IMac won't start, gray screen, beeping sound

Computer crashed while using Safari. Restarted with gray screen and beeping sound

Not good, sounds like a hardware failure. Navigate to Apple Gray Screen and closely follow the troubleshooting steps, if none work the final step says to take ht machine in for service. Here is the link to the page:
http://support.apple.com/kb/ts2570
Good luck!

Similar Messages

Imac won't start white screen apple icon spinning gear

imac won't start. when turn on, I just get a white screen with apple icon and a spinning gear below the apple icon. what should I do to get it started and fix the problem? Thanks.

See if any of the suggestions in this link help:
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2570

IMac Won't start up and beeps when turning power on.

So last night, I got the gray screen that said I needed to turn off the power to my iMac. I powered down and upon turning it back on, I got a blank screen with three (I'm pretty sure it was three) beeps followed by a pause and then three more beeps. From what I've read, I think this means there is a RAM issue.
Any advice or suggestions before I contact support??
Thanks

Honker --
Welcome to Apple Discussions!
We're other Mac users here, asking questions and sharing solutions.
It is your RAM.
You can try reseating your RAM chips to make sure they're in tight.
You can check your Memory in your Profile --
Click on the Apple icon - upper left corner - to "About this Mac."
Then click on "More Info," down to Memory. It will explain the slots and dimms there.
What does it say there?

EMac won't start and 3 beep sound and light flash

My eMac suddenly got problem these days.
Last night, eMac can boot and login. Suddenly, the monitor cant display property. Then, i enforced to power off. Later, trying restart it. eMac cannot start up and breeze 3 beep sound and flash power light.
I checked support forum. It claimed that "3 beep - no good banks". Actually, i dont understand what it is. What i can i do??

KY18,
Welcome to the Apple Discussions!
The three beeps mentioned in Power On Self-Test Beep Definition means that during the startup test of RAM, the Mac detected that there are DIMMs physically in one or both sockets, but that neither DIMM is functioning electrically.
It's unlikely but possible that one RAM DIMM may have suddenly failed catastropicaly, far more unlikey if you have two DIMMs installed. A more plausible scenario, considering your mention of display problems, would be if the eMac were plugged directly into a wall outlet, or into a low-cost surge protector whose MOV hardware had degraded and failed (the status LEDs on low-end surge protectors are essentially worthless). If there was a power surge while you were using the computer, that could have blown out the RAM (and potentially damaged other hardware as well). Surch brownouts or surges are usually evident in the effect on room lights, clocks, and other elctronic devices plugged into the power outlets.
As a longshot, you can try pulling the RAM DIMMs and then reseating them in the slots, making certain that the thumb clips holding the DIMMs have snapped fully into place after reseating them. Check the RAM installation instructions at eMac - Do-It-Yourself.

Intel iMac - won't start - grey screen & progress bar

I have a 2006 Intel iMac - 20" model, Intel Core Duo, 2GHz, 2GB RAM, 250GB HDD, etc. It was one of the very earliest Intel iMacs. Kept updated, running OS 10.6, etc.
It has worked extremely well for over 5 years - apart from the Superdrive being temperamental sometimes - but has suddenly gone wrong.
Last week the machine completely froze for no apparent reason. I had to force a reboot. This failed - grey screen and the grey spinning wheel (if that's what it's called), indefinitely.
Forced reboot again and this time held down the shift key to go into safe boot mode. This time it was successful, and I was able to get to the logon screen & log myself in. I opened Disk Utility & attempted to do some diagnostics but the machine froze again.
Looking around various other forum postings...I rebooted the machine in single user mode and was able to get to the command line to type 'fsck -fy' to attempt to fix disk problems. This failed repeatedly, with an error message 'invalid node structure'.
I tried to boot my machine from the OS X disc but my Superdrive refused to play ball - it would not read the disc (or any other disc for that matter, including a copy of DiskWarrior that I have).
I have now got hold of an external DVD drive in the hope that this would show up as a boot device when I switch the machine on while holding the option key down. No such luck - the drive powers up ok (power via USB) but I'm not given the option to boot from it - in fact that screen doesn't appear at all.
All that happens now on powering up - regardless of what I do - is the grey apple symbol appears and a progress bar beneath it. The progress bar gets stuck about 5% of the way along, and then after about 10 minutes it disappears and is replaced with the grey spinning wheel thingy. And then it just gets stuck - nothing else happens.
HELP!
All my important data is backed up on an external drive via Time Machine, so that should be safe, but I'm desperate to get the machine running again.
One thing that occurred to me is that I've had a program called ReFit installed on the machine which allowed me to run the machine as dual boot etc. (and I do have a couple of other small partitions on the drive, not currently used) but the ReFit welcome screen stopped appearing a couple of weeks ago for some reason. I'm wondering if this has somehow messed things up...?
Grateful for any suggestions...
Thanks,
Alan.

