MacBook will only boot up to a blank screen

I have an old black MacBook (model A1181) that has been rock solid for the past eight years up until last week. My computer locked up, so I did a hard restart, it then booted up to a grey screen with a file and question mark. So I attempted to reset the PRAM without success and then I attempted to boot it up from the original install disc but it stopped even booting to the grey screen and was just a blank screen. A few years ago I doubled the RAM, so in an attempt to rule out the RAM i put the originals back in, but no luck still just a blank screen and I can hear what I believe in the disc drive engaging. So, after some forum surfing I thought I may have been the hard drive. I order a new drive http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136279 and installed it but it is still a no go, just the blank screen. Ultimately I don't care about the data loss I just want the computer back up and running, if you have any ideas let me know.

Sometimes electrical components needs to have all power sources removed and reintroduced to work properly. Try performing a hard reset first, if it doesn't work then we'll move to the next step.
To Perform A Hard Reset
Shut down the computer by going to the Start menu and selecting shut down. (If you have no display, hold the power button down for 5 seconds); (if the computer doesn't power on, move to the next step)
Disconnect the AC Adapter from the notebook.
Remove the battery from the bottom of the notebook. There will be a switch/button to eject the battery.
Wait at least 1 minute with all power sources disconnected.
Re-insert the battery and reconnect the AC Adapter and then attempt to power on the notebook.

Similar Messages

My MacBook will not boot up past the white screen and rotating circle

Tried to start up my MacBook. Can't get past the white screen and rotating circle. Left it on for 10 min. same results. Any solutions before I bring it in for repair? Thanks.

Zap the pram
Maybe wait longer and see if it does anything or if anything comes up.

My macbook will only turn on to a blue screen how can i restart it so it turns on to the home screen?

So last week my macbook froze and wouldn't respond. So i restarted it and now the computer wont turn on past this light blue welcome screen with a thinking sign. Any recommendations?

That folder with the question mark icon means that the MacBook can't find the boot directory. That can either mean it can't find the hard drive or the Operating System data on the hard drive is somehow corrupted.
Put your install DVD into the optical drive (CD/DVD drive) and reboot. Be sure to either use the disc that came with your Mac, or, if you installed a later Mac OS X version from disc, use the newer disc. As soon as you hear the boot chime, hold down the "c" key on your keyboard (or the Option Key until the Install Disk shows up) until the apple shows up. That will force your MacBook to boot from the install DVD in the optical drive.
Or if you are running 10.7 Lion, boot from the recovery partition (Command +R on boot) and use Disk Utility to repair your OS 10.7 partition.
When it does start up, you'll see a panel asking you to choose your language. Choose your language and press the Return key on your keyboard once. It will then present you with an Installation window. Completely ignore this window and click on Utilities in the top menu and scroll down to Disk Utility and click it. When it comes up is your Hard Drive in the list on the left?
If it is, then click on the Mac OS partition of your hard drive in the left hand list. Then select the First Aid Tab and run Repair Disk. The Repair Disk button won't be available until you've clicked on the Mac OS partition on your hard drive. If that repairs any problems run it again until the green OK appears and then run Repair Permissions. After repairing use Startup Disk from the same menu to choose your hard drive for restarting from your hard drive.
If your hard drive isn’t recognized in Disk Utility then your hard drive is probably dead.

My MacBook will only turn on to a grey screen with a file and a question mark flashing on the screen

When I turn my MacBook on a grey screen with a file and question mark in the center of the screen flashing. What can I try to
get out of this screen?

