MacBook Pro won't boot regularly or safe mode, getting patches of black white and grey noise on screen

It was giving me video problems at first and now has pixelated black grey and white designs popping up when I turn it on. It loaded up in safe mode the other week but now it just stays at the gray apple and spinning icon.
I am posting this from an iPhone right now so I am not sure how to attach the picture I took. I will try to upload it after.

Apple store genius bar is the place to go for a definitive diagnosis. If it is the logic board, you may be in market for a replacement MBP. Unless you have some emotional attachment to that particular MBP, it may not be cost effective to repair it. (I note that yours is a pre-Unibody MBP)
If you are lucky and it is the display, you might be able to get a replacement from iFixit or Powerbook Medic for a reasonable price and do the swap yourself.
Good luck.
Ciao.

Similar Messages

MacBook Pro won't boot at start. I get a white screen with a blinking folder with a question mark in the middle. Any ideas?

MacBook Pro won't boot at start. I get a white screen with a blinking folder with a question mark in the middle. Any ideas?

Read this article...
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1440?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US

MacBook Pro will not boot, only in safe mode. Tried Everything!

My MacBook Pro was working fine yesterday. Went to boot it up today, and it freezes on the Apple grey boot screen, will not progress further.
It does however start in safe mode, but will not start normally.
I've tried everything I can find, reset the PRAM, reinstalled OS X, ran the Apple Hardware test which came back clear, I don't know what else to try and why it's not working. It's been fine until now. Please help! Thank you

Please read this whole message before doing anything.
This procedure is a diagnostic test. It won’t solve your problem. Don’t be disappointed when you find that nothing has changed after you complete it.
Third-party system modifications are a common cause of usability problems. By a “system modification,” I mean software that affects the operation of other software — potentially for the worse. The following procedure will help identify which such modifications you've installed. Don’t be alarmed by the complexity of these instructions — they’re easy to carry out and won’t change anything on your Mac.
These steps are to be taken while booted in safe mode.
Below are instructions to enter some UNIX shell commands. The commands are harmless, but they must be entered exactly as given in order to work. If you have doubts about the safety of the procedure suggested here, search this site for other discussions in which it’s been followed without any report of ill effects.
Some of the commands will line-wrap or scroll in your browser, but each one is really just a single line, all of which must be selected. You can accomplish this easily by triple-clicking anywhere in the line. The whole line will highlight, and you can then copy it. The headings “Step 1” and so on are not part of the commands.
Note: If you have more than one user account, Step 2 must be taken as an administrator. Ordinarily that would be the user created automatically when you booted the system for the first time. The other steps should be taken as the user who has the problem, if different. Most personal Macs have only one user, and in that case this paragraph doesn’t apply.
Launch the Terminal application in any of the following ways:
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Terminal in the icon grid.
When you launch Terminal, a text window will open with a line already in it, ending either in a dollar sign (“$”) or a percent sign (“%”). If you get the percent sign, enter “sh” and press return. You should then get a new line ending in a dollar sign.
Step 1
Triple-click the line of text below to select it:
for k in /Sy*/L*/Ex*/{,.?}*.kext; do test -f "$k/Contents/Info.plist" && /usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -c "Print :CFBundleIdentifier" "$_" | egrep -qv "apple|Accusys|ArcMSR|ATTO|CalDigit|HighPoint|hp-fax|JMicron|print|SoftRAID|stex" && echo $k; done | open -f -a TextEdit
Copy the selected text to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C. Then click anywhere in the Terminal window and paste (command-V). A TextEdit window will open with the output of the command. Post the contents of that window, if any — the text, please, not a screenshot. You can then close the TextEdit window. The title of the window doesn't matter, and you don't need to post that. No typing is involved in this step.
Step 2
Repeat with this line:
sudo defaults read com.apple.loginwindow LoginHook | open -f -a TextEdit
This time you'll be prompted for your login password, which you do have to type. Nothing will be displayed when you type it. Type it carefully and then press return. You may get a one-time warning to be careful. Heed that warning, but don't post it. If you see a message that your username "is not in the sudoers file," then you're not logged in as an administrator.
Note: If you don’t have a login password, you’ll need to set one before taking this step. If that’s not possible, skip to the next step.
Step 3
Repeat with this line:
ls -1A /e*/mach* {,/}L*/{Ad,Compon,Ex,Fram,In,Keyb,La,Mail/Bu,P*P,Priv,Qu,Scripti,Servi,Spo,Sta}* L*/Fonts 2> /dev/null | open -f -a TextEdit
Important: If you formerly synchronized with a MobileMe account, your me.com email address may appear in the output of the above command. If so, anonymize it before posting.
Step 4
osascript -e 'tell application "System Events" to get name of every login item' 2> /dev/null | open -f -a TextEdit
Remember, Steps 1-4 are all copy-and-paste — no typing, except your password. Also remember to post the output.
You can then quit Terminal.

