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.

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Macbook won't boot past grey screen with Apple logo and spinning wheel.

For some reason, after about 1 year and 10 months of owning my Macbook, it decided this morning not to load past the grey screen with the Apple logo and spinning cog/wheel.
I used it for a couple of hours beforehand, and it was working fine. Software Update prompted me of about about 4 or 5 updates; I can't remember exactly what was downloaded, but I think there was a Security Update and iTunes among them. I restarted, left it to install with no errors, but when I logged in, Safari and iTunes were running incredibly slowly. I also noticed that the volume keys weren't responding, as well as the power key to bring up the "Sleep, Restart, Shutdown, etc" dialog box. I forced shutdown, hoping a restart would solve my problem, and that's when my troubles started. I originally just left it, but after about an hour the wretched thing was still spinning.
So far, I have done a number of troubleshooting tips on a variety of websites. I have tried taking the battery out and holding down power for 5 seconds, resetting the PRAM with option, cmd, p & r, and holding down power until the sleep light flashes rapidly and the computer lets out a large "BOOOP".
I have booted off my Leopard install disk with both option and c, repaired the hard drive a number of times, with there being no errors whatsoever. I have tried repairing permissions, but everything seems to freeze up, except the mouse.
For some reason my computer will not boot into safe mode, either, and holding cmd & s at startup doesn't get me to the stage where I can enter commands with the keyboard.
Unfortunately, because of my puny 60GB hard drive, I only have 1GB of free space left and cannot reinstall Leopard without wiping my hard drive.
I would greatly appreciate it if anyone could assist me with this unfortunate dilemma. It's such a shame that my computer has been fantastic for so long and now decides to play up. (Maybe it's just Apple trying to get me to buy a new 2.4Ghz aluminium Macbook sooner than I was planning...)
Thanks very much.

Hi ds,
Sorry to hear you're having such trouble!
Unfortunately, the best thing you can do at this point is reinstall Leopard (and then attempt to install the combo updater, too). If you don't have a backup of your machine, you could boot it into Target Disk Mode (by holding down T at startup) and then attach it via FireWire to another computer to salvage your files.
I recently had to repair a machine with this exact same problem, and after messing around with that for several hours, I'd have to say that I think that an Erase and Install is the way to go. If you then migrate over your user data and start having troubles, you at least know where the problem lies. I suspect, though, that having a clean machine with all of the new updates applied will be the end of the issue.
Sorry to be the bearer of bad news. There are a few other things you could try first; you could, for example, manually download the relevant combo updater from Apple's website and attempt to install it to your damaged machine while it's in Target Disk Mode. If you have a copy of Disk Warrior, that too is certainly worth a shot (and in some cases may be the saving grace). In my experience, though, a failure of this magnitude isn't easy to resolve.
Hope that helps.
—Hazy

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.

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

Powerbook won;t go past grey screen with apple logo on start up

Hi
I am getting very stressed, my powerbook g4 won;t go past the grey screen with the apple logo when switched on. I need to sort it ideally without another computer to go through but if that is necessary then I will do it. I have tried the RAM reboot but nothing, there is not even the spinning loading symbol just a grey screen - which it will stay on until I turn it off. Someone please help!!!!!!!!!!!!! Not sure of my OS as I can't turn my comp on, but I am running leopard on it

Welcome!
First, see if you can boot in Safe Mode, holding the Shift key during startup until you see a message about safe mode. Getting a desktop can take longer because Safe Mode forced some disk checking.s
...I am running leopard on it
Then you should have the install disks. They can be used to boot the computer for repair. Insert the DVD and press and hold the "c" key during startup. That will launch the installer BUT you don't want to reinstall yet. Find the install's Utilities menu and launch Disk Utility. From there you can check the hard drive and make some repairs.
I need to sort it ideally without another computer to go through but if that is necessary then I will do it
That would require that your compute work enough to start in FireWire Target Disk Mode. FWTDM lets your hard drive show up on another Mac as if it were an external drive. You can test by starting the computer and holding the "t" key until you get a blue screen with a big yellow FireWire symbol. Looks like this:
!http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcT8uGcDJDrUrECaelR5ash9yA3zuGBakhxrJ9TjfjO_uoCmKQ&t=1&usg=_5RiQv2QkO7UuPLUpiige1MVxdb0=!
I believe FWTDM's code is in firmware and not on the hard drive , so may let yo uaccess the disk form another computer.