That folder with the question mark icon means that the MacBook can't find the boot directory. That can either mean it can't find the hard drive or the Operating System data on the hard drive is somehow corrupted.
Put your install DVD into the optical drive (CD/DVD drive) and reboot. Be sure to either use the disc that came with your Mac, or, if you installed a later Mac OS X version from disc, use the newer disc. As soon as you hear the boot chime, hold down the "c" key on your keyboard (or the Option Key until the Install Disk shows up) until the apple shows up. That will force your MacBook to boot from the install DVD in the optical drive.
Or if you are running 10.7 Lion, boot from the recovery partition (Command +R on boot) and use Disk Utility to repair your OS 10.7 partition.
When it does start up, you'll see a panel asking you to choose your language. Choose your language and press the Return key on your keyboard once. It will then present you with an Installation window. Completely ignore this window and click on Utilities in the top menu and scroll down to Disk Utility and click it. When it comes up is your Hard Drive in the list on the left?
If it is, then click on the Mac OS partition of your hard drive in the left hand list. Then select the First Aid Tab and run Repair Disk. The Repair Disk button won't be available until you've clicked on the Mac OS partition on your hard drive. If that repairs any problems run it again until the green OK appears and then run Repair Permissions. After repairing use Startup Disk from the same menu to choose your hard drive for restarting from your hard drive.
If your hard drive isn’t recognized in Disk Utility then your hard drive is probably dead.

After putting laptop hibernate, It will not boot, or post. Blank screen

After putting my Touchsmart tx2 to hibernate, I came back to turn it on and all that happens is the lights light up, the fan spins and nothing else. There is no post, no boot, and no screen action at all.
HELP
I need this really bad for school and am not happy about this

Hi
Please find the link given below might help you to fix your issue.
How to Troubleshoot Problems When a Computer Does Not Start Up or Boot Properly
Resolving Problems with Sleep and Hibernate Mode windows 7
Let us know how it goes!
"I work for HP."
****Click the (purple thumbs up icon in the lower right corner of a post) to say thanks****
****Please mark Accept As Solution if it solves your problem****
Regards
Manjunath

My macbook pro will only boot in safe mode

Hey,
I have a macbook pro 15-inch, Early 2011 running osx 10.9.4. I have a SSD hard drive that i installed myself a year ago and hasn't shown any defects. Its a 120 gb OCZ-AGILITY3.
My problem:
My macbook will only boot in safe mode nowadays. I have done a complete erasion of my hard drive and installed osx mavericks twice already. After the installation the computer will safely go to the desktop. But if i then do a reboot it won't get further than after the first apple logo, sometime the turning wheel will pop up, before turning off and trying again. i have tried resetting PRAM, I have tried resetting SMC, i have tried avoiding SMC (with big fan rate), but all with no success.
I have done a complete hardware test (the longer one) and it showed "no troubles found".
My guess is that the problem is with the battery. My computer won't run anymore without the adapter, when i pull the adapter out it either stays on for a while before just turning off. Without having it plugged in it won't start. Is it possible that during normal start up there is some kind of communication with the battery that can cause this?
I ran a diagnostic shown in this thread (Will only boot in safe mode) and included it in this post.
Hope someone can help me out.
Thanks,
Bram
Start time: 17:07:42 08/25/14
Model Identifier: MacBookPro8,2
System Version: OS X 10.9.4 (13E28)
Kernel Version: Darwin 13.3.0
Boot Mode: Safe
Time since boot: 10 minutes
Battery
Condition: Replace Now
Diagnostic reports
2014-08-25 UserEventAgent crash
Log
Aug 26 00:41:52 Previous Shutdown Cause: -128
Aug 25 16:23:38 smb1_treeconnect_internal: Malformed tree connect with a bad word count! wc= 2
Aug 25 16:24:05 process rpcsvchost[94] thread 917 caught burning CPU! It used more than 50% CPU (Actual recent usage: 99%) over 180 seconds. thread lifetime cpu usage 100.014147 seconds, (82.533432 user, 17.480715 system) ledger info: balance: 90006319931 credit: 100003230498 debit: 9996910567 limit: 90000000000 (50%) period: 180000000000 time since last refill (ns): 90079246240
Aug 25 16:25:50 smb1_treeconnect_internal: Malformed tree connect with a bad word count! wc= 2
Aug 25 16:58:05 jnl: b(1, 3): replay_journal: from: 9340928 to: 9773056 (joffset 0x37a000)
Aug 25 16:58:05 jnl: b(1, 3): examining extra transactions starting @ 9773056 / 0x952000
Aug 25 16:58:05 jnl: b(1, 3): txn starting at 9773056 (9773056) @ index 80 bnum 2696544 (8192) with disk cksum != blhdr cksum (0x93b69228 0xc647562)
Aug 25 16:58:05 jnl: 0x662b0000 0x451b0000 0x2a0001ff 0x40000000 0xd7330300 0x46001d00 0x6c006f00 0x65006400
Aug 25 16:58:05 jnl: b(1, 3): restarting journal replay (9340928 - 9773056)!
Aug 25 16:58:05 jnl: b(1, 3): replay_journal: from: 9340928 to: 9773056 (joffset 0x37a000)
Aug 25 16:58:05 jnl: b(1, 3): journal replay done.
Aug 25 16:58:06 Previous Shutdown Cause: -128
Aug 25 16:59:26 smb1_treeconnect_internal: Malformed tree connect with a bad word count! wc= 2
Aug 25 16:59:59 smb1_treeconnect_internal: Malformed tree connect with a bad word count! wc= 2
Activity
CPU: user 17%, system 4%
CPU per process: WindowServer (UID 0) is using 30.5 %
launchd
/System/Library/LaunchAgents/com.apple.AirPortBaseStationAgent.plist
- com.apple.AirPortBaseStationAgent
Contents of /System/Library/LaunchAgents/com.apple.AirPortBaseStationAgent.plist (XML document text)
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
<key>Label</key>
<string>com.apple.AirPortBaseStationAgent</string>
<key>EnableTransactions</key>
<true/>
<key>LowPriorityIO</key>
<true/>
<key>LimitLoadToSessionType</key>
<string>Aqua</string>
<key>POSIXSpawnType</key>
<string>Background</string>
<key>LaunchEvents</key>
<dict>
<key>com.apple.distnoted.matching</key>
<dict>
<key>com.apple.airport.agent.prefschanged</key>
<dict>
<key>Name</key>
<string>com.apple.airport.agent</string>
</dict>
</dict>
<key>com.apple.bonjour.events</key>
...and 21 more line(s)
Spotlight: Indexing and searching disabled
Font issues: 11
Wi-Fi
link auth: wpa-psk
Restricted files: 1
Elapsed time (s): 278

