MacBook Pro will not startup, cursor spins forever

MacBook Pro refuses to startup no matter how long I wait for the spinning cursor to finish. I suspect hardware, because the last successful startup generated some strange bursts of static as it started up.
I've tried a few successive startups all with the same result. The very last time I held down the "D" key but no diagnostics ever appeared to run.

If I bought OS from apple store, can I just reload onto the new disk, plug it into bad machine and then select it with opt/alt key at power on?
Yes.
The Mac will boot just as easily from an external drive, so if you have an enclosure, you could put your spare drive there initially, or swap drives immediately if you prefer.
The rub is: if your MacBook is older than about 2011, it needs a Recovery_HD to get the re-download.

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TS1365 My MacBook Pro will not startup. At all. The suggestions from Apple Support are not helping. At all. Someone help?!?

My MacBook Pro will not startup. Its not responding at all. Does anyone have any suggestions on how I can correct this?

HI Catherine,
First, make sure it it shut down by holding down the power button for 5-10 seconds. Plug in the power adapter. Press the power button and hold down the shift key to see if you can start in Safe Mode.
If the power adapter and/or battery are known good, the next thing I'd check would be the RAM to make sure it is securely seated. If batt and/or power adapter are questionable, then you'll want to find one or both and try them out; if you don't know someone with a similar MBP, this might be most easily accomplished by making a free appointment at an Apple Store "genius" bar.

My macbook pro will not startup, startup disc is full

my macbook pro will not startup, startup disc is full

Freeing Up Space on The Hard Drive
1. See Lion/Mountain Lion/Mavericks' Storage Display.
2. You can remove data from your Home folder except for the /Home/Library/ folder.
3. Visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQ on freeing up space on your hard drive.
4. Also see Freeing space on your Mac OS X startup disk.
5. See Where did my Disk Space go?.
6. See The Storage Display.
You must Empty the Trash in order to recover the space they occupied on the hard drive.
You should consider replacing the drive with a larger one. Check out OWC for drives, tutorials, and toolkits.
Try using OmniDiskSweeper 1.8 or GrandPerspective to search your drive for large files and where they are located.
If you are no longer able to boot your computer, then the drive is too full and has become corrupted. You may be able to repair it using Disk Utility on your Installer DVD:
Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions
Boot from your Tiger 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.
If this doesn't work, then you will have to erase the drive and install OS X from scratch. From the Tiger installer disc you will choose the Erase and Install install option.

My Aluminum MacBook Pro will not startup (no chime), only sound is the dvd(dl) that is spinning inside. I have tried everything I know (dmc? reset), still disk spinning but no chime, (this is a spare-backup).

All of a sudden,will not startup (no chime), only sound is the dvd(dl) that is spinning inside. I have tried everything I know (dmc? reset), removing 1 memory module at a time and trying to startup, still no chime only spinning of disk, still disk spinning, (this is a spare-backup), and I dont want to spend alot of $.
my next ts is to open it up and disconnect the dvd drive (maybe it is hung up????) the hd is the original 1, maybe the power supply.......ANY suggestions?

bump, I think ill cook my book...............

Macbook pro will not startup correctly

I had to get a new macbook pro a little over a year ago because of hardware problems but that was when I had applecare. Now the macbook will only start up into Safari-only guest mode and will not allow me to access my normal account. When I do try to log into my normal account a gray status bar pops up and gets about 5% done than shuts the computer off.
I have tried command r options with disk utility but it cannot verify or repair my internal hard drive. I tried the reinstall OS x option and that says it's unable to. I tried the fsck -fy commands and those say they cannot verify the disk as well. I believe I have a time machine backup from months ago but when I attempted to use that through the recovery mode, it does not work. And the last thing I tried doing was restore to an external hard drive and that comes up with an error. I'm by no means new to computers but this has me completely stumped.
I've also tried verbose with no luck, single user mode does not work and I tried safe mode with that restarting the computer after some code appears on the screen but will not start in safe mode.
The mac is running Mavericks, 4GB Ram, 500GB HDD and is a little over a year old. I would get better details but I can't access any type of details for the computer from guest mode.
Thanks,
Peter