My MacBook Pro won't start up in safe mode

It'll just start up get half way and then stop.Please I really need help!

Intel-based Macs: Using Apple Hardware Test
http://support.apple.com/en-us/HT4718
If you can't do anything, there is nothing anyone here can do for you. Your only other alternative is to take the computer to an Apple store or an AASP. Whichever is more convenient for you.

My Macbook Pro won't boot up, only in safe mode!

Help, my macbook pro won't restart, only in safe mode! and it seems that safe mode has plenty of implications for use. my usb memory stick doesn't seem to be recognized while in safe mode. I was doing a cleanup on mackeeper just after I downloaded a trial version of microsoft office mac. The trial wouldn't work properly so I deleted it and decided to do a cleanup with mackeeper. than the mac froze while mackeeper was doing it's cleanup and the screen flashed black a few times. Ever since it won't boot up unless I use safe mode. Also, I downloaded the most recent updates while in safe mode but it doesn't seem to be recognizing that I already downloaded them because software update is still telling me that I have 6 updates. So I am horribly confused at this point. Please help, I need this laptop to do report cards (it's a good thing I got an extension). thanks

Please read this whole message before doing anything.
This procedure is a diagnostic test. It won’t solve your problem. Don’t be disappointed when you find that nothing has changed after you complete it.
Third-party system modifications are a common cause of usability problems. By a “system modification,” I mean software that affects the operation of other software — potentially for the worse. The following procedure will help identify which such modifications you've installed. Don’t be alarmed by the complexity of these instructions — they’re easy to carry out and won’t change anything on your Mac.
These steps are to be taken while booted in safe mode.
Below are instructions to enter some UNIX shell commands. The commands are harmless, but they must be entered exactly as given in order to work. If you have doubts about the safety of the procedure suggested here, search this site for other discussions in which it’s been followed without any report of ill effects.
The commands may line-wrap or scroll in your browser, but each one is really just a single line, all of which must be selected. You can accomplish this easily by triple-clicking anywhere in the line. The whole line will highlight, and you can then either copy or drag it. The headings “Step 1” and so on are not part of the commands.
Launch the Terminal application in any of the following ways:
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Terminal in the icon grid.
When you launch Terminal, a text window will open with a line already in it, ending either in a dollar sign (“$”) or a percent sign (“%”). If you get the percent sign, enter “sh” and press return. You should then get a new line ending in a dollar sign.
Step 1
Triple-click the line of text below to select it. Copy the selected text to the Clipboard (command-C). Then click anywhere in the Terminal window and paste (command-V).
find /Sy*/L*/Ex* -type f -name Info.plist -exec sh -c '/usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -c "Print :CFBundleIdentifier" "$1" 2> /dev/null | egrep -qv "apple|Accusys|ArcMSR|ATTO|CalDigit|HighPoint|hp-fax|JMicron|print|SoftRAID|stex" && echo ${1%*.kext/*}.kext' {} {} \;
Post the lines of output (if any) that appear below what you just entered (the text, please, not a screenshot.) You can omit the final line ending in “$”.
Step 2
Repeat with this line:
ls -1A /e*/mach* {,/}L*/{Ad,Compon,Ex,Fram,In,Keyb,La,Mail/Bu,P*P,Priv,Qu,Scripti,Servi,Spo,Sta}* L*/Fonts 2> /dev/null
Important: If you formerly synchronized with a MobileMe account, your me.com email address may appear in the output of the above command. If so, anonymize it before posting.
Step 3
osascript -e 'tell application "System Events" to get name of every login item' 2> /dev/null
Remember, these steps are all copy-and-paste — no typing. Also remember to post the output.
You can then quit Terminal.

