MacBook Stuck in Startup Blue Screen, HDD is Spinning

Well, I fear the worst has occurred to my mid 07 Macbook.
When I boot up the machine, it stays stuck in the blue screen start up, not able to find any startup disc. I gave a listen to the HDD and it is spinning when I try starting up. So this would mean a system failure, however I have had the motherboard replaced twice this year. Is the motherboard/system most liekly the issue?

This has nothing to do with with iPhoto - post in the MacBook Forum - http://discussions.apple.com/category.jspa?categoryID=218
LN

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Why is my macbook pro stuck on a blue screen

I was downloading a program that was put onto a disk image, then my macbook battery died (forgot it was unplugged). When i plugged it back in and booted it back up, it did the usual tone and apple logo/spinning gear. Shortly after it would go to a pale blue screen and occasionally have a spinning gear, but no matter how long i wait it stays on the same screen.
i have tried everything here: http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2570
except i't wont let me start from the install disk (it just goes to the blue screen)
i have the mac os x install disk one and two, but im also not sure what one to put in and if these are the right ones anyways.
I also have a windows xp partition that i CAN access without getting stuck on the blue screen.
So, is the hard drive corrupt even though i can access the windows partition?
Do i need to replace the hard drive?
i cant go to an apple store and get it fixed, i just dont want to drive there (but i will if i need a new hard drive)
this is my first mac and i have only basic knowledge of the operating system.
i think it was running on 10.6 (snow leopard), but i only have the install disks that came with my mac.

To fix your issue is too complicated and lengthy to go into all of it here as it sounds like a hardware issue, it will require the services of person very familiar and experienced with Mac's to first recover your data and then restore OS X back to a functional state which may or may not require new hardware/software installed.
If your under warranty or AppleCare, take it in for service.
You can also hire the services of a local Mac computer support technician experienced in these matters.
Have them look at your Wifi, RAM amount, extra storage and computer backup proceedures in the process.
Good Luck.

My macbook won't start up, it gets stuck on the blue screen. can it be fixed? i suspect a hacking due to a strange phone call earlier which i thought was a scam.

my macbook won't start up, it gets stuck on the blue screen. can it be fixed? i suspect a hacking due to a strange phone call earlier which i thought was a scam.

Reinstall OS X without erasing the drive
1. Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions
Boot from your Snow Leopard Installer disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu. After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU and return to the installer.
If DU reports errors it cannot fix, then you will need Disk Warrior and/or Tech Tool Pro to repair the drive. If you don't have either of them or if neither of them can fix the drive, then you will need to reformat the drive and reinstall OS X.
2. Reinstall Snow Leopard
If the drive is OK then quit DU and return to the installer. Proceed with reinstalling OS X. Note that the Snow Leopard installer will not erase your drive or disturb your files. After installing a fresh copy of OS X the installer will move your Home folder, third-party applications, support items, and network preferences into the newly installed system.
Download and install Mac OS X 10.6.8 Update Combo v1.1.

So my imac is stuck at the blue screen

after i hear the startup tone with the grey screen with the apple logo i get stuck at the blue screen. tried to go to safe mode by holding the shift key but dint work. now have been looking at the blue screen for a while now. any chance the imac is dead or anything i can do about it? i dont mind rebooting the whole thing cause i backed up all my files on my hdd and also on dvd. not that i have not tried to to reboot it too.

Well TM is at least backup, you can check your AppleCare status on the right side of this page:
https://expresslane.apple.com/Issues.action:

Computer stuck on empty, blue screen - is there a workaround?

My Powerbook 12" G4 crapped out on me and I'm having difficulty getting it back up and running. The short of it is the computer stalls on startup on a blue screen with a spinning wheel. I have tried all the suggestions on the document
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106464#symp1
but to no avail.
The only other information I have is from when I tried to use disk utility (on another computer, linked to the Powerbook by firewire with the Powerbook in Target disk mode)and it gave me the following information:
Verifying volume "Hard Drive"
Invalid Volume Header
Checking HFS Plus Volume
Checking Extents Overflow file.
Checking Catalog file.
Invalid Sibling link
The volume Hard Drive needs to be repaired
Error: The underlying task reported failure on exit
1 HFS volume checked
Volume needs repair.
Since then, I haven't been able to use Disk Utility again. It gets caught doing nothing for an hour or so with no progress.
Can anyone help?