petesully wrote:
Okay, thank you to both y'all. I was hoping to find a work around for it without having to pay apple to fix it but it looks like they'll be getting some money.
If it is the hard drive you can replace that yourself. But a trip to Apple for proper diagnosis doesn't cost anything. Once they have figured out what is wrong and if it is the hard drive you can buy one and replace it yourself.
To test if it is the hard drive connect a blank USB external drive formatted Mac Extended (Journaled) with a partition table of GUID. Then boot to the Online Internet Recovery System by holding down the Command + Option/Alt + r keys at startup and keep them held down until you see a globe on the screen. Have the system WIRED to your internet router. Once that loads you can select Reinstall Mac OS X and install OS X on the external drive.
If you need to partition and format that external USB drive for the Mac format you can do that from the online internet recovery system before you start the OS X install using Disk Utility.
If the install goes through and you can then start and run the system from that external then it is more than likely the internal hard drive has failed.
The only other thing it could be is the cable that goes from the drive to the logic board. They are prone to failure.

17" MacBook Pro will not startup after software update & shutdown

Last night I powered off (shutdown) my MacBook Pro (usually I leave it sleeping). It kindly reminded me I had updates to install. I said OK install them. I didn't check to see what they were, but I believe it was just the camera raw update. I also told it to shutdown after the update.
This morning the computer was off, so far so good.
Press the power button ... nothing. no chime, no diskdrive, blank screen....
Battery level is good, power adapter good with green light.
I have command control power buttoned. reset smu. cannot reset pmu as far as I know as that happens later in the startup procedure? post chime?
I pulled the power and battery and let it sit all day, still nothing.
Any ideas on the sudden failure. The software update seems unrelated, but somewhere in the back of my head I remember hearing about some problem with a camera raw update?
It's a 1st generation 17" MBP. TIA

Just to clarify the symptoms:
Good power adapter, green light on mag-safe when plugged into machine. Good battery(s) have two, both charged.
Press power button and nothing happens, no drive spin up, no noises, no chimes, no screen backlight (even with black screen) etc.
tried control-command power button for 3+ seconds, naughta.
tried pulling power and battery, then hold power for 5 sec. recconect bat and power, naughta.
tried removing all power for 8+ hrs, naughta.
It doesn't seem to be getting power to any components on -power button down -
So, I am guessing here but seems like:
a. Power button/connectors.
B. Firmware issue as last time it was run a software update (unknown) was installed.
C. Logic board?
D. As there is a green light on the power adapter I expect it is not the Left I/O subassembly board?
Are there any other power supply boards that may be involved, or are all of those components on the main board in this machine? Is the power button part of the keyboard assembly?
TIA.

My Macbook Pro will not startup

I am pretty sure I downloaded something bad for my macbook pro because it shut down on me and now upon rebooting, it will come to the login page, ask for my password. I enter it in and click enter, I get a partial black screen with a lot of text that makes no sense. And then it restarts and on goes a continuous cycle of entering my password, black screen, restart.
I would have just erased it all and started over, but I have pictures in there that I really don't want to lose!!
I've pressed down on OPTION upon startup and tried the repairing method. Nothing seems to be wrong with it from that report it gives me. I have also tried to restore it, it starts up the process where you agree to everything and click on the disk image that you want to restore, but then an error sign comes up and says its unable to process the request.

Thanks for your response. I tried to do that just now, Its no use. Upon prompting me to login with my password I still get the same screen. See below for a pic I took with my phone. Its not very clear but you can get an idea.

HELP!! Macbook Pro - Will not startup

I have a 17" Macbook Pro, it is about a year old. Just past warranty date. Of course there are no backups for it. Here is what happened:
For no reason when I start up my machine I get the apple, the spinning wheel and a hollow bar below the wheel. Then after about 4 seconds the machine shuts down. Happens every time will not restart.
I tried using the disk utility to repair the disk, but it indicates that the disk cannot be repaired. Tried to use the utility to copy disk contents. No go. If I format the disk I lose all of my contents...not good. Any suggestions
I have tries resetting the PRAM...nothing.

