MacBook Pro freezes at startup on grey screen with apple and spinner

I was on Firefox and suddenly the screen froze. 10-15 minutes later i still couldn't do anything on it so i had to force power my laptop off by holding down the power button. Normally when I have this sort of issue, this will solve it. But when I try to turn my laptop back on it gets to the grey screen with the apple logo and little spinner thing and just stays on that screen forever. I'm not really sure what to do now. A couple articles suggested "reseting the PRAM" and I tried that but it didn't help. If you have any suggestions if really appreciate it. And I'm not really sure if i have everything backed up and I really don't want to lose all my pictures so if you could keep that in mind if you have any ideas I'd appreciate it. thanks!

emeraldxx wrote:
But when I try to turn my laptop back on it gets to the grey screen with the apple logo and little spinner thing and just stays on that screen forever.
Could be problems with the boot drive, corrupted system and or a incompatible/old outdated third party kerenel extension file..
Run through this list of fixes, it's systematically designed to narrown down your issue.
..Step by Step to fix your Mac

Similar Messages

My macbook pro doesn't bootbeyond the grey screen with apple icon and spinning wheel.

My macbook pro doesn't boot beyond the grey screen with apple icon and spinning wheel. I used the "Option" button to access the Disk Utility function and run Repair Disk and Repair Disk Permissions. Should I restart my computer?

The following support article is somewhat outdated.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

Macbook Pro won't boot past grey screen with Apple logo and then shuts off

This is a long story...
This morning, I would turn it on and it'd go to the grey screen with the Apple logo for a few seconds and then go to the icon that is a circle with a line through it. After reading online, I was able to boot it up in Safe Mode. I messed around a little bit in system preferences thinking I could fix it on my own, not really knowing what I was doing (I'm a *******). I went to Startup Disk in Preferences. I chose the MAC OS X, xxxx and then clicked the lock to prevent further changes and then clicked restart.
Now when I turn on the macbook, it goes to the grey screen with the Apple logo for at least two-three minutes and then just shuts off. Won't boot into Safe Mode now. Please help. I already tried the Command-Option-P-R keys trick like five times.

If you have a full retail DVD for 10.6 you can boot from that by holding the C key during startup...but you will then be in install mode if that is what you want to do. At least go ahead and see if it will boot ok from the 10.6 disk and then you can decide what you want to do further.
Apple does not have 10.5 for sale anymore from what some other users have said on here so if you want to go that route you will have to find a copy for sale such as from eBay or one of the Mac resellers.
Before taking the machine to someone, try booting from 10.6 and see if that works...that way you can narrow down problems the machine may be having.

Macbook Pro does not start. Grey screen with logo and status bar going on forever.

I have a Macbook Pro, late 2010 running with OS Mavericks. Lately it became very slow but never had major issues like crashing. Lat night, I tried a hard restart because it was stuck and I cannot get it to restart ever since. I get sound and grey screen with logo. The status bar is going on forever but does not boot. Can anyone help, please?

Try a safe boot:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1564
If no success, boot into recovery:
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1310
Select the recovery partition and then from the 4 option menu select Disk Utility.
Open Disk Utility>First Aid and run Verify and Repair.
What are the results?
Ciao.

Grey screen with apple and upate bar

I am trying to turn on my apple and all it does is goes to grey screen with apple logo and a update bar under it, it acts like it is updating and then just shuts down after it finishes. I restart it and it does the same thing. HELP!!

Hello rosavoyles,
The article linked below provides information and troubleshooting steps that can help get your Mac to boot properly again.
Mac OS X: Gray screen appears during startup
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2570
Cheers,
Allen

Brand new MacBook Pro doesn't get past grey screen (with spinning gear)

Hello,
I'm a new Apple customer - I bought a new 15" MacBook Pro during the Black Friday sale last week. Since purchase, I've installed the software I needed (Office, CS4) and have used it to browse the web and write emails.
Today when I tried to use it, I simply got to the grey screen with the Apple logo on it and the spinning gear device underneath - got absolutely no further.
I have done the following (running from mains adaptor - but the battery indicator is reporting 7 lights anyhow):
1. Boot from the OSX Install Disc, and run the disc repair utility. It reported no problems found. Restarted... same problem.
2. Boot holding down SHIFT to go into safe mode. Underneath the spinning gears, a progress bar filled up to 100% and then disappeared; leaving the grey screen, logo, and spinning gears. Nothing further.
3. Boot holding Option, P, R as per the manual to reset the PRAM. According to the manual there should have been a chime/beep - there wasn't. It just sits on the grey screen, logo, spinning gears. Nothing further.
Right now I've got a £1300 MacBook Pro less than a week old and it appears to have just packed up.
Am I missing anything here, or should I just return it?
Thanks,
Chris

