Mac starts up but won't get past the blue screen and the rainbow wheel

I had this problem before a couple of years ago. The hard drive had to be replaced. Now I'm just trying to start it up so I can back up data. I reinstalled OS 10.4 last week, it started OK a couple of times. Now it won't go to the log-in screen again.
I know I can reinstall OS 10 again but isn't there a command key I can hold down while it's starting up that will let me log in?
Also it makes that long BEEP sound when I start it up. What does that mean?
Finally, I do not have an emergency troubleshooting guide. I don't think I ever had one. Can I download a .pdf of that somewhere?

Hi spiffyhere, and a warm welcome to the forums!
I know I can reinstall OS 10 again but isn't there a command key I can hold down while it's starting up that will let me log in?
Possibly...
Mac OS X: What is Safe Boot, Safe Mode...
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1564
PS. Safe boot may stay on the gray radian for a long time, let it go, it's trying to repair the Hard Drive.
Option key on bootup will show which devices you can boot from.
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
Also it makes that long BEEP sound when I start it up. What does that mean?
Bad sign, and likely the source of the problem...
How many beeps?
Beep_Codes">https://mediawiki.middlebury.edu/wiki/LIS/AppleComputer_BeepCodes
The Beeps may be a Hardware problem, see if this helps...
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1547

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IMac makes a loud beep on start up, won't load past the blue screen and the black ticking dial appears every few seconds in centre of screen.

Urgent help!
Out of the blue my mac lost the mouse cursor even though it had connection so I rebooted only for the mac to make a loud beep on start up then get stuck at the blue loading screen. It won't load past the blue screen. I've tried to reboot holding down the shift key but no change. I've also shut down, unplugged the main for 15 seconds, re plug and wait 5 seconds before starting up again but no change. Does anyone have any suggestions?
PS: I'm not too sure which systems I am running without being able to check in about this mac. I bought my imac in January or February 2011 if that helps.

The power on self-test resides in the ROM of the computer. This test runs whenever the computer is turned on after being fully shut down (the power-on self-test does not run if the computer is only restarted).
If a fault is detected during the test, you will not hear a normal startup chime. Instead, the system will beep as explained below. If you experience one of these beeps, you may call your Apple Authorized Service Provider for additional troubleshooting assistance.
1 beep = no RAM installed
2 beeps = incompatible RAM types
3 beeps = no good banks
4 beeps = no good boot images in the boot ROM (and/or bad sys config block)
5 beeps = processor is not usable
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1547

Safe Boot OK -- but can't get past grey/blue screen

Hello,
Macbook Pro - early 2010. HAs been working flawlessly but today, screen turned "static" and then on re-start Macbook hangs on a gray or blue screen after the spinning startup wheel. I can boot int safe mode fine. I get the same results trying to boot from two different external bootable backups (hangs at blue screen in full mode - boots fine in safe mode).
Have tried: SMC reset, NVRAM reset, permission repair, disk repair (via disk utility in safe mode). No joy. I have a commercial version of Snow Leopard which lets me perform a hardware test on the Macbook: "no apparent hardware problems found".
Unfortunately, I cannot locate the original OS disks, so I have not been able to test whether it would boot from those.
Any suggestions as to what I could try next? I could do an erase and re-install from one of the backup disks (but not the original system disk). Is that likely to succeed if those backups don't work externally?
Any help appreciated!

Clinton,
you say:
"You can call Apple and, with your serial number handy, order a set of the machine-specific discs that shipped with your model. Cost is about $20 + shipping & taxes."
Do you know a phone number for this? I have called Apple tech support and the first tech claimed that Apple does not sell disks - his supervisor told me that he will sell me a disk but I have to pay $150 charge for consierge service first becasue the Macbook is out of warranty! Seems ridiculous to pay $170+ for a disk when I don;t even know it will solve my problem!
Is there any other way to get my hands on a disk?

My MacBook pro is less then a year old and when I try to shut it down it gives me the blue screen and the loading spinner but the doesn't do anything or shut down. I've already tried to reinstall Mac os x but that didn't work any ideas?

