was frozen. They tried everything to unfreeze it and ended up powering it down. Started the blue screen ever since.
He's going to contact Apple (it's barely still under it's warranty) but I was hoping someone here has another idea what it could be.

I found this topic while trying to find an answer to my problem. It seems we have a similar thing going on with our imacs (although mine is a much older crt imac). I'll copy and paste my original post from the imac board :
Hi
I received a free imac snow (G3 500mhz) from someone. He told me it was broke, and someone told him the logic board needed to be replaced.
I brought it home and tried to start it up. It gave the '?' folder icon. I started up from an OS 9.1 cd - Success! Except there was no HD. I opened it up and discovered that the HD wasn't connect to the ATA cable. I was able to start up to a previously installed Tiger. Except once it booted it would quickly freeze - the mouse pointer would turn into a scrambled beach ball (very strange) and wouldn't move.
I did some research and found about the potential problem with OS X and the imac's firmware. I restarted from the 9.1 CD and installed that OS. Everything seemed fine and was running ok (from my limited time on it). I then DL'd the latest firmware for the imac (4.1.9.) and tried to run it. Except the message came up that the latest firmware had already been installed. So i guess thats a good thing. I don't have to worry about firmware being a problem.
So i did a zero out wipe on the HD and installed tiger from the dvd. But on the first restart after installation (where i should go to the set up assistant) I get the scrambled beach ball and it freezes.
I thought perhaps the HD is faulty and ran disk utility on it - it came back as fine. I doubled checked to make sure it was set to 'master'. it sure was. I decided to swap out the HD anyways since i can't see what else could be the problem and put in a different 30gb IDE drive. I once again zeroed out the drive and did a fresh install of tiger. On restart i get the same scrambled beach ball and the freeze.
I guess i should describe the scrambled beach ball. It's seems like the beach ball icon, except the bits that make it up are out of order and glitched out.. perhaps a video problem?
Could this really be a logic board problem? It was working in OS 9.1 fine. It starts up from system CDs and DVDs fine. Wouldn't a logic board exhibit the same problems on those systems?
Anyone have any idea?
Update - starting in Safe mode (restart with shift held down) works, and i was able to update to the latest version of Tiger, but once i restart with the full system i get the same problem.
This seems to me that it ISN'T a logic board problem, but more of a system software problem. Now my question is how do i isolate and fix the problem in Tiger?
I guess i'll post this question in the Tiger forum, but if anyone has any ideas please let me know.
Thanks

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Ibook is restarting itself and will only load a blue screen

so a couple weeks ago i was having issues with my ibook and safari..safari would keep on freezing and or quit on its own..i thought my software was out of date so i went and got Tiger...when i went to install tiger i was unable to use the upgrade and the archive and install feature, thus leaving me with erase and install...so after deleting my hard drive and installing tiger i ran into more issues with my ibook...ive been trying to do software updates but half way through the download it will freeze up thus making me force quit the program and download...then my ibook would only load the blue background of the desk top but not the icon for the hard drive or any of the things on the expose..in attempting to get into disk utilities the ibook would reset itself...finally, when i tried to start up in safe mode i was only able to get to where you type in your password and no further than that...after hitting enter the password window would just open again...with all this being said..can anyone help me with this issue?i am fearing that it could be the mother board or even the hard drive but about two years ago i had my mother board replaced...so i duno whats going on

Some iBooks (like mine) had a separate disc with the Apple Hardware Test--others had it on one of the install discs but I'm not sure which one. It sounds a lot like you might have hardware issues of some kind since reinstalling the OS didn't fix the problem. I am assuming that you don't have easy access to an Apple store where someone at the genius bar could possibly help you come up with a diagnosis. Also, I am assuming you actually erased your hard drive rather than deleting it as you said in your post.
You might want to check and see which discs you do have and determine what is missing. If Apple itself did the last repair and did not return the disc, you could talk to Apple Customer Relations and explain your situation and see if they would send you a replacement disc, as it really should have been returned. If it was done by someone other than Apple, you can still probably get a replacement but there will likely be a fee. And if you do by chance have the AHT, by all means run it.
Otherwise, you will have to appeal to the more knowledgeable and experienced members of the forum for help, but I believe you will still need the original install discs. If you have another Mac, there may be some other approaches that can be tried, but I personally have not ever done this so I can't really help with that.
Good luck!

