IMac won't boot past White Screen

Yesterday I turned on my computer and I got stuck at the white screen with the spinning dial and the apple logo. I tried to run disk utility and restore my Mac HD, it says there were problems with it, but when I tried to repair it said it cannot fix them. I then tried to re-install Snow Leopard but when I try to re-install it, no disks appear for me to install it on.
I am not sure where to go from here.

Sounds like a HD crash, run Apple Hardware Test in EXTENDED MODE at least 3x in succession. If errors appear as I suspect, your next stop is the Apple Store or AASP. If you have been backing up this will be a minor inconvenience, if you have not been backing up then well this will be a painful lesson on why backup is absolutely critical.

Similar Messages

IMac won't boot past white screen, now has partial pixelation?

I have just tried to restart my 2011 iMac and it has become stuck on the initial white screen (before the grey spinning gear) prior to the reboot it had being running fine for about 4 hours.
I initially thought that it may be trying to boot from the scratched PS2 game I had in the drive (was experimenting with PCSX2 before the reboot) I have tried every button combination I can find to eject the disk or boot into a different OS, I have also tried resetting the SMC and PRAM (I didn't get the 2nd beep) but to no avail. I have also taken out the extra 4gb of memory I installed to go back to the stock 4gb and swapped the stock 4gb for the new RAM but this hasn't helped either.
I have also noticed there is a small line of pixelation at the bottom of the screen, the high of it varies but it is usually around 4 pixels high, some of them are random colours but most of them are black, does this mean the graphics card has gone?

Reinstalling Lion/Mountain Lion Without Erasing the Drive
Boot to the Recovery HD: Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the menu screen appears. Alternatively, restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD and click on the downward pointing arrow button.
Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions: Upon startup select Disk Utility from the main menu. Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions as follows.
When the recovery menu appears select Disk Utility. After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU and return to the main menu.
Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion: Select Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion and click on the Continue button.
Note: You will need an active Internet connection. I suggest using Ethernet if possible because it is three times faster than wireless.

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

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

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

IBook G4 won't boot past white screen gray apple.

I'm having problems with my iBook G4 booting up. It won't get past the white screen with gray Apple and clock thing turning. I successfully hooked the iBook to my G4 tower via firewire and can get files off of it as well as run a series of TechTool Pro tests and repair procedures. However, I still have the same startup problem. It never gets past the white screen with gray apple. It's stuck there with the clock continually turning. Is there anything else I could try before getting everything off and wiping the drive clean and starting over? I don't know if it's a hardware or software issue at this point. Thanks for any help you could suggest.
LW

You should at the very least backup your Home folder from it before attempting this, but it appears to be time for a relatively painless Archive & Install, which gives you a new/old OS, but can preserve all your files, pics, music, settings, etc., as long as you have plenty of free disk space and no Disk corruption, and is relatively quick & painless...
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=107120

My Mac won't boot past white screen and startup keys won't work

Hello. I have an iMac not sure what year.
So about a year ago it froze and wouldn't restart, so I neglected it for a year. Now that this my only fixable Mac I have been researching to fix it. I was able to boot into safe mode about a week ago for a little bit but then it froze again. Ever since then none of the startup keys work, even resetting the PRAM, I heard the second ding and then it just brings up the cursor on the white screen with no disk options.
I have an external disk drive connected to the USB I'd like to boot my Mountain Lion from but since the start up keys don't work I don't know how to do that.
Any help would be incredible, I do not care about saving anything from the computer I just want it to work. I hate dealing with the "geniuses" so that's not an option.
Thanks

When you hear the startup tone hold down the Option key and you should be able to boot into the Recovery Partition if you have Lion, Mt. Lion or Mavericks on the internal HD. If even the Option key does not work then your keyboard may have dead batteries or be defective and in need of replacement.
If you have ML on the EHD as a bootable clone then you should be able to boot from it.
My best guess is you have a failed HD though, my advice is to take it in for professional diagnosis to your local Apple Store or AASP and get a quote on what is wrong then decide how you want to proceed.

Macbook won't boot past white screen

My girlfirend's 2009 macbook aluminum unibody ((Leopard 10.5.x) is having a problem booting up. Initially I ran Onyx on it and it said it needed a disk repair. I ran a quick hardware test and it came back ok. I ran Disk Utility off of the cd and it said the repair failed. I believe the message was "invalid node, repair or verify failed." I tried it 3 times. When I went to quit disk utility and restart, it stayed on the white screen with the spinning wheel for a few minutes then the screen went blank. I tried to restart several times, always the same. I have tried resetting PRAM. I tried starting in Safe Mode but it wouldn't. I finally went to reinstall the OS but when it gets to the screen where I have to choose a drive, there is no drive in the screen to select. I don't have Disk Warrior, so can't try that. I'm thinking to remove the hard drive and get the data off of it onto my computer, then to erase her drive and start from scratch. Does anyone have another idea before I go through this?Thanks for the help.

