Intel iMac will not boot past gray screen

Intel iMac will not boot past gray screen
my system:
new (month old) 24" intel imac, 2.8 ghz, 4 gb ram.
running: leopard (upgraded from tiger, which was pre-installed at purchase), installed 10.5.1 update right before this huge problem occurred.
install discs on-hand: two-disc tiget set, single leopard upgrade disc.
what led to this:
i wanted to install windows using bootcamp on a 50 gb partition.
at this point i was running leopard 10.5
i followed all bootcamp instructions, printing out the guide, as well. once i got into the windows setup, i was prompted to choose a partition to install windows. unlike the bootcamp guide, which showed three partitions, one clearly labeled "bootcamp", i saw only one partition. not wanting to risk writing over my mac partition, i quit the setup and rebooted the mac os. after some googling around, i looked for firmware updates (didn't need any), and then software updates. i decided to try updating to 10.5.1.
i then ran through boot camp again, deleting my previous windows partition, creating a new one, and moving forward as before. once again, i was only shown one partition to choose from in the windows setup. i exited the setup again to reboot through the mac os, but this time, i was only given a blank gray screen.
here's what i have tried so far:
booting from a CD, holding down the C or D keys: no response (in fact, i have to restart the computer holding down the mouse button to be able to eject the CD)
booting with option key held down: gray screen
booting with option key held down with external bootable firewire drive attached: the firewire drive appears as a boot icon, and i can click on it within a five second window, but then the screen freezes after that time period, and nothing changes
booting into target mode while attached to another mac: gray screen (no firewire icon, and drive never shows up on other mac)
resetting NVRAM: i'm able to hear the boot chimes, but no difference in performance. gray screen every time
Safe boot: nothing but a gray screen
Verbose mode: gray screen
Single user mode: gray screen
Single user mode with firewire drive attached: occasionally (not every time), i am able to get the white on black terminal to show up. from here, i'm able to run fsck, but it appears to only be checking the firewire drive. i have tried several times to boot from here, and once it took me to a blue screen with movable arrow cursor, but it never went beyond this.
is there anything else left to try before taking it to apple?
any help would be greatly appreciated.
thanks,
Casey Burns
Casey Burns Illustration and Design
http://CaseyBurns.com

I'd call Apple support at this point. You'll need
to put this issue on the record.
Call U.S. iPod and Mac technical support: 1-800-APL-CARE (1-800-275-2273)
The wait may be long for an agent to come on the line
so expect that and have some other stuff to do in the meantime.
If you have the applecare protection plan, I'd ask about "onsite"
service.
I like your work ! Good luck !
Slim
Message was edited by: slimpikkunz

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IMac Does not boot past Gray Screen