Actually it sometimes gets a little further, the display will dim and the pointer will appear and then whoop it will turn off. if i do a verbose start up, it will finish all the steps, the white screen will appear and dim and then it will turn off.

Brand new MBP will only boot to blue screen

Help!
Worked fine for about an hour or two and then completely locked up. I had to do a forced shutdown to get it to turn off.. But now it will only boot to this weird blue screen with just a cursor.
Any ideas?

Actually, for a brand new machine a clean install is not a bad idea.
The original disc images are copied in bulk. The tiniest little glitch can cause later problems. It really doesn't add that much time to the initial setup process and you can also discount it as a cause if the problem re-occurs.
You should not have to do a clean install again.

My Internal HD became corrupt and it would not boot up so I installed My osx onto a new HD via usb and then inserted into my macbook pro but it wont boot up. It will only boot up if i connect via usb how can i boot it as an internal HD?

My Internal HD became corrupt and it would not boot up so I installed My osx onto a new HD via usb and then inserted into my macbook pro but it wont boot up. It will only boot up if i connect via usb how can i boot it as an internal HD?

Shootist007 wrote:
If the system won't boot from the new drive the OP bought and install OS X on it it certainly won't boot from the original drives Recovery HD partition.
Sorry genius.....but if the Recovery disk shows up that means the disk cable isn't bad. Could be he did have a screwed up HDD and when he put the NEW HDD in (after putting the OS on it via USB) the computer didn't reconize it and therefore didn't boot the OS. Just maybe right genius? Don't rush to criticize someone's recommendations until you realize other possibilities. (I did say "if it does")
Thank you

T43 Will not boot. Only Fan is running. Blank screen Any ideas?