Macbook pro won't boot, stuck on white apple screen

Noticed today, that my macbook pro won't boot . It gets to the white apple screen with the spinner under the apple logo. It stays like this for a long time without doing anything except spinning.
I've powered down and tried to boot up several times.
I have boot camp and windows on my mac and when the white screen appears, I can press Option to bring up which hard drive and the Windows partition will load without any problems.

Exacty what happens when you try to boot up from the disc that came with your computer? Are you holding down the c key? Have you tried holding down the "option key?" Are you able to run the Hardware Test - Intel-based Macs: Using Apple Hardware Test
Shut down your computer and disconnect all peripherals (keyboard & mouse if pertinent) from your computer. Now reboot.
If the Mac starts up normally, shut it down again and then plug in one of the peripherals (keyboard or mouse first) and start up your computer again. If it does so successfully repeat the process, adding one peripheral at a time until your Mac acts up. At that point, disconnect the last peripheral you added, reboot your Mac and search the peripheral vendor's website for an updated driver.
If no driver exists or the problem remain after installing the new driver, try a different cable or a different port on your Mac.
If none of the above works, again disconnect all peripherals from your Mac, hold down the "shift" key to start up in "Safe Boot" mode.
If the Mac starts up correctly, restart without pressing the "shift" key.
If your computer still does not start up properly, shut it down and restart it while holding down the Apple+Option-P-R keys; keep holding "all 4 keys" down until you hear the startup sound "twice."
If none of the above work Disconnect all peripherals from your computer. Boot from your install disc & run Repair Disk from the utility menu. To use the Install Mac OS X disc, insert the disc, and restart your computer while holding down the C key as it starts up.
Select your language.
Once on the desktop, select Utility in the menu bar.
Select Disk Utility.
Select the disk or volume in the list of disks and volumes, and then click First Aid.
Click Repair Disk.
(If Disk Utility cannot repair, you will need a stronger utility (3rd party) - Diskwarrior or Techtool PRO)
Restart your computer when done.
Repair permissions after you reach the desktop-http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=25751 and restart your computer.
Remove any 3rd party ram.
Reinstall Lion - This will install a "fresh" copy of Lion without archiving old system files but leaves the rest of your files in place.
If your computer is still under warranty or you have Apple Care, take full advantage of it by letting tech support deal with your problems. It's what you're paying them for.
Out of warranty - take the computer to an Apple store or an AASP. Whichever is more convenient for you.

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.

My MacBook Pro won't boot and apparently my HDD is locked

My MacBook Pro won't boot up. And it's says my HDD is locked when i try and reinstall OS. Help me please good people.

you want to check how many threads with same question first, and look in
Mac OS version forum that you have; and the notebook MacBook instead of the workstation forum for Mac Pro (non-laptop)
Not a lot of detail to go by with "won't boot" though.
Mac OS X Help
Isolating Issues in Mac OS
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1388
https://www.apple.com/support/osx/
https://www.apple.com/support/quickassist/
http://www.apple.com/support/mac101/help/
http://www.apple.com/support/mac101/tour/
Troubleshooting: My computer won't turn on
https://support.apple.com/kb/TS1367
Assume you know what your OS, how to use the Recovery Mode, and how to repair or do Safe boot and other tasks.
General purpose Mac troubleshooting guide: Isolating issues in Mac OS X
Creating a temporary user to isolate user-specific problems: Isolating an issue by using another user account
Identifying resource hogs and other tips: Using Activity Monitor to read System Memory and determine how much RAM is being used
Starting the computer in "safe mode": Mac OS X: What is Safe Boot, Safe Mode?
To identify potential hardware problems: Apple Hardware Test
General Mac maintenance: Tips to keep your Mac in top form
MacBook Pro
https://discussions.apple.com/community/notebooks/macbook_pro
https://discussions.apple.com/community/mac_os?view=discussions
http://www.apple.com/support/macbookpro

Macbook pro won't boot - how do I retrieve emails?

