MacBook won't boot after resetting memory

Hi
In preparation to upgrade my MacBook's RAM to 2 or 4Gb I took out the existing RAM to see what I had and then replaced it. Now my Mac won't boot properly. It's a dual partion disk (OS X and Vista) and I can boot and run the Vista partition AOK. I can also boot from the Leopard install disk.
When I boot into the Mac partition I get the Apple sign and the spinning pinwheel, then the screen goes light blue and it stops - no mouse, no dock, no nothing. I have to press and hold the power button to switch it off.
In Vista and when booting from the install disk I can run utils that show me clearly there are two 512Mb memory cards installed.
Anyone have any ideas?
I do have a time capsule and time machine running in worst case...
Thanks
Colin

Hmm... so all you did was take out your RAM and put the same RAM back in? Something may have become corrupt in your PRAM. You can find instructions on how to reset it here:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1379
It can sometimes help with problems like this. Also... even though Vista sees both modules, that does not necessarily mean they are fully seated. You may want to try removing them and putting them back in to see if it makes a difference.

Similar Messages

MacBook won't boot after updates

My girlfriend has a black 13" MacBook and we ran updates on it today and after it had installed all the updates and it went to reboot it now won't boot up. It turns on and you see the apple logo but then it comes up with a window saying that it needs to be restarted and in the background there is a few lines of "code." I am a PC user so I am doing my best to help her resolve this problem. I do love my iPhone and iTunes so don't hate me too much haha. I did some research on here and read how to boot up in safe mode and I tried to do this but it didn't work. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

She bought the computer used so unfortunately she does not have the start up disk. She also has not backed up the information on the computer but we are more concerned about getting the computer to work because she cannot afford to buy a new one and she has barely had this one more than a year. The only thing that is connected to the computer is the power cord and the battery is shot so we cannot disconnect the power cord and use the computer. Well I read the instructions on starting up in safe mode so I hold the power button until I hear the obnoxious beep and then hold the shift key down until u see the little gear thing and apple logo. Well I get the apple logo but no gear and then I get the pop up window that I spoke of before telling
Me to restart and there is the lines of "code" in the back ground.

Macbook won't boot after installing Security Update 2008-007 (Intel)

I installed security update 2008-007 (intel) on my MacBook last night using Software Update, but now my machine won't boot at all. All I get is the gray start-up screen with the dark gray apple, but there's no spinning progress bar or anything. After 5 minutes or so, the machine auto-restarts, but again hangs on the gray start-up screen. It does this over and over again until I shut it off. I tried to boot into safe mode by holding down shift right after the chime, but it still wouldn't boot (again, not even a spinning progress bar). Can anyone please help me? I really don't want to lose my photos/movies, etc. I'll backup everything promptly if I can just get it to boot. Thanks.

Hi jared-lee, and again, a warm welcome to the forums!
First for safety, "Try Disk Utility
1. Insert the Mac OS X Install disc that came with your computer, then restart the computer while holding the C key.
2. When your computer finishes starting up from the disc, choose Disk Utility from the Installer menu. (In Mac OS X 10.4 or later, you must select your language first.)
Important: Do not click Continue in the first screen of the Installer. If you do, you must restart from the disc again to access Disk Utility.
3. Click the First Aid tab.
4. Click the disclosure triangle to the left of the hard drive icon to display the names of your hard disk volumes and partitions.
5. Select your Mac OS X volume.
6. Click Repair. Disk Utility checks and repairs the disk."
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106214
This may or may not fix the problem, but may.
Do you have another Mac around?

MacBook won't boot after Software Update

I was installing the updatess for iTunes and QuickTime. The software sucessfully installed and asked to restart. Upon Restarting, my MacBook would not boot.
Nothing is displayed on the screen, but the CD drive checks for a disk and the backlights come on.
I tried the basics, those didn't work. Does any one know a solution?
Thanks

Thanks guys.
I had tried resetting the PMU, booting to safemode (I don't know much about EFI, but I don't think it was even posting to let me have the option of how to boot), opening the command line interface (cmd, opt, o, f), and a few other small things.
I did get it fixed though. Turns out the PMU needed to be reset (I must have been doing it wrong). I think a few OX X files as right-clicking is weird (nothing highlights on the menu as I move my mouse across them) and access vault won't complete the disk saving. I plan on doing a re-install of OS X sometime soon.