If your OS X installer disc is no longer usable then you can arrange to purchase a replacement by calling AppleCare Customer Service.
Have you tried reformatting the hard drive? If may not require replacement unless the drive has truly failed.
Extended Hard Drive Preparation
1. Boot from your OS X Installer Disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu.
2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Note the SMART status of the drive in DU's status area. If it does not say "Verified" then the drive is failing or has failed and will need replacing. SMART info will not be reported on external drives. Otherwise, click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID (for Intel Macs) or APM (for PPC Macs) then click on the OK button. Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.
4. Select the volume you just created (this is the sub-entry under the drive entry) from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
5. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, check the button for Zero Data and click on OK to return to the Erase window.
6. Click on the Erase button. The format process can take up to several hours depending upon the drive size.

System Won't Boot Past White Screen With Apple Logo

I have a Power Mac G5 tower that someone gave me. No hard drive.
I placed a NEW hard drive in and installed 10.4 onto it. When I finished I turned OFF the machine. When I now try and turn the machine ON, it will freeze-up during boot up at the white screen with the Apple logo. The little spinning ring/dial doesn't come up.
The system is:
Power Mac G5 (June 2004)
Model ID: PowerMac7,3
dual 2.5GHz
512MB RAM (2x256MB)
Using the Boot-up in Detailed SAFE Mode I was given the info below. Any help is greatly appreciated.
using 1310 buffer headers and 1310 cluster IO buffer headers
kld(): Undefined symbols:
ZN11IOPCIBridge18compareAddressCellEmPmS0
kldload_frommemory() failed for module com.apple.driver.AppleMacRiscPCI
Failed to load extension com.apple.driver.AppleMacRiscPCI.
Couldn't alloc class "AppleMacRiscPCI"
kld(): Underfined Symbols:
ZN11IOPCIBridge18compareAddressCellEmPmS0
kldload_frommemory() failed for module com.apple.driver.AppleMacRiscPCI
Failed to laod extension com.apple.driver.AppleMacRiscPCI.
Couldn't alloc class "AppleMacRiscAGP"
kld(): Undefined symbols:
ZN11IOPCIBridge18compareAddressCellEmPmS0
kldload_frommemory() failed for module com.apple.driver.AppleMacRiscPCI
Failed to load extension com.apple.driver.AppleMacRiscPCI.
Couldn't alloc class "AppleMacRiscHT"
kld(): Undefined symbols:
ZN11IOPCIBridge18compareAddressCellEmPmS0
kldload_frommemory() failed for module com.apple.driver.AppleMacRiscPCI
Failed to load extension com.apple.driver.AppleMacRiscPCI.
Couldn't alloc class "AppleMacRiscDART"
ApplePlatformExpert::getGMTTimeOfDay can not provide time of day RTC did not show up

Does it boot into any of these modes?
Target mode...
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1661
Does it boot to Single User Mode, CMD+s keys at bootup, if so try...
/sbin/fsck -fy
Repeat until it shows no errors fixed.
(Space between fsck AND -fy important).
Resolve startup issues and perform disk maintenance with Disk Utility and fsck...
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106214
We might get clues with verbose mode...
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1492

Intel iMac will not boot past gray screen

Intel iMac will not boot past gray screen
my system:
new (month old) 24" intel imac, 2.8 ghz, 4 gb ram.
running: leopard (upgraded from tiger, which was pre-installed at purchase), installed 10.5.1 update right before this huge problem occurred.
install discs on-hand: two-disc tiget set, single leopard upgrade disc.
what led to this:
i wanted to install windows using bootcamp on a 50 gb partition.
at this point i was running leopard 10.5
i followed all bootcamp instructions, printing out the guide, as well. once i got into the windows setup, i was prompted to choose a partition to install windows. unlike the bootcamp guide, which showed three partitions, one clearly labeled "bootcamp", i saw only one partition. not wanting to risk writing over my mac partition, i quit the setup and rebooted the mac os. after some googling around, i looked for firmware updates (didn't need any), and then software updates. i decided to try updating to 10.5.1.
i then ran through boot camp again, deleting my previous windows partition, creating a new one, and moving forward as before. once again, i was only shown one partition to choose from in the windows setup. i exited the setup again to reboot through the mac os, but this time, i was only given a blank gray screen.
here's what i have tried so far:
booting from a CD, holding down the C or D keys: no response (in fact, i have to restart the computer holding down the mouse button to be able to eject the CD)
booting with option key held down: gray screen
booting with option key held down with external bootable firewire drive attached: the firewire drive appears as a boot icon, and i can click on it within a five second window, but then the screen freezes after that time period, and nothing changes
booting into target mode while attached to another mac: gray screen (no firewire icon, and drive never shows up on other mac)
resetting NVRAM: i'm able to hear the boot chimes, but no difference in performance. gray screen every time
Safe boot: nothing but a gray screen
Verbose mode: gray screen
Single user mode: gray screen
Single user mode with firewire drive attached: occasionally (not every time), i am able to get the white on black terminal to show up. from here, i'm able to run fsck, but it appears to only be checking the firewire drive. i have tried several times to boot from here, and once it took me to a blue screen with movable arrow cursor, but it never went beyond this.
is there anything else left to try before taking it to apple?
any help would be greatly appreciated.
thanks,
Casey Burns
Casey Burns Illustration and Design
http://CaseyBurns.com

