Imac won't get past start up screen

My iMac can't get past the start up screen (white screen with apple logo). How can I get past this?

The following support article is somewhat outdated. Where it refers to booting from an installation disc, you should boot into Recovery (if running OS X 10.7 or later) by holding down the key combination command-R at the chime. If your startup volume is encrypted with FileVault, you’ll have to unlock it in Disk Utility before you can do anything with it.
Mac OS X: Gray screen appears during startup

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My iMac won't get past little apple screen icon

When I turn on iMac, it never goes past the white apple screen and the little wheel just turns and turns for hours if I let it. I turn it off, unplug it, turn it back on...but nothing! Any ideas?
Thanks

Have you tried booting from your install disc? You should also have a disc with Apple Hardware Test on it, try and see if you can start up from that and run the test.
It would be helpful to know which model you have (how to identify your iMac).
Also, see if anything here helps: won't complete startup.

Zen Micro 5g Won't get past Start Up Screen--He

After searching other messages, I've seen a lot of people with this same problem--player will turn on but will not load past "Creative" screen. Yet most people have been able to atleast get to the Recovery screen.
I have not been able to load into Recovery, so I can't clean up, reboot, format, or even update my firmware at all. It's only 2+ months old, so I'm within my warranty, and I suppose most people are going to tell me to send it back. But this problem really bothers me and I'm questioning whether I should even take a chance on another one, seeing as how this problem seems at the very least mildly common. What are my options at this point? Anyone have any other suggestions for trying to recover the Micro I have right now?

I found a solution to the hanging on the creative logo screen. I saw numerous posts saying that all you could do is send it back to the company, then I found this one:
Hi All,
My zen has been down for the last week, hangs up on creative screen. I took the battery out and was able to get to the recovery mode but "disc scan" would not do anything(in limbo) and "reboot "met with the same result, nothing. If you want to talk to anyone at creative and are past your 6 month warranty window you have to pay $20 for the phone call. Well I decided to take matters into my own hands and spent yesterday morning researching old threads about this problem. I kept finding an uncommon fix. When you hold your power button on and replace you battery and the recovery screen starts up you wrap on the back with your knuckle, in my case I hit my zen face down sharply on my dresser. To my amazement the "Doobie Brothers" started playing and I have'nt had any problems yet. Evidently these systems have a hard dri've that hangs up. It may not work for you but it cured my glitch.
Steve C.
It worked for me, but only after four or fi've tries. Good Luck!<IMG height=6 src="http://forums.americas.creative.com/i/smilies/6x6_smiley-very-happy.gif" width=6 border=0>

My iMac won't get past the loading screen, it has a little loading bar which won't move

I had the finder and Safari windows open. Safari was on youtube then it froze so I shut it down. It turned back on once to get to the login screen but then froze once again. Know it only turns on the apple loading screen with a little loading bar which won't move.

Please carefully read and methodically follow the instructions in http://support.apple.com/kb/ts2570.
Good luck.

My iMac starts, but won't get past the loading screen?

My iMac starts up, but won't even get past the white screen with the Apple logo.
It kept giving me black screens, and would not start in safety mode. After command + option + p + r, the black screens stopped coming, but it still won't get past the loading screen, if I let it load long enough the Apple logo is replaced by a "denied" symbol but that is the only thing that happens. By hitting command + d, I was told nothing is wrong. When pressing command + r and going to disk utility, it found an issue while verifying and repairing. At first it stated "invalid journal" but now it only says to reinstall everything and that the problem couldn't be solved. I cannot mount the harddrive, and Time Machine just searches for copies without getting anywhere. When I try installing OS X (Mavericks) again, the harddrive doesn't even show up. What do I do?

The HD sounds like it has crashed, take it into your local Apple Store or Apple Authorized Service Provider (AASP), if you bought AppleCare this will be covered. If you don't have an Apple Store in your area and don't know of any AASPs then please click https://locate.apple.com/country to begin finding one.

IMac will not get past chime & white screen

iMac will not get past chime & white screen. I have tried all the start up key combinations I can think of (d or c etc) with a start up disc, but no joy. The disc drives seems ok - you can hear it working & it will eject OK.
Any other start up ideas, please?