Macbook won't boot after Airport update, stuck in single user mode

Wasn't sure what forum to put this in, so I'll start here. After re-imaging student machines from the server, for some reason the new Macbooks no longer recognize they have an airport card. On another machine I download the appropriate Airport software, copy to thumbdrive, and install on student laptop. After required reboot, the Macbook refuses to boot into OS X- I get the grey apple logo, spinning gear, then drops to what appears to be single user mode, with the exception that it seems to be "refreshing" itself constantly with messages appearing for brief moments (too fast to read). It cycles so fast that I can't type anything before it is gone again. If I purposely boot into single user mode, everything behaves as normal, if I mount as fire-wire drive, everything looks good. But I can't get into OS X. Before I brick more student machines, have any ideas?

Some added info, i CAN boot the bricked machine into Safe mode, but at reboot I get stuck in the same cycle again.
Oh, and in SafeBoot, the Macbook still tells me that no Airport card is installed, even though I know it does (and it's not knocked loose or anything).....

Early 2008 Macbook won't boot after 10.7.5 update?

Updated to 10.7.5, when it rebooted to do the install, there was an error message, and now the machine won't boot. Stuck on grey screen with spinning wheel.... reset PRAM, Disk utility says drive is OK... still no luck. ??
Looks like this has hit the news. Any update from Apple? I would take it to the apple store, but there's a mob becuase of the new iPhone, so..... yea.
Apple, please fix this. And bring back Google Maps to IOS while you're at it.

Updated to 10.7.5, when it rebooted to do the install, there was an error message, and now the machine won't boot. Stuck on grey screen with spinning wheel.... reset PRAM, Disk utility says drive is OK... still no luck. ??
Looks like this has hit the news. Any update from Apple? I would take it to the apple store, but there's a mob becuase of the new iPhone, so..... yea.
Apple, please fix this. And bring back Google Maps to IOS while you're at it.

Macbook won't boot after time machine backup

I installed a program on my Mac that was causing some problems so I decided to do a time machine restore. I booted into recovery mode, selected restore from time machine backup and let it run. It finished completely but it gets stuck at the startup screen. I get halfway on the loading bar and it does not progress past there. I've waited up to an hour.
I am running Yosemite on a mid 2009 macbook. I am using a SSD and I know with trim enabled it sometimes won't boot up but I disabled it via terminal.
I've also ran disk utility on my HD and on my external HD. I'm getting no errors on both.
Anyone have any ideas?

If you don't already have a current backup, back up all data, then reinstall the OS.* You don't need to erase the startup volume, and you won't need the backup unless something goes wrong. If the system was upgraded from an older version of OS X, you may need the Apple ID and password you used.
If you use FileVault 2, then before running the Installer you must launch Disk Utility and select the icon of the FileVault startup volume ("Macintosh HD," unless you gave it a different name.) It will be nested below another icon with the same name. Click the Unlock button in the toolbar and enter your login password when prompted. Then quit Disk Utility to be returned to the main Recovery screen.
There are ways to back up a computer that isn't fully functional. Ask if you need guidance.
If you installed the Java runtime distributed by Apple and still need it, you'll have to reinstall it. The same goes for Xcode. All other data will be preserved.
*The linked support article refers to OS X 10.10 ("Yosemite"), but the procedure is the same for OS X 10.7 ("Lion") and later.

Macbook won't boot after ime Machine restore

I powered my laptop on last night and it would not boot. It just sits at the Apple log and spinning disc. I tried the usual recovery options fsck, disk utility, verify disk, etc. They all failed with different errors.
I tried restoring my Mac by booting with the Install DVD and pressing C. When it came up I tried restoring from Time Machine backup (not sure the exact name) It allowed me to select my Time Machine backup drive and proceeded to restore. It said the restore was successful and I needed to reboot.
After reboot it does the same thing. It won't boot.
Additional information: I have also tried a fresh install and it works fine, but then it won't see my Time Machine data to restore from. I figure this eliminates the hard drive as a suspect, and points to Time Machine being hosed up.
The laptop had not been restarted for about two weeks and I know there has been at least one Update since that time. Is it possible that the update broke it and as soon as I restarted it loaded the new broken files? And is it possible that my Time Machine restore is just restoring these broken files?

Yes, thanks this is all helpful information.
I tried restoring to older restore points and the TM restores work fine and the Mac boots up ok. I had to restore three more times to find the most recent backup that would still boot up ok.
Lesson learned here is to make a mental note of when updates are applied as well as when the laptop has been rebooted.
Now I still have two problems.
1. The backup drive only has 11GB free space so I can't really archive the old backup in case something was missed. Any unless I am missing something I can't search the TM backup for ALL files modified after a certain date and then copy them over. This means that I have to browse folder by folder looking for new files and copy them over BEFORE wiping out the old backup and starting a new backup again.
2. TM over WiFi is VERY slow and it will take 3-4 days to get the new backup completed. This makes me nervous knowing I have to delete my existing good backup to make room for the new backup to begin. What if TM fails or some other bad luck happens before the backup is complete.
I guess my big question here is whether there is an easy way of backing up TM connected via USB then move the drive to my APE and continue using WiFi. Last time I looked into this you had to make a copy of the sparse file and modify it. Once again this does not work because there is not enough space for TWO full backups of a 300GB drive with about 200GB of data. I have over 1TB of drives being used for backups of other computers so it's not like I am being cheap and just don't have the space. I have a 500GB for my desktop backup, a 320 for my laptop backup and a 120 for my other laptop backup. guess I could just go throw more money at it and get two 1TB drives so one could be the local backup of all these computers and have the other at an off site location using CrashPlan to also backup all the drives.

