Macbook Pro fails to boot after any OS update.

Hi, I've been a PC user all my life so please be patient!
I have a mid 2010 MBP running 10.6.3 with Win7 on a boot camp partition. I have read and followed the instructions regarding boot issues from many sources on these forums but nothing so far has solved my problem.
I can install anything via software update as long as it isnt an OS update. Any OS update installs fine but the MBP will not reboot afterwards; I get an endless spinner. I cant boot into safe mode either, endless spinner again after the progress bar dissappears.
I have verified and repaired the disk in single user mode and via the disk utilities tool after booting into the install DVD, I have repaired permissions I have tried just about every instruction I could find, I have read posts where people are talking about replacing ACPIPPlatform.kext and IOPCIFamily.kext but I'm not sure this applies to me as they seem to be saying to lift those files from 10.6.6 / 10.6.7 and I cant event get to 10.6.4.
Just to be clear, I cannot update to anything above 10.6.3. I have tried combo and single updates for every patch version from 10.6.4 up to 10.6.8 and the MBP will not reboot after any of the OS updates. The only way I can get the machine to boot again is to wipe the Mac partition and re-install 10.6.3. So, am I doomed to be stuck on 10.6.3 forever?
To add insult to injury, of course Windows 7 works perfectly
I have no obvious HD issues, once I reinstall 10.6.3 everything works perfectly.
It did cross my mind that the only thing I haven't tried is to strip the win partition off completely and put the MBP back to pure mac and see if the updates work then but thats a lot of hassle (its a dev machine) so I thought I'd ask if any of you fine people might be able to help me out before I go for the nuclear option.
Thanks.

Put a bootable backup/clone of your 10.6.3 volume onto an ext FWHD using something like Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper!, boot from it, and try updating to 10.l6.8. If that works, then finish updating everything, and reverse the process. If not, then, try the nuclear option. I don't do windoze, so you'll have to figure out to back that stuff up before proceeding.

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MacBook Pro fails to boot after failing to install Leopard

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Hi Elaine, and a warm welcome to the forums!
Do you have access to another Mac with Firewire?
If so see if it boots into Target mode...
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=58583
To try to repair the Hard Drive.

MacBook Pro will not boot after software update

MacBook Pro will not boot after doing an Apple Software Update (of course they will not help you). MONEY, MONEY, MONEY is the name of the game. They can cause your computer to crash and still charge you!
Does anyone have an answer to why my computer is showing a little gear spinning for hours? I have tried several things with NO luck.
Thanks-

Run through the list of fixes here
Step by Step to fix your Mac

Macbook pro won't boot after installing update 10.9.3

macbook pro won't boot after installing update 10.9.3

Please read this whole message before doing anything.
This procedure is a diagnostic test. It’s unlikely to solve your problem. Don’t be disappointed when you find that nothing has changed after you complete it.
The purpose of the test is to determine whether the problem is caused by third-party software that loads automatically at startup or login, by a peripheral device, by a font conflict, or by corruption of the file system or of certain system caches.
Disconnect all wired peripherals except those needed for the test, and remove all aftermarket expansion cards, if applicable. Start up in safe mode.
Note: If FileVault is enabled, or if a firmware password is set, or if the startup volume is a Fusion Drive or a software RAID, you can’t do this. Ask for further instructions.
Safe mode is much slower to start up and run than normal, with limited graphics performance, and some things won’t work at all, including sound output and Wi-Fi on certain models. The next normal startup may also be somewhat slow.
The login screen appears even if you usually login 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.
Test while in safe mode. Same problem?
After testing, restart as usual (not in safe mode) and verify that you still have the problem. Post the results of the test.

MacBook Pro won't boot after trying to install 10.7.3 update. Start up stalls at Apple logo and spinning gear.

MacBook Pro won't boot after trying to install 10.7.3 update. Start up stalls at Apple logo and spinning gear. Computer won't even start in safe mode.