I'd call Apple support at this point. You'll need
to put this issue on the record.
Call U.S. iPod and Mac technical support: 1-800-APL-CARE (1-800-275-2273)
The wait may be long for an agent to come on the line
so expect that and have some other stuff to do in the meantime.
If you have the applecare protection plan, I'd ask about "onsite"
service.
I like your work ! Good luck !
Slim
Message was edited by: slimpikkunz

IMac Does not boot past Gray Screen

iMac does not boot past Gray Screen. 2008 24" Intel iMac running Mountain Lion with 1TB hard drive.
Problem started yesterday while I was web surfing, and my iMac frooze and shutdown. I rebooted and could only get as far as the gray screen.
On bootup the following things happen:
Startup tone
Gray screen with Apple, and gear spins below Apple.
Once the gear stops spinning, nothing happends.
Troubleshooting steps I have tried:
removed all devices connected to iMac and rebooted, but same symptons occur.
booted into Safe mode and run disk utilites.
     Disk Utilities found no errors on the drive, but did find two permission issues that it was able to fix.
          First permission issue:
                   "Group differs on library; Should be 0; group is 80"
          Second permission issue:
                    "Permissons differ on library; Should be drwxr-xr-x; They are drwxrwxr-t"
Disk Utilities says it fixes these issues and then I reboot, but get the same problem.
I reboot back into Safe Mode and run Disk Utilities and it discovers the same problems listed above with Permissions. It says it fixes them, I reboot, but the same problem occurs. Its as if we are stuck in some sort of loop process.
Booted into Single User Mode and ran the following command:
     /SBin/fsck -fy   it reports back, Volume Apprears to be ok.
I reboot, same issue !
Performed SMC Reset, Rebooted, same issue
Performed PRAM Reset, Rebooted, same issue.
Booted into Recovery Partitioin (Command R) and ran disk utilities. It found the same permission issues listed above. It fixed them. I rebooted. Same problem still.
While in safe mode, I preformed a full time machine backup.
I am out of ideas. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

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

Imac won't start beyond white screen apple logo and circle

Imac won't start beyond white screen, Apple logo and spinning circle

Follow the steps at > Mac OS X: Gray screen appears during startup

Booting i7 iMac - Can't Get past "white screen" unless i unplug peripherals

This has been an intermittent but regular problem recently. upon startup, my iMac gets hung at the white screen. unless i unplug my external drives, usb devices and monitor. didn't happen for the first couple of months with this machine, but recently it's been driving me crazy.
any ideas?

