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

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White screen, apple logo and spinning wheel on startup

I Have a MacBook Pro mid-2012 and suddenly it froze, so I tried shutting it down, but when I turned it on there was this grey screen at first with the apple logo and a spinning wheel. After a few times I shut it down and turned it on, the screen turned white, but the apple logo and the spinning wheel remained. I tried Safe Boot, reseting the NVRAM/PRAM and Internet Recovery. None of them worked. On internet recovery, the bar is stuck at the beginning and after an hour there is an error that says apple.com/support -5010f. Why is there an error on Internet Recovery and what can I do to fix my MacBook?

I hope you have a backup (preferably a bootable one).
Here’s a reference, read this first: Gray, Blue or White screen at boot, w/spinner/progress bar
You don’t mention booting to your recovery partition, you can try that.
There is also single user mode: (restart, hold down ⌘S until you see a black screen with white text) and repair your hard drive. Here's a reference with directions: Repair Your Hard Disk in Single User Mode | Everything Macintosh
If you have a bootable backup (like a clone that you made with Carbon Copy Cloner) you could try to boot from that and then use it to either
repair your usual boot drive
erase your usual boot drive and restore from the backup
If you have a bootable installer (like a thumb drive that you made with Diskmaker X (DiskMaker X (formerly Lion DiskMaker) then you could boot from that and see if you can repair your HD or erase and reinstall.
If you have a third party utility like Techtool Pro (Techtool Pro 7) that is on another partition of your drive or on a separate disk you could try to boot from that and see if you can repair your HD.
If none of that works then maybe your HD has a mechanical failure and needs to be replaced.

IMac won't start up - just have apple logo plus 'processing' symbol active?

Unable to start computer.

I work at an Authorized Apple Reseller and we are having the same problem with one of our showfloor models.
Model: iMac 21.5" (Brand New Core i3, etc)
Problem Description: When you press the power button, you hear the Apple chime and the screen turns on. Instead of booting normally, the screen shows the Apple logo, a spinning 'loading' circle (I call it a ferris wheel), and a loading bar below that. Typically the loading bar is for an EFI Firmware update, but I don't remember updating the iMac recently. Anyways, the loading bar moves once, starts over, and then the iMac shuts down.
Possibly Related Issue: Several days leading up to this issue, the computer was very noisy. It sounded like the hard drive was working overtime on indexing or something, but it ran fine and spotlight wasn't even indexing at all. I walked by it yesterday and noticed it wasn't on. I pushed the power button, and the problem it has now started.
I will keep searching the forum for a solution, but I have a feeling this is a hardware issue that will need to be serviced by Apple.
Sidenote: If anyone has any experience contacting apple as an Apple Reseller about repairing a computer before the warranty starts, any advice would be greatly appreciated

My imac wont get past the white screen with logo and rotating wheel

i was trying to turn on my imac when suddenly ot took forever on the white screen
i tried taking off everything connected to it-no change
i tried a safe mode after a few minuted a heard the second chime then a blinkin
question mark folder showed up so i turned it off again and tried a nvram/pram reset but it still stuck on the white screen
is it time to visit the apple store or is there something else i should try?

A flashing question mark or globe appears when you start your Mac
Reinstall Lion, Mountain Lion, or Mavericks without erasing 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
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 then click on the Repair Permissions button. When the process is completed, then quit DU and return to the main menu.
Reinstall Lion, Mountain Lion, or Mavericks
OS X Mavericks- Reinstall OS X
OS X Mountain Lion- Reinstall OS X
OS X Lion- Reinstall Mac OS X
Note: You will need an active Internet connection. I suggest using Ethernet
if possible because it is three times faster than wireless.

My G5 won't start beyond grey screen

Hi Folks,
My G5 won't start beyond grey screen with the logo on it. The fans simply get louder and louder.
It acts as our server and the raid drive on it had been having privileges problems. One person on another forum suggested I run Disc Utility to repair permissions. I did so, there were a couple of minor permissions fixed. After that, the Mac would not re-boot.
I got the DVD door open and ran Disk Warrior on the drive, the files and the hardware. It claimed to repair a few minor issues and there were no problems with the hardware. It still wouldn't boot, so I reset the SMU. ?Still no start, so I reset the PRAM. Still the same.
Any ideas?
G5, OSX 10.5.6, 6 GB ram, approximately 100 GB free on system drive, over 800 GB free on RAID.