Definitely take it back!
My friend bought a new iMac from the Regents St. store a few weeks ago, just before the update to the new models came out, and after a week she couldn't get it to boot. I felt very embarrassed as I had persuaded to her to switch to Mac after years of PC woes, so a broken mac after a week didn't look do me any favours. The genius guys didn't mess around, they took back the dead one and gave her a new one, this time she got the new version, they also threw in iWork free as a good will gesture. New one is running fine.
If you haven't already got Applecare, I highly recommend buying it within the next 12 months. I have needed it on a couple of occasions after the standard warranty ran out and the tech support has been brilliant, got me working again no quibbles.

TS3824 imac g4 (2002) stuck on grey screen with apple and loading sign

my apple imac g4 2002 wont load up it stays on the gray screen with apple on the front with loading sign underneath. ive tried almost every way ive seen online to try to factory reset it but nothing works. i got it as a gift a few years back and really need it now. can someone help? please, thanks. Mark

churpchurp22,
You are posting on the wrong forum, this forum is for Intel based iMacs. A 2002 G4 would be a PowerPC machine, please post on the correct forum. My guess though is the HD has packed up and crashed.

MacBook Pro won't boot. Grey Screen appears, apple logo then nothing

I'm very frustrated. I was using my laptop and suddenly the rainbow wheel appears and it freezes. I tried to hard reboot it and when it restarted a grey screen appears and the apple logo shows up. I bought it used from a Micro Center and I believe it's out of warranty. What is going on and what are my options?

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 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.”
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. Use the working Mac to copy the data to another drive. This technique won't work with USB, Ethernet, Wi-Fi, or Bluetooth.
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
Sometimes a boot failure can be resolved by resetting the NVRAM.
Step 3
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.
If you've booted from an external storage device, make sure that your internal boot volume is selected in the Startup Disk pane of System Preferences.
Step 4
Boot in safe mode. Note: If FileVault is enabled on some models, or if a firmware password is set, or if the boot volume is a software RAID, you can’t do this. Post for further instructions.
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.
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 corrupt 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 5
Launch Disk Utility in Recovery mode (see Step 1.) 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 may produce. Look for the line "Permissions repair complete" at the end of the output. Then reboot as usual.
Step 6
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.
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 Time Machine or other backup.
Step 8
This step applies only to older Macs (not current models) that have a logic-board ("PRAM") battery. Both desktop and portable Macs used to have such a battery. The logic-board battery is separate from the main battery of a portable. A dead logic-board battery can cause a boot failure. Typically the boot failure will be preceded by loss of the startup disk and system clock settings. See the user manual for replacement instructions. You may have to take the machine to a service provider to have the battery replaced.
Step 9
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. If you can't get to an Apple Store, go to another authorized service provider.

G5 freezes at startup, get grey screen with logo, but no spinning gear

As subject says, I get the Grey Startup screen with aple logo, but no spining gear.
do i need a new install of OS X? Or ???

Hi wampaskitty, and a warm welcome to the forums!
Could be many things, we should start with this...
"Try Disk Utility
1. Insert the Mac OS X Install disc, then restart the computer while holding the C key.
2. When your computer finishes starting up from the disc, choose Disk Utility from the Installer menu. (In Mac OS X 10.4 or later, you must select your language first.)
*Important: Do not click Continue in the first screen of the Installer. If you do, you must restart from the disc again to access Disk Utility.*
3. Click the First Aid tab.
4. Select your Mac OS X volume.
5. Click Repair. Disk Utility checks and repairs the disk."
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106214
Then try a Safe Boot, (holding Shift key down at bootup), run Disk Utility in Applications>Utilities, then highlight your drive, click on Repair Permissions, reboot when it completes.
(Safe boot may stay on the gray radian for a long time, let it go, it's trying to repair the Hard Drive.)
If perchance you can't find your install Disc, at least try it from the Safe Boot part onward.
If that doesn't work, Boot off your original G5 Install Disk while holding down Option/alt key to select AHT, then run the extended Apple Hardware Test.