My daughter's MacBook Pro was doing exactly the same thing. I don't know if it had anything to do with the latest update. She called me about a week ago saying that her MacBook began running slower by the day . She then called me Friday and told me that it wouldn't get past the gray screen and the gear just kept on spinning. I did everything I could over the phone including Safe mode which it wouldn't go into and thought maybe it was the hard drive. She took it to the Apple store. Originally, they also thought it was the hard drive. It ended up being a corrupted operating system (Lion). Apple genius simply re-installed Lion and she's back up and running. Good thing she backed up right before it crapped out. She'll be restoring everything tonight. Don't know if re-installing Lion will help your situation, but it did the trick for my daughter.

MacBook Pro Won't Boot after Firmware Update

So I just upgraded to a MacBook Pro which came in the mail yesterday. I removed the Apple-installed HD and swapped it out for a bigger, faster HD. I installed OS X from scratch, imported everything from my Time Machine backup during the Setup Assistant, and then started installing updates. Everything was running swimmingly until the last updates.
What happened is when I rebooted my MacBook Pro and logged in after a series of updates, I got presented with both a Bluetooth update and a Firmware update at the same time. Both required a restart so I thought I would kill two birds with one stone. I installed the Bluetooth update, and then when it asked to reset I installed the Firmware update instead. However, the firmware update didn't behave as advertised because instead of shutting the MacBook Pro completely down, it restarted and then started installing the firmware update.
Ever since the firmware update (which I think installed correctly but don't know how to verify), I cannot boot my MacBook Pro. Using the OS X install DVD I can view my firmware version using System Profiler, and the number it is reporting is MBP53.00A.B03.
I have tried booting in verbose mode to try and get a feel for the problem, and it eventually hangs on an infinite loop saying something about not being able to find something on disk0s2.
I also thought I would fix the problem by doing an Archive and Install, but it quit at the very beginning of installing with the error "unknown error".
Also I thought I would format the disk with Disk Utility and then try installing again, but Disk Utility reports that it in unable to unmount the volume.
Any help you can provide would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
-- Update --
Remember how I'm unable to unmount the drive? I force unmounted it and then used Disk Utility to repair the volume, but still no luck.
I think the key to the problem is this new HD I put in runs at 3 Gbps. I think I read somewhere that the new MacBook Pro's don't support that.
I think next I should try swapping out the new HD in my MacBook Pro with the one it originally came with. What do you think?

I, too, have a brand new MBP 15" that I put an Intel X25 in. At the 1.5 (Prior to Firmware Update) setting, it worked fine. I rant the Firmware Update, all looked fine, but the drive is no longer able to be seen.
Flash the PRAM, per other suggestions to no avail. Boot off of the DVD and disk utility nor Profiler sees the drive.
Replace the drive with the stock that came with the MBP (which I had never even used) and it works.
Put the Intel X25 into a Windows machine and it works fine. Reformatted it (in windows) and put it back into my MBP. Still not able to see it (from the Disk utility after booting off the DVD).
Intel's firmware for the drive says its up-to-date (new drive) and if I attempt to "re-run" the Mac Firmware Update, it says that the machine is already up-to-date.
Seems odd that it worked before an now it doesn't. Also seems odd that the X25 works in other machines. And that my MBP works just fine with the stock Hitachi 7200 320GB drive.
Ideas? Intel says to call Apple Support. Not sure what I can say to them.

MacBook Pro won't boot after 10.6.8 update.

I completely erased my hard drive, reinstalled Snow Leopard and updated to 10.6.7. I then performed an Apple Hardware Test and verified the disk using disk utility. Both tests were successful. I then updated to 10.6.8 using the combo update and restarted my MacBook Pro. The boot process ran fine until the system locked up on the bright blue screen. No peripherals were connected to the laptop during this process. I powered the laptop down using the power button and turned it on again. This time, I entered verbose mode. The last line of text that I see before the screen turns black is "[ PCI configuration begin ]". Can anyone assist me with this issue?
My System Profile is as follows.
Hardware Overview:
Model Name:          MacBook Pro
Model Identifier:          MacBookPro3,1
Processor Name:          Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed:          2.4 GHz
Number Of Processors:          1
Total Number Of Cores:          2
L2 Cache:          4 MB
Memory:          3 GB
Bus Speed:          800 MHz
Boot ROM Version:          MBP31.0070.B07
SMC Version (system):          1.16f11
Serial Number (system):          System Serial#
Hardware UUID:          00000000-0000-1000-8000-001B639863A4
Sudden Motion Sensor:
State:          Enabled

Might be time to replace the PRAM battery. That's not the normally accessible battery, but it is one that often fails after 4 years.

