Macbook won't boot past gray screen.

Macbook will not boot past the gray screen with the Apple logo. I tried booting in Safe Mode... tried booting to the Leopard install DVD (can hear it spin)... tried resetting the PRAM... all to no avail (hangs on the gray Apple screen... no progress indicator). I am able to connect to the hard drive via Firewire from my MacPro no problem. Just to make sure, I also tried swapping the hard drive for the original hard drive that it came with (upgraded hard drive 2 yrs ago) but it did not make a difference, still did not boot.
Not sure what else to try, any suggestions?

Thanks for all the replies. I do think it is probably the logic board. Unfortunately the nearest Apple store is about 3.5 hours away from me and from what I've read online the price to put a new logic board in by them is around $700... that's about $300 shy of a NEW 13" Macbook! I am finding used or new logic boards for sale online for around $350 to $450.
The reason it seems that it is the logic board is like I previously said in the opening thread that it would not boot to two different hard drives that I put in the Macbook, nor would it boot to the install disc that I put in the Superdrive.... "tried booting in Safe Mode... tried booting to the Leopard install DVD (can hear it spin)... tried resetting the PRAM". Being able to connect to the Macbook's hard drive from a MacPro via a Firewire gives me reason to believe the hard drives are not the problem.
Now I guess I'll have to make a decision as to whether or not to shell out cash during this weak economy for a new Macbook or scrounge for components for a 4yr old laptop.
Any final last words for me?

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Computer won't boot past gray screen

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G4 Power Mac won't boot past gray screen

I have a mirror door g4 power pc that had been having some issues with not turning on, and after testing the power supply, it failed miserably. We placed a refurbished power supply in it from a company in New York and the computer was working wonderfully. I went on a cruise last week and went to turn the computer on for the first time in a week and a few days. The CPU turns on, the unit chimes, the fan turns on and the computer starts to boot up, but it won't boot past the gray apple logo screen.
Actually, the first few attempts to boot it resulted in a blue screen with gaint apple logo and spinner; it wouldn't advance further. After several restarts and resets, I got it to come up into the normal gray screen. On several attempts it wouldn't boot further than this. On two occasions now though, it has moved past the gray screen to normal operation (it takes about an hour for it to get to that point though) but with some kind of errors. I get the side bar, but the gray panel on to with "file" ect is gone and my HD icon never comes up. The icons on the sidebar do not respond when clicked.
The computer will not boot from the OS X disc.
What's going on, hard drive? Virus? Something else?

You likely have hard drive directory issues or worse.
Virus is just a hopeful whimsy.
No virus.
I hope that you have a backup of your data.
Try a Safe Mode boot. This forces system repair of the directory (if possible).
Hold Shift while starting to enter Safe mode. Be patient, as it can take several minutes to complete.
Failure to boot to the OS X disc is not good. A severely damaged drive can prevent boot while connected.
Disconnect your boot drive and try booting to the OS X disc.

MacBook won't boot past grey screen

Today I was using my MacBook 2008 aluminum, and I ran out of battery so the system shut down the computer to save the files. I plugged in my computer to start it up but the screen turned grey for a while. I shut down my computer and turned it on and it started up to the grey login screen but it won't let me boot passed it. I have tried to get passed it in safemode but it did not work. I have tried to repair my hard drive and my permissions and reinstall osx lion but it didnt work. Can any one help?
Thanks!

Work through this knowledge base article about Mac OS X stuck at the gray screen during startup and see if it helps.

Won't boot past gray screen

I recently tried to upgrade RAM from 2x256 MB to 2x512 MB (PNY PC133 SODIMM 133Mhz). This worked at first and checking "About this Mac" indicated 1GB of RAM. But trying to use Safari or Firefox would freeze the computer and I'd have to hold the power button to reset. I put the original RAM back and now I can't get past the Gray Screen with spinning gear. I'm stuck at this screen with either set of RAM in. I tried to boot with the Apple Hardware Test disc, which worked and showed that everything was working fine (Logic Board, HD, & Memory included). Any suggestions?