It stays on the blue screen forever until I manually shut it down

Cooper, please start a new thread. You'll get a wider audience and won't confuse Quintonaturner with issues that don't pertain to them. You don't know they have Office. Many Mac users don't. http://www.neooffice.org is a nice alternative, and so is http://docs.google.com/ as long as you don't have Exchange servers that aren't Mac OS X Mail compatible.

Powerbook will turn on but won't get past grey apple screen

My powerbook will turn on but it will never get to the operating system screen where you enter a password. I don't know what to do and sometimes it will get to the all blue screen but not past that... Any help would be greatly appreciated. Also, is there anyway to get my files off of the laptop regardless? There are 3 weeks until my final exams and I have all my notes on my laptop. Any help is greatly appreciated.

If you can boot off the installation DVD, then your computer's fine, and there is something broken with the system software.
You could try re-installing Mac OS X (not a clean install, or an erase-and-install, but just an upgrade of the existing OS), but that may lead to having your apps broken, which may be more work for you.
Another thing to try is to hold the Shift key down whilst you are booting into the login screen. Doing this will disable the startup of some system extensions and daemons (StartupItems), which may get you going. However, if you can go to the login screen without too much trouble, try logging in with the Shift key down. That will stop Mac OS X from starting up items in your "Login Items" list in the Accounts system preferences.
This is the most useful tips I can offer short of re-installing Mac OS X on your computer.
Cheers!
--tonza

Start up problem-can't get past Apple grey screen and spinning gear

Upon trying to start up my laptop, got nothing but the apple logo, grey screen and spinning gear. I tried several things to resolve the problem on my own (hardware test said it could not verify the disk/could not start up from the OS X install disk/reset the power mgmt. unit/disconnected all peripherals)and finally went to the Apple store. Genius bar said they were able to start up from their hard drive and suggested that I buy an external hard drive, go home, start up again and back up all files. I bought a My Book. Got home and same thing happened: Apple logo and spinning gear. I am an Apple user of 18 years, but have not had to do much in the way of diagnostics. Have tried fsck routine today that I found on another posting here today. If the Genius guy got it going, I assumed that I could too. I was wrong. Any advice would be appreciated. It looks like this is the end of the road for my Powerbook, but I'd like a shot at recovering data.
Message was edited by: Debbie Wach

Hi Debbie/Gregg -
I may have missed something but can't you just put a new hard drive in your laptops? You may not be able to recover your data but it doesn't mean the end for your computer. The same thing happened to my TiBook and I put a new 120Gig hard drive in and it's had a new lease of life.
I bought a new internal hard drive along with an external enclosure and connected it up to my computer and from there cloned it. Then I transferred the external into the TiBook and put the old drive into the external and I use that as an external now. I realise your hard drives are dead but you could use another computer to so the same thing and just install the OS on it.
I bought this -
http://www.macupgrades.co.uk/store/productinfo.php?productsid=452
Then followed the instructions here -
http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Mac/PowerBook-G4-Ti-DVI/HD-Replacement/33/6/
Once your new hard drive is installed you may be able to try and repair the old one in the external enclosure?

Help my computer won't get past hp blue screen!

My computer is an hp p7-1019 and it won't go past the blue hp screen. I recently enabled intel vt-x on my computer and it rebooted by it self and it is stuck on the blue hp screen.

I cleared the CMOS (BIOS settings) according to:
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/Document.jsp?objectID=c02854392&lang=en&cc=us&taskI...
and the system recovered. Obviously, this may have also cleared other BIOS settings, but for the moment the system is running fine. Please pay special attention to the warnings that no jumpers should be changed while the system is powered on and that the power cord should also be removed for this.

MacBook Pro, 2012, can't get past boot up screen and the progress bar never fills.

Any thoughts on why or a different command that I can try while powering up?
I press the power button, and it dings per usual. Then the first gray screen pops up and it starts spinning. Then a progress bar appears. It fills about a quarter of the way, and then the screen goes black and the computer shuts down.
Any thoughts on why this might be happening and anything I can try to help boot it back up would be great. Thanks!