Macbook pro failing to restart after new update

After trying to install the new update my MacBook pro fails to restart, its stuck on the Apple logo and then the screen goes black, it wont load in safe mode either. Apple support on the phone tells me that its a coincidence and that the display is shot?

On the bottom of your MBPis the serial number. Enter it here and post back the model and year information:
https://selfsolve.apple.com/agreementWarrantyDynamic.do
Ciao.

My MacBook pro did not restart after the software update

My MacBook pro did not restart after the software update

Kappy wrote:
Now, were I a mindreader this wouldn't be an issue, but unfortunately, I'm not.
WHAT??? Now that's a disappointment! I was sure the all-seeing, all-knowing Prof. Kappy would instantly discover the problem thru time and space....
Ok, back to the issue at hand, the Prof. is right. In none of the OP's participation, nor in any of his choir of followers save mommy power is there the least hint of what Apple product is failing. While y'all get a move on and disgorge the details, may want to try a Safe Boot. Hold down the Shift key prior to the startup chime and wait awhile. IF it starts, then it means you have some third-party software that's causing the problem. Else there's a strong probability a complete reinstall will occur in your near future.
In the future and in spite of what some purists may say, be sure to service the system disk BEFORE patching. By "service" I mean booting up the Mac using your Install DVD (Snow Leopard or priors) or booting in Recovery Mode (Command R, in the Lions and successors), running the Disk Utility found in that mode and doing a Repair Disk and Repair Disk Permissions. Until NO errors show up. Cause patching up an already damaged system will only make things worse.

Macbook Pro will not boot from any source after upgrade

Hi,
I have a late 2011 Macbook Pro - standard issue other than more memory as I recall. It has a 750MB hard drive with more than half still free. All the checks given below are done with the computer stand-alone with no hardware attached - other than the power cord and of course WiFi.
2 weeks ago I upgraded to Yosemite having taken all the right precautions before upgrade - thanks to Take Control. It worked fine and I was getting a good experience until last Wednesday when I put it to sleep by closing the lid. Later in the day I opened it up again but only got a grey screen. After leaving it several minutes to see if it cleared I shut down by holding the on button for several seconds then tried to re-boot. The computer starts and gets as far as the grey screen then shuts down again after several minutes. Sometimes it will continue to restart after shut down and keeps doing this until I again hold the on button in until it finally shuts down for good.
I have two bootable drives - one is a cloned backup of the previous version and all the data, the other is an 8GB thumb drive with a bootable version of the Yosemite installer. For the record I also have a Time Machine backup and a second full clone backup and recovery drive on a Synology NAS device - I just haven't figured out how to boot from this device as yet.
I can get to the boot up selection screen (hold option key) and select an external drive to boot from but it makes no difference - I still get the same grey screen. Same thing if I use Command +R to boot from the Mac HD recovery partition.
I have also tried to boot into safe boot mode (hold the shift key down). This seems to slow everything down but ultimately has the same result - a grey screen.The only difference I can see is that this grey screen does not shut down after a time. Seems to just continue until I shut it down manually.
I can hold Command +V to remove the grey screen and see the action being written to the screen while logging on (white text on a blue screen) - up to a point. After some time I just get the same grey screen and it shuts down after more time. I can also use Option +D (I'm told it should be just hold the 'D' key to do this but that has never worked for me and Option +D does) to get to the hardware check and I have run this both before upgrading and after having the problem. Before upgrading I got one error - 4ETC/1/40000002. I looked this up on the Internet and could find nothing specific to identify the problem and the general consensus seemed to be it was nothing major. After upgrading and running the hardware check again (after this problem occurred) it returned no errors.
I have reset the PRAM with the same result as before - all I get is the is the Apple logo and a progress bar that increases to around 50%, then both disappear and I get just a grey screen. After a time the computer shuts down and then restarts again and goes through the same process.
I've done pretty much everything I can think of and find in books and on the Internet. Hoping that someone out there will find this problem interesting and help me to resolve it.
Tony