MacBook pro 17 when turned on has screen with stripes and won't go into log in screen

When i turn on my MacBook Pro 17 the initial screen is striped and the just keeps loading it will not go on to the sign in screen

Hi brianhomerj,
Welcome to the Apple Support Communities!
In your situation, I would recommend reading over the attached article. The article provides very good information and troubleshooting steps for startup issues.
Resolve startup issues and perform disk maintenance with Disk Utility and fsck
Have a great day,
Joe

Late 2008 MacBook Pro won't boot; only gray screen with Apple, spinning gear, and then the mouse pointer.

Thanks to all in advance! Okay, last night I was trying to encrypt a Time Machine BackUp disk (Seagate 500GB Back Up Plus) and a dialog box popped up and said "POSIX could not..." And then whatever was next. So I unplugged the drive, plugged it back in, and the files still showed up, so I was like "oh okay so it's not screwed up." The next I try and boot my MacBook Pro, and of course it doesn't. The gray screen comes up, the logo shows up, the gear is spinnin, the it goes away and the mouse shows up. But that's where it stops. And sits. And sits. And sits. So I force it to shut down. I run through this many more times, as well as attempting the Recovery Mode, Safe Boot, and to no surprise, it doesn't work. So I go grab my trusty Snow Leopard disc, pop it in, ctrl-C on start up and it loads. So I select the option of restoring from a Time Machine backup and plug in the external drive only to not see it in the list. So I go to Disk Utility, and find out that the entire external drive has been erased and renamed disk8s2. So I go to my internal drive, but it shows how much has been used and it matches to how much as of last night. So I tried repairing the disk and restarting and of course it doesn't work. So now I don't know what to do. Really I'll take any suggestions besides buying anything (I'm only a 16 year old guy haha). So yeah. Thanks!

The encryption never actually followed through.
You started it, though. That makes the volume inaccessible to any OS X version before 10.7.

Grey screen with apple and endless circle at startup...never going further

I am hoping someone can help me figure out why my G3 won't go to the desktop page when I try to start it up. I downloaded some updates and then when I went to restart, I could only get the grey apple screen with the little circle going around and it stays that way for hours not going further. Nothing else appears on the screen. There is no message. Someone mentioned a "safe start". Would that be something to try? What could be wrong? Is the computer too old? Did it blow a fuse or something? Help! It was working fine earlier.

You can try starting in safe mode (see directions below) but I am not optimistic. Should it indeed start up in Safe Mode then you might be able to re-install the package(s) safely 9again, see below) from there.
Two things seemed to be solutions for Security Update 2008-008 problems from what I have read, and may also work with 2009-01.
One is Archive and Install which will replace the corrupted system but then requires you reapply all your updates. Select the keep settings and preferences when doing A&I. Make sure you select that option when doing A&I if you want settings and preferences kept. Some third party applications may need reinstalling if they have special components.
[Mac OS X: About the Archive and Install feature|http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1710?viewlocale=en_US]
[X-Lab Archive and install|http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/archiveinstall.html]
[Kappy's A&I instructions|http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1823034&tstart=0 ]
[How to get files from a previous home directory after Archive and Install|http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=107297]
The other is to try to re-install the security update on the main drive while booted from a secondary drive or in Single User Mode. This could be from another Mac computer while your first one is in Target Disk Mode, perhaps a bootable backup drive, or possibly from your installer disc. Here's references for those methods:
http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=8728797#8728797
http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=8733921#8733921
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=8634535#8634535
A version of this is to use Single User Mode and Terminal to re-install the update as in:
http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=8991074#8991074
Updating
Certain steps appear to minimize the risk of an update producing problems.
Number one is to make sure you have a clone backup of your computer in case you do need to back out of it again. This is the only guaranteed way of not having to worry about the results of an update.
Some like to boot from their installer discs or an external backup and verify (and if necessary repair) their internal drives as well as drive permissions. This is done with Disk Utility. You can verify a drive while booted from the same drive but sometimes this produces spurious errors. Repairing a drive (if necessary) has to be done while booted from another disk. Permissions repair can, and is probably best, done when booted from your internal drive.
[Resolve startup issues and perform disk maintenance with Disk Utility and fsck|http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106214]
[Using Disk Utility in Mac OS X 10.4.3 or later|http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=302672]
[Disk Utility's Repair Disk Permissions|http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=25751]
You can also go to the step of booting into safe mode to do the install.
[Mac OS X: Starting up in Safe Mode|http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=107393]
[What is Safe Boot, Safe Mode? (Mac OS X)|http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=107392]
[Safe Boot takes longer than normal startup|http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=107394]
I like to download the update onto my computer and install it from there rather than let Software Update do it. I know a few people who had problems with doing the update via software updater found a manual install to work.
Repair permissions again afterward.
It also helps to only install one update at a time and to run the computer for a while to make sure it is behaving well.
The more cautious even like to unplug third party peripherals (see [comment by BDaqua|http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=9040746#9040746]).
Almost all of the above steps (except backup) have been questioned as to necessity because probably many people have done successful updates without doing them. I say they can't hurt, they can very likely do good (especially if your computer isn't regularly maintained), so why not do them to be safe.
[BDaqua's comments on updating problems|http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=8948595#8948595]
[Baby Boomer's comments on updating problems|http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=9025760#9025760]