For the drive, you should be OK with any SATA 2 at 3 MB/s transfer speed. You could also use a SATA 1, no jumpers needed. (Not SATA 3 - can't be jumpered down.) The early 2006 Intels were 1.5 MB/s -- at least the drives were, so I'm assuming the SATA controller on the logic board was also. Might just be SATA 2 hadn't yet been introduced and can run the faster SATA 3 without jumpers. My guess is not. You should be able to set jumpers on the drive for backwards compatibility. You'll have to contact the drive manufacturer or go to their website for that info.
http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/imac/stats/imac-core-2-duo-2.16-20-inch-sp ecs.html
As for the superdrive, I'd contact the manufacturer to check on compatibility.
Glad I'm able to help. BTW, in case you haven't noticed, maybe you want to have a look here.

My iMac won't start up properly, it powers on the bong sound happens and then the little gear spins forever

My iMac won't start up properly, it powers on the bong sound happens and then the little gear spins forever
ive tried booting from my leapord disk
smc reset
pram reset
and safe boot

Please carefully read Apple's advice letter Gray screen appears during startup for troubleshooting steps.

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

20" imac won't start up-flashes between blank grey screen and black screen

20" imac
2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
Was running system 10.5.8 just fine. Worked great.
But then I wanted to give the imac to a relative. And so, I tried to boot from the original grey mac install dvd to wipe the hardrive and set the imac back to factory specs.
But it wouldn't boot off the dvd. All It would do at restart was to flash slowly back and forth between blank grey screen and black screen. So, I tried the Leopard update dvd. Same results. So I zapped the pram and tried again. Same results.
If I just pushed the start button tho.. the imac would start right up and run fine. However, I didn't want to give it to someone else with all our information on it.
I finally restarted it and held the "T" key to turn it into a giant firewire drive, hooked it up to our other 20" imac, and used the disk utility from the second imac to erase the drive of the first imac. Then I inserted the grey install dvd into the second imac and selected the drive of the first imac and ran the install process.
Now, the first imac won't start up at all. Just a continual grey screen for a bit, than a couple of buzz sounds in the machine and then the black screen... than back again.
It ran great before I erased the drive and re-installed OS 10.5
What's wrong? How do I get the machine to either boot off the install cd?

So, I've figured out a little more on the first machine. It's a 20" 2.6 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo running 10.5.8.
It ran great. But, I wanted to erase the hard drive and reinstall the OS system before giving it to a relative.
I found that although the optical drive would read and write to normal cds and dvds, the machine would NOT boot from the grey start-up disks I had on hand. ( I have two imacs, and I tried both sets of dvds without success.)
I zapped the PRAM, and used disk utilities via firewire connection from my other 20" imac to check the hardrive and make repairs. Disk Utilities couldn't find any problems. So, using disk utilities from the other imac, I erased the first imac's harddrive and then used the install dvds on the second imac to install the original OS to the hard drive of the first imac.
(looking on the hard drive of the first imac, I can see all the contents)
However, the first machine will not start up. It just switches from grey....to black..... then grey..... and then black again.... over and over
Why won't it boot from the newly installed OS on it's own hard drive?
And Why won't it boot from the original install dvds?
How can I get it to start up again?