Will not boot and blank screen. Only Fan is running. Blank screen Any ideas?
Solved!
Go to Solution.

if you connect an external screen does anything appears?
this is most likely a GPU failure.
Regards,
Jin Li
May this year, be the year of 'DO'!
I am a volunteer, and not a paid staff of Lenovo or Microsoft

I received the following message while i was on my macbook air "you do not have enough space in your start up disk - you must delete some files"-restarted; only got startup noise then blank screen. turned off tried to turn on no noise no screen load. thx

i received the following message while i was on my macbook air "you do not have enough space in your start up disk - you must delete some files"-restarted; only got startup noise then blank screen. i waited for a few minutes to see if it would load - nothing just the lit up screen but nothing loaded - held power button it asked did i really want to turn off - i selected shutdown -turned off and left it off for awhile tried to turn on no noise no screen load. the same lit up screen but nothing loading. please help thx in advance if anyone can offer some suggestions

You can get there from here (booting normally); it just may take you a few steps to do it.
If the disk is almost full and the system won't boot then sometimes it will boot in Safe Mode.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1564?viewlocale=en_US
Empty the trash after it boots.
Then for hints on how to free disk/SSD storage see https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5872318?tstart=0
If the Safe Mode boot does not do the trick then you can install OS X on an external hard disk, boot from that, and then delete files. You can also reach the disk via Target Mode. A third option is to take it to an Apple store where they can do a network boot and help you remove some files.

How do I stop my MacBook from ONLY booting in Safe Mode

I have a new Intel MacBook with 512 Mhz of Memory. My granddaughter loaded about 8 programs from the dock all at the same time. Now, the computer will only boot up in safe maode. Does anyone know how I can get the machine to boot up properly? And yes, I have turned it off and on normally to see if this would fix the problem - but no luck. Help!!
MacBook Mac OS X (10.4.8)

"Now, the computer will only boot up in safe
mode."
In my earlier response I assumed that you booted into
safe mode by holding down the Shift key during
startup.
Upon reconsideration, I'm wondering if you meant
instead that the computer boots into safe mode by
itself, without your holding down the shift key. If
so, this would indicate that the computer suspected
some inconsistency in the filesystem and is booting
into safe mode in an attempt to repair the damage.
This repair can take some time. Are you allowing it
10-20 minutes to finish the task?
If so, and it still won't reboot into regular mode,
then you probably should start the computer from the
Installation Disc by inserting the Disc before
shutdown and then holding down the C key during
startup.
Don't actually install anything, but use the menu at
the top to run DiskUtility on the hard drive. Tell it
to "Repair Disk".
Sorry I didn't see this post before I responded to your first one. Yes, this is exactly what is happening. I am not holding down any key to force it into safe mode - it's doing that all by itself. I will try the 10 - 20 minute repair time as you suggested. What will I see happening after this period of time has elapsed? Does it matter if my screen goes into "sleep mode" before the 10-20 minute time is up? And then, if this doesn't work, I'll try your other suggestion using my installation disc.
Thank you!!!!

Macbook will not boot up after running Software Update

My MacBook will not boot up after running Software Update (Security update + Java?) earlier today. I have only the gray start up screen + Apple logo + gear wheel constantly rotating. I have tried restarts several times and tried to start up from my original system DVD - this makes no difference.
I called Apple support, tried resetting the power and PRAM - still no difference. He had no knowledge of other problems reported; although I note recent post may have same issue.
I cannot get an appointment at my Apple Store before Monday.
Any suggestions?

Still no success. When I hold down the option key when powering up I get the hard disk icon plus arrowhead (only). When clicking the arrowhead it goes to the gray screen + apple logo+ rotating gearwheel.
This happens both with DVD in slot and without DVD. the DVD image is not coming up on screen. When I start up without DVD the hard disk icon appears promptly. When I start with DVD in the DVD is spinning for a short period before the hard disk icon appears. On clicking the arrowhead to hard disk icon the DVD spins again for a while then stops. Apart from the DVD spinning, both situations result in gray screen + apple logo+ rotating gearwheel.

