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

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I have an iMac that won't boot up. Chimes, Gray screen w/ apple icon, spinning gear and progress bar at bottom, about 20 sec then shuts off.

I have an iMac that won't boot up. Chimes, Gray screen w/ apple icon, spinning gear and progress bar at bottom, about 20 sec then shuts off.
Please Help

The internal drive is malfunctioning. What backups do you have?

Imac won't start up shows apple and then goes white screen.

power off and on and restarted imac. only white screen on 24 inch imac.

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

Imac G5 won't start white screen and flashing question mark

tried every key combo recomended - erased HD using target mode/firewire with laptop - but won't boot up from install disc...

The white screen with flashing question mark means that it cannot find a bootable volume.
The iMac G5 will not boot from just any install disk. Ideally, use the grey restore disks which came with the computer. If you've lost these, you can order them direct from Apple. Alternatively, a Mac OS X 10.5 retail install DVD will work provided the iMac G5 has also 1GB RAM (minimum requirement for 10.5).
Sometimes, if the internal drive is faulty, it can take a long time for the computer to recognise other disks. I would suggest holding down the option key on the keyboard (labled alt on some keyboards) and turning the computer on, keep holding alt until you get to the early boot menu, insert your DVD/CD, and click the circle arrow to refresh, wait a bit and the DVD/CD will show up and you can click on it to select it and boot from it by pressing the straight arrow.
After a little while it will get to the install menu, select your language, then on the next screen go through the menus to find "Disk Utility" (it's in different places on different versions of Mac OS X).
You will want to check that the internal hard drive is detected, and that it doesn't have a SMART error (it might be red, or say that the disk is failing). If you get that far, then (assuming you have erased the disk previously, as this will step really will erase the drive and take all your data with it) partition the drive, making sure that under 'Options' you select Apple Partition Map (this will be the default on earlier versions of Mac OS X, but might not be if you've erase the disk from an intel Mac like a MacBook).
Once, you done all that, and there haven't been any issues, you should be able to quit Disk Utility, and carry on with the sytem install as usual, and a 30mins to 2 hours and reboot later you should be booting from the internal drive again.

Imac does not start white screen with apple logo.......

Hi guys, my brand new Imac 21.5 got stuck on the white screen with apple logo and nonstop little wheel, but it never gets out of it....Disconnected everything else restarted but still nothing...stuck at the same screen. Please i need help, the machine is only 3 months old!!!

Hi, do you have AppleCare?
Call AppleHelp in any event 1-800-275-2273
You could try booting from your discs (Disc#1) that came with your Mac -
...L

Imac won't boot - white screen

Ok, so now my imac won't boot. All I get is a white screen; I also can't boot from install DVD.

Hi David
Try booting the Install DVD holding the Option key or run the Apple Hardware Test as described in the following Apple article > http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1509
Dennis

My iphone won't start only the apple icon is appearing

hello guys
there was a problem on my iphone. its not getting started only the apply icon is appearing on the screen. my battery is not empty because i had just finish charging my iphone...please help me..

Plug into iTunes and restore. If it is not recognised by iTunes unplug it then hold down both the Home and Power buttons until you see the screen blackout. Now continue to hold the home button while you plug it in via usb. It will enter "recovery mode" and will show a connect to iTunes screen. Follow the prompts to restore your firmware and restore your data from a backup

My MacBook is getting stuck on the start up screen (apple icon, progress wheel). What can I do?

I've tried the normal troubleshooting stuff (turn off and restart, remove battery and restart, SMC reboot) but it keeps getting stuck on the initial start-up screen.

Boot from your OS installer disk and use disk utility to repair the disk.

IMac won't start; I only get the spinning wheel

iMac (probably 3 to 4 years old)------I don't think this is an Intel.
I have a password to enter upon turning on iMac
What I did:
I backed up my files on an external drive.
I ejected the external drive & unplugged it from the iMac.
Selected Shut Down. Screen went blue (I think) then did NOT shut down. I waited 10 minutes or so. Still didn't shut down.
I pressed power button to shut off. Waited a few minutes then turned on. The grey screen with Apple logo and spin wheel appeared and that's as far as I can get.
I tried turning off and on but never got past the Apple logo/spin wheel.
I unplugged power, mouse and keyboard, replugged them in. Turned on but still no luck.
I hope you can help.

it sounds very much like your hdd has died, however, if it has, at least you have the good fortune to have backed up your system.
try booting by holding the alt key. if you can get to utilities perhaps you will have a better understanding of what is going on there.
the reason you cannot get past the spinning wheel is that the mac cannot access the startup volume which is your hdd.
if this is the case then dont be too disheartened, take this opportunity to consider a ssd for your machine it will give it an especially good new lease of life.

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.

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!

My macbook does not start, gray screen, apple and turning gear appears

my macbook froze. then shut down the computer to clear the freeze condition. when trying to restart, the computer starts to boot,the apple appears on the screen, the gear rotates, however the computer does not continue to boot. can anyone help?

