Imac wont boot, stuck loading, all i see is apple logo and spinning cycle

My 27 inch iMac wont boot, i am runnign snow leopard. I just see the apple sign and the cycle spinning meaning its still loading. I cant use disk utility because leopard install disc wont boot, also i cant run any commands in single user mode, doing /sbin/fsck -fy does nothing, i dont see a # sign or anything, whatever i type it doesnt matter whenever i hit return the cursor just goes to the line below.

dudix wrote:
I cant use disk utility because leopard install disc wont boot
Power down (assume you have already tried the SMC reset) and insert the Applications DVD that came with your new iMac. Boot up while holding the "D" key down (may be best with a wired keyboard) to run the Apple Hardware Test according to these instructions:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1509

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Imac wont boot - i get a white screen with apple logo, and it loads to about 10%, then screen goes black

imac wont boot - i get a white screen with apple logo, and it loads to about 10%, then screen goes black

Hey there mtriest,
It sounds like you are unable to boot the iMac successfully as it keeps shutting down when you try to boot. I suggest the troubleshooting from the following article named:
Mac OS X: Gray screen appears during startup
http://support.apple.com/kb/ts2570
Disconnect, test peripheral devices and network cables
Note: "Peripheral devices" refers to external devices other than what came with your Mac, such as hard drives, printers, or hubs that you connect via a USB or FireWire cable.
Shut down your Mac. If necessary, hold your Mac's power button for several seconds to force it to power down.
Disconnect all peripheral devices such as external hard drives or printers (leave only the display, a keyboard, and mouse connected).
Disconnect any Ethernet cables.
Start up your Mac.
If you can start up this way, one or more of your peripheral devices (or installed software related to the device) is probably causing the gray screen issue. Connect one device, then restart your Mac to test for the issue. Repeat the process until you locate the device at issue. Make sure the device is powered if it needs to be to operate correctly. Check with the manufacturer of the device for support or possible software driver or firmware updates that may be available for the device. Try a different cable with the device if possible (such as a different USB or FireWire cable).
Note: If you have multiple peripheral devices and the issue only occurs when they are all connected, but not when each device is the only peripheral connected, see the Additional Information section below.
If you are using a desktop Mac with a third-party keyboard and/or mouse device, and the issue still occurs, try starting up with an Apple keyboard and mouse connected instead. Try starting with no keyboard and mouse connected, then connect them after start up. Also, try a different USB port on your Mac.
If the gray screen issue persists with no devices connected, go to the next section (with the peripherals still disconnected).
Perform a Safe BootSimply performing a Safe Boot may resolve this issue.
Shut down your Mac. If necessary, hold your Mac's power button for several seconds to force it to power down.
Start your Mac, then immediately hold the Shift key. This performs a Safe Boot. Advanced tip: If you want to see the status of a Safe Boot as it progresses, you can hold Shift-Command-V during start up (instead of just Shift).
Note: A Safe Boot takes longer than a typical start up because it includes a disk check and other operations.
If your Mac starts up as expected, immediately try restarting.
If the Safe Boot does not work, or the restart after a successful Safe Boot does not work, go to the next section.
There is additional information in the article with further troubleshooting if needed.
Thank you for using Apple Support Communities.
Cheers,
Sterling

Hey Guys i have a problem with my mac since last month and it wont boot up it freezes in a grey apple logo and and spinning gear any body know how to fix this?

Hey Guys i have a problem with my mac since last month and it wont boot up it freezes in a grey apple logo and and spinning gear any body know how to fix this?