Urgent - Blue Screen when not in Replicator after standby

Hello,
mostly my T61 is in my replicator and a wide screen is conneted. Going into standby I use short press on power. this works fine.
If I use it without replicator as stand alone and wireless, every time I get a blue screen usinf fn + f4 and fn for restart!
I updates all software to latest versions. nothing helps, no problems with hardware, no disgnostics found...
I tested disabled bluetoht, wireless, mouse, usb stick - nothing helps.
Any ideas ???
Solved!
Go to Solution.

Solved, I had 2 different cases:
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I updated to Mavericks and love it. Its made both my 2007 iMac and 2007 MacBookPro faster. But I have noticed in the last couple of days that my iMac screen with periodically go blank except for the background photo I set... then just as fast the icons on the desktop flash back up. Is this a sign of something wrong or impending?

Finder crashes are often caused by "Google Drive." If it's installed, I suggest you remove it according to the developer'sinstructions. You may need to boot in safe mode to do so. Back up all data before making any changes.
If you use Google Drive and don't want to remove it, then try deselecting the option in its preferences to show a status icon. According to reports, that may be enough to stop the Finder from crashing.

My Macbook Pro (15" early 2011) got blue screen every i normally booted it. It only can enter the OS when it's in safe boot. Solution please.

My Macbook Pro (15" early 2011, Mountain Lion, but after reinstall i change it to snow leo) got blue screen every i normally booted it. It enter the OS only when it's in safe boot.
I've tried any solution that i got from the internet, such as:
-Reinstalling the OS X (normal install & clean install)
-Reset PRAM and SMC
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-Repair Disk Permissions manually (with Command + S at the beginning of booting)
-Checking Hardware from Application Installer DVD (result is OK)
-Checking from Mac Resource Inspector/MRI (result OK)
-Booting from Recovery Disk is same problem, blue screen
All of that solution is not working. My Macbook still got light blue screen and sometimes blue screen with lines after apple logo and spinning wheel is shown.
HDD is in good condition because when it's checked on the other macbook it can be booted. But if you must know, other HDD can't be booted when its plugged to my macbook (blue screen again). If i do safe booting, it works but can't play video and music also photobooth. I got confused with this case.
Any solution or comment? Thank you very much by the way

Hi. I'm not trying to rush things, you may have a different problem, but your issue looks quite familiar to me. I recently had a problem with the discrete graphics card (the Radeon GPU) due to overheating, all because a faulty application of the thermal compound in the factory.
In my case, the problem started slowly and intermittently, a few days after a gaming session (Quake 3) of about three hours (at the moment, I didn't realized that could be linked to the problem).
This issue is being actively discussed in another threads in this forum, but so far there's enough evidence that it's been causing similar problems for 2011 MBPs owners: screen corruption, black/blue screens, and in some cases, a total inability to boot. Some of the threads I'm talking about:
https://discussions.apple.com/message/13150366#13150366
https://discussions.apple.com/message/21110132#21110132
So far, and since the problem seems to affect only the discrete GPU (that's why you can boot in safe mode) a possible solution is to disable it by removing some extensions which prevent OS X from loading the Radeon drivers. This post describing the process (there are different files involved depending of your GPU version, so make sure you are moving the right ones):
https://discussions.apple.com/message/22521574#22521574
In the case your discrete GPU survived and is not permanently damaged, I personally had success by changing the thermal compound myself, which completely fixed the problem (at least for now). I've posted about it here:
https://discussions.apple.com/message/22630561#22630561
I hope you can find a solution, believe me I know the feeling when you see your expensive machine turning into a brick and it *****.
Good luck!

When turning on my imac, it loads to a blue screen with a turning wheel and never gets passed that. I have tried booting to safe mode and it still doens't work.

When turning on my imac, it loads to a blue screen with a spinning wheel. It never gets passed that screen. I have tried power up to safe mode and it still doesn't work. I have music files saved on the computer and I don't want to lose any of my files. Can someone help me?

Zap the PRAM and Reset the SMC, and see if that fixes it. BTW. detailed computer and OS info goes a long way to solving problems.