IMac G5 doesn't go past grey screen with apple and spinning gear

I have an iMac G5 (Ambient Light Sensor) running Mac OS X 10.5.2 Leopard. Last night my computer froze while using QuickTime. I had to force shutdown the computer by holding the power button for 5 seconds after everything else failed.
Now it won't start. I hear the chime, the apple logo on grey screen appears and I see the spinning gear. But it stays like that indefinitely. I can boot with the Leopard DVD with no problem. I verified/repaired the boot disk. I verified/repaired the permissions. Everything is super fine. Made sure the selected startup disk was the correct one. I can even start up in FireWire Target Mode. I've resetted the PRAM and the SMU. Starting in single user mode also works.
How can I solve this startup issue. Are there things I could try before resorting to a archive install or clean install of Leopard. My HD is 232GB and I have 197GB of data.
Thanks for the help.

I opened the back cover according to the instuctions in the manual to check the internal battery (which is fine and strong according to my little battery tester). I followed the steps in the support article "iMac G5: Troubleshooting when your computer won't turn on". According to the LED, my power supply is fine. I turned on my computer with the back cover off using the internal power button. It turned on, chimed, did the usual SuperDrive sound and did a complete boot. I took a peek at the screen by lifting a corner cause it was laying face down on a soft towel on my bed. And I saw the user prompt asking me my password, and the galaxy theme desktop picture. So I turned this off and placed the cover back on. But it still won't start using the external power button. Thanks with all your help Miriam. I'm now gonna look for a solution with the external power button issue.

HT1379 my macbook pro wont boot past the grey screen with the little swirly thing constantly turning

I tried all the remedies that apple support suggested and got nothing. I cant even eject the cd from the cd rom

It would help to state in your post which remedies you tried that didn't work.
Start here > OS X Lion: If you see a gray screen at startup
If nothing there helped, try Starting up in Safe Mode
Safe Mode deletes some system caches that may help.
A Safe Mode boot takes longer than a normal boot so be patient. Once you are in Safe Mode, click Restart from the Apple menu.
If a Safe Mode boot didn't work, since your Mac has OS X v10.7 installed, restart your Mac while holding down the Command + R keys so you can access OS X Recovery built in utilities. The startup disk may need repairing.
Tip: Hold down the Eject key while starting up your Mac to eject a disc.

MacBook Pro won't go beyond grey screen with wheel

My problem:
I don't know if it's related, but i erase essentials files on windows bootcamp that has access to my Macintosh HD partition with software enablinf hfs+.
I repaired my Windows partition, but since then my Macintosh HD crashed.
At first, it wasn't even mountable, but I finally plugged it as an external harddrive on another mac and I recover data with Data rescue 3, I repaired it with DiskWarrior, repaired permission, and repair with disk utility.
I don't know why but journalisation wasn't on anymore so i turned it back on with Recovery partition.
I would like to know if it's possible to repair this last problem.
In verbose:
dyld: Library not Loaded: /usr/lib/libicucore.A.dylib
     Referenced from: /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreFoundation.framework/versions/R/CoreFoundation
     Reason: image not found
com.apple.launchd 1     com.apple.launchctl.System 2     The system bootstrapper has crashed: Trace/BPT trap:5
And nothing else after.

To be honest, I don't remember exactly what did the trick, but after repairing my drive in diskwarior, i was finally able to see it from the lion recovery partition, so I did a reinstall (like update Mac OS X) and I didn't lost too much finally but i had a little older time machine backup, so i recombined my backup for files that I lost and the files that were still on the computer.
I still don't know exactly what was the cause of the problem, but I don't give bootcamp access to my mac partition anymore.

MacBook Pro freezes at startup on grey screen with apple and spinner

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