thunderable and fantast1cdan
It sounds like both of your PowerBooks are suffering from a failed internal hard drive. If you have a cloned, fully bootable, backup on an external FireWire hard drive then try starting up from that. If that works then it suggests the PB's logic board is alright and the problem is most likely to be the hard drive.
If the failure is due, perhaps, to a software corruption then DiskWarrior might be able to resurrect it by repairing the directory.
On the other hand a complete erase and 'zero all data' might sometimes help as it will map out any bad blacks that are on the drive. Obviously to do this you need to be able to startup using the original installer disc - but that does not seem possible at the moment.
Alternatively if you have access to another FW-equipped Mac then try using FireWire Target Disk Mode to see if the drive can be accessed.
thunderable
Unable to eject properly, I unplugged the external drive and was able to reboot and get almost to the logon screen, but it wouldn't go any further. Since then I cannot get past the gray screen with the Apple logo and spinning circle.
Are you referring to the internal hard drive when you say that you were able to reboot almost to the login screen? Or were you trying to reboot from the external drive?
2.0GHz MacBook, 15" 1.25GHz/12" 1GHz PBs, 2xPPC Mac minis, 12" iBook G4, Mac OS X (10.4.8) Cube, 2xTAMs, iPod 4G & nano 2G, 1G & 2G iPs, AEBS, AX

Macbook won't boot past gray/light blue screen- Help!

Hello,
I've had my Macbook for two years (no problems until now). I was using Safari, and suddenly, my screen froze and strange whirring noises were emitted from the laptop. I manually shut down the computer, then tried restarting a minute or so later. However, the only screen that comes up is gray/light blue- there are no icons present at all. No programs load, even after a few minutes.
So far, I have removed the HD and connected it to another computer via external enclosure. Everything seems to be fine from that end- the HD mounted and all of my files were present. I tried insert the OS X install disk, but the disk does not appear to be recognized. I have also tried using safe mode, but nothing. Now I can't even eject the disk from the laptop.
Does anyone have any ideas? Thanks in advance...

The boot sector of the drive is fine or you'd never get to the gray/blue screen.
fligex is correct in the fact that a sector or two may be corrupted. Most of the time you can run "repair permissions" and "Repair Disk" with disk utility and it will fix the problem. Unless the drive is just dieing then the problem will come back or it just will not boot again.
This is why you need to boot from install DVD, another Mac or and external drive with OSX installed.
You cannot seem to get the install DVD to boot. Unless you take it to an Authorized Apple repair you are just going to be in limbo until you can get one of the above listed to work.
Did you ever get the DVD out of the drive?
I can only offer the same suggestions from before, I'll give them again just for grins.
1. The install DVD (a gray dvd) has to be the same DVD that was shipped with that Mac. Unless you have a retail DVD (a black DVD) in which can see OSX on that disk cannot be older than the OSX that shipped with the Mac. If these are not followed then the Mac may not boot from the DVD.
2.Sometime you PRAM and or SMC can get into a state that needs to be reset. They can cause many sporadic problems and the Mac not booting is one of them, and the Mac not ejecting the DVD is another. This is why it is important to make sure that they get reset, and properly.
Pram:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1379
SMC:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1411
3. You can boot from an external drive that has OSX install, by the following.
Plug the external drive into the Mac, then power on the Mac and immediately press and hold the "option" key until the Startup Manager appears. Select the external drive from the GUI interface and press the right arrow button on the lower right bottom of the screen. This will force the Mac to boot from that drive. At this point you can run disk utilities from the external firewire drive against the internal Mac drive.
4. You can also put your Mac (with the disk install) into Target Disk Mode. Then plug the TDM Mac into another Mac with a firewire cable. Then TDM will populate on the desktop of the other Mac as an external firewire drive at which point you can run the disk utilities against the external (TDM Mac).
5. Since you had the drive out you could easily put it into an external enclosure and plug it into another Mac to run the disk utilities against it.
Good luck...