After updating Airport software, Macbook will not boot

I see others have updated with the new Airport software without incident, but not me.
I just ran software update to install the Airport update (hoping it would cure the problem I've had -- and other users as well -- with the connection dropping every 5 minutes with Linksys routers [check the Airport discussion board for much discussion of this]).
After installing, upon restart my Macbook will not boot fully. I get the Apple symbol, then the spinning gear symbol, then a light blue screen and that's it. After a while the fan comes on.
Call it the light blue screen of death.
All was working fine until the update.
I have boot camp and I can boot into Windows.
I have tried removing the battery and resetting the PRAM. No help.
Sigh... Applecare is closed so I cannot call until Friday morning. Anyone have any suggestions of what I can try?
I have my Mac hard disk backed up from a few days ago using Super Duper on a USB drive but I am reluctant to try booting from it as I fear corrupting the drive. Unfortunately I don't have my Mac system CDs with me as I am away from home at the moment.
I just switched to the Mac 6 weeks ago after 3.5 years with a Dell laptop. Never had a single problem like this in all that time. But I still like my Mac.
PD

Well, I spoke too soon. Last night I was able to start up as described above, but this morning when I tried to start it did not even get to the Mac symbol. It just hung at a dark blue screen for several minutes.
Tried restarting with the shift key held down but it would not go into safe mode. Just the dark blue screen.
Resetting PRAM made it startup.
But I'm pretty nervous about this.
So, is there a way in Mac OS X to roll back to the system before the update? In Windows XP this is very simple under System Restore. I have the impression OS X doesn't have this feature and won't until next year with Time Machine.
And I see now I'm not the only user with this problem.
PD

My computer will only boot off it's drive in safe mode

Short Story...
My computer will only boot in safe mode and in normal mode displays grey apple that turns into a grey cross. Surface scan in techtool pro 4.5.1 passed
Long Story... (all the issues I've had as they are all back to back and most likely cause by what sloved the previous one).
When i first got my macbook i already had a 500gb hdd in my macmini running 10.6 (or 10.6.1 I forget) and as soon as a had the macbook running off this drive it would give me one error for each and every movie file that was visible (in an open folder or on the desktop) saying quick look helper had unexpectedly quit. I tried everything and for some reason ended up changing all the permissions on the computer which royally screwed it up. anyway after repairing permissions in disk utility the error messages stopped but shortly after start up it was giving me a couple of dozen error messages saying something about .kext's (if requested i can supply full text of this error message) so i tried reinstalling the OS and since in 10.6 there is no archive and install (without messing around in terminal) i just ran the snow leopard disc which brought me back to 10.6 then I upgraded to 10.6.2 and restarting a couple of times over a day or so. After a few restarts I found the computer wouldn't start (it chimed, loaded up the apple symbol and loading wheel and then after a few minutes replaced the apple symbol with a crossed circle) I tried running the snow leopard disc again and this time not upgrading but after about 3 restarts the same thing happened. now i can only start up in safe boot mode or off my backup drive which still displays a few dozen of the .kext errors at start up. Sorry about the length of this description I would appreciate absolutely any help or ideas.

Tezz wrote:
Short Story...
My computer will only boot in safe mode and in normal mode displays grey apple that turns into a grey cross. Surface scan in techtool pro 4.5.1 passed
I would try troubleshooting your problem [using the steps given by Apple here|http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1892].

Will only boot to a circle with a slash

MacBook Pro will only boot to the circle with a slash symbol. I have tried all the turn on hold C, X, Option key suggestions and have tried the clearing ideas (hold cntl, commmd, p, r). Have put the system disk in to boot from that, now I cannot get the disk out.
Any suggestions out there?

Your computer is not recognizing your hard drive. Plug a mouse in and hold the mouse key down when booting. The disc should eject. Next, make sure the disc is real clean with no finger prints or scratches on it. Then try booting from it again (by holding the "C" key down) when booting. See if your Disk Utility sees the drive and run that. If it does not, or the unit will not boot from the install disc, then you have a serious problem--possibly logic board-related. You could also try running DiskWarrior and see if that will boot and repair the drive.
Dave M.
MacOSG Founder/Ambassador  An Apple User Group  iTunes: MacOSG

MacBook will only boot up to a blank screen

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