Suggest you try to mount your drive in target disk mode to see if you can access your data in order to retrieve it. After that, try reformatting the disk. Take it that far and see what happens....

My MacBook pro will not startup. I get a blank grey screen no logo appears so I can't chooseadiffer t drive nor boot from DVD. Safe mode and verbose mode also don't change blank screen.

It was running slow with the colored spining appearing often. This started happening weeks ago with Yosemite so I formatted the disk with the DVDs that came with the mid 2011 MacBook pro, 10.6.8. I then installed Yosemite on an external drive and this morning i was booted from the external hd with Yosemite and it stopped recognizong mouse clicks so I forced a restart and now I'm stuck with the blank grey screen. Safe mode and verbose mode also do not work.

Lao Bo,
yes, you can locate and copy a file from your HD to a USB key using UNIX commands. If you know the exact name of the file which you’re trying to locate, try this:
find / -iname filename -print
This command will search your entire internal disk for the particular filename. If you know that it’s within a particular user account, then you can save search time with this variation:
find /Users/username -iname filename -print
Either variation of this command will print all files found which have the given filename. Presuming that you’re able to identify the correct file, you can copy it to a USB key using the command
cp -p filename_returned_by_find /Volumes/USB_volume
If you’re not sure which volume name your USB key has, this command will show you what the possibilities are:
ls /Volumes
Please let me know if you have any trouble with these commands.

MacBook Pro will not startup

The laptop turns on and I get the grey screen with the apple, also the spinning circle, but that's it
No desktop
What happened?

Strgwoman,
probably a filesystem problem of some sort occurred, e.g. if you had to do a forced shut down at some point.
You can try this as a possible solution: boot your MacBook Pro into Recovery mode by holding down a Command key and the R key as it starts up. Once the Mac OS X Utilities menu appears, select Disk Utility. On the left-hand side of the Disk Utility window, select your internal disk’s boot partition (typically called “Macintosh HD”). On the right-hand side, press the Verify Disk button if it’s not greyed out; if it is greyed out, or if it reports that errors were found, press the Repair Disk button. Once the verification/repair is completed, exit Disk Utility and select Restart from the Apple menu to restart in normal mode. Are you able to get past the grey screen now?

Re: my macbook Pro will not startup.

when trying to turn my macbook Pro on it repeats the start up sound continuously, with the disk drive eject sound every 20 seconds or so. prior to this occurring, my screen flickered, and then the computer froze.

See if it will Boot from your original install DVD by holding down c - if so then run Disc Utility from the top menu bar and Repair Disc then Repair Permissions.
You can also try holding down the shift key at restart to force safe mode (hold it until you see text)

HT201177 MacBook Pro will not startup..

Get a grey screen when turning on Mac, never moves beyond this screen. Once I received the grey screen, tried doing shift, option-v. I received an error message stating "Disk0s2 media is not present".
This reminds me of the "blue screen of death" with a PC.
Help

 Mac won't boot or "You need to restart"
 Step by Step to fix your Mac
If the drive still works, just not booting, the data can be recovered
 Create a data recovery, undelete boot drive

MacBook pro will not boot. I get the gray screen, an apple icon and spinning wheel. Tried to start in safe mode but get the same screen. The only thing different was that I loaded the zedge sync app yesterday. Now getting this problem.

Macbook pro will not boot. I get the gray screen, an apple icon and spinning wheel. I tried to start in safe mode, but get this same screen. The only thing different is that I added the zedge update app to do a sync for adding ringtones to my apple cell phone. How can I get a good boot. I am fairly new to apple computer.