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

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

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

Macbook won't boot past white screen

My girlfirend's 2009 macbook aluminum unibody ((Leopard 10.5.x) is having a problem booting up. Initially I ran Onyx on it and it said it needed a disk repair. I ran a quick hardware test and it came back ok. I ran Disk Utility off of the cd and it said the repair failed. I believe the message was "invalid node, repair or verify failed." I tried it 3 times. When I went to quit disk utility and restart, it stayed on the white screen with the spinning wheel for a few minutes then the screen went blank. I tried to restart several times, always the same. I have tried resetting PRAM. I tried starting in Safe Mode but it wouldn't. I finally went to reinstall the OS but when it gets to the screen where I have to choose a drive, there is no drive in the screen to select. I don't have Disk Warrior, so can't try that. I'm thinking to remove the hard drive and get the data off of it onto my computer, then to erase her drive and start from scratch. Does anyone have another idea before I go through this?Thanks for the help.

If your OS X installer disc is no longer usable then you can arrange to purchase a replacement by calling AppleCare Customer Service.
Have you tried reformatting the hard drive? If may not require replacement unless the drive has truly failed.
Extended Hard Drive Preparation
1. Boot from your OS X 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.
2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Note the SMART status of the drive in DU's status area. If it does not say "Verified" then the drive is failing or has failed and will need replacing. SMART info will not be reported on external drives. Otherwise, click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID (for Intel Macs) or APM (for PPC Macs) then click on the OK button. Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.
4. Select the volume you just created (this is the sub-entry under the drive entry) from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
5. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, check the button for Zero Data and click on OK to return to the Erase window.
6. Click on the Erase button. The format process can take up to several hours depending upon the drive size.

My iMac won't boot past grey screen and it didn't come with a os x disk

My iMac won't boot past grey screen with apple. I've tried booting in safemode but that didn't help and my iMac didn't come with a os x disk.

Take each of these steps that you haven't already tried. Stop when the problem is resolved.
Step 1
The first step in dealing with a startup failure is to secure the data. If you want to preserve the contents of the startup drive, and you don't already have at least one current backup, you must try to back up now, before you do anything else. It may or may not be possible. If you don't care about the data that has changed since the last backup, you can skip this step.
There are several ways to back up a Mac that is unable to start. You need an external hard drive to hold the backup data.
a. Start up from the Recovery partition, or from a local Time Machine backup volume (option key at startup.) When the OS X Utilities screen appears, launch Disk Utility and follow the instructions in this support article, under “Instructions for backing up to an external hard disk via Disk Utility.”
b. If you have access to a working Mac, and both it and the non-working Mac have FireWire or Thunderbolt ports, start the non-working Mac in target disk mode. Use the working Mac to copy the data to another drive. This technique won't work with USB, Ethernet, Wi-Fi, or Bluetooth.
c. If the internal drive of the non-working Mac is user-replaceable, remove it and mount it in an external enclosure or drive dock. Use another Mac to copy the data.
Step 2
If the startup process stops at a blank gray screen with no Apple logo or spinning "daisy wheel," then the startup volume may be full. If you had previously seen warnings of low disk space, this is almost certainly the case. You might be able to start up in safe mode even though you can't start up normally. Otherwise, start up from an external drive, or else use either of the techniques in Steps 1b and 1c to mount the internal drive and delete some files. According to Apple documentation, you need at least 9 GB of available space on the startup volume (as shown in the Finder Info window) for normal operation.
Step 3
Sometimes a startup failure can be resolved by resetting the NVRAM.
Step 4
If you use a wireless keyboard, trackpad, or mouse, replace or recharge the batteries. The battery level shown in the Bluetooth menu item may not be accurate.
Step 5
If there's a built-in optical drive, a disc may be stuck in it. Follow these instructions to eject it.
Step 6
Press and hold the power button until the power shuts off. Disconnect all wired peripherals except those needed to start up, and remove all aftermarket expansion cards. Use a different keyboard and/or mouse, if those devices are wired. If you can start up now, one of the devices you disconnected, or a combination of them, is causing the problem. Finding out which one is a process of elimination.
Step 7
If you've started from an external storage device, make sure that the internal startup volume is selected in the Startup Disk pane of System Preferences.
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. Post for further instructions.
Safe mode is much slower to start and run than normal, and some things won’t work at all, including wireless networking on certain Macs.
The login screen appears even if you usually log in automatically. You must know the login password in order to log in. If you’ve forgotten the password, you will need to reset it before you begin.
When you start up in safe mode, it's normal to see a dark gray progress bar on a light gray background. If the progress bar gets stuck for more than a few minutes, or if the system shuts down automatically while the progress bar is displayed, the startup volume is corrupt and the drive is probably malfunctioning. In that case, go to Step 10. If you ever have another problem with the drive, replace it immediately.
If you can start and log in in safe mode, empty the Trash, and then open the Finder Info window on the startup volume ("Macintosh HD," unless you gave it a different name.) Check that you have at least 9 GB of available space, as shown in the window. If you don't, copy as many files as necessary to another volume (not another folder on the same volume) and delete the originals. Deletion isn't complete until you empty the Trash again. Do this until the available space is more than 9 GB. Then restart as usual (i.e., not in safe mode.)
If the startup process hangs again, the problem is likely caused by a third-party system modification that you installed. Post for further instructions.
Step 8
Launch Disk Utility in Recovery mode (see Step 1.) Select the startup volume, then run Repair Disk. If any problems are found, repeat until clear. If Disk Utility reports that the volume can't be repaired, the drive has malfunctioned and should be replaced. You might choose to tolerate one such malfunction in the life of the drive. In that case, erase the volume and restore from a backup. If the same thing ever happens again, replace the drive immediately.
This is one of the rare situations in which you should also run Repair Permissions, ignoring the false warnings it may produce. Look for the line "Permissions repair complete" at the end of the output. Then restart as usual.
Step 9
Reinstall the OS. If the Mac was upgraded from an older version of OS X, you’ll need the Apple ID and password you used to upgrade.
Step 10
Do as in Step 9, but this time erase the startup volume in Disk Utility before installing. The system should automatically restart into the Setup Assistant. Follow the prompts to transfer the data from a Time Machine or other backup.
Step 11
This step applies only to models that have a logic-board ("PRAM") battery: all Mac Pro's and some others (not current models.) Both desktop and portable Macs used to have such a battery. The logic-board battery, if there is one, is separate from the main battery of a portable. A dead logic-board battery can cause a startup failure. Typically the failure will be preceded by loss of the settings for the startup disk and system clock. See the user manual for replacement instructions. You may have to take the machine to a service provider to have the battery replaced.
Step 12
If you get this far, you're probably dealing with a hardware fault. Make a "Genius" appointment at an Apple Store, or go to another authorized service provider.