Then a progress bar appears.
The progress Bar appears when your Boot drive will not mount. It runs a task similar to Disk Utility (Repair disk) and shows you the progress. It is normal for the bar to only fill less than a third of the way.
If your Mac then shuts down, this is because the Repairs could not be completed. Your Boot Drive (either the mechanism or the contents) is in trouble.
Try booting to Recovery Mode, and attempt to make the repairs form there.
If no joy, buy a drive that could replace your Internal drive, and an enclosure to place it in while you Install a new copy of Mac OS X form fundamental sources. Making a complete copy of a drive you know to be damaged is not generally helpful, but may be needed later if you do not have a Backup.
The advice to erase your drive should be ignored. It was invented long ago, when drives cost US$1000, and the prize was getting the drive mechanism working again.

My macbook pro won't start up. I get the white screen and the grey apple icon   the spinning wheel......and it doesn't change !

My macbook pro won't start up. I get the white screen and the grey apple icon   the spinning wheel......and it doesn't change !

Take each of these steps that you haven't already tried. Stop when the problem is resolved.
To restart an unresponsive computer, press and hold the power button for a few seconds until the power shuts off, then release, wait a few more seconds, and press it again briefly.
Step 1
The first step in dealing with a startup failure is to secure the 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 the last backup, you can skip this step.
There are several ways to back up a Mac that is unable to start. You need an external hard drive to hold the backup data.
a. Start up from the Recovery partition, or from a local Time Machine backup volume (option key at startup.) When the OS X Utilities screen appears, launch Disk Utility and follow the instructions in this support article, under “Instructions for backing up to an external hard disk via Disk Utility.” The article refers to starting up from a DVD, but the procedure in Recovery mode is the same. You don't need a DVD if you're running OS X 10.7 or later.
b. If Step 1a fails because of disk errors, and no other Mac is available, then you may be able to salvage some of your files by copying them in the Finder. If you already have an external drive with OS X installed, start up from it. Otherwise, if you have Internet access, follow the instructions on this page to prepare the external drive and install OS X on it. You'll use the Recovery installer, rather than downloading it from the App Store.
c. If you have access to a working Mac, and both it and the non-working Mac have FireWire or Thunderbolt ports, start the non-working Mac in target disk mode. Use the working Mac to copy the data to another drive. This technique won't work with USB, Ethernet, Wi-Fi, or Bluetooth.
d. 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
If the startup process stops at a blank gray screen with no Apple logo or spinning "daisy wheel," then the startup volume may be full. If you had previously seen warnings of low disk space, this is almost certainly the case. You might be able to start up in safe mode even though you can't start up normally. Otherwise, start up from an external drive, or else use the technique in Step 1b, 1c, or 1d to mount the internal drive and delete some files. According to Apple documentation, you need at least 9 GB of available space on the startup volume (as shown in the Finder Info window) for normal operation.
Step 3
Sometimes a startup failure can be resolved by resetting the NVRAM.
Step 4
If a desktop Mac hangs at a plain gray screen with a movable cursor, the keyboard may not be recognized. Press and hold the button on the side of an Apple wireless keyboard to make it discoverable. If need be, replace or recharge the batteries. If you're using a USB keyboard connected to a hub, connect it to a built-in port.
Step 5
If there's a built-in optical drive, a disc may be stuck in it. Follow these instructions to eject it.
Step 6
Press and hold the power button until the power shuts off. Disconnect all wired peripherals except those needed to start up, and remove all aftermarket expansion cards. Use a different keyboard and/or mouse, if those devices are wired. If you can start up 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.
Step 7
If you've started from an external storage device, make sure that the internal startup volume is selected in the Startup Disk pane of System Preferences.
Start up in safe mode. Note: If FileVault is enabled in OS X 10.9 or earlier, or if a firmware password is set, or if the startup volume is a software RAID, you can’t do this. Post for further instructions.
Safe mode is much slower to start 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 the login password in order to log in. If you’ve forgotten the password, you will need to reset it before you begin.
When you start up 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, the startup volume is corrupt and the drive is probably malfunctioning. In that case, go to Step 11. If you ever have another problem with the drive, replace it immediately.
If you can start and log in in safe mode, empty the Trash, and then open the Finder Info window on the startup 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 restart as usual (i.e., not in safe mode.)
If the startup process hangs again, the problem is likely caused by a third-party system modification that you installed. Post for further instructions.
Step 8
Launch Disk Utility in Recovery mode (see Step 1.) Select the 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 may produce. Look for the line "Permissions repair complete" at the end of the output. Then restart as usual.
Step 9
If the startup device is an aftermarket SSD, it may need a firmware update and/or a forced "garbage collection." Instructions for doing this with a Crucial-branded SSD were posted here. Some of those instructions may apply to other brands of SSD, but you should check with the vendor's tech support.
Step 10
Reinstall the OS. If the Mac was upgraded from an older version of OS X, you’ll need the Apple ID and password you used to upgrade.
Step 11
Do as in Step 9, but this time erase the startup volume in Disk Utility before installing. The system should automatically restart into the Setup Assistant. Follow the prompts to transfer the data from a Time Machine or other backup.
Step 12
This step applies only to models that have a logic-board ("PRAM") battery: all Mac Pro's and some others (not current models.) Both desktop and portable Macs used to have such a battery. The logic-board battery, if there is one, is separate from the main battery of a portable. A dead logic-board battery can cause a startup failure. Typically the failure will be preceded by loss of the settings for the startup disk and system clock. See the user manual for replacement instructions. You may have to take the machine to a service provider to have the battery replaced.
Step 13
If you get this far, you're probably dealing with a hardware fault. Make a "Genius" appointment at an Apple Store, or go to another authorized service provider.