Hey guys
I've got a common problem that my Macbook pro won't boot. Sometimes I get stuck on the grey screen with spinning wheel, sometimes on the blue screen with spinning wheel
I've scoured the internet on another machine and tried every trick I can find with the MacBook Pro including
Disk / Permissions repair from install disk (says the HD is fine)
PRAM
Single User
Soft
It seems like my only option at the moment is an Install and Archive. I can mount the MacBook Pro on another machine with a firewire and remove files and backed up a lot on a hard drive before it died
What I am worried about is how to retrieve some emails from the machine that only exist locally because I have deleted them from the server
Is there a way of doing that?
Would Migration Assistant work?
If anyone could help me with this or suggest any other methods for bring my machine out of a coma I'd really appreciate it
d

Try a different adapter. If you don't have access to a known-good adapter any other way, make a Genius Bar appointment at an Apple Store.

MacBook pro won't boot up Keeps turning off

MacBook pro won't boot up. When power button pressed the white screen w apple comes on w progress bar but shuts off before bar completed. If I move cursor or hit buttons it boots but will turn off if cursor stops Moving or stop pushing buttons. Just started happening. Ran hardware test and all shows ok. Any ideas??

Thanks for all the help; however, I still continue to have problems booting off of any other media.
I've tried the Apple CD w/ no success - I made an image of the apple cd and restored it to a USB drive, and it won't boot. I've tested both methods on another mac, and both options boot fine.
I'm going with my last restort here and am going to install OSX on a portable USB HD, and try to boot off of that (no clue if it will work given the outcomes of the other things I have tried). From there I'm going to backup the HD, and try DW as suggested.
Any thoughts as to why the mac refuses to boot off of any other media? It always boots halfway and then tells me I need to shutdown my mac.
Thanks again,

My 2007 MacBook pro won't boot up beyond a White screen any ideas what to do?

My 2007 MacBook pro won't boot up beyond a White screen any ideas what to do?

Odd how this hasn't been archived yet.
I'm getting the same thing with my Macbook, but can't boot past the white screen. An Apple store in KS suggested I needed a new hard drive, but I've already put two in there and it's still doing the same thing. I really don't want to buy another motherboard like I had to a couple of years ago.
My choices are either buy a cheap drive to boot from and remove the current one to put into an external case, or save the money by not buying a new motherboard and putting it as a down payment toward a Mac mini.

OS Mavericks won't boot without using safe mode

My macbook pro won't boot up when its not in safe mode. It gets to the apple screen and then freezes but I can move the mouse around. Safari also won't open even when it is booted in safe mode.