Computer won't load past grey screen with Apple logo, even with OS Disc

I turn on my computer and only gets to the grey screen with the Apple logo and idling circle. After a while, it loads a small box telling me to restart, time and time again, no matter how many times I restart. I've tried holding "shift" to go into safe mode, it won't let me.
I believe it's originally a Tiger platform, and right now I think it's running on Leopard.
I just bought a Snow Leopard OS X Disc, and I inserted it and tried to let it load. It gave me the restart box. I held down "c" while starting up, got the restart box.
Held down "option", and selected the "Mac OS X install Disc"; it went back to the grey Apple logo screen to load, and gave me the restart box after several minutes. Repeated that and held down "c" while loading, still gave me the box.
Nothing I do with or without the OS X Disc is making a difference. I cannot load anything on my computer, period.
Can someone please suggest something for me to try?

Well if you do then turn both computers off. Connect a Firewire cable between them. Boot your computer into Target Disk Mode. After the TDM screen appears boot the other computer normally. If your drive is accessible it will show up as a disk icon on the Desktop of the other Mac. You can then access your files and transfer them to another hard drive.
Then open Disk Utility. Your drive should appear in the sidebar list. Select the drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) then click on the Partition tab in the DU main window. Set the Partition Scheme drop down menu to one. Set the Format type drop down menu to Mac OS Extended, Journaled, then click on the Partition button and wait for the process to complete.
Your drive should now be OK assuming it's not mechanically damaged. Eject the drive from the Desktop as you would eject any removable drive and disconnect the Firewire cable. Shutdown your computer. You can now boot from the installer disc and install OS X.

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.

System Won't Boot Past White Screen With Apple Logo

I have a Power Mac G5 tower that someone gave me. No hard drive.
I placed a NEW hard drive in and installed 10.4 onto it. When I finished I turned OFF the machine. When I now try and turn the machine ON, it will freeze-up during boot up at the white screen with the Apple logo. The little spinning ring/dial doesn't come up.
The system is:
Power Mac G5 (June 2004)
Model ID: PowerMac7,3
dual 2.5GHz
512MB RAM (2x256MB)
Using the Boot-up in Detailed SAFE Mode I was given the info below. Any help is greatly appreciated.
using 1310 buffer headers and 1310 cluster IO buffer headers
kld(): Undefined symbols:
ZN11IOPCIBridge18compareAddressCellEmPmS0
kldload_frommemory() failed for module com.apple.driver.AppleMacRiscPCI
Failed to load extension com.apple.driver.AppleMacRiscPCI.
Couldn't alloc class "AppleMacRiscPCI"
kld(): Underfined Symbols:
ZN11IOPCIBridge18compareAddressCellEmPmS0
kldload_frommemory() failed for module com.apple.driver.AppleMacRiscPCI
Failed to laod extension com.apple.driver.AppleMacRiscPCI.
Couldn't alloc class "AppleMacRiscAGP"
kld(): Undefined symbols:
ZN11IOPCIBridge18compareAddressCellEmPmS0
kldload_frommemory() failed for module com.apple.driver.AppleMacRiscPCI
Failed to load extension com.apple.driver.AppleMacRiscPCI.
Couldn't alloc class "AppleMacRiscHT"
kld(): Undefined symbols:
ZN11IOPCIBridge18compareAddressCellEmPmS0
kldload_frommemory() failed for module com.apple.driver.AppleMacRiscPCI
Failed to load extension com.apple.driver.AppleMacRiscPCI.
Couldn't alloc class "AppleMacRiscDART"
ApplePlatformExpert::getGMTTimeOfDay can not provide time of day RTC did not show up

Does it boot into any of these modes?
Target mode...
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1661
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
We might get clues with verbose mode...
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1492

Macbook Pro (2011) froze while working, forced shut down, now won't turn on. Grey screen with apple logo and spinning wheel for hours. Help?