Have you tried a safe boot? If not, hears how (it's straight from Mac Help):
To start up into Safe Mode (to "Safe Boot"), do this:
Be sure the computer is shut down.
Press the power button.
Immediately after you hear the startup tone, press and hold the Shift key.
Tip: The Shift key should be held as soon as possible after the startup tone but not before.
Release the Shift key when you see the gray Apple and progress indicator (looks like a spinning gear).
During the startup in Mac OS X 10.2 through 10.3.9, you will see "Safe Boot" on the Mac OS X startup screen.
During the startup in Mac OS X 10.4 or later, you will see "Safe Boot" on the login window, which appears even if you normally log in automatically.
To leave Safe Mode in any version of Mac OS X, restart the computer normally, without holding any keys during startup.
To learn more about Safe Boot check this page:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=107392
Intel iMac (Early 2006) Mac OS X (10.4.8) 2.0 Ghz, 1 MB

Computer won't get past the blue screen...

During class today I decide to install new updates to my computer, but class ended before everything had downloaded so I just closed the screen thinking nothing of it. Now my computer won't get past the blue screen and it just keeps reloading and reloading. Help?

You must have damaged your OS installation by putting the machine to sleep at the wrong moment. To fix that, you need to reinstall, but first you need to back up your data, if you haven't already done so. Have you?

Pavilion p6-2117 won't get past the splash screen with a parallel card installed.

Pavilion p6-2117c won't get past the splash screen with a pci express parallel card installed. I take the card out and the machine works just fine. The screen says press "esc" for startup menu but nothing happens.
This question was solved.
View Solution.

Take a careful look at the slot and see if any of the pins are broken or smashed to the bottom of the slot. Do you have another pci slot to try or just the one?
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My iPhone 4s (bought today) won't get past the activation screen. It says 'it may take a few minutes to activate your iPhone' and then skips to another screen saying 'activation failed - try again'. Any solutions?

my iPhone 4s (bought today) won't get past the activation screen. It says 'it may take a few minutes to activate your iPhone' and then skips to another screen saying 'activation failed - try again'. Any solutions?

Apple's activation server is down.
I called Apple and the support team had the same issue.
All you can do is be patient.

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.

EMac can't get past starting up screen

Hi all,
My eMac G4 had Tiger (10.4.10?) and I attempted to upgrade to 10.4.11. No go. I kept encountering problems in the Installer.
So I rebooted to use Disk Utility and it found some drive problems that I fixed. Clean bill of health on permissions too.
Now when I restart, the computer won't get past the "Staring Mac OS X" screen. It just keeps spinning.
I've also tried in Safe mode . . . no difference.
Any thoughts?

Since you already tried the first 3 things recommended, then this'd be the 4th!
It will take your OS back to it's Original for that install disc, and should allow you to boot up.
You can skip a lot of the upgrade steps by getting...
The combo update for PowerPC-based Macs...
http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/macosx10411comboupdateppc.html
The combo update for Intel-based Macs...
http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/macosx10411comboupdateintel.html
Repair Permissions afterwards, reboot.
It includes all the steps up to and including 10.4.11.
f this doesn't work and I still can't start up, what then?
I don't think that's going to happen... if it does, we most likely have a Hardware problem.

L305d-s5934 Won't get past "please wait screen"

My l305d-s5934 started ranodmly shutting off recently. It is only a year and a half old so I figured it was getting too hot. About a week and a half ago it started getting stuck at the Windows "please wait" screen. I have been forced to power off with the power button. I tried startup repair and system restore. Now the only way I can boot completely is in safe mode. It won't get past that screen. When I try to restore now, it shuts off halfway through. Is this just the lifespan of this particular machine, or is there something I can do? Thanks for any help.

sounds like an OS issue to me..but have youu tried disabling all startup items, disconnect all usb devices and check it again. If there will be no changes then consider running an OS reinstall.
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the only easy day was yesterday.....
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MacBook Pro won't get past grey startup screen