I have a MacBook Pro, it recently started freezing upon startup. It would get to a blue screen and just sit there. I've tried booting in safemode to run disk repair and still doesnt help. If I do manage to get past the blue screen, it still freezes

My mac keeps freezing upon startup. It will get to the blue screen and promptly freeze. If I manage to get past the blue screen, and open up youtube on google chrome, it will freeze before it loads youtube. I've tried safeboot and disk repair, nothing seems to work. I even tried to factory reset it but it wont connect to my internet when I reboot with power + option.. any ideas?

This can be used to boot the machine and delelte enough files to get it to boot normally.
.Create a data recovery/undelete external boot drive
Read about storage drive so you can store your extra stuff.
Most commonly used backup methods
Also here to see how a full boot drive slows the machine down
Why is my computer slow?

Upon start up I get a start up disk full message and to delete files, now I only get a a blue screen on start up. How to I get past the blue screen and how do I delete files?

Upon start up I get a "start up disk full message, delete files". Now on startup I only get a blue screen. How do I get past the blue screen and how do I delete files.

That;s really not enough free space... you can use a tools such as OmniDiskSweeper to find out where your large files reside and begin pruning (or copying to an external if they're files that you want to keep).
One thing is certain - if you're going to continue your current usage you're certainly going to need to install a larger boot drive.
Clinton

I have a PB G4 that won't start. It shows the gray apple screen, shows the blue screen, and then the screen goes black, and "sleep" light pulses.

I have a PB G4 that won't start. It shows the gray apple screen, shows the blue screen, and then goes black. The sleep light pulses. From there, I can't turn it off normally. I have tried restarting the PMU. And I have tried unplugging the ac adaptor and removing the battery. From there I have plugged only the ac adaptor in, and it will begin to start but do the same thing once it shows the blue screen.
I tried only using the battery (without plugging in the ac adaptor) and the same thing happens. I tried starting the computer while holding down CTRL, Option, P, and R, waiting to hear the start up chimes 3 times, and then holding Shift as it starts up. But I still get the black screen once I see the blue one, and the computer's sleep light pulses.
I need something very important from this computer. And was able to start it last night. I did not shut down the computer, and was going to take it to a friends to use his printer today. The computer was in sleep mode in the morning.
Thanks for any help!
Gina

What your describing could be a logic board or memory issue.
You did or did not hear 3 startup chimes? If you hear 3 chimes when you start it, that would indicate a memory problem. Try reseating the memory to see if that makes a difference. If you have 2 RAM cards, try one then the other in each slot. If you have 1 RAM card, move it to the other slot. Powerbooks can develop one bad slot.
You may need to pull the hard drive out of the Powerbook, put it into an external case, then read it from another mac.