Problem resolved. I took the machine into an authorized repair facility where, for around $30, I had it checked and the logic board replaced. Picked it up yesterday and seems to be working OK. No cost to replace the logic board even though the machine is over 3 years old. There seems to be some sort of dispute with Apple over a class action that has worked in my favour. Great. I'm happy.
Tony

MacBook Pro failing to boot up despite disk utility repair and PRAM

Problem: MBP frozen on boot up screen with Apple logo and turning gear (which freezes after a while aswell)
Solutions attempted: disk repair via custom recovery- disk utility, PRAM
Device: MacBook Pro 15" (early 2010) running 10.9
Additional info-
Never had any issue with the device and this seems to have happened all of a sudden. Installed an SSD a few months ago, and just realised the ssd did not have a recovery partition. However I connected my older hardrive via USB to access recovery which seemed to work fine.
NOTE: for the past few weeks, every now and then I was unable to power the device off and whenever this occurred, there seemed to be a few bugs (ie unable to empty thrash-error 50 and enable to increase/decrease volume/screen brightness). However, holding the power button and restarting it seemed to have fixed it.
Had the same issue but this time around MBP failed to boot up.
Any possible suggestions?

Ranban wrote:
Are you suggesting reinstalling the os?
No.
Furthermore, is there a way to keep the data intact using this method? Or retrieve it at the least?
Repairing a disk should have no affect on the data, nor would an OSX installation. However if the data has value, there always should be a backup, preferably two.
In your original post you said "attempted: disk repair via custom recovery- disk utility". The term 'custom recovery' to me is alien and thus confusing.
What I am suggesting is a repair of the HDD using the original installation disk, not an OSX installation.
You insert the disk holding down the C key at startup. Proceed with the process until you see on the top of the display a menu bar. Select UTILITIES and from the drop down menu select Disk Utility. Then select Disk Utility>First Aid and then run Verify and repair. Exit from the installation process.
That way I know that the attempted repair was properly executed. You may have in essence done that, but there is an element of doubt in my mind.
Ciao.

Macbook pro will not boot after snow leopard upgrade

My GF has had a macbook pro since mid 2008. It's been running like a champ since I've known her for the past 3 years with no issues. It has/had OSX 10.5.8 installed. We tried to consolidate all our pictures from all our apple devices and realized she didn't have an icloud on the old 10.5.8 OSX. So I called apple and they told me to order and install the snow leopard OSX 10.6 first and then upgrade to lion etc after that, Well we got the disk yesterday popped it in to install and it's been a disaster.... the computer shutdown for what looked like a normal restart during the installation process and never booted back up. Attempts to manually reboot leave us locked on a grey apple logo screen with spinning gear indefinately whith the Snow Leopard disk installed during boot up. With the disk removed I get the flashing file folder with a question mark. I called apple support we tried all the PRAM and SMC resets and then decided that we should go to the Genius Bar once all those failed. After an hour and a half drive to the nearest genius bar we were told that the we suddenly had a hardware issue which just happened to coincide with the new OS installation.... I'm not buying it and am looking for some help. The macbook was running like a champ until we inserted a disk recommended by apple... Any takers?

You have a five year old computer, so a failing hard drive at this point is not so strange. You have a couple of options you can try. Start with this one, but if it does not work you will have to erase the hard drive. I hope you have a backup of all your files.
Reinstall OS X without erasing the drive
1. Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions
Boot from your Snow Leopard 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 Utilities menu. 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.
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. Reinstall Snow Leopard
If the drive is OK then quit DU and return to the installer. Proceed with reinstalling OS X. Note that the Snow Leopard installer will not erase your drive or disturb your files. After installing a fresh copy of OS X the installer will move your Home folder, third-party applications, support items, and network preferences into the newly installed system.
Download and install Mac OS X 10.6.8 Update Combo v1.1.