If you don't already have a current backup, back up all data before doing anything else. This procedure is a diagnostic test. It changes nothing, for better or worse, and therefore will not, in itself, solve your problem. The backup is necessary on general principle, not because of anything in this comment. There are ways to back up a computer that isn't fully functional. Ask if you need guidance.
Below are instructions to run a UNIX shell script, a type of program. All it does is to gather information about the state of your computer. That information goes nowhere unless you choose to share it on this page. However, you should be cautious about running a program at the suggestion of a stranger on a public message board. If you have doubts, search this site for other discussions in which this procedure has been followed without any report of ill effects. If you can't satisfy yourself that the instructions are safe, don't follow them.
Here's a summary of what you need to do: Copy a line of text from this web page into the window of another application. Wait about a minute. Then paste some other text, which will have been copied automatically, back into a reply on this page. The sequence is: copy, paste, wait, paste again. Details follow.
You may have started the computer in "safe" mode. Preferably, these steps should be taken in “normal” mode. If the system is now in safe mode and works well enough in normal mode to run the test, restart as usual. If you can only run the test in safe mode, proceed anyway.
If you have more than one user, and the one affected by the problem is not an administrator, then please run the script twice: once while logged in as the affected user, and once as an administrator. The results may be different. The user that is created automatically on a new computer when you start it for the first time is an administrator. If you can't log in as an administrator, just run the script as the affected user. Most personal Macs have only one user, and in that case this paragraph doesn’t apply.
The script is a single long line, all of which must be selected. You can accomplish this easily by triple-clicking anywhere in the line. The whole line will highlight, though you may not see all of it in your browser, and you can then copy it. If you try to select the line by dragging across the part you can see, you won't get all of it.
Triple-click anywhere in the line of text below on this page to select it:
clear; shopt -s extglob; Fb='%s\n\t(%s)\n'; Fm='\n%s:\n\n%s\n'; Fs='\n%s: %s\n'; Fu='User %s%%\t\tSystem %s%%'; PB="/usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -c Print"; A () { [[ "$a" -eq 0 ]]; }; R () { o=; [[ "$r" -eq 0 ]]; }; Pm () { [[ "$o" ]] && o=$(sed 's/^ */ /' <<< "$o") && printf "$Fm" "$1" "$o"; }; Pc () { o=$(egrep -v '^[[:blank:]]*($|#)' "$2"); Pm "$1"; }; Pp () { o=$($PB "$2" | awk -F'= ' \/$3'/{print $2}'); Pm "$1"; }; Ps () { o="${o##+( )}"; [[ ! "$o" =~ ^0?$ ]] && printf "$Fs" "$1" "$o"; }; id | grep -qw '80(admin)'; a=$?; A && sudo true; r=$?; t=`date +%s`; clear; { A || echo $'No admin access\n'; A && ! R && echo $'No root access\n'; system_profiler SPSoftwareDataType | sed '8!d;s/^ *//'; o=$(system_profiler SPDiagnosticsDataType | sed '5,6!d'); [[ "$o" =~ Pass ]] || Pm "POST"; o=$(pmset -g therm | sed 's/^.*CP/CP/'); grep -q 'No th' <<< "$o" && o=; Pm "Thermal conditions"; o=$(pmset -g sysload | grep -v :); grep -q '= [^GO]' <<< "$o" || o=; Pm "System load advisory"; o=$(nvram boot-args | awk '{$1=""; print}'); Ps "boot-args"; o=$(ls /L*/L*/Dia*/*.panic | wc -l); Ps "Panics"; o=$(ls /L*/L*/Dia*/*.c* | tail); Pm "System crash logs"; o=$(ls L*/L*/Dia* | tail); Pm "User crash logs"; o=$(syslog -F bsd -k Sender kernel -k Message CReq 'GPU |hfs: Ru|I/O e|n Cause: -|NVDA\(|pagin|SATA W|timed? ?o' | tail -n25 | awk '/:/{$4=""; $5=""; print}'); Pm "Kernel messages"; o=$(df -m / | awk 'NR==2 {print $4}'); [[ $o -lt 5120 ]] && Ps "Free space (MiB)"; o=$(($(vm_stat | awk '/Pageo/{sub("\\.",""); print $2}')/256)); o=$((o>=1024?o:0)); Ps "Pageouts (MiB)"; s=( $(sar -u 1 10 | sed '$!d') ); [[ ${s[4]} -lt 90 ]] && o=$(printf "$Fu" ${s[1]} ${s[3]}) || o=; Pm "Total CPU usage" && o=$(ps acrx -o comm,ruid,%cpu | sed '2!d'); Pm "Max %CPU by process (name, UID, %)"; o=$(kextstat -kl | grep -v com\\.apple | cut -c53- | cut -d\< -f1); Pm "Loaded extrinsic kernel extensions"; R && o=$(sudo launchctl list | sed 1d | awk '!/0x|com\.(apple|openssh|vix\.cron)|org\.(amav|apac|calendarse|cups|dove|isc|ntp|post[fg]|x)/{print $3}'); Pm "Loaded extrinsic daemons"; o=$(launchctl list | sed 1d | awk '!/0x|com\.apple|org\.(x|openbsd)|\.