Blue Screen except on Safe Boot

I have been struggling with my iMac for the past few days. The other morning I started it up and it got hung up on the "blue screen." I have tried various things:
- Resetting PRAM
- Unplugging power and hitting power button, then plugging back in and restarting.
- Tried to start from Leopard DVD (10.5) <By holding 'c' while starting>, but unable to get past "blue screen."
- Tried to start from Tiger DVD (10.2), but unable to get past "black screen."
- ABLE to start in "Safe Mode" <By holding 'shift' while starting>
- While in "Safe Mode" I was able to "Repair Permissions" but still got "Blue Screen" when I restarted.
- Tried to use "Time Capsule" while in "Safe Mode," but the system got hung up.
- I do NOT have "Application Enhancer" on my computer.
I am at a loss on what to do and cannot seem to find anything online which would seem to indicate that others have had this problem.
Message was edited by: jedioliver

Welcome to Apple Discussions,
- Tried to start from Leopard DVD (10.5) <By holding 'c' while starting>, but unable to get past "blue screen."
- Tried to start from Tiger DVD (10.2), but unable to get past "black screen."
- ABLE to start in "Safe Mode" <By holding 'shift' while starting>
iMac G5 1.8GHz 768MB
I would try booting from those install discs by using the holding down the Option key and then explicitly selecting the install disc, so that you know for sure that you have not just rebooted from the internal HD again.
Assuming there is no change, you can sometimes see this very puzzling behavior if there is a video hardware problem, unfortunately quite common in iMac G5s - see this thread in the iMac G5 forum:
*Only working in Safe Mode*
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=11119348
A possible explanation is that one of the features of Safe Mode is that it "loads only required kernel extensions." If there is a faulty hardware component that is only needed for "enhanced" performance (like fancy video/graphics), that component might cause a crash when a normal boot loads the special kernel extension that calls upon it. A Safe boot could conceivably bypass this faulty hardware by not loading that specialized kernel extension.
Sometimes, but not always, such hardware faults are detectable by running Apple Hardware Test, which is on one of the original install discs that came with your computer - see your instruction manual if you still have it. If you don't, running AHT depends on which model iMac G5 you have. You mentioned Tiger DVD (10.2), but Tiger is OS X 10.4. If it's a first generation iMac G5 it came with Panther (OS X 10.3) , and AHT will be on a separate bootable disc labeled “Additional Software & Apple Hardware Test”. If it is a second generation model it probably did come with Tiger, and AHT will probably by on Install Disc 1- hold down the option key while booting from it.

Macbook won't boot, Blue Screen in Safe Mode

Having a couple of issues at the moment. To start off, woke my MacBook from sleep mode and found the screen had shimmering edges, the screen was also displaced (part of the left of the screen was showing on the right. Decided to reboot to solve the issue, when I tried this, got past the Apple logo and wheel, then got a blue screen. Now when I boot, I just get a white screen Tried booting in safe mode but ended up with a blue screen with streaks.
On top of that when I went into support, my macbook isn't listed under my products and when I tried to enter it in, it said it was under a different account (I did get it through a college course but It was definitely registered under my name and with my account).
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Actually, just get a blue screen when trying to start up normally

TS1424 when i open itunes store i will only see a white screen

when i open itunes store i will only see a white screen and i can't see anything
please someone help me

Close your iTunes,
Go to command Prompt -
(Win 7/Vista) - START/ALL PROGRAMS/ACCESSORIES, right mouse click "Command Prompt", choose "Run as Administrator".
(Win XP SP2 n above) - START/ALL PROGRAMS/ACCESSORIES/Command Prompt
In the "Command Prompt" screen, type in
netsh winsock reset
Hit "ENTER" key
Restart your computer.
If you do get a prompt after restart windows to remap LSP, just click NO.
Now launch your iTunes and see if it is working now.
If you are still having these type of problems after trying the winsock reset, refer to this article to identify which software in your system is inserting LSP:
Apple software on Windows: May see performance issues and blank iTunes Store
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS4123?viewlocale=en_US