iMac does not boot past Gray Screen. 2008 24" Intel iMac running Mountain Lion with 1TB hard drive.
Problem started yesterday while I was web surfing, and my iMac frooze and shutdown. I rebooted and could only get as far as the gray screen.
On bootup the following things happen:
Startup tone
Gray screen with Apple, and gear spins below Apple.
Once the gear stops spinning, nothing happends.
Troubleshooting steps I have tried:
removed all devices connected to iMac and rebooted, but same symptons occur.
booted into Safe mode and run disk utilites.
     Disk Utilities found no errors on the drive, but did find two permission issues that it was able to fix.
          First permission issue:
                   "Group differs on library; Should be 0; group is 80"
          Second permission issue:
                    "Permissons differ on library; Should be drwxr-xr-x; They are drwxrwxr-t"
Disk Utilities says it fixes these issues and then I reboot, but get the same problem.
I reboot back into Safe Mode and run Disk Utilities and it discovers the same problems listed above with Permissions. It says it fixes them, I reboot, but the same problem occurs. Its as if we are stuck in some sort of loop process.
Booted into Single User Mode and ran the following command:
     /SBin/fsck -fy   it reports back, Volume Apprears to be ok.
I reboot, same issue !
Performed SMC Reset, Rebooted, same issue
Performed PRAM Reset, Rebooted, same issue.
Booted into Recovery Partitioin (Command R) and ran disk utilities. It found the same permission issues listed above. It fixed them. I rebooted. Same problem still.
While in safe mode, I preformed a full time machine backup.
I am out of ideas. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Hello,
I reboot back into Safe Mode and run Disk Utilities and it discovers the same problems listed above with Permissions.
You can ignore repeated "fixes" it's not really a problem, if it says completed repairs that's all that's needed.
Luckily it boots in Safe Mode, here's basically the steps to try to find out what it is...
One way to test is to Safe Boot from the HD, (holding Shift key down at bootup), run Disk Utility in Applications>Utilities, then highlight your drive, click on Repair Permissions, Test for problem in Safe Mode...
PS. Safe boot may stay on the gray radian for a long time, let it go, it's trying to repair the Hard Drive
Reboot, test again.
If it only does it in Regular Boot, then it could be some hardware problem like Video card, (Quartz is turned off in Safe Mode), or Airport, or some USB or Firewire device, or 3rd party add-on, Check System Preferences>Accounts>Login Items window to see if it or something relevant is listed.
Check the System Preferences>Other Row, for 3rd party Pref Panes.
Also look in these if they exist, some are invisible...
/private/var/run/StartupItems
/Library/StartupItems
/System/Library/StartupItems
/System/Library/LaunchDaemons
/Library/LaunchDaemons
Though I'm suspecting some corruption to your OS at the moment.

IMac G5 will not boot past gray screen

After successfully upgrading from Tiger to Leopard my computer won't get past the gray screen and the turning circle. How do I get my computer to turn on? Can anyone help!!!!!!

One more solution. The older base iMacs came with 256MB of RAM. Leopard requires a minimum of 512 MB to boot. Check how much RAM you have, and get at least 512MB more. It's cheap at Crucial or Kingston sites. Don't buy cheap RAM, it will give you headaches.

My iMac will not boot past the logo and spinning gear

My iMac will not boot past the logo and spinning gear (After a Rogue Amoeba update). I can't access the recovery disk I made on a flash drive. (Am I doing it correctly? - Hold down option while switching on? It just stays on the logo). What (if anything) can I do please?

If you installed Lion onto your machine, it should have created a Recovery HD (hidden from view, but visible in Disk Utility with its Debug menu enabled, under Show all Partitions).
That article states:
Note: In order to create an external Lion Recovery using the Lion Recovery Assistant, the Mac must have an existing Recovery HD.
Would I see the recovery menu (by holding down option on power up)
Yes.
if there was no recovery disc connected do you think?
Shouldn't matter, since your int HD is always connected.

Imac will not boot past Apple Logo

My imac will not boot after the good chime and apple logo (i don't even get a spinning wheel). I have held the option key down and selected the OS 10.6 disk with the same result. I was able to erase the drive and reinstall OS 10.6 using target mode and another computer. In target mode I can boot the other computer from the IMac HD but not the IMac. Have also tried holding the shift key and booting into safe mode with the same result. Additional note: I reset the PRAM and the SMU. At first on PRAM reset it would take 45 seconds for the machine to chime again, after OS reinstall and SMU reset, PRAM reset chimes within 10 seconds.... any help would be appreciated...

Kind of late but your solution helped me remember what once worked for me, a few years back.
Started iMAC in Target mode Used a firewire cable to a MacBook Pro
Started the Macbook Pro using the option Key and then restarted with the iMac as the Hard drive
Then I updated to 10.6.8 and allof the other updates.
shut down and rebooted and everything was fine.
But first I did quite a few other things before the update such as
It all started with a DiskWarrior finding overlapped files, I have been around the block a time or two so after it found three overlapped files, I shut down diskwarrior started up disk utility did a restore of the messed up drive to another external drive,
of course this copied overlapped files and all to the new external drive It took 24 huors or so, to back up the drive once it was done, I also tried a few times to correct the overlapped files to no avail,
so then I started the iMac up in target mode used the MacBook to format and erase the original drive, used the 10.6.3 DVD installer to install onto the hard drive, using the macBook DVD. After I was finished with the install to the iMAC,,,,,,,,,,this is where I got the three beeps like bad ram So idid the PRAM and SMC to no avail.
The operating system was evidently not new enough so once I did what i said at the begining of this post all went well.
Sometimes It is tough to remember some of the stuff that you learned several years ago.
and tired hard to forget.
I hoped this post does not scare away to many people, I was just about done with this computer until I read your post, one of several dozen, and it all came back to me.
Thanks a Bunch
I hope this can help others
themacprofessor