Oh, shoot! My MacBook won't boot! Silver screen is all I see!

Oh, shoot! My MacBook won't boot! Silver screen is all I see

Try a PRAM reset:
Shut down your Mac.
Locate the following keys on the keyboard: Command (⌘), Option, P, and R. You will need to hold these keys down simultaneously in step 4.
Turn on the computer.
Press and hold the Command-Option-P-R keys before the gray screen appears.
Hold the keys down until the computer restarts and you hear the startup sound for the second time.
Release the keys.
Any unusual noises coming from it?

Intel iMac will not boot past gray screen

Intel iMac will not boot past gray screen
my system:
new (month old) 24" intel imac, 2.8 ghz, 4 gb ram.
running: leopard (upgraded from tiger, which was pre-installed at purchase), installed 10.5.1 update right before this huge problem occurred.
install discs on-hand: two-disc tiget set, single leopard upgrade disc.
what led to this:
i wanted to install windows using bootcamp on a 50 gb partition.
at this point i was running leopard 10.5
i followed all bootcamp instructions, printing out the guide, as well. once i got into the windows setup, i was prompted to choose a partition to install windows. unlike the bootcamp guide, which showed three partitions, one clearly labeled "bootcamp", i saw only one partition. not wanting to risk writing over my mac partition, i quit the setup and rebooted the mac os. after some googling around, i looked for firmware updates (didn't need any), and then software updates. i decided to try updating to 10.5.1.
i then ran through boot camp again, deleting my previous windows partition, creating a new one, and moving forward as before. once again, i was only shown one partition to choose from in the windows setup. i exited the setup again to reboot through the mac os, but this time, i was only given a blank gray screen.
here's what i have tried so far:
booting from a CD, holding down the C or D keys: no response (in fact, i have to restart the computer holding down the mouse button to be able to eject the CD)
booting with option key held down: gray screen
booting with option key held down with external bootable firewire drive attached: the firewire drive appears as a boot icon, and i can click on it within a five second window, but then the screen freezes after that time period, and nothing changes
booting into target mode while attached to another mac: gray screen (no firewire icon, and drive never shows up on other mac)
resetting NVRAM: i'm able to hear the boot chimes, but no difference in performance. gray screen every time
Safe boot: nothing but a gray screen
Verbose mode: gray screen
Single user mode: gray screen
Single user mode with firewire drive attached: occasionally (not every time), i am able to get the white on black terminal to show up. from here, i'm able to run fsck, but it appears to only be checking the firewire drive. i have tried several times to boot from here, and once it took me to a blue screen with movable arrow cursor, but it never went beyond this.
is there anything else left to try before taking it to apple?
any help would be greatly appreciated.
thanks,
Casey Burns
Casey Burns Illustration and Design
http://CaseyBurns.com