Macbook Pro (2011) froze while working, forced shut down, now won't turn on. Grey screen with apple logo and spinning wheel for hours. Help?
Unfortunately do not know the operating system since I never updated anything and I can't get in to it.
Thanks for your assistance.

If you want to preserve the data on the boot drive, and it's not already backed up, 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, you can skip this step.
There are several ways to back up a Mac that is not fully functional. You need an external hard drive to hold the backup data.
1. Boot from the Recovery partition or from a local Time Machine backup volume (option key at startup.) Launch Disk Utility and follow the instructions in this support article, under “Instructions for backing up to an external hard disk via Disk Utility.”
2. 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.
3. 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.

I have snow leopard installed as an OS. When trying to reboot a MacBook Pro I am getting stuck on grey screen with apple logo and rotating symbol. What can I do?

I have snow leopard installed as an OS. When trying to reboot a MacBook Pro I am getting stuck on grey screen with apple logo and rotating symbol. What can I do?

Maybe this might help.
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2570

My iMac wont go past the grey screen with Apple Logo and question mark a caution mark

My iMac wont go past the grey screen with Apple Logo and question mark a caution mark

You may find this support article helpful:
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2570
Ciao.

Start up screen stuck on grey screen with apple logo and spinning gear

Start up screen is stuck on grey screen with apple logo and spinning gear. What should I do?

See this thread with dominic23’s suggestions: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5783326?tstart=0

Hi my iMAc 27 inch starts up to the grey screen with apple logo and loading bar underneath it loads halfway then freezes up and shut down after a while please help

Hi my iMAc 27 inch starts up to the grey screen with apple logo and loading bar underneath it loads halfway then freezes up and shut down after a while please help

Try the tips listed here Mac OS X: Gray screen appears during startup - Apple Support

HT204347 Hi my serial number on bottom of my mac is W8*******66E when l try to try the computer on it is just going to grey screen with apple logo and spinning wheel i have tried starting in safe mode and a few other suggested solutions and they have not

Hi my serial number on bottom of my mac is W8******66E when l try to turn the computer on it is just going to grey screen with apple logo and spinning wheel i have tried starting in safe mode and a few other suggested solutions and they have not worked?
<Edited by Host>

What other solutions have you tried?
This may help you:
https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-3353
Ciao.

My macbook pro 2011 shows grey screen with apple logo and want start

i was just using my macbook pro and it freezed for a while not responding and i turned it off by pressing the power button. afterwards, i turn it on and it shows a grey screen with apple logo but want start pls somebody help me because am having "my life" on the machine

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 Recovery by holding down the key combination command-R at the startup chime, or from a local Time Machine backup volume (option key at startup.) Release the keys when you see a gray screen with a spinning dial. 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 by holding down the key combination command-T at the startup chime. Connect the two Macs with a FireWire or Thunderbolt cable. The internal drive of the machine running in target mode will mount as an external drive on the other machine. 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
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 3
Boot in safe mode.* The instructions provided by Apple are as follows:
Shut down your computer, wait 30 seconds, and then hold down the shift key while pressing the power button.
When you see the gray Apple logo, release the shift key.
If you are prompted to log in, type your password, and then hold down the shift key again as you click Log in.
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.
*Note: If FileVault is enabled, or if a firmware password is set, or if the boot volume is a software RAID, you can’t boot in safe mode. Post for further instructions.
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 damaged 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 4
Sometimes a boot failure can be resolved by resetting the NVRAM.
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
Boot into Recovery again. When the OS X Utilities screen appears, follow the prompts to 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.
Note: You need an always-on Ethernet or Wi-Fi connection to the Internet to use Recovery. It won’t work with USB or PPPoE modems, or with proxy servers, or with networks that require a certificate for authentication.
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 backup.
Step 8
A dead logic-board battery in a Mac Pro can cause a gray screen at boot. Typically the boot failure will be preceded by loss of the startup disk and system clock settings. See the user manual for replacement instructions.
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.

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

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