Intel IMac will not boot OSX Tiger

Hi guys, I just wanted to let you know that I am reading and trying to do my home work on why my Intel I-Mac will not boot. It all started after running Windows Vista using Apple Boot Camp. I just wanted to list a few things I have tried after getting replies from posting in some other forums. I will try here since a few people are having similar issues. Any tips would be appreciated. Please no flames
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2. Holding down D button upon startup will run Apple Hardware test just fine, but no errors found.
3. I can press Option-Command-P-R to reset NVRAM successfully.
4. I can press Option during startup to start the Startup Manager. I can see my Macintosh Hard Drive and CD-ROM, but get a panic alert if I click on either icon. I’m not sure what happened with the Windows Vista hard drive Icon.
5. I can press N during startup to start up from a compatible network server. I see a flashing globe and then a panic alert. Not sure what this function is for.
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10. Pressing Option-N during startup to start from a NetBoot server using the default boot image gives me the flashing globe icon again, and then hangs.
11. I tried resetting the System Management Unit thanks to the Unix forum guys, but still have the same problems.
12. My next step is to find a Mac friend to burn the Firmware Restoration CD file I downloaded thanks to Michael from the Unix forum. If that does not work I will try whatever you ask.
13. I can boot my I-Mac using a Linux Live CD called Slax and surf the net and play with the software. It runs just great; I just don’t think this 200MB version has the capabilities to format the hard drive or Install to hard disk like Fedora Live does. By the way, the Fedora Live version of Linux hangs after booting from the CD. It boots just fine on my PC.

Greetings,
Somehow or other you will need to be able to boot to the Installation Disk #1 that came with your computer - as you know they are specific to each machine model. After a successful boot to that disk, you can use Disk Utility to remove all of the partitions, wipe that puppy clean, then repartition and make sure you use the GUID partition scheme - you really only need the Bootcamp Assistant if you have multiple drives, internally, and since you have an iMac, your good to go.
When you booted to your Linux disk, could you see the internal hard disk? If so you should be able to open one or two of the folders just to be sure that the disk is OK.
A worst case scenario would be to have to install a fresh hard drive. Do you have any way of borrowing another install DVD for that model to try to get it to boot? That's the key to this whole project.
Try this - Go back into single user mode and issue these two commands in this order:
/sbin/fsck -fy
/sbin/mount -uw /
Watch the spaces and then issue a "reboot" at the prompt.
During this, the fans will likely come on at a high speed and may stay on for a while and maybe until you do a shutdown and reboot.
I hope this helps a little, and once you get the machine booting to the Installation Disk #1, again, you'll be all set.
You don't say, but is this unit under warranty - I know it may be a stupid question on my part, but if it is, give them (Apple) a call and get some advice on the waranty actions.
Good Luck my friend.
Cheers,
M.

Will not boot past blue screen

The present status is that my ibook g4 will no boot past the spinning wheel screen which hangs for a few minutes and then goes to the "Mac OS X" screen with the progress bar.
My first goal is to back up all of the data. I have a second IMac. Plus, I just purchased an external 500 gig hard drive just prior to when the error started. FYI the error started when I was going through the install process of the backup program supplied with the external hard drive. The program just asked me to restart the computer and that is where we are now.
The second goal of course is to fix the start-up issue. I have tried a number of the suggestions in previous posts including the following the install disk utilities to repair the disk.