Okay. Now I'm stuck. When I don't have an answer of my own from experience, I do research for it. And what I found doesn't sound good. No pun intended, but when a hard drive fails, usually it comes with some telltale sound, but in other times, it doesn't.
Your symptom seems to be a failing drive (which may sound obvious to some, not including me until I did the research) due to looking up the "invalid sibling link" from your verification.
I never heard of that before nor have I seen it from my verify problems.
I was going to suggest you use TechTool (comes with AppleCare) or if you have access to it, DiskWarrior (my friend let me borrow it once) which tells more than Apple's Disk Utility.
Here's what the problem is straight from the horse's mouth:
http://supportdb.alsoft.com:591/FMPro?-db=alsoftsupport&-lay=main&-max=15&-forma t=AlsoftSupport-qa.html&-script=counter&-token=183&-Skip=96&-find
So it's good you have your data backed up. These are people with the same problem as yours from other Mac forums outside of Apple, and people have provided help and answers as well (most recent posting is at the bottom of list):
http://www.computing.net/mac/wwwboard/forum/2584.html
http://forums.macosxhints.com/archive/index.php/t-1020.html
http://www.macfixitforums.com/php/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=micromat&Number=651219 &page=0&view=expanded&sb=5&o=31&fpart=
http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20070204093925888
Hope those resources help as I didn't have a direct answer for you in regard to "invalid sibling link" from your Disk Utility verification. But of course, as maybe some other people would have picked up on (or not), your hard drive is the issue, and I'm not quite sure at this point if it's hardware or software related (or both), due to the descriptions on how to fix it.
You should be able to repair it though, according to those links. Last/worst case scenario is to get a new hard drive. But see if you can borrow someone's DiskWarrior to diagnose and repair the problem. That should do it.

I have an iMac G5 stuck on the gray screen with spinning gear. I woke up to it being stuck on a blue screen, then force quit and now it's stuck on gray with spinning gear.

I have an iMac G5 stuck on the gray screen with spinning gear. I woke up to it being stuck on a blue screen, then force quit and now it's stuck on gray with spinning gear. Please advise.

If you have a G5 then it's a PPC (Power PC) based iMac, this is an Intel iMac forum. Try the Gray screen appears during startup link for troubleshooting steps. I suspect the HD has crashed.

HT4848 Hi my name is Hajk and i got a friend that has a problem with her macbook, she gets a blue screen and cant log on. So i told her if she had an reinstall disk so that i could reinstall for her but she didn't get one with the macbook. what can she do

Hi my name is Hajk and i got a friend that has a problem with her macbook, she gets a blue screen and cant log on. So i told her if she had an reinstall disk so that i could reinstall for her but she didn't get one with the macbook. what can she do ?

If this is a fairly new Mac running either v10.7 Lion or v10.8 Mountain Lion she can use Lion or Mountain Recovery to repair the startup disk or reinstall OS X.

My iPad is stuck on a blue screen. It will not let me search or navigate between bookmarks. The games all work but Safari is stuck on blue screen

My iPad is stuck on a blue screen. It will not let me search. It is stuck on Google search page. I cannot get out of there or navigate between bookmarks. Can you help me, please.

Hi wolfsong.warrior,
Reset your device: Press down on the Home and Wake/Sleep buttons at the same time and continue to hold them until the Silver Apple appears (no data will be lost). Once the Home screen comes back up, check to see if everything is working correctly now.
Cheers,
GB

Stuck at a blue screen on boot up

When i try to boot into osx it get stuck at a blue screen and the little loading icon will show for a few seconds then go away for a few second and repeats, help is much apreciated

How full is your HD? I had this same problem and the Genius Bar guy thought that the lack of space on the HD led to file corruption during virtual memory swapping. After deleting ~10 GB of files (backed up, of course), I re-installed the OS from the install disk and everything seems fine now.