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 boot failure is to secure your 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 your last backup, you can skip this step.
There are several ways to back up a Mac that is unable to boot. You need an external hard drive to hold the backup data.
a. Boot into Recovery by holding down the key combination command-R at the startup chime, or from a local Time Machine backup volume (option key at startup.) Release the keys when you see a gray screen with a spinning dial. When the OS X Utilities screen appears, launch Disk Utility and follow the instructions in the support article linked below, under “Instructions for backing up to an external hard disk via Disk Utility.”
How to back up and restore your files
b. If you have access to a working Mac, and both it and the non-working Mac have FireWire or Thunderbolt ports, boot the non-working Mac in target disk mode by holding down the key combination command-T at the startup chime. Connect the two Macs with a FireWire or Thunderbolt cable. The internal drive of the machine running in target mode will mount as an external drive on the other machine. Copy the data to another drive. This technique won't work with USB, Ethernet, Wi-Fi, or Bluetooth.
How to use and troubleshoot FireWire target disk mode
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
Press and hold the power button until the power shuts off. Disconnect all wired peripherals except those needed to boot, and remove all aftermarket expansion cards. Use a different keyboard and/or mouse, if those devices are wired. If you can boot 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.
Before reconnecting an external storage device, make sure that your internal boot volume is selected in the Startup Disk pane of System Preferences.
Step 3
Boot in safe mode.* The instructions provided by Apple are as follows:
Shut down your computer, wait 30 seconds, and then hold down the shift key while pressing the power button.
When you see the gray Apple logo, release the shift key.
If you are prompted to log in, type your password, and then hold down the shift key again as you click Log in.
Safe mode is much slower to boot 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 your login password in order to log in. If you’ve forgotten the password, you will need to reset it before you begin.
*Note: If FileVault is enabled, or if a firmware password is set, or if the boot volume is a software RAID, you can’t boot in safe mode. Post for further instructions.
When you boot 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, your boot volume is damaged and the drive is probably malfunctioning. In that case, go to step 5.
If you can boot and log in now, empty the Trash, and then open the Finder Info window on your boot 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 reboot as usual (i.e., not in safe mode.)
If the boot process hangs again, the problem is likely caused by a third-party system modification that you installed. Post for further instructions.
Step 4
Sometimes a boot failure can be resolved by resetting the NVRAM.
Step 5
Launch Disk Utility in Recovery mode (see above for instructions.) Select your 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 produces. Look for the line "Permissions repaired successfully" at the end of the output. Then reboot as usual.
Step 6
Boot into Recovery again. When the OS X Utilities screen appears, follow the prompts to reinstall the OS. If your Mac was upgraded from an older version of OS X, you’ll need the Apple ID and password you used to upgrade.
Note: You need an always-on Ethernet or Wi-Fi connection to the Internet to use Recovery. It won’t work with USB or PPPoE modems, or with proxy servers, or with networks that require a certificate for authentication.
Step 7
Repeat step 6, but this time erase the boot volume in Disk Utility before installing. The system should automatically reboot into the Setup Assistant. Follow the prompts to transfer your data from a backup.
Step 8
If you get this far, you're probably dealing with a hardware fault. Make a "Genius" appointment at an Apple Store to have the machine tested.

HT1414 i wanted to reset my iphone from the phone settings and i started with no problem but now my i phone got stuck i can only see the apple logo and my phone does not start what to do please help

i wanted to reset my iphone 4 from the phone settings and everything started okay until i realised it was not working at all now my phone is tuck with the apple logo and won't start can not connect to the itunes store as well what to do please help

Place your iPhone into recovery mode as described here. You may have to try to enter recovery mode more than once to succeed.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1808

What do I do if my IPad wont turn on completely and what I mean by that I see the Apple logo and I think that it is turning on and then after a while i see the loading symbol which means that it isn't frozen and then all of a sudden it shows the apple log

What do I do if my IPad wont turn on completely and what I mean by that I see the Apple logo and I think that it is turning on and then
after a while i see the loading symbol which means that it isn't frozen and then all of a sudden it shows the apple logo once more and it repeats the above

Try this first.
Reboot the iPad by holding down on the sleep and home buttons at the same time for about 10-15 seconds until the Apple Logo appears - ignore the red slider if it appears on the screen - let go of the buttons. Let the iPad start up.
If that doesn't work, try restoring the iOS software.
iTunes: Restoring iOS software - Support - Apple
If that doesn't work, try this.
iOS: Unable to update or restore - Support - Apple