IMac won't start up passed the grey screen

Last friday my iMac (late 2006, 24", 2.33 duo core Intel, OS 10.6.8) gave me the spinning beach ball.
Restarting resulted in: first the apple screen with the progress indicator, followed by grey screen..
That was it. It hangs at the grey screen.
I've been busy this weekend testing all kinds of ideas to get my imac to fully start up again.
I checked the RAM, it's fine.
I flushed NVRAM, wild guess, but nothing changed.
Starting up in safe mode doesn't work.
Starting up in recovery mode doesn't work.
On the upside, I was able to start my imac up in Target mode. Using the host computer and Disk Utlity I can see there's nothing wrong with the HD. All the data is still there!, so later today I'll make a copy of the complete HD, hoping/thinking that I won't copy whatever is wrong.
I had Disk Utility repair all the permissions.
I've used the host computer to reinstall the OS on my imac.
But on start up my beloved iMac still won't get passed the grey screen.
I'm thinking something goes wrong before my Mac even gets to the HD. Maybe it's the firmware, but I'm not really sure that firmware matters in this case. And I wouldn't know how to reinstall the latest version of firmware because my imac won't start up from it's disk drive
I'm thinking maybe something could be wrong with the graphic card's RAM, though on start up I can see the apple logo just fine.
I'm not able to start up from CD, I've tried that because I wanted to reinstall my OS (before I figured out how to do that in Target Mode) by putting the OS disk in my imac's own disk drive. Staring up with the C key still gets me the grey screen. Staring up with Option key shows no other option but the HD.
So is there anybody out there who has an idea that could help me further along?
Any help is greatly appreciated!
Frank

Hi Jan,
If you have another firewire Mac you can check if the HD of your Mac is OK by connecting them with a firewire cable and use target-mode. That way I found out my HD was just fine.
It also offers you the chance to run a diagnostic program to check if anything else is fine. I used TechTool to do that. But everything checked out fine.
In the end I decided the problem is probably hardware. Some electronic part that broke. Very frustrating that some small transistor or so is keeping me from using my otherwise fine iMac.
I contacted a repairshop that also works for the local Mac retailer. They told me my iMac was concidered 'classic' and therefor it wasn't economically not worth the trouble trying to repair it.
I gave up, took two weeks to mourn the loss of my beloved iMac, and bought a Mac mini.
FrankV
Judging by your name I'm guessing I could've anwered this in Dutch.

My iMac won't start...just beeps. What do I do now?

My iMac won't start up anymore. When I hold down the power button for 3 seconds and then let go al it does is beeps 3 times and then pauses for about 4-5 sec. , the 3 beeps and pause, and so on. Everything was working fine. I shut down the computer and now can't geitback on. Is it ruined?

Three beeps at startup indicates bad or loose RAM.
You can look up videos on how to replace RAM on your model Mac, at YouTube, or Other World Computing.

24" iMac won't start when iPod is connected

My 24" iMac won't start up/restart if my iPod is already connected to it. If I restart with the iPod connected, I just get a gray screen (with no apple logo) forever. Has anyone else experienced this problem? If so, any solution? I have Windows installed with boot camp, don't know if that's the problem, but I tried reseting the p-ram, but to no avail...
Intel iMac 24", 7600 GT, 500GB, 2GB. Titanium Powerbook 667 MHz G4, loaded. Mac OS X (10.4.7) 30 GB iPod Video

My suggestion would be disconnect the iPod. That's just me though.
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=93953
I'm guessing Boot Camp is the culprit. Whatever emulated BIOS it's using doesn't like the iPod as a startup disk.

IMac won't start - should I reinstall OS?

Recently my iMac won't start up - it goes to screen with folder + question mark. I've run Disk Utility, repaired hard drive, but there were no reported repairs to make.
Occassionally it will start up, and everything seems normal until suddenly the beach ball appears and everything freezes. 99% of tries it won't start up (i get the ? folder). Is it worth erasing the disk and reinstalling everything to see if a fresh start will help, or is it likely that the hardware is damaged?
Don't want to bother erasing it if there's no point... any advice greatly appreciated.
Also - anyone who's had their iMac repaired - what are the costs like?