X200 with OCZ ssd blue screens when booting from docking station

The x200 blue screens when booting from the docking station. If I take the laptop out of the docking station to boot and then dock once booted the laptop is fine.
The issue started happening when you I upgraded the laptop form xp to windows 7 and installed an OCZ vertex 2 solid state drive.
I have tried updating the firmware on the ssd using this utility
http://support.lenovo.com/en_US/detail.page?LegacyDocID=MIGR-69806
The program showed that my ssd was running firmware version 1.29 and did not need to be updated.
I have also tried updating the x200 to the latest BIOS. Nothing seems to work.
Any ideas or suggestions are greatly appreciated.
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you need to modify a registry value before going from AHCI to IDE. (or viceversa).
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Imac freezes during startup stops @ blue screen & have tried everything

My imac freezes during startup, it gets to blue screen and just sits. I have tried to boot from the Leopard 10.5 install disk, and just sits, can't get to log in screen. Have run the disk utility and it says disk appears to be ok, Won't startup up in safe boot, blue screen just sit. Have tried 'fsck' fix, just sits at blue screen. Have reset PRAM, I don't know want else to try. Disk utility & "fsck" says 'disk appears to be ok'. When exiting fsck, it will start the process then stops. Does anyone have any suggestions, I have not tried to reinstall 10.5 yet.
Thanks in advance
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After reading resolutions TS1541 & other threads, I decided to try to archive & reinstall 10.5 from install disc. Well that made things worse, sometime during reinstall, system locked up, I looked at the log during install & it had been locked up about 3 hours and now I have nothing. no systems files, using Target( firewire cable) disc with my macbook, I can see I have previous system folder & a folder that say system. but Install disc does not see OS.
Do I need to take it to an apple store for repair or what. It's only 3 years old.
please help
Paula

Blue Screen on Windows 7 Boot

I repartitioned the hard drive on a computer running only Windows 7. This was done using non Windows utilities that have proven to be very reliable in the past. The utilities in question are all on the System Rescue CD and include (GParted, and
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The affect of the repartitioning is that the primary partition that contains the Windows 7 operating system is now the third one on the drive rather than the second one. I was able to add an entry in the BCD for the boot manager to use to find the
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occurs. On my computer you only see the blue screen error messages momentarily and then the computer reboots. This amounts to the deadly embrace. Is there some kind of setting that will allow me to learn what the error message says?
I have tried starting in "safe mode".
I'm pretty confident that the partition was moved correctly. In that, the new partition is an exact copy of the original. This technique is something that I've done repeatedly and works very well with Windows XP even though there are registry
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Hi,
Seems the PC is completely unbootable at this moment, I would suggest you use startup repair or the Last known good configuration under advanced startup options and check if it can bring the PC back to normal.
You can see guide in the link below
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-hk/windows/advanced-startup-options-including-safe-mode#1TC=windows-7
Regards
Yolanda Zhu
TechNet Community Support

Brand new iMac 27" i3 is flashing blue screen

My brand new Imac (one-day old) is acting very odd as it slowly flashes a pulsating light blue screen when I try to access Apple Menu (restart/sleep/shutdown) features. No matter what I do it will not turn off. I have since had to do a hard shutdown but now it stops at an error screen upon start-up that tells me to restart!
I am Mac savvy and this has never happened to me. Prior to this happening, I called Apple Tech Support because I could not use their Mac Migration feature to move my info off of a G4 running 10.4.11. Tech support could not help either as wireless, ethernet and direct Firewire attempts yielded no Migration results. I finally had to pull the hard drive out of the G4 and hooked it up to the new iMac. Everything seemed to transfer except when it was done the contents of what I just copied thru Migration was nowhere to be found. That is when I started experiencing the slow-flash blue screen phenom and is where I am stuck today.
I am ready to take this thing back. In all my years I have never had a problem like this with an Apple product. Any help or insight will be appreciated.

ONE
Paul has given you good advice in that I would reinstall the OS from the supplied disks to get your computer working properly.
TWO
Then re-install your old programs (only those you really need since they are likely PowerPC, not “universal” Intel programs) from their original disks.
THREE
If you have the user data from the old drive backed up, then hopefully you can restore your user data to the new drive or buy an enclosure and access the old data as needed (which is what I did when originally migrating from a Power Mac G5 to the iMac (late 2009).
Alternatively, if step ONE is problematic and your machine is defective, you can likely return it to Apple within 14 days (or whatever the law is in your country) for a replacement or refund and purchase a new iMac just released today. Steps TWO and THREE still apply in this case.