[0-9]+$/{print $3}'); Pm "Loaded extrinsic user agents"; for d in {/,}L*/{La,Priv,Sta}*; do o=$(ls -A "$d" | egrep -v '^(\.DS_Store$|com\.apple\.)'); Pm "$d"; done; o=$(find -L /S*/L*/E* {/,}L*/{A*d,Compon,Ex,In,Keyb,Mail,P*P,Qu,Scripti,Servi,Spo}* -type d -name Contents -prune | while read d; do ID=$($PB\ :CFBundleIdentifier "$d/Info.plist") || ID="No bundle ID"; egrep -qv "^com\.apple\.[^x]|Accusys|ArcMSR|ATTO|HDPro|HighPoint|driver\.stex|hp-fax|\.hpio|JMicron|microsoft\.MDI|print|SoftRAID" <<< $ID && printf "$Fb" "${d%/Contents}" "$ID"; done); Pm "Extrinsic loadable bundles"; o=$(find /u*/{,*/}lib -type f -exec sh -c 'file -b "$1" | grep -qw shared && ! codesign -v "$1"' {} {} \; -print); Pm "Unsigned shared libraries"; o=$(launchctl getenv DYLD_INSERT_LIBRARIES); Pm "Inserted libraries"; o=$(find {,/u*/lo*}/e*/periodic -type f -mtime -10d); Pm "Modified periodic scripts"; o=$(scutil --proxy | grep Prox); Pm "Proxies"; o=$(scutil --dns | awk '/r\[0\] /{if ($NF !~ /^1(0|72\.(1[6-9]|2[0-9]|3[0-1])|92\.168)\./) print $NF; exit}'); Ps "DNS"; R && o=$(sudo profiles -P | grep :); Pm "Profiles"; for f in fstab sysctl.conf crontab launchd.conf; do Pc $f /etc/$f; done; Pc "hosts" <(sed '1,10d' /etc/hosts); Pc "User launchd" ~/.launchd; R && Pc "Root crontab" <(sudo crontab -l); Pc "User crontab" <(crontab -l); R && o=$(sudo defaults read com.apple.loginwindow LoginHook); Pm "Login hook"; Pp "Global login items" /L*/P*/loginw* Path; Pp "User login items" L*/P*/*loginit* Name; Pp "Safari extensions" L*/Saf*/*/E*.plist Bundle | sed 's/\..*$//;s/-[1-9]$//'; o=$(find ~ $TMPDIR.. $ -flags +sappnd,schg,uappnd,uchg -o ! -user $UID -o ! -perm -600 $ | wc -l); Ps "Restricted user files"; cd; o=$(system_profiler SPFontsDataType | egrep "Valid: N|Duplicate: Y" | wc -l); Ps "Font problems"; o=$(find L*/{Con,Pref}* -type f ! -size 0 -name *.plist ! -exec sh -c 'plutil -s "$1" >&-' {} {} \; -print); Pm "Bad plists"; o=$((`date +%s`-t)); Ps "Elapsed time (s)"; } 2>/dev/null | pbcopy; exit 2>&-
Copy the selected text to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C.
Launch the built-in Terminal application in any of the following ways:
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Terminal in the icon grid.
When you launch Terminal, a text window will open with a line already in it, ending either in a dollar sign ($) or a percent sign (%). If you get the percent sign, enter “sh” and press return. You should then get a new line ending in a dollar sign.
Click anywhere in the Terminal window and paste (command-V). The text you pasted should vanish immediately. If it doesn't, press the return key.
If you're logged in as an administrator, you'll be prompted for your login password. Nothing will be displayed when you type it. You will not see the usual dots in place of typed characters. Make sure caps lock is off. Type carefully and then press return. You may get a one-time warning to be careful. If you make three failed attempts to enter the password, the script will run anyway, but it will produce less information. In most cases, the difference is not important, so don't worry about it.
If you're not logged in as an administrator, you won't be prompted for your password. The script will still run. It just won't do anything that requires administrator rights.
The script may take up to a few minutes to run, depending on how many files you have and the speed of the computer. There is no indication of progress until it's done. Wait for the line "[Process completed]" to appear in the Terminal window.
You can then quit Terminal. The output of the script will have been copied to the Clipboard automatically. All you have to do is paste into a reply to this message by pressing command-V again. Please don't copy anything from the Terminal window.
If any personal information, such as your name or email address, appears in the output, anonymize it before posting. Usually that won't be necessary.
When you post the output, you might see the message, "You have included content in your post that is not permitted." That's because the forum software falsely identifies something in the post as a violation of the terms of use. If that happens, please post the output on Pastebin, then post a link here to the page you created.
Note: This is a public forum, and others may give you advice based on the output of the script. They speak only for themselves, and I don't necessarily agree with them.
Copyright © 2014 Linc Davis. As the sole author of this work, I reserve all rights to it except as provided in the Terms of Use of Apple Support Communities ("ASC"). Readers of ASC may copy it for their own personal use. Neither the whole nor any part may be redistributed.