Reset PRAM: http://support.apple.com/kb/PH4405 and then try a normal boot.
Run the Startup Manager to select Startup disk: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1310
If those did not work your disk may be sick or dying. The top priority at this point is to make a backup copy of your data.
Check the health of the disk. Boot in Recovery Mode (Boot, Command-R). Run Disk Utility. Click on the upper left disk icon. Does the S.M.A.R.T. status say “Verified”? If not the disk/SSD is unhealthy and needs to be replaced. Even if it does not show “Verified” you can still attempt a backup.
Click on the icon indented below, usually called “Macintosh HD” and Verify Disk. If it finishes with a green “OK” message then all is well with the disk. If it shows errors in red then you have found a problem to address once the system is backed up. Do not attempt software repairs until you have secured the data.
If the disk will not show up at all in Disk Utility as your ran the tests above then it may be dead or it may have a bad internal SATA cable. A trip to an Apple store for confirmation would be in order.
If you have an external disk drive you can use as a backup drive then do so. If not Google “Hitachi USB 3.0 external hard drive 1TB” to purchase one or go to a brick-and-mortar store (including an Apple store) to pickup one. Any 1 TB external drive will do.
Assuming it is still breathing you can try to recover the data without booting from the sick disk.
Reformat the external disk. (This will erase all data on the external disk.)
Boot in Recovery Mode. Start Disk Utility. Plug in the new disk. Select it’s disk Icon (the second one down, left justified). Select the Partition tab.
Partition Layout > Single Partition
Name: Emergency Recovery 1 (or whatever name you wish to use)
Format: Mac OS Extended (journaled)
Options… > GUID Partition Table > OK
Apply
Select the Restore tab.
Drag the old system volume (Macintosh HD) to Source.
Drag the new disk volume (Emergency Recovery 1) to Destination.
Click on Restore.
It may take a long time for the backup.
If that will not complete post back for other emergency data recovery methods, including those from a brody.
If the backup succeeds, use the First Aid tab in Disk Utility to select the old volume (Macintosh HD) and Repair Disk. If it does not finish with a green OK message try to repair it once or twice more. If it repairs with a green OK message, will it boot normally? If not, boot from the Recovery Partition and reinstall OS X.
If it is still not healthy, post back for further instructions.

My MacBook Pro will not start. When I started it goes to a gray screen with the Apple logo and has the spinning dial. When I started in safe mode it will not start. In safe mode it as an error message that says MacBook Launch_msg():Socket is not connected

My MacBook Pro will not start. When I started it goes to a gray screen with the Apple logo and has the spinning dial. When I started in safe mode it will not start. In safe mode it as an error message that says MacBook Launch_msg(): Socket is not connected

If running 10.7 or later hold down Command-R at Startup.
This should invoke recovery Mode.
Choose Disk Utility.
Select your Hard drive. Inspect the SMART Status in the lower right of the window for "Verified".
Select the Mac OS X Volume (originally Macintosh HD) click (Repair Disk)
If errors, run again until it comes clean or gets stuck.
Report any error messages.

I interrupted a software update and my macbook pro will not boot. I have tried to reboot using the startup disc, I have tried to verify the disc, and repair the disc. It tells me I need to erase and reformat the hard drive then reinstall the operating sys

I interrupted a software update and my macbook pro will not boot. I have tried to reboot using the startup disc, I have tried to verify the disc, and repair the disc. It tells me I need to erase and reformat the hard drive then reinstall the operating system. I do not have a back up of all my applications, my garageband music and other things. I also do not have time capsule set up on this machine, but I do have a 2 TB time capsule.
Is there anyway to back up this corrupted drive so I can restore my applications later?

There's an old saying. If you don't have a backup disc, then there must be nothing important to backup. That's just lesson #1. Lesson #2 is to never interrupt a software update. Not a good thing.
OK, I'm sure you know this. It just upsets me to read your story, knowing you have a lot of important stuff on your hard drive, and didn't use time machine.
You're pretty much in a bad place. My only hope for you is to boot to your Installation Disc, then using disk utility see if you can save the internal hard drive (by fixing what can be fixed). You might be able to see your user folder and some of your apps. I wouldn't even consider copying the library, because who knows what's been corrupted in there.
Good luck.

MacBook Pro will not startup, cursor spins forever

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