HELP: T440s won't boot after unsuccessful memory update

I have a T440s that came with 4GB RAM. Purchased a G.Skill Ripjaws 8GB DDR3L 1600 SO-DIMM (1.35v, PC3-12800, 11-11-11-28) from Newegg and installed in T440s. I did disable the internal battery from BIOS before installed the memory. However, I found my T440s won't even boot. I then tried the memory chip in two other laptops and found this SO-DIMM is defective so it's on the way back to Newegg.
Now my big problem is that my T440s won't boot anymore even with original configurations. Push the power button, there is no response from T440s. However, I do observed LEDs blink. When only use battery, then LEDs give one short blink every few seconds. LEDs will give four short blinks every few seconds if I plug in the wall power supply.
Did I kill my T440s ? Any way that can wake it up or I just need to contact Lenovo for warranty service?
Any help/suggestion is appreciated. Thanks a lot.
Jon

<<It turned out that the defective memory killed the motherboard. >>
The what now?
I'd like to know more about that.

MacBook won't boot after OS 10.5.5 update

I updated OS to 10.5.5. Now the computer will not boot. Get grey screen with spinning wheel. Tried Utility disk repair, hard disk had no problems but could not repair permissions -- spinning ball was continuous.
Used DVD 10.5 and tried an archive and install but that did not work. Message received was 4 minutes left to completion, but the completion never came. The ball was spinning all night and still did not complete the installation.
Would appreciate advice as to how to resolve this.
gripko

I tried an archive and install again and this time it worked. However, I now find I can't use Bluetooth to send files between my MacBook and iMAC. My MacBook OS after the archive and install is 10.5.1. I've gone through the pairing process and the two computers are paired and connected. However, when I try to send a file from my iMAC to my MacBook I get a message saying that "the device does not have the necessary services".
What does that mean?
gripko

Macbook won't boot after mavericks - how to backup to external drive and install new OS

I have a macbook pro - mid 2011 running 10.6.8. Tried to install mavericks and now computer can't boot, constantly restarts. I've tried reinstalling twice and repaired the disk, everything is OK and reinstallation didn't work. I bought 10.8 to install- apple sent me a link via email. How do I backup the drive through an external drive, erase the current drive, and then install 10.8?

You will have to boot from your Recovery HD:
Clone Mavericks, Lion/Mountain Lion using Restore Option of Disk Utility
Boot to the Recovery HD:
Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the menu screen appears. Alternatively, restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD and click on the downward pointing arrow button.
     1. Select Disk Utility from the main menu then press the Continue
         button.
     2. Select the destination volume from the left side list.
     3. Click on the Restore tab in the DU main window.
     4. Select the destination volume from the left side list and drag it
         to the Destination entry field.
     5. Select the source volume from the left side list and drag it to
         the Source entry field.
     6. Double-check you got it right, then click on the Restore button.
Destination means the external backup drive. Source means the internal startup drive.
Install or Reinstall Mavericks or Mountain Lion from Scratch
Be sure you backup your files to an external drive or second internal drive because the following procedure will remove everything from the hard drive.
OS X Mavericks- Erase and reinstall OS X
OS X Mountain Lion- Erase and reinstall OS X
OS X Lion- Erase and reinstall Mac OS X
Note: You will need an active Internet connection. I suggest using Ethernet if possible
            because it is three times faster than wireless.

MacBook won't boot after installing update 10.9.2

Hi there,
After successfully installing the 10.9.2 update on my MacBook Pro, I was able to boot to the updated system once. Then, suddently my macBook crashed and I was unable to boot again.
I managed to find a way to backup my files using the recovery mode and the Disk utility, however this wasn't straightforward to me since I was using FileVault..
Does anybody else have a similar experience with the 10.9.2 update?