I have an ipod touch 3rd gen.I used the function of erasing all content and settings and now i am stuck on this screen with the apple logo and a loading sign for the past 17 hours.CAN SOMEONE PLEASE HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!

i have an ipod touch 3rd gen.I used the function of erasing all contents and settings and now i am stuck with this screen showing the apple logo and the loading sign for the past 17 hours.CAN SOMEONE PLEASE HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hold down the on/off button and the home button for 20 to 30 sec, when the iPod starts and the Apple logo is on the screen release the on/off button but continue to hold the home button until you see the plug into iTunes screen. Connect the iPod to iTunes and you should be good to go.

I did an auto software update on my iMac, which included a restart. When the machine restarted it's stuck with an Apple logo and spinning wheel. I've tried all of the key strokes that are supposed to work, but nothing has. Any suggestions? Thanks!

I did an auto software update on my iMac, which included a restart. When the machine restarted it's stuck with an Apple logo and spinning wheel. I've tried all of the key strokes that are supposed to work, but nothing has. Any suggestions?

Gray screen could be any number of things, bad third party at boot kext file, a bad Apple one, a bad install/upgrade of OS X, drive corruption etc.
Run through this list of fixes
Step by Step to fix your Mac

Hi...m using a mac pro quad core.....its not booting up...i can only see the apple logo and a circle loading...could not get into the login screen

hi...m using a mac pro quad core.....its not booting up...i can only see the apple logo and a circle loading...could not get into the login screen...any suggestions please.....m in the middle of a project and now i have got this one
regards,
v.s.bharan

Welcome to Apple Discussions!
Do you keep your data backed up?
If not, you should always do so*:
http://www.macmaps.com/backup.html
You never know when a hard drive or a directory might go bad. Having a bootable clone is a must.
That link also shows you some tools you can use to recover data.
If you aren't backed up, try buying those tools first, before attempting to repair the directory.
Directory issues can be fixed with these tools*:
http://www.macmaps.com/directoryfaq.html

IMac is stuck on apple logo and spinning wheel

My wife did a software update and them it asked for a restart, she click restart but the computer got stuck in apple logo and spinning wheel. Won't go past that now. Just keeps spinning! Help for I know not what to do!!!! Please any idea?

An invalid node is an error DU cannot repair. If you don't mind spending $100 for Disk Warrior, then I suggest you buy it because it can fix the error. Otherwise, do as the warning says. Backup your files. You will then have to erase the drive and reinstall. The procedure is:
Install or Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion from Scratch
Be sure you backup your files to an external drive or second internal drive because the following procedure will remove everything from the hard 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.
Erase the hard drive:
1. Select Disk Utility from the main menu and click on the Continue button.
2. After DU loads select your startup volume (usually Macintosh HD) from the
      left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
3. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Optionally, click on
        the Security button and set the Zero Data option to one-pass. Click on
      the Erase button and wait until the process has completed.
4. Quit DU and return to the main menu.
Reinstall Lion: Select Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion and click on the Install button.
Note: You will need an active Internet connection. I suggest using Ethernet if possible
            because it is three times faster than wireless.

TS2570 On start up of my new iMac it locks on the grey screen with the apple logo and the progress wheel spins. Boot up in safe and this is where it stopped at "BootCacheControl: Unable to open /var/db/bootcache.playlist: 2 no such file or directory. "

On start up of my new iMac it locks on the grey screen with the apple logo and the progress wheel spins. Boot up in safe and this is where it stopped at "BootCacheControl: Unable to open /var/db/bootcache.playlist: 2 no such file or directory. "

Reinstalling MacOS does NOT fix the problem for me. I'm still searching a solution !
Bernard

Help - while upgrading os all i see is itunes logo and usb cable on screen having tried rebooting

help, while ugrading os all i see is itunes logo and white usb cable. I have tried rebooting and reloading itunes.