I have a 25" 2.8 GHz Intel core 2 Duo working on OS X 10.8.4, within past 2 days we've had the black screen and the white screen, we are up and kicking again but I can leave the computer playing music from iTunes, but within 10 minutes the screen is back.

I have a 25" 2.8 GHz Intel core 2 Duo working on OS X 10.8.4, within past 2 days we've had the black screen and the white screen, we are up and kicking again but I can leave the computer playing music from iTunes, but within 10 minutes the screen is back, yet the music is still playing in the background. I can't get rid of the black screen unless I force quit the computer, then it starts ok. Then the process starts all over again.

I have a 25" 2.8 GHz Intel core 2 Duo working on OS X 10.8.4, within past 2 days we've had the black screen and the white screen, we are up and kicking again but I can leave the computer playing music from iTunes, but within 10 minutes the screen is back, yet the music is still playing in the background. I can't get rid of the black screen unless I force quit the computer, then it starts ok. Then the process starts all over again.

Mac mini updated now just get blue screen and a spinning wheel

Mac Mini ppc with tiger.
Updated today (safari, OSX and itunes) after freeing up some space by copying files off to a USB drive. After reboot it gets to a blue screen with a spinning "wheel" and stays there for hours, never gets any further. Will boot to command prompt, target disk mode and a set of DVDs borrowed from work (which won't install as they are for iMac!) but not to anything GUI from the hard disk as far as I can tell atm. Disk utility on the DVDs reports no errors on the internal disk.
All was well before the updates. There was one "funny" but I'm not sure if its relevant. During use today the desktop appeared to get bigger than the screen when changing the screen saver to a snow flake one I used last Christmas (with no problems). As the mouse moves around the screen the screen scrolls in the opposite direction (only about 5 pixels) as used to happen in the old days on my PC when the graphics cards supported higher resolutions than the screen did.
Of course, as luck would have it, I can't find my original tiger disks!
Help!

Safe mode likely won't help, but it is achieved by holding the Shift key down during reboot - press and hold down when you hear the chime. It takes a while longer to boot into safe mode than booting normally, and it loads only core MacOS modules.
One issue that was a perpetual risk with installing updates in versions of MacOS X prior to Leopard was the possibility of disrupting prebinding. Prebinding is the process whereby library files are linked to executables, and problems can occur is applications are running (and in active use) during the installation of updates. If prebinding is disrupted, the system can fail to boot after an update, and the blue screen is a common symptom.
IF prebinding is a problem and you can't boot into safe mode, boot into single user mode (hold Ctrl-S during boot from hearing the chime) and then at the prompt, type 'sudo update_prebinding' (no quotes of course) and hit enter. Enter your admin password when requested, and sit back and wait for the command prompt to reappear, at which point the prebinding update is complete - it could take several minutes.
If that doesn't help, your initial post implies you do not have your original install disks - you may however need them, or a retail MacOS installer, because it may be necessary to perform an archive and install on the hard drive.

On my iPhone 4, I cannot get the "not enough storage on iCloud" message to close. Therefore, I can't get past this box/screen AND I can't turn the device off. Please help.

On my iPhone 4, I cannot get the "not enough storage on iCloud" message to close. Therefore, I can't get past this box/screen AND I can't turn the device off. Please help.

Try resetting it by holding the power and home buttons at the same time until you see the Apple logo, then releasing. You won't lose any data by doing this.

Mac starts up but won't get past the blue screen and the rainbow wheel

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