The login screen appears as usual, and I am able to put username/password. Then, it fails to login and it returns the user to the login screen without mouse or keyboard working.
I booted using Command Button + S (single-user mode) and I see the error
"error loading mach kernel 0xe"
At least, I am able to boot in recovery mode to backup my disk :-)

MacBook won't boot after trying to repair with Disk Utility. Cannot boot in Safe Mode. Just powers down after about 5 minutes. Apple Hardware Test says error 4SNS/1/40000001:IG0C-0.265 But I cannot find anything on the net about it. MacBook 4,1 Intel.

Hello Everyone,
I am in dire need of assistance I am hoping someone could provide. I have a MacBook 4,1 with Intel Core 2 Duo processor 4GB Ram. It is taking over 10 minutes to boot up past the gray apple screen when I turn it on. First I cleared the PRam (?) then I checked the disk using Disk Utility Verify, and it said the disk needed repairs. So I ran the disk repair and it said it was unable to fix the errors on the HD.
I did a little research and tried booting into the Single User mode, then running /sbin/fsck -fy. It said that it found errors but could not fix them. I ran it two more times as suggested and got the same result each time. I then tried rebooting and now instead of taking 10 minutes to boot up, it takes about 5 minutes on the gray apple screen and then just turns off. I started in Verbose mode to try to troubleshoot the error and it appears the last thing to come across the screen before power down is a message "Apple Yukon 2: RxRingSize <= 1024....etc".
I decided next I would run the Apple Hardware Tester. The test came back with an error code "4SNS/1/40000001:IG0C-0.265". I am very good at searching the web but I could not find any errors that had the IG0C or IGOC or any combination at the end, but plenty of 4SNS/1/40000000(1) errors with different endings. From what I can tell people are saying anything with 4SNS/1/4000000 is a logic board failure, but this computer was literally just booting this morning until I did the /sbin/fsck -fy.
Any suggestions are welcome and appreciated.
Thank you for your time.

You've a couple of issues .... when Disk Utility tells you it can't repair a drive, if the error is a soft error, like an invalid tree or node, Disk Warrior (or TechTool Pro) can handle it. However, if Disk Warrior (or TechTool Pro) can't handle it, you can erase and write zero's to the hard drive and restore to it, or you can buy a new hard drive. Sometimes running SMART Utility can provide additional insight into the health of the hard drive.
THe 4SNS error is a sensor error. You could install iStat Pro to see if something is indeed getting too hot or remaining room temp or less. You may need to take it into an Apple shop so they can use their thermal diagnostics to test and isolate it further.

Macbook won't boot after forcing CD to eject

I've had my Intel Macbook for about a year now, with no problems until yesterday, when my sister inserted a blank CD with a plastic label still on it. The CD got stuck in the CD drive and it kept making this clicking noise everytime I tried to eject it. Trying and failing every method of ejection I could find on Google, I tried to physically force the disc out of the drive using a credit card to first stop the disc from spinning as the Macbook booted up and then kind of flicking it out (which worked)
Then I turned it off and on again and it will now only get to the grey wheel spin with the Apple logo and just loop forever - a problem which I've never had before. Now and then it will get to an empty plain blue screen and just hang forever. A command + v boot showed a lot of text which ended with "(Error) Server: mdsync launch failed: (ipc/send)" being repeated over and over.
I know that them problem must be related to the CD drive somehow as that is all I messed around with. I think I must have pushed the credit card into the CD drive too far, but I can't work out why it would have effected the boot, as if I had damaged anything it could have only been the CD drive as it is seperate from the rest of the Macbook - is there some kind of hardware protection that locks one out from the system if you mess with the H/W? I also tried Command-Option-O-F boot and holding the power button for 5 seconds while the Mac is off - both of which didn't work. Has anyone experienced anything like this before?
Thanks in advance for any help you guys can offer!

Have you tried to boot with your alt/Option key pressed to bring up the System Picker?

MacBook won't boot after Snow Leopard Updatel

I installed the 10.6.3 update today and after the "installation complete" message and subsequent restart, my computer would load the gray screen. That's where the normal boot up would end. It would then switch to the blue loading screen followed by the Nebula login screen. But then it would loop between those two screens every 20 seconds or so. Occasionally on the nebula screen the login box would appear but if I tried to type or click anything I'd get the dreaded spinning beachball of death followed by a flicker and a return to the blue screen. Is anyone else experiencing this? I've tried booting into safe mode which does nothing. I booted from the disc and "repaired" the disc with no luck. Is here any fix I can do without having to erase and reinstall snow leopard?

Try downloading the "conbo" update and running that. If that does not work, run your install DVD without erasing the drive. That should do an automatic A&I and get you going again.
Dave M.
MacOSG v.2.0 coming April 1, 2010! No fooling! Check it out!
 MacOSG: An Apple User Group  iTunes: MacOSG Podcast  Follow us on Twitter: MacOSG

MacBook won't boot after resetting memory

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for