I'm having the same problem though I'm running 10.4.11. After getting to about the point you are at did an "Archive and Install" but after about a day of working fine, it had a kernal panic and I couldn't boot past the gray screen again. I took it to my local Apple Store and they ran 2 hours of diagnostics w/o finding anything wrong. They told me to do an "Erase and Install." That is where I am at now because I can't get the machine to boot from my 10.3.5 Install CD--it hangs at the black screen when I try to boot from the CD by holding down "C" at boot. This is the original system software that came with the machine at purchase.
There are many posts out there about bad RAM causing these kinds of problems. You might want to search around for those posts.
Good luck and I'm going to watch this thread hoping that someone will have a suggestion that will help me too.
Cathryn

HT1430 My Ipad won't start up. The apple logo appears and just stays on the screen. after a while it starts blinking every minute

My Ipad won't start up. The apple logo appears and just stays on the screen. after a while it starts blinking every minute

Try recovery mode as described here.
Note you may have to try to enter recovery mode more than one time to succeed.
HT1808

Start Up Issue-Gray Screen, Apple Logo And Cognition Wheel-Blue screen before start up at times but no longer starting up beyond gray screen and cognition wheel

Power button pressed.
Start up light okay
Chimes okay
Gray screen, apple logo and cognition wheel spinning and the loading bar underneath loading 1/10th of the way.
Loading bar doesnt load fully and then disappears.
Gray screen remains with apple logo and cognition wheel only.
No start up to desktop. Before start up to desk top which is not happening any more a blue screen appeared before the desktop appeared. When start up complete the ' Finder' had no responded and did not work' Multi coloured loading pointer continually turned. ' Network' could not be loaded in 'System Prefrences'.
Ive tried reading and following propts...Results NVRAM/PRAM - Logic board battery replacement. How much will this cost?
Hardware test - No problem found
Safe Boot - ' volume Machintosh HD could not be repaired.'
' Run time corruption detected on Machintosh HD device'
What do you suggest aside from taking it to a apple store?
Thanks Stephen

Lion or Snow Leopard? If Lion, boot into your Recovery partition (hold down the Command and R keys whilst booting) and use Disk Utility to verify and, if needed, repair the boot volume.
If Snow Leopard, use the installation disc and use Disk Utility in the same manner.
Clinton

Gray screen, apple logo and spinning gear hang at start up

after a lengthy round of "bejeweled", i let my imac fall into screen saver mode. when i tried to log back in, i tapped the mouse and the imac flashed as it does when actuated outside a dialogue without clicking the okay button, and immediately returned to screen saver. i then manually shut down and restarted to the gray screen, apple logo and spinning gear hang. i then inserted the leopard install dvd, manually shut down and restarted pressing the option key and selected the install disc. it booted as usual. i selected the language preferred, used the utility drop down menu and selected DU, then selected the hard drive and verify permissions to reveal a pop up "Error: The underlying task reported failure on exit. Permissions verification complete." i immediately selected repair disc, and breathed a sigh of relief with the notification "appears to be ok". then utilities/start up disc/macintosh hd/restart. still get the hang. i have repeated this process several times, also resetting the PRAM as well to the infinite hang. as a matter of fact, the gear has been spinning the entire time creating this post. needless to say, i am truly at a loss. SOS!!!!!!! Please!!!!! SEND LAWYERS, GUNS AND MONEY!!!!

i have perused some of the threads posted per this topic and decided to attempt an "archive and install." i also have a 620gig acomdata external drive with close to a carbon copy of my internal. a few short minutes into the install, the imac reveals a pop up stating it cannot install some files on the hard drive, contact the software manufacturer or restart and try to install again. the internal drive is a 160gig with only about 60gigs of room, so i tried to archive and install to the acomdata instead as it has 180 gig of free space. i get the exact same dialogue once again. restart and a third attempt only archive and install will not highlight, only first time and/or erase and install. further, start up disc shows only the install disc and network as choices. so i attempt first time install on both drives and get the same pop up message again. DU recognizes both drives although verify/repair permissions does not highlight, but not start up disc.
i'm trying not to become frantic, but my patience is threadbare. i am in desperate need of sound advice as to what i need to do.
thanks again in advance,
bradley

MacBook Pro won't boot after trying to install 10.7.3 update. Start up stalls at Apple logo and spinning gear.

MacBook Pro won't boot after trying to install 10.7.3 update. Start up stalls at Apple logo and spinning gear. Computer won't even start in safe mode.

My daughter's MacBook Pro was doing exactly the same thing. I don't know if it had anything to do with the latest update. She called me about a week ago saying that her MacBook began running slower by the day . She then called me Friday and told me that it wouldn't get past the gray screen and the gear just kept on spinning. I did everything I could over the phone including Safe mode which it wouldn't go into and thought maybe it was the hard drive. She took it to the Apple store. Originally, they also thought it was the hard drive. It ended up being a corrupted operating system (Lion). Apple genius simply re-installed Lion and she's back up and running. Good thing she backed up right before it crapped out. She'll be restoring everything tonight. Don't know if re-installing Lion will help your situation, but it did the trick for my daughter.