Macbook Pro Fails to Boot on Operating System

After Restarting My Macbook Pro 13" 2012 it repeatedly fails to boot up to Mac OSX but instead to OSX utilities. I tried to reinstall Mountain lion but it shows me that Macintosh HD is locked and when erasing it , it tells me couldn't umamount Disc. Any solution!!! Thank you

Found a solution. As expected, I needed to restore the firmware. However by just downloading the firmware update, OSX didn't want to write the firmware as it was already up-to-date. OSX has no way to know up-to-date but defective.
Found this thread:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu-release-notes/+bug/774089
which lead to
http://pubmem.wordpress.com/2011/04/09/flash-efi-firmware-update-manually-on-a-m acbook-51/
that explains how to FORCE a firmware to be written.
I had to download this free software
http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/16357/unpkg
to unpack the EFI udpate downloaded at
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1237
I would say that a good command line knowledge is needed to process the above steps.
Hopefully I was able to find a solution before admitting that the logic board was defective and pay the 600$ for its replacement, as instructed by the genius at the Apple store. They are not allowed to process firmware restoration, but they should at least suggest it before proposing an expensive logic board replacement.
Good luck.

Can't boot MacBook Pro 13" (mid 2010) after installing the update SMC 1.6

First for a long time was a white screen and noisy cooler
After the system battery icon was crossed out and the indicator on the left side of macbook does not show anything and everything worked cooler at high speed (he was cold macbook)
After reboot appeared and the system has stopped running
Few days ago I have installed Mac Os X 10.6.4 but when the system had started working I saw my desktop it was at least 2-3 sec, after that macbook went to sleep mode. I pressed any key macbook and system started working, but without lighting screen. I used bright lamp and saw that all shortcuts and indicators (like wifi, battery etc.) have appeared on my desktop. After 2-3 sec macbook went to sleep mode again. Pressing on buttons and light from lamp gave me possibility to done update to 10.6.5 and after to 10.6.8. But at the end situation was not changed.
When I boot macbook with using install DVD, I can use all utilities (disk utility, network util etc.) and macbook don't goes to sleep mode and screen has light. In my opinion reason of this - not correct installation latest EFI or SMC updates. I tried to install EFI update 2.0 and SMC 1.5 for 10.6.5/10.6.8, but system showed me that I can't do this update. I'll try to find some way to make EFI update, maybe this would help me solve this problem. P.S. answer from Applle support: Our updates can't to break your macbook... it's just coincidence. Probability theory it's just mystification
this is info about my MacBook Pro 13" (mid 2010) MC374ll/A. As you can see I have SMC version 1.68f99 instead 1.62f7
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1237 - I found information about right version SMC for my MacBook Pro mid 2010 13" from this table.
If somebody has same problem, welcome to discussion. Maybe we'll find way to solve this problem... Or Apple will make fixes for us.

After some time, I found answer how I can repair my MacBook Pro 13" (mid 2010). As I was writing early - Mac Os X update SMC 1.6 broke my computer.
This is a link on repair instructions: http://habrahabr.ru/sandbox/67092/
As a result I write this post on my old (but working) MacBook Pro.

Macbook Pro does not boot after replacing HD

I have a Macbook Pro that I bought in early 2007. It came with 10.4, and I have since upgraded to 10.5, and then 10.6.
I decided to upgrade the original internal HD to a 500GB HD. I used Time Machine to back up the orignal HD.
After performing the surgery, I turned on the MBP with my Snow Leopard install DVD. After a while reading the DVD, the MBP spits out the DVD and displays the folder with the question mark.
I then create a recovery disk on an 8GB Flash Drive, using the Snow Leopard install disk as a source. I plug in the drive, start the MBP and hold down the 'option' key. I get a grey screen with a mouse cursor, but no drive icons.
I'm puzzled. The install DVD seems to look fine on other computers, as does the flash drive. I'm planning on getting a HD enclosure and cloning my old drive to the new drive, but does anyone have any suggestions as to what's gone wrong?
Thanks!

Dale Weisshaar wrote:
After performing the surgery, I turned on the MBP with my Snow Leopard install DVD. After a while reading the DVD, the MBP spits out the DVD and displays the folder with the question mark.
Are you holding down the small case letter c the whole time. Keep holding it till the install screen comes up.
Did that, still tried to boot (sounded like the drive was reading), and still got the folder with the question mark, and the DVD was ejected.
Also, it has to be a retail disk of Snow Leopard. A machine specific disk that came with another Mac will not work. You need the universal copy.
Right, my MBP came with 10.4 originally, so this was a retail disk.

Macbook Pro fails to boot after any OS update.

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