Macbook Pro won't mount during target disk mode

I don't know what to do.
I was using Safari today when the whole computer froze. Nothing was responding, so I had to force shut down.
When I went to restart, I got a gray screen with the apple logo and a progress bar; the bar will take a while to fill, then the computer shut down completely. Happens every time now.
I tried booting in safemode and it didn't work; the command prompt details said "Incorrect number of thread records. (4, 29503)" and "Incorrect number of extended attributes (It should be 381007 instead of 381008)"....... What does that mean????
I tried booting the backup drive and running disk utility to diagnose the problem, and it said the disk is unable to be repaired etc.
Now I'm trying to salvage my important files by using the firewire target disk mode with another mac. My macbook pro won't even mount; disk utility said it can't be mounted and is damaged.
Please help--what do I do to save these files???

My workflow was like this:
Partitioned fresh hard drive into 2 partitions: 1 for OS clone, 1 for data recovery
Used Carbon Copy Cloner (an excellent tool) to clone working OS to 1st partition
Attached harddrive to malfunctioning MBA
Held Option on malfunctioning MBA and booted to cloned drive
Once booted, I used old-school Data Rescue II to salvage data from MBA internal drive to my data recovery partition. (Probably need a newer / better data recovery program, as this one changed file names, moved things around, was generally not that awesome...)
Used Disk Util from booted clone to format MBA internal drive.
Used Carbon Copy Cloner to clone to formatted MBA internal drive.
Shut down, disconnected external drive, MBA booted normally.
Think that's everything. I've been touting the excellence of Carbon Copy Cloner for a while now for backups. In my opinion it's much more thorough than Time Machine backups, as you don't need a functioning OS. You can boot to a clone -- time / life saving!

My Macbook Pro won't start up. All I get is a grey screen showing a grey folder bearing a question mark. Help please!

My Macbook Pro won't start up. All I get is a grey screen showing a grey folder bearing a question mark. Help please!

The folder with the question mark indicates that the machine is unable to find a bootable volume on startup. This is typically caused by one of three things:
1.) The internal HD has failed or is failing and needs to be replaced
2.) There is significant directory damage to the volume that requires repairing in order to boot
3.) Some other internal component failure between the HD and logic board
I'd ranked them in the order that is most common (from my personal experience). Boot to the OS X Recovery tool and attempt to repair the startup volume. If that fails or the drive is not detected it's usually a tell tale sign of a failed HD.

MacBook Pro won't boot regularly or safe mode, getting patches of black white and grey noise on screen

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for