IMac G5 ALS hanging at blue screen

Hi -- I've read variations on this problem, so hopefully I can provide enough information to get a solid thread started.
On startup, my iMac G5 hangs at the blue screen. I've run the install discs, repaired permissions, checked the drive, all successful. Also tried the AppleCare CD, Techtool said all systems passed inspection.
I can boot in safe mode, no problems there.
I tried archive and install, but after restart had the same trouble.
I tried booting in single-user mode to see what the log revealed, and the system seems to hang at the following:
airport link active
in6is_addrmulticast = 0
flags = 0 fails
can't assign requested address
wide area service discovery disabled to avoid crashing defective DNS relays 192.68.1.1
workaround Bonjour unknown error = 0
I notice that some of the wifi networks in my apartment complex are recognized in single-user mode just before the system hangs, which is odd.
I've tried applejack to repair the cache and preferences, but no progress.
Next step appears to be wiping the drive and reinstalling the OS, but thought I'd check here first. Thanks!

I altered the TCP/IP settings, but still no luck, so I proceeded with a full erase and install of 10.4. Much to my dismay, the system still refused to boot after the installation was complete.
At this point I'd run across some threads discussing the capacitor cap failures of the iMac G5's, so on that hunch I popped the back off to take a look.
One of the capacitors is indeed leaking out of the top, so I'm taking the unit in to the Apple store today to receive what will mostly likely be a death certificate. This unit is a refurb and the extended repair program ended in Dec. 2008, so I'm thinking my options are limited.
I'll post back with the Apple store response just in case anyone might find it useful in the future.

Reboot only gives a blue screen on my iBook G4

Got MS Office for Xmas. Installed it and it worked fine. This a.m. I installed an update.While surfing the web my mouse froze - had to reboot while holding down command and ctrl.
Every time I did this I could work for a shorter and shorter period of time before the mouse would freeze again. Got out the manual and managed to get the install 1 disk into the drive.
Manual says "Choose Installer>Open disk utility ...etc.
I saw nothing called "Installer" so tried to look it up in spotlight - found it, clicked on it and the whole thing froze up again. As I have been trying various things , the computer allows me less and less time before it freezes up.
Now I am to the point of rebooting and most times getting only afrozen light blue screen, andsome times getting the desk top and then getting a glimpse of the Install Disk 1 contents and trying to find "Installer" Or "disk utility" I am allowed one or two mouse clicks and freeze up happens again.
As I write this on my PC I keep trying to reboot my MAC laptop using command ctrl and now for the last 4 reboots I only get the light blue screen. I think I'm dead in the H2O.
Got any ideas? Thanks in advance.
Al

Option 1: put your original Mac OS install disk #1
into the CD drive and then shut down the computer.
press the power button, release it, and immediately
press and hold the C key. this will boot the
computer off the CD. after you click the language,
you'll see the install screen - don't install, go up
to the menu at the top and switch to Disk Utility.
select your hard drive and run a Disk Repair and a
Permissions Repair. Note any errors that appear when
you run the Disk Repair (don't bother noting anything
during the Permissions Repair). Quit and reboot your
computer.
If that doesn't work - I'll reply with Option 2.
Well thanks for the tip on how to start from the installer disk. I was holding down "c" when I pushed the power button rather than hitting just after pushing power. I went thru the repair disk and permissions deal and got several things listed that were being checked in the repair disk list. The only one that came up red was "illegal name" I swear to God this is MY computer and not somebody elses, and the copy of MS Office was legal and official.
I restarted and got the dead blue screen again.
I restarted again using command ctrl and got to the desk top and was allowed 2 mouse clicks before the screen completely froze.
I tried restarting from the install disk 3 more times before I could make it work. I think it's kinda like double clicking a mouse - you have to hit the "c" key at just the right time. "repair disk" this time said I had no problems. "Repair permissions" changed a bunch of stuff so fast that I couldn't even read it.
Restarted again and now for 15 mins it has worked perfectly!!!
Thank you Oh Wise One! Now I have to go out and do somebody a favor to repay you! THANKS!!!

IMac will only safe boot (blue screen when not safe booting).

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