I am having the exact same problem. I was just surfing the Internet this weekend and it completely froze and now it won't boot up. I no longer get a grey screen, at boot up, it goes from black to blue and then it hangs at the blue screen.
I have a TimeMachine and a Retrospect back up of my data but I can't boot to the Leopard Install CD which would let me restore my data.
I have tried just about everything, including booting in firewire target disk mode and connected to my old clamshell iBook G3. I was able to access my files, and I even reinstalled Tiger (couldn't use Leopard because it's not compatible with the G3). So there is a fresh copy of 10.4 running on my iBook G4 but it still will not boot up on its own.
No idea what to do at this point, but I would suggest not reformatting as it really didn't seem to help.

Mac will not boot past Grey Screen

Hello;
My 2007 iMac won't boot past the grey screen, not even with the Apple logo in the centre of the screen. I've tried booting into the Boot Manager, tried using the recovery partition, tried booting from an external USB and FireWire drive, reset the NVRAM, reset the SMC, tried booting with a DIskWarrior boot disk (can't even eject the disk now... i've tried holding onto the mouse to force eject), changed the RAM back to the original...
Anyone else have any suggestions? I can't really figure it out and i need this machine up and running. I appreciate the help!

Please make a Genius Appointment and take it in for service.

10.5.8 Both hard drives OK, tested - will not boot past startup screen

Okay, I have an early 2008 MacPro, and everything has been running fine, but I was trying to search for something in Finder, and it wouldn't show up, so I checked my other hard drive's permission options - it displayed "Custom" for all users, when I know I had them all set to "Read & Write" previously, so i changed my main user's (on my newer HD on 10.5.8) permission to Read & Write on the original HD with 10.6.8, so I could search its contents, then these error messages poppped up, everytime i hit OK, a new one popped up immediately in its place, with some "Apple AUD" OR "HD" messages (can't remember the exact messsages), so I restarted my computer and now I cannot get past the apple logo screen.
- Attempted selecting both hard drives as startup discs and still hangs at the white apple logo screen.
- I tried booting into Safe Mode and it loads the status bar, and when it's done loading, it simply goes back to the spinning gear.
- Tried booting from my 10.5.8 installation disc and it works, both of my HD's tested "OK" when I verified them.
- Tried resetting PRAM, and even reset SMC, and the problem persists.
One last note: the original HD that came with my Mac Pro, which has 10.6.8 on it as of last year, has a tiny lock icon on the left of the little hard drive graphic.
I'm stressed because I use LOGIC a lot, and I have all of my music projects on these hard drives, and over a million files between both of them. I'd pull my hair out, if I hadn't just shaved my head for summer
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Your hard drives may be OK, but the installed systems are not. You need to reinstall OS X on your startup volume. Doing this with Leopard requires your Leopard DVD:
How to Perform an Archive and Install
An Archive and Install will NOT erase your hard drive, but you must have sufficient free space for a second OS X installation which could be from 3-9 GBs depending upon the version of OS X and selected installation options. The free space requirement is over and above normal free space requirements which should be at least 6-10 GBs. Read all the linked references carefully before proceeding.
1. Be sure to use Disk Utility first to repair the disk before performing the Archive and Install.
Repairing the Hard Drive and Permissions
Boot from your OS X Installer disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Installer menu (Utilities menu for Tiger, Leopard or Snow Leopard.) 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 installer. Now restart normally.
If DU reports errors it cannot fix, then you will need Disk Warrior and/or Tech Tool Pro to repair the drive. If you don't have either of them or if neither of them can fix the drive, then you will need to reformat the drive and reinstall OS X.
2. Do not proceed with an Archive and Install if DU reports errors it cannot fix. In that case use Disk Warrior and/or TechTool Pro to repair the hard drive. If neither can repair the drive, then you will have to erase the drive and reinstall from scratch.
3. Boot from your OS X Installer disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When you reach the screen to select a destination drive click once on the destination drive then click on the Option button. Select the Archive and Install option. You have an option to preserve users and network preferences. Only select this option if you are sure you have no corrupted files in your user accounts. Otherwise leave this option unchecked. Click on the OK button and continue with the OS X Installation.
4. Upon completion of the Archive and Install you will have a Previous System Folder in the root directory. You should retain the PSF until you are sure you do not need to manually transfer any items from the PSF to your newly installed system.
5. After moving any items you want to keep from the PSF you should delete it. You can back it up if you prefer, but you must delete it from the hard drive.
6. You can now download a Combo Updater directly from Apple's download site to update your new system to the desired version as well as install any security or other updates. You can also do this using Software Update.