I've just suddenly had the same problem - for no apparent reason as far as I can tell. The night before last I switched off my iMac as normal, and yesterday morning switched it back on. At first it would start, but crashed as soon as I tried to start any applications. Then it wouldn't start at all, and just got as far as the gray screen with the apple on it. After trying resetting the PRAM, switching on and holding the on button for 10 seconds, it was no different...
So, I tried doing a archive-reinstall from the original leopard DVD I bought from apple. This did a successful disk verification, but then said it couldn't install mac os due to a problem with the basesystem package. After that it wouldn't let me try another archive-install and only gave the options to install as new, or erase and install. The latter I don't want to do, and the former just gives the same basesystem error... All I get now is a flashing folder with a question mark and not even the gray screen...
I have tried using the diskutility to verify/ repair the hard drive and it says all is well...
I have heard this may all be due to dodgy RAM chips, but I have never messed with them or altered them. It just seems odd they should suddenly fail when they were working fine before.....
Any ideas would be much appreciated. A lot of data at risk
Dan.

Intel iMac won't start - HELP!

My iMac won't start this morning. I get the white screen with the grey apple,
and the swirling progress thing, then after a few seconds I can hear
the sound you hear when the system shuts down. like a soft switch
going off, then it just continues swirling, still with the white
screen and grey apple, then it restarts by itself. Then we go through
the same routine. Tried booting up by holding C with the Leopard disc inside but nothing happens.I have just reinstalled Leopard as Snow Leopard left too many printers and programs lifeless, so I did an erase and install a few days ago. Since then I have used the Mac fine, switched down normally last night, but this morning it doesn't want to play.
Any thoughts?
Thanks in anticipation
Chris
Message was edited by: ChrisRR

Have you reset PRAM and SMC?
Do this first
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1379
and then do this, if the PRAM does not help
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1543
The second one is basically disconnecting your iMac from power (and all cables), then reconnecting following a precise procedure.
If that does not help, I would restart with the Snow Leopard installation disc (insert disc and start up with the C key held down). You probably did an installation of Snow Leopard over your existing Leopard system the first time. This time, erase it completely first, then install Snow Leopard. I assume you backed up your data already.
When you get to the Installer screen (after selecting language), go up to the menu bar. Under Utilities, select to run Disk Utility. In the sidebar, select the internal DRIVE, not the volume indented under the drive. Go to the Erase tab. Name the volume +Macintosh HD+ and set the format to +Mac OS Extended (Journaled)+. Erase the drive. Since you have the drive selected in the sidebar (not the volume), it will also re-partition the drive.
It should take less than on minute to complete the process. Quit Disk Utility to go back to Installer. Run the standard installation onto the blank internal drive. Hopefully, a fresh Snow Leopard install on a reformatted/re-partitioned drive will work better for you.

HT1767 iMac won't start up.

My iMac won't start. When you turn it on the apple logo comes on but it keeps trying but never turns on. I tried unplugging it and plugging it into a new power source didn't work. I tried starting it up in safe mode didn't work. Any ideas out there?

There are some good Apple Support articles about startup issues, but which one to read depends on your operating system and model.
For example, if you are running 10.1-10.4, this one is good: Resolve startup issues and perform disk maintenance with Disk Utility and fsck
Here's one for 10.4-10.6: Mac OS X: Gray screen appears during startup (I know the apple logo is showing up for you, but good things to try anyway).
If you decide to run fsck as mentioned in the first article, be sure you read this article first: Mac OS X: How to start up in single-user or verbose mode
Regardless, are you in fact running a late 2009 iMac? If so, it's an Intel mac, and you're in the wrong room. You'll want to move your post to the Intel iMac community which has more active users. Remember to post your OS.

Imac reboots at start up then beeps

I wonder if anyone can help. Please.
When I start up my mac I get a gray screen with the apple, then a blue screen, then it goes black and restarts. Then it goes to a gray screen, beeps twice, then continues to beep three times, over and over.
I've tried holding down the C key with the disk that came with the mac but it wont start from it. I got a message saying I needed to restart my machine.
I read that three beeps mean it might be the RAM so I took it out (there is one in one slot) and put it back in again. But maybe it should be replaced completely?
I'm not sure what else to do. It sounds pretty bad to me and I stupidly don't have a back-up of anything on there. Argh!
If anyone has any suggestions, I'd be very grateful.
Thanks

It probably is the RAM, but try resetting the PRAM to see if that helps. Otherwise, you should probably order new RAM, most come with a lifetime guarantee, so contact the vendor and ask for a replacement.

IMac won't start, gray screen, beeping sound

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for