I'd call Apple support at this point. You'll need
to put this issue on the record.
Call U.S. iPod and Mac technical support: 1-800-APL-CARE (1-800-275-2273)
The wait may be long for an agent to come on the line
so expect that and have some other stuff to do in the meantime.
If you have the applecare protection plan, I'd ask about "onsite"
service.
I like your work ! Good luck !
Slim
Message was edited by: slimpikkunz

IMac Does not boot past Gray Screen

iMac does not boot past Gray Screen. 2008 24" Intel iMac running Mountain Lion with 1TB hard drive.
Problem started yesterday while I was web surfing, and my iMac frooze and shutdown. I rebooted and could only get as far as the gray screen.
On bootup the following things happen:
Startup tone
Gray screen with Apple, and gear spins below Apple.
Once the gear stops spinning, nothing happends.
Troubleshooting steps I have tried:
removed all devices connected to iMac and rebooted, but same symptons occur.
booted into Safe mode and run disk utilites.
     Disk Utilities found no errors on the drive, but did find two permission issues that it was able to fix.
          First permission issue:
                   "Group differs on library; Should be 0; group is 80"
          Second permission issue:
                    "Permissons differ on library; Should be drwxr-xr-x; They are drwxrwxr-t"
Disk Utilities says it fixes these issues and then I reboot, but get the same problem.
I reboot back into Safe Mode and run Disk Utilities and it discovers the same problems listed above with Permissions. It says it fixes them, I reboot, but the same problem occurs. Its as if we are stuck in some sort of loop process.
Booted into Single User Mode and ran the following command:
     /SBin/fsck -fy   it reports back, Volume Apprears to be ok.
I reboot, same issue !
Performed SMC Reset, Rebooted, same issue
Performed PRAM Reset, Rebooted, same issue.
Booted into Recovery Partitioin (Command R) and ran disk utilities. It found the same permission issues listed above. It fixed them. I rebooted. Same problem still.
While in safe mode, I preformed a full time machine backup.
I am out of ideas. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Hello,
I reboot back into Safe Mode and run Disk Utilities and it discovers the same problems listed above with Permissions.
You can ignore repeated "fixes" it's not really a problem, if it says completed repairs that's all that's needed.
Luckily it boots in Safe Mode, here's basically the steps to try to find out what it is...
One way to test is to Safe Boot from the HD, (holding Shift key down at bootup), run Disk Utility in Applications>Utilities, then highlight your drive, click on Repair Permissions, Test for problem in Safe Mode...
PS. Safe boot may stay on the gray radian for a long time, let it go, it's trying to repair the Hard Drive
Reboot, test again.
If it only does it in Regular Boot, then it could be some hardware problem like Video card, (Quartz is turned off in Safe Mode), or Airport, or some USB or Firewire device, or 3rd party add-on, Check System Preferences>Accounts>Login Items window to see if it or something relevant is listed.
Check the System Preferences>Other Row, for 3rd party Pref Panes.
Also look in these if they exist, some are invisible...
/private/var/run/StartupItems
/Library/StartupItems
/System/Library/StartupItems
/System/Library/LaunchDaemons
/Library/LaunchDaemons
Though I'm suspecting some corruption to your OS at the moment.

My MacBook won't boot past the grey screen.. help!