Will not boot - Blank Gray Screen - Help!

I was trying to use Boot Camp to partition my new iMac to allow a small several Windows Applications. Followed (I think) online instructions including reformatting. When it looked like it was repeating the "formatting" I hit cancel figuring I would stop the partitioning and get advice......result was iMac shut down and now when I start I get the chime and a plane gray screen with no option to access or reboot. I tried PRAM (opions-control PR) and that did not get results......not sure what else to try.

Timetraveller wrote:
Hi Again Nerowolf and thanks for your help and patience.......sorry don't know the John Titor you mentioned.
Google "John Totor"
But I did try the DVD and holding down "C" while rebooting and while there was some hopful clicking no result. Do you have other suggestions.......am wondering if a trip back to the store might be a good move!
I suspect a hardware problem. Back to the store sounds like the appropriate thing to do.
Booting from a DVD has very little to do with the computer OS.
But first - do this, Sometimes it does miraculous things:
■ Shut down your computer. Turn the computer back on and immediately hold down Command-Option-P-R, continuing to press until you hear the startup sound for the second time. This resets the computer’s parameter random-access memory (PRAM).
IMPORTANT: Resetting PRAM may change some system settings and preferences. Use System Preferences to restore your settings.
■ If resetting PRAM doesn’t solve the problem, reset non-volatile random access memory (NVRAM). When the “To continue booting ...” message appears, type “reset-nvram” and press Return. Then type “reset-all” and press Return.
Post back the results.

IMac will not boot up/purple screen

Hello people,
We've got a newer 27" iMac bought in 2010. Anyhow, yesterday we experienced a power outage. We installed a surge protector on the house but it didn't do our iMac any good. The iMac will cut on but goes to a purple screen only showing the speechless box. We can't get it to do anything else besides moving the courser. Does anyone any ideas as to what is going on and how to correct it?
Thanks in advance for and help or advice,
Ray

Look in your owners manual, it has instructions on what to do if your machine doesn't boot.

IMac Will not boot up grey screen, apple, and spinning wheel

Help. Tax time is a good time for this.

The following support article is somewhat outdated. Where it refers to booting from an installation disc, you should boot from your recovery partition (if running 10.7 or later) by holding down the key combination command-R at the chime.
Mac OS X: Gray screen appears during startup

Will not boot past Grey Screen of Death

I was using Safari. Got the spinning beachball. Then it quit, followed by Text Edit, and Quicktime player which were running in the backround.
I was able to restart through the Apple menu, and got the Grey Screen of Death(GSoD), with the apple, and no spinning gear.
I had to shut it down using the power button and restarted holding Command-S so that I could run fsck in the Command Line, but it wouldnt go to the command line and all I got was the GSoD.
So, I started the computer from an external firewire drive, (using the option button on startup, which worked), and it booted fine and mounted my internal drive. (All my files appear to be there and are accessible. The good News...)
I ran disk utility, and it said that the internal drive was fine, no repairs needed.
I shut it down,unplugged the power cord and battery, reset the PMU, restarted, zapped the pram, and let it try to load, only to get the GSoD.
Then I booted from the firewire again, ran Techtool Pro (TTP), everything passed. I rebuilt the directory using TTP, restarted and still got the ole GSoD.
Telephone Tech Support made me use the Install disk to restart, and run disk utility, (no problems), and upon rebooting still the GSoD. They said I could take it to the Apple store, or run an archive and install.
I can't do an archive and install, (from home), because my original disk was Panther, and I can't find it, and my Tiger disk is only an upgrade disk. I don't want to do this anyway, and my last resort would be to clone my firewire disk back to my laptop, which I also do not want to do if I don't have to.
I was considering buying Diskwarrior (DW). It used to do miracles for me with OS9, but that was always when the drive wouldn't mount. I don't know how DW does with the ole GSoD, and a disk that mounts, or whether it can be reccomended to deal in this situation.
Any help would be appreciated, as well as anyone who cannot help, but can tell me what is wrong when the computer can't get past the GSoD.
Thanks in advance.
Powerbook G4 1.67mhz 1gb RAM Mac OS X (10.4.8)