My computer won't start up it's stuck on the blue screen

my computer won't start up it's stuck on the blue screen

I've researched and I'm doing the internet recovery HD, hopefully I can move on from this situation..

My iphone4 is stuck on a blue screen and will not shut off for restart, I have never dropped or had a problem before....help

My iphone4 is stuck on a blue screen and will not shut off or restart, I have never dropped or had a problem before....help?

Reset the device by pressing and holding the home and power buttons for 15-20 seconds until the white Apple logo appears.

I was updating to snow leapord, now my MacBook has a blank blue screen!

What key combos or buttons can I try to get to bios?

If this is during a restart:
Startup - Blue Screen
Startup - Gray, Blue or White screen at boot, w/spinner/progress bar
Startup Issues - Resolve
Startup Issues - Resolve (2)

New macbook pro 17, gets blue screen after sleeping

Had it for 1 or two months and haven't had any problems. Was just using it and closed it to sleep, and reopened it and it was stuck on the blue screen.
Safe mode won't work. Resetting the PRAM won't work.
What the heck?

Hi,
A flashing question mark appears when you start your Mac
Hopefully something will get your Mac running again.
Carolyn

Mac mini updated now just get blue screen and a spinning wheel

Mac Mini ppc with tiger.
Updated today (safari, OSX and itunes) after freeing up some space by copying files off to a USB drive. After reboot it gets to a blue screen with a spinning "wheel" and stays there for hours, never gets any further. Will boot to command prompt, target disk mode and a set of DVDs borrowed from work (which won't install as they are for iMac!) but not to anything GUI from the hard disk as far as I can tell atm. Disk utility on the DVDs reports no errors on the internal disk.
All was well before the updates. There was one "funny" but I'm not sure if its relevant. During use today the desktop appeared to get bigger than the screen when changing the screen saver to a snow flake one I used last Christmas (with no problems). As the mouse moves around the screen the screen scrolls in the opposite direction (only about 5 pixels) as used to happen in the old days on my PC when the graphics cards supported higher resolutions than the screen did.
Of course, as luck would have it, I can't find my original tiger disks!
Help!

Safe mode likely won't help, but it is achieved by holding the Shift key down during reboot - press and hold down when you hear the chime. It takes a while longer to boot into safe mode than booting normally, and it loads only core MacOS modules.
One issue that was a perpetual risk with installing updates in versions of MacOS X prior to Leopard was the possibility of disrupting prebinding. Prebinding is the process whereby library files are linked to executables, and problems can occur is applications are running (and in active use) during the installation of updates. If prebinding is disrupted, the system can fail to boot after an update, and the blue screen is a common symptom.
IF prebinding is a problem and you can't boot into safe mode, boot into single user mode (hold Ctrl-S during boot from hearing the chime) and then at the prompt, type 'sudo update_prebinding' (no quotes of course) and hit enter. Enter your admin password when requested, and sit back and wait for the command prompt to reappear, at which point the prebinding update is complete - it could take several minutes.
If that doesn't help, your initial post implies you do not have your original install disks - you may however need them, or a retail MacOS installer, because it may be necessary to perform an archive and install on the hard drive.

My Macbook won't boot up because there isn't enough free space for my start up disk. It's now stuck on a blue screen. How am I meant to delete files to free up space if I can't access the computer?

My Macbook won't boot up because there sin't enough free space to run the startup disk. My Macbook now won't go past the blue screen so exactly how am I meant to be able to delete files if I can't access the computer?

Do you have a bootable backup?
What operating system are you running? If OS X 10.6 or lower, boot from your original OS X DVD or a retail OS X DVD and then delete files as needed. Your goal should be to get to 10% of your disk capacity free.
If you have OS X 10.7 Lion or 10.8 Mountain Lion, you don't have many choices in recovery mode (boot holding the command and r keys down).
If you have a FireWire or Thunderbolt connection, you can try target disk mode with another mac.
If none of those work, perhaps your local Apple store can help with a bootable external drive.

MacBook Stuck in Startup Blue Screen, HDD is Spinning

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