See Here...
iPad Unable to Update or Restore
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht4097
Ipad User Guide

Macbook Pro Stuck at Apple Logo and Spinning Wheel

I Have ML. Just did the most recent update. There seemed to be a bundled group of updates. Once all was updated, my computer froze. I shutdown and restarted and it was stuck on the Apple Logo and spinning wheel. I have tried everything. Safe Mode, Command R, Command/Alt/R/P....it does nothing. Any advice out there?

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.

Mac Mini won't boot past Apple logo and spinning wheel

Hello,
I have a Mac mini (late 2009) running 10.8.2. Today, I tried to log into the computer. It accepted my username and password, but then the screen turned gray instead of logging in. I left it like that for about twenty minutes, then gave up on waiting and Ctrl-Command-Power rebooted it. It then wouldn't reboot: it gets to the Apple logo and spinning loading wheel, but won't go past there.
So I went into single-user mode and was able to access the HD fine. I ran a filesystems check using the recommended syntax (/sbin/fsck -fy, I think). It said that the volume looked okay, and that it had been modified. I took this as a good sign (that it had been repaired) and typed "reboot" to restart the machine. I held Command-Shift-V to perform a Verbose Safe Boot.
The computer makes no further progress after the following four lines:
vboxdrv: fAsync=0 offMin0x809 offMax=0x2bc3
VBoxDrv: version 3.2.12 r68302; IOCtl version 0x140001; IDC version 0x10000; dev major=34
VBoxFltDrv: version 3.2.12 r68302
VBoxAdpDrv: version 3.2.12 r68302
I'm assuming all the instances of "vbox" are in reference to Oracle's VirtualBox VM. I do have VirtualBox installed, but haven't used it in a while (months), so I don't see why it's suddenly causing a problem.
To clarify, the computer doesn't "hang" after these lines: I can still type text into the terminal. The entire log is being saved to /dev/console, so I could probably grab it from Single-User Mode if necessary.
Everything else seems to be working properly: even the wl0 drivers are loaded.
Does anyone have any suggestions about how to fix this, or at least disable VirtualBox so the computer can start?
Thanks!
WC

Cult of Mac post:
When the Apple Logo appears your Mac has found a valid system disk, and Mac OS X begins loading.
Apple Logo with Spinning Gear
Once the spinning gear appears the BSD kernel (Darwin) has assumed command and begins loading device drivers. Shortly thereafter it transfers command to the almighty (and controversial) launchd process. Such are the workings of UNIX.
What this means for us mortals is that when a Mac stalls at the Apple logo or the logo with a spinning gear, it probably has a corrupt Mac OS X installation. It may also be having trouble accessing an internal or external hardware component, but this is less-likely.
Rebooting your Mac in Safe Mode can sometimes get things working well-enough that a second, normal reboot then works normally Hold down the Shift key at startup to boot in Safe Mode. DiskWarrior is also worth a shot (this is by far my most used disk utility). If that doesn’t work, an Archive & Install may be needed.
Read more at http://www.cultofmac.com/50685/how-to-fix-common-mac-startup-problems-macrx/#CGI mG3jeGEBtysX1.99

Apple logo and spinning circle only on startup - never loads

I foolishy changed permissions on the whole volume to try and give a new user Read&Write permissions to the whole volume and set it to propagate the new permissions down through the whole volume, and now when I power on my MacBook Pro, I see the Apple logo, a spinning wheel for a few minutes, and then it reboots itself, never loading the OS. I searched these forums and the internet for hours last night. It seems pretty clear from my research that I caused problems by changing permissions.
I can't boot into Safe mode.
I can boot into single user mode.
I can book to the install CD and run Disk Utilities.
I've tried Repair Disk and Repair Permissions from the Disk Utility several times. Verify Disk never finds any problems, but no matter how many times I run the Repair Permissions option, I still get a very long list of "ACL found but not expected on <filenames>. . .]"
I also found countless sites with instructions on running commands in single user mode:
mount -uw /
and then tried all of these suggestions-
chmod 775 /
chmod 1775 /
chmod o+r /
and a host of other variations
I do have BootCamp with Vista installed, and can boot into Vista with no problems, so it would seem the HDD itself is physically fine.
Any suggestions?
Snow Leopard is set to arrive before 3 pm today by FedEx. Would running the Snow Leopard upgrade from the boot CD correct any remaining permission issues when it over-writes what's currently there? If you're not sure, any ideas on how to proceed with fixing the current 10.5.8 installation?
Thanks in advance. I'm at my wits end, and very groggy from fighting this all night
Message was edited by: San Diego Darin