I have a late 2011 15 inch MacBook Pro running Mavericks. Around a month ago, maybe more, it began to sometimes completely freeze or just turn off while Inwas using it. Sometimes it would start up again, sometimes it wouldn't and would beep three times. Eventually it wouldn't start up at all and would just beep. I started it up in recovery (holding command +R) and ran a disk repair, it said the disk couldn't be repaired. I had it backed up on Time Machine so I replaced the HD and restored from Time Machine. It was fine for a couple days after that, then the old symptoms returned. I took the RAM out and replaced them with some RAM of the same size (2 chips, 2GB each) taken out of a Windows laptop that I had. Again, it was fine for a few days then started turning off and beeping. Then it would turn on but not boot up, i.e. get stuck on the grey screen with the spinning circle. I tried booting in recovery, booting into safe mode, holding option and choosing a disk; in all cases it would just stay stuck on grey screen with the spinning thing. I tried PRAM and SMC reset, no result. At one point, it got through boot up in safe mode but took like an hour to do so. I restarted from safe mode and it took another hour and booted up normally. Then it turned off again and wouldn't turn back on. I opened it up, reseated the RAM and cleaned he fans, which were filled with dust and build up. It turned on and ran normally for a couple days in which I wasn't doing much on it, just watching stuff on VLC or reading, so not really using it and clicking and stuff. Next day, I open it (from sleep, it hasn't been shut down at all since I got it to run again), and try to open Firefox and actually work; it keeps freezing and being incredibly slow, to the point where it was totally frozen and I couldn't force quit or anything. So I held the power key to shut it down; since then it's back to not getting past the grey screen, even when I leave it for over an hour. No idea what to do, anyone have an idea? Thanks in advance.

You have to use Mac specific RAM chips.
You have to buy new RAM modules, I guess.
If you have extended AppleCare, contact Apple.
Best.

My emac won't get past the grey screen with spinning indicator

before i went to bed last nite it was fine. when i woke up i click on the screen and got the little rainbow ball. that lasted for about 5-10 minutes so i had to push the button. when i try to turn it on now it gets to the grey screen with the spinning indicator but won't get past that. any help would be appreciated

An Archive and Install will preserve you user settings and data. You will need a minimum of 5 GB free on the hard drive to perform an A&I; you can reduce the space required by about 1 GB by selecting the option to install language support only for the language you use (assuming you don't need multiple languages).
However, after seeing your other post (BTW, it'll be easier to keep track if relted issues are in the same thread), you do not want to try an A&I if Disk Utility is reporting anything about 'could not be repaired'. Doing so will would ensure problems down the road, if it worked at all. It's possible for one disk problem to mask another. Whenever Disk Utility (or any other repair utility) reports making repairs, it's good practice to repeat the repair until it reports no problems found or it becomes clear it cannot repair the disk.
DiskWarrior has an excellent track record at repairing problems that Disk Utility cannot (especially Disk Utility versions prior to OS X 10.4.2).
If the drive cannot be repaired, you may be able to keep it by doing an erase install with the write zeros (one pass) option. That will update the hard drive firmware record of bad disk sectors to avoid using. If there are only a few bad sectors, that may let you keep using the hard drive for several more years. An erase install will do just that to your data, through. If you have access to another Mac with either a large amount of free disk space of a DVD burner, you can try using the other Mac as host and the eMac as target in FireWire target disk mode. You can run the host's copy of Disk Utility on the eMac hard drive, and hopefully be able to mount the emac HD so that you can back up the data in your Home directory.

Treo 800w (Sprint) Won't Get Past Windows Mobile Screen

I've tried everything I can think of, soft reset just gets me to the Windows Mobile screen, won't get past that. Battery has a full charge, at least according to the status light. Kind of dead in the water. Any ideas? Appreciate any help that's offered, thanks.
Post relates to: Treo 800w (Sprint)

Hello!
Hmmmm stuck on the load screen eh, stuck on the green screen? If the soft reset, taking the battery out for a few sec and back in, does not work then the hard reset is the next option. Unfortunately Windows Mobile does not have a safe mode like the ones found on PalmOS devices. Unfortunately the hard reset will erase all data but that would not be an issue if you have been syncing the phone or using Sprite Backup provided on the ROM.
Post relates to: Treo 650 (Unlocked GSM)

Imac won't get past start up screen

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