Great answer i think, but this is jibberish to me. mean anything to you?
5/19/10 10:57:25 AM com.apple.launchd[1] * launchd[1] has started up. *
5/19/10 10:57:39 AM com.apple.SystemStarter[32] /Library/StartupItems/Digidesign Mbox 2/Digidesign Mbox 2:start
5/19/10 10:57:39 AM com.apple.SystemStarter[32] Starting Digidesign Mbox 2 Configuration Service
5/19/10 10:57:39 AM com.apple.SystemStarter[32] Requesting load of /System/Library/Extensions/DigiIO.kext.
5/19/10 10:57:39 AM com.apple.SystemStarter[32] PACESupport - launchd already started us
5/19/10 10:57:39 AM com.apple.SystemStarter[32] /System/Library/Extensions/DigiIO.kext loaded successfully (or already loaded).
5/19/10 10:57:39 AM com.apple.SystemStarter[32] Requesting load of /System/Library/Extensions/DigiDal.kext.
5/19/10 10:57:39 AM com.apple.SystemStarter[32] /System/Library/Extensions/DigiDal.kext loaded successfully (or already loaded).
5/19/10 10:57:40 AM com.apple.SystemStarter[32] Starting Qmaster services
5/19/10 10:57:41 AM com.digidesign.fwfamily.helper[54] Wed May 19 10:57:41 Jon-Chases-iMac.local DigidesignFireWireHelper[54] <Warning>: 3891612: (CGSLookupServerRootPort) Untrusted apps are not allowed to connect to or launch Window Server before login.
5/19/10 10:57:41 AM com.digidesign.fwfamily.helper[54] Wed May 19 10:57:41 Jon-Chases-iMac.local DigidesignFireWireHelper[54] <Error>: kCGErrorRangeCheck: On-demand launch of the Window Server is allowed for root user only.
5/19/10 10:57:41 AM com.digidesign.fwfamily.helper[54] Wed May 19 10:57:41 Jon-Chases-iMac.local DigidesignFireWireHelper[54] <Error>: kCGErrorFailure: Set a breakpoint @ CGErrorBreakpoint() to catch errors as they are logged.
5/19/10 10:57:42 AM com.digidesign.fwfamily.helper[54] _RegisterApplication(), FAILED TO establish the default connection to the WindowServer, _CGSDefaultConnection() is NULL.
5/19/10 10:57:43 AM com.apple.audio.coreaudiod[92] Wed May 19 10:57:43 Jon-Chases-iMac.local coreaudiod[92] <Error>: kCGErrorFailure: Set a breakpoint @ CGErrorBreakpoint() to catch errors as they are logged.
5/19/10 10:57:43 AM com.apple.audio.coreaudiod[92] coreaudiod: _RegisterApplication(), FAILED TO establish the default connection to the WindowServer, _CGSDefaultConnection() is NULL.
5/19/10 10:57:43 AM com.apple.audio.coreaudiod[92] _RegisterApplication(), FAILED TO establish the default connection to the WindowServer, _CGSDefaultConnection() is NULL.

IMac won't get past startup screen, no matter what. Pls help?

I just inherited a mid-2010 iMac from a friend. It hadn't been used for months, and now when it is started up, it won't get past startup screen. It shows the 'slot' looking image on the bottom of the white loadup screen, then it's just the apple symbol and the whirly thing going around forever. I've had it going for over half an hour at one point, and nothing changes. I have tried all the different reboot key combos, such as C with a startup disk in it, D for hardware test, command S for safe mode, etc. The only thing which makes any difference at all is using the T key at startup, when I do get the three-pronged white symbol floating around screen.
It is a 21 inch with 500gig, and I believe it's running Snow Leopard. They never had a problem with it before, but now after the months of disuse, it is doing this. Please, can anyone help? Thanks!

I'm not sure if a dead PRAM battery would give you these symptoms, but one possibility is that if the computer was off wall power for months, the PRAM battery, a small coin cell battery that controls certain functions, may be drained and dead.
But, in any case, try an SMC Reset. You must follow the timing for this exactly.
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht3964
And then a PRAM Reset.
Hold down Option-Cmd-P-R together at the startup chime, listen for two more chimes, total three, then release all the keys to finish booting.
You might also try a Safe Boot by holding down Shift at the startup chime. (Cmd-S isn't for Safe Boot, it's single user mode.) Give it much longer to boot than usual, but if it doesn't finish in perhaps 5 or 10 minutes, then you'll have to give up on that.

PowerBook G4 won't boot past blue screen

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

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

Macbook 2,1 can't boot past white screen

I was restarting my computer to clear out the memory and whatnot and now the computer won't boot past the white screen. Unfortunately I have a DVD in its drive and can't get that out. I've resetted the PRAM, held down the option key, and even tried to boot from an external. I have taken it to the genius bar today and they said the hard drive was failing. I put the original hard drive back into the computer and still get the same thing. The drive that was in it is now in an external case and works with my Linux computer. Unfortunately, I can't access the files with my old Mac G4 since the Macbook had Lion installed on it, and all music, iPhone apps are associated with the newer system.
Is there anything else I can try? Will I need to have a new motherboard installed?
Thanks.
BTW, don't worry, I am saving to buy a new Mac as soon as I can.

Trackpad button does nothing
Option key does nothing
PRAM resetting at least reboots the computer
Startup chime - normal
Shift key - nothing
If removing the internal drive and booting from an external would do anything I'd certainly try that.
Since the computer is 6 years old, ironic since I'm typing this on my old G4 tower, it will be replaced with a Mini since I no longer have a need for a laptop. It's also out of warranty and will probably not be worth the cost to get it fixed.
The geniuses at the Apple store suggested I buy a new hard drive and that would solve my problems. I highly doubt it since I've put another drive in and it's doing the same thing.

Computer won't boot past gray screen

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

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

IMac won't boot past White Screen

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