That would normally indicate a problem with the Hard Drive.
Do you have an Instal Disc to try to boot from? Hold the Mouse button down when powering up & eject if there's a Disc in it now.
The fans going strong is a safety feature when no OS is loaded.
Does it boot into any of these modes?
Holding Option/alt key at bootup.
Holding SHIFT key at bootup.
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

Grey screen / apple logo / spinning gear

Hi problem as above....
Disconnected all items
Tried the install cd
Nothing
Computer sounds like it is trying to boot but won't
Tried to boot from disc
Currently using my touch to type this?
Help!
Alan (Ireland)

Edit: Oops. I just realized this post was 2 months old. I suspect you have moved on.
This sounds similar to a problem I was having this morning. It would be really useful if you could have a look at the system log (system.log) for any more clues. You can try to boot the machine into Single user mode to do this. I believe the key sequence during boot for this is to hold down the Command and S keys.
Once you find yourself at the "root" prompt, you should find the system.log at
/private/log/system.log
You can easily view the log without having to navigate from where you are with the following command:
cat /private/log/system.log | less
That vertical symbol before the "less" is the "pipe" symbol. You can see it on you backslash key.
Once the log comes up, you can navigate forward and backward through the log with the "F" and "B" keys. To exit, use the "Q" key.
The log can be confusing to read, but in my case I was able to see a section of errors that were repeating over and over.
In the end, for me, it turned out to be a permissions issue. Somehow, the root directory "/" had its permissions corrupted which made it so that one of the boot processes was unable to access a required file.
At this point I really don't want to give you a bunch of commands to try if you're not familiar with the system. I don't have enough information anyway. I'm just offering you another place to look for the problem. One thing that makes me think it's permissions related is that you said you can't reinstall the system. Neither could I, though I was attempting an archive and reinstall, not erase and reinstall. For the erase option, I wouldn't think permissions should come into play.
To reboot from the prompt, type: shutdown -r now
Good luck,
Kevin
Message was edited by: kpowick

Imac stuck on start up screen

Hi all,
Having some problems with my iMac. I know there's already a few threads about this but i'm still having trouble after trying various solutions.
It crashed on me the other day whilst using Logic Pro. The music was still playing but the screen went black and i couldn't do anything.
I had to reset by holding the power button and since then it won't get past the initial grey start up screen. The spinning 'gear' goes for around a minute then just stops and nothing.
I tried booting from the install disc (Using the option key at start up) but after inserting disk 1 of 2 it won't read it and now i can't eject to try a different install (DVD rather than disc).
I've also reset my PRAM (Apple, option, P & R) but that's done nothing.
I've tried booting in safe mode (Holding shift at start up) but that doesn't work.
I don't know anyone (easily accessible to anyway) who owns a mac so can't hook it up to salvage what i can from the HD. But can anyone recommend anything?
Got alot of projects on there i can't lose!
I've now turned it off and on by holding the power button in probably 20ish times now.. Will this be damaging it anymore at all?
Look forward to any suggestions.
Thanks,

I'm using the disk 1 as the DVD (which is a newer version of the OS X) doesn't seem to run.
I can now boot up with the disk drive, but as said, the screen seems to crash. I get horizontal rectangles of grey and light blue (the start up grey screen and the light blue login page). If i hit enter i can hear the disk/computer working. Moving the cursor to the centre of the page will change the cursor type to a text input one (Like that of any text programme).
But as said, the hardware test came back all fine...
I did a command+V boot and it came back with a few error messages. I won't post it all as, not only do i not have time to scribble it all down, but it'd just take up space. So here are the parts i think are important;
BSD root Disk052, Major 14, minor 2,
GFX0: Family specific matchings fails
Matching service count 1
Matching service count 2
Matching service count 2
Matching service count 2
Matching service count 2
Matching service count 2
Matching service count 3
iMac8,1: stalling for module
Matching service count 1
Appletymaedriver: : : probe (iMac8,1)
Apple tymaedriver : : prove fails
Previous shut down cause: 3
GFX0: Family specific matchings fails
GFX0: Family specific matchings fails
GFX0: Family specific matchings fails
GFX0: Family specific matchings fails
ALF ALERT: Sockwallcntlupdaterules CTL enqueuedata rts err 55
ALF ALERT: Sockwallcntlupdaterules CTL enqueuedata rts err 55
ALF ALERT: Sockwallcntlupdaterules CTL enqueuedata rts err 55
ALF ALERT: Sockwallcntlupdaterules CTL enqueuedata rts err 55
ALF ALERT: Sockwallcntlupdaterules CTL enqueuedata rts err 55
ALF ALERT: Sockwallcntlupdaterules CTL enqueuedata rts err 55
ALF ALERT: Sockwallcntlupdaterules CTL enqueuedata rts err 55
ALF ALERT: Sockwallcntlupdaterules CTL enqueuedata rts err 55
ALF ALERT: Sockwallcntlupdaterules CTL enqueuedata rts err 55
ALF ALERT: Sockwallcntlupdaterules CTL enqueuedata rts err 55
ALF ALERT: Sockwallcntlupdaterules CTL enqueuedata rts err 55
ALF ALERT: Sockwallcntlupdaterules CTL enqueuedata rts err 55
It also had a few commenting on 'kernel' being dependant on things that couldn't be loaded. I'm at work at the moment so can't remember exactly but will post if need be.
Thanks again for all the help, much appreciated!!

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

Imac won't start white screen apple icon spinning gear

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