TS3148 my mackbook air starts up with a persistent grey screen, apple logo and spinning gear

my mackbook air starts up with a persistent grey screen, apple logo and a spinning gear. It will not show the login window

Press and hold the power button down to force a hardware shutdown (emergency use only!)
Next find the Shift key and hold it and press the power button, the machine will boot into Safe Mode.
Next backup your files to a external drive just in case.
Emergency backup procedure
Drag and drop copy your users file folders (music, pictures, documents etc) to a regular external powered drive as soon as possible.
Do not use, setup or trust only TimeMachine at this troubled time as it will copy corrupted data and we need just your users files safe just in case. TimeMachine cannot be used with a Windows PC.
Unmount and Disconnect all external drives once the backup process is completed.
Note:
If you have any over 4GB sized files, those won't copy to a standard formatted FAT32/MSDOS drive from the factory, if you need to save these 4GB+ files use another blank/empty drive and use Disk Utility to format it 1 Partition, Option: GUID, Format: OS X Extended Journaled (or the standard default one for older Mac's).
Mac's cannot copy to nor format a NTFS drive. ExFAT format to be used with a Windows machine must be right click formatted by Windows, not OS X (does it wrong) XP macines can install a free exFAT update from Microsoft. Vista-Win 8 can format exFAT.
Formatting a drive will erase all data on it.
Most commonly used backup methods
Your problem is likely due to a incompatible third part at boot kernel extension file that some program installed into OS X at some time.
If you can recall which programs you installed using your Admin password then that's a good place to start and update or uninstall those programs.
The next solution is a #8 Reinstall Just OS X + Software Update fully, this will replace OS X with a new copy, fix OS X if it's the cause and kick out ALL third party kext files out of OS X.
You also can manually drag and drop the third party kext files (if you know what they are) out of of the System/Library/Extensions folder and reboot.
..Step by Step to fix your Mac
Solving at boot kext issues in Snow Leopard

MBP won't boot. Gray screen, apple logo.

As above, my 2.4 Macbook Pro, won't boot past the gray Apple logo and that spinning circle.
Holding C doesn't allow it to boot from CD either, for Leopard/Tiger OR Disk Warrior!
Holding alt allows the start up menu, but then spits the CD out and only shows the Macintosh HD which obviously wont boot!
HELP!
MBP 2.4 / 10.5.2

Have you tried zapping the PRAM?
Here's how:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=2238

On boot up, just white screen with logo and windmill. Forever! Can't get out.

On boot up, just white screen with logo and windmill. Forever! Can't get out.

Backup in case your disk is failing. (Post back if you need instructions on how to do that w/o booting OS X.)
Start up in Safe Mode; http://support.apple.com/kb/PH14204?viewlocale=en_US
If it boots reliably in Safe Mode then it is probably a software issue. Post back for more instructions.
Reset PRAM: http://support.apple.com/kb/PH4405
Boot in Recovery Mode. (Hold down the Command (⌘) and R keys as your computer restarts.) Run Disk Utility. Click on the upper left system disk icon. Does S.M.A.R.T. report “Verified”? If not the disk is failing and will need to be replaced. Click on the icon underneath and indented to the right, usually called “Macintosh HD”. Repair Disk. It should finish normally with a green OK message. If it does not try to repair it again.
If it will not finish with the green OK message then use Disk Utility to erase the drive and then reinstall OS X. (Be sure you have a backup before erasing the disk. Post back if you need instructions on how to do that.)
If it repaired all errors and is still not booting normally, reinstall OS X.
If it is still sick after all these steps then the disk probably needs to be replaced or it could be a disk cable. You replace these inexpensively and fairly easily yourself or take it to an Apple store for them to do it for you at a higher cost. If it is still under warranty or AppleCare have Apple do it for you for free. You may want to have Apple check the health of the system and disk before repairing it yourself. Post back if you need instructions on replacing the disk and/or testing the disk cable.

''Well When i plug in my ipod touch the battery life is low..i let it sit a wyhle.And it starts up to the apple logo and it stay there some time then it restartsback over to the very low battery and repeat(Over&Over)?

''Well When i plug in my ipod touch the battery life is low..i let it sit a wyhle.And it starts up to the apple logo and it stay there some time then it restartsback over to the very low battery and repeat(Over&Over)

Can you reset the device by holding the sleep and home button until the Apple logo comes back again?
If this does not work, try to connect in recovery mode, explained here: iOS: Unable to restore

Imac will not boot up, chimes with apple logo and beach ball spin??

imac will not boot up, chimes with apple logo and beach ball spin?? after installing adobe flash and up graded apple softeware

If your iMac came with or is running Lion, startup holding either the Command-R keys or the Option key and select the recovery partition and then use Disk Utility to repair the Macintosh HD.
see > OS X Lion: About Lion Recovery
If your running Snow Leopard or earlier OS X, pop in your Install DVD and startup holding either the Option or C key, then open and use Disk Utility to repair the Macintosh HD.
see > Mac OS X - Using Disk Utility to Repair a Disk

My iMac won't get passed white screen, My iMac won't get passed white screen

Hi I was updating my iMac with mac os lion and it was installing the update when there was a power shortage and the iMac turned off. Now when I turn it on it won't get passed the white screen with the Apple logo and the turning thing, what should I do?
The update I was doing was the Mac OS X Update Combined version 10.7.3

I'll assume you have backups of your data. Boot from your recovery partition (command-R at startup) and reinstall the Mac OS. You don't need to erase the boot volume. If your Mac didn’t ship with Lion, you’ll need the Apple ID and password you used to upgrade, so make a note of those before you begin.

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

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