Actually, that wasn't the end of the log. My apologies.
There are quite a few errors.
Examples:
Could not connect to USB mux port 32498 for device 2: Permission denied
Dubious permissions on file (skipping): /Library/LaunchAgents
Dubious permissions on file (skipping): /System/Library/LaunchAgents
Dubious permissions on file (skipping): /etc/machinit_per_loginsession.d
SystemStarter 33: "/Library/StartupItems" failed sanity check: path was created after boot up
SystemStarter 33: "/System/Library/StartupItems" failed sanity check: path was created after boot up

Macbook won't boot past grey screen with Apple logo and spinning wheel.

For some reason, after about 1 year and 10 months of owning my Macbook, it decided this morning not to load past the grey screen with the Apple logo and spinning cog/wheel.
I used it for a couple of hours beforehand, and it was working fine. Software Update prompted me of about about 4 or 5 updates; I can't remember exactly what was downloaded, but I think there was a Security Update and iTunes among them. I restarted, left it to install with no errors, but when I logged in, Safari and iTunes were running incredibly slowly. I also noticed that the volume keys weren't responding, as well as the power key to bring up the "Sleep, Restart, Shutdown, etc" dialog box. I forced shutdown, hoping a restart would solve my problem, and that's when my troubles started. I originally just left it, but after about an hour the wretched thing was still spinning.
So far, I have done a number of troubleshooting tips on a variety of websites. I have tried taking the battery out and holding down power for 5 seconds, resetting the PRAM with option, cmd, p & r, and holding down power until the sleep light flashes rapidly and the computer lets out a large "BOOOP".
I have booted off my Leopard install disk with both option and c, repaired the hard drive a number of times, with there being no errors whatsoever. I have tried repairing permissions, but everything seems to freeze up, except the mouse.
For some reason my computer will not boot into safe mode, either, and holding cmd & s at startup doesn't get me to the stage where I can enter commands with the keyboard.
Unfortunately, because of my puny 60GB hard drive, I only have 1GB of free space left and cannot reinstall Leopard without wiping my hard drive.
I would greatly appreciate it if anyone could assist me with this unfortunate dilemma. It's such a shame that my computer has been fantastic for so long and now decides to play up. (Maybe it's just Apple trying to get me to buy a new 2.4Ghz aluminium Macbook sooner than I was planning...)
Thanks very much.

Hi ds,
Sorry to hear you're having such trouble!
Unfortunately, the best thing you can do at this point is reinstall Leopard (and then attempt to install the combo updater, too). If you don't have a backup of your machine, you could boot it into Target Disk Mode (by holding down T at startup) and then attach it via FireWire to another computer to salvage your files.
I recently had to repair a machine with this exact same problem, and after messing around with that for several hours, I'd have to say that I think that an Erase and Install is the way to go. If you then migrate over your user data and start having troubles, you at least know where the problem lies. I suspect, though, that having a clean machine with all of the new updates applied will be the end of the issue.
Sorry to be the bearer of bad news. There are a few other things you could try first; you could, for example, manually download the relevant combo updater from Apple's website and attempt to install it to your damaged machine while it's in Target Disk Mode. If you have a copy of Disk Warrior, that too is certainly worth a shot (and in some cases may be the saving grace). In my experience, though, a failure of this magnitude isn't easy to resolve.
Hope that helps.
—Hazy

Imac wont boot, stuck loading, all i see is apple logo and spinning cycle

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