I wanted to add to my post that I have no third party hardware attached, (RAM, etc.), and disconnected all peripheral devices, only connecting the firewire external to boot the thing.
I also made no recent software installations. The last was the 10.4.8 update on 11/22.
Austin
I looked at that article for <10.3.9
The closest symptom was the blank grey screen. Though it did not mention the addition of the apple like my case. It suggests disk utility, and PMU reset, which I did and didn't help.
I looked at some of the other symptoms fixes for the blue-screen, -OS9 is not installed on the computer, and single user and safe modes also don't work.
I have an appointment at the Apple Store for this afternoon. I have the AppleCare protection plan. What in your opinion can they do, that telephone tech support couldn't suggest, besides performing the archive and install, that I can't do at home, and don't want to do anyway?
Also, seeing as the internal drive does mount, and I can access the data, why do you think that DW might fix it? I know they have a proprietary method, but I did replace the directory with TTP.
DW did perform miracles for me in the past, but then only when the disk wouldn't mount.
Right now my plan is to see the Genius this afternoon, if he's got nothing new to offer, I can buy DW rev 39 at the Apple Store, and run it there.
I guess barring any other advice, if you feel that DW can do the trick, I could buy it before seeing the Genius, and if it works, cancel my appointment.<br>
Powerbook G4 1.67mhz 1gb RAM Mac OS X (10.4.8)

IPad will not boot past logo screen. Any suggestions?

Purchased a used iPad yesterday that was booting up successfully. Brought it home and connected it to my mac using iTunes 10.4 and selected the option to restore to factory settings and update iPad software to the latest available.
Ever since I have done that, I can't get it past the initial black screen with the Apple logo. I have to hard boot it to power off and have restored it multiple times but still get nothing.
Any advice is greatly appreciated.
iPad 1st gen
16GB
3G (no service activated right now)
iOS 4.3.5

That would be my assumption as well on the sim card. I don't know exactly how old the iPad is - but you can enter the serial number on one of these sites and you can find out if it is still under warranty. If so, you at least have that to fall back on. The serial number should be printed on the box and it is printed on the back of the device as well.
https://selfsolve.apple.com/agreementWarrantyDynamic.do
https://selfsolve.apple.com/GetWarranty.do
http://www.apple.com/support/contact/
One other thought - you had activated the iPad and you did use it successfully for a period of time? ....just to be sure ...
Message was edited by: Demo

B500 0887-1FU Will not boot past logo screen

I get the Lenovo logo, the "Press Enter to bypass normal startup" message and that's it. The fans run at full tilt and I can hear the hard drive spinning, but no activity. I can turn the light below the screen on and off, but nothing else. I have disconnected everything, swapped memory cards and pulled the CMOS battery. Incidentally, the fans did go to normal speed after a second or 2 before I pulled the CMOS battery, but after that they stay on high all the time. I can still power down by holding the power button for a few seconds. Doen anyone have any suggestions on what to try next? This system is just ocer 2 years old and shouldn't be dead yet. I know that's ancient in PC years, but still...

That would be my assumption as well on the sim card. I don't know exactly how old the iPad is - but you can enter the serial number on one of these sites and you can find out if it is still under warranty. If so, you at least have that to fall back on. The serial number should be printed on the box and it is printed on the back of the device as well.
https://selfsolve.apple.com/agreementWarrantyDynamic.do
https://selfsolve.apple.com/GetWarranty.do
http://www.apple.com/support/contact/
One other thought - you had activated the iPad and you did use it successfully for a period of time? ....just to be sure ...
Message was edited by: Demo

Intel iMac will not boot past gray screen

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