Today I was having a problem with Safari. For some reason, it kept restarting. This annoyed me, so I restarted my MacBook. Unfortunately, it won't boot past the grey screen, with the thing spinning in the middle. I've been into disk utility and it says my HDD is fine. I restarted from this, and yet it still won't boot. Can anyone suggest what's wrong/what to do?
Thanks in advance

Retrieving data using Target Disk Mode:
1) Shut down both computers
2) Connect the two computers using a Firewire cable
3) Start up the working computer.
4) Once the working computer is ready, startup your MacBook with the T key held down.
5) Your MacBook's hard drive should appear as an external hard drive on the working Mac. Drag & drop any files you want to save.
~Lyssa

Macbook won't boot past main apple screen

I was using my computer this morning (13" black Macbook that I've had since December) and it was working fine until I closed it to go get something to eat.
When I got back and opened the lid again, the screen was black, as if it was off, but I could make out the outline of the Apple logo in the centre. So I turned it off, gave it some time and turned it back on. Now it won't boot past the main Apple screen, where the little timer thing spins and spins and spins while apparently nothing else happens.
I left it alone for a couple of hours, thinking maybe it was overheated, but that didn't make a difference. I tried taking the battery out and restarting it, but that didn't work either. I called Apple, but my parents opted for Future Shop's warranty instead of Applecare, so they told me to search the website as "the issue is well-documented," since I have no tech support with them.
I've searched around to see where this is posted or if it's been answered a billion times before, but it's 35C in here, and my rage/frustration are ruining my ability to be rational, haha.
Anyone experienced this before / is there a resolution that doesn't involve me being without my computer (which is like sweet, sweet crack to me) for an undisclosed amount of time?
Thanks in advance,
Emy
Oh, and I'm not sure about the operating system version beyond that it's OSX and I regularly install whatever updates they tell me to.

Maybe Disk Utility can repair the disk this way:
-Search your installation DVD's.
-Insert the disc 1 and sthut down your Mac
-Start your Mac again while holding down the C key
-Now your Mac should boot from the CD, this can take some time.
-After a while you will see a installation screen where you can chose a language.
-Chose English and continue.
-Then click some time's next and agree with the "Software Agreement".
-Open Disk Utility. Top menu bar --> Utilities --> Open Disk Utility.
-Select your hard disk in the list of disks and volumes on the left side
-Go to the First Aid (tab somewhere on the right).
-Click the button to verify the permissions.
-Then Click the button to repair the permissions.
-Click the button to verify the disk.
-Then Click the button to repair the disk.
-Exit the Disk Utility

PowerBook G4 won't boot past blue screen

I've read a couple of posts with similar problems. The jist is, I did a security update/restart earlier and now my laptop won't boot past the blue screen after the white screen with the gray apple. I think I'm on Mac OS 10.4.11 but I had it on auto-update so that could be incorrect.
I've booted from the install disk and run a diagnostic from the First Aid bit in the Disk Utility. It says that there are no errors found and the S.M.A.R.T. status says "verified" as well. It won't let me boot into Safe Mode (although, I could be doing that wrong as I'm not exactly clear on how to do it - pressing S doesn't seem to do anything, but if I press Command + S it takes me to a text listy thing and I've run the "fsck -f" system check (which seems like the same as the disk utility check?) from there and also gotten the "volume is ok" message. There was also a suggestion to run some kind of diagnostic after booting with the D key from the install disk, but I was never able to get the disk to boot from the D key, only the C key.
I'm sure that this is kind of the "same song, different verse," kind of post, but I've not read about volumes registering as okay. I'm a little wary of a archive-and-reinstall as I've not ever done that before (so, if that's the suggestion you have, I would really appreciate loads of specifics on how that works so I don't mess up!)
I've read in several instances suspicion of a hard drive problem but I've not had any slow downs or any crashing. I did travel to the UK for about 10 days, but I didn't even change the time zone on my laptop while there, so I don't think that's it (but I suppose it could be.)
Lastly, I did recently replace my keyboard. A few keys had become non-responsive so I replaced it and have had the new keyboard for a bit over a month.
Suggestions? Ideas? Sorry if it's a repeat post -- just felt like the circumstance was a teensy bit different. And also, thanks very much for any info you can give.

Linsey:
If you can boot your computer into Firewire Target Disk Mode and you have access to a second Mac that supports firewire, you may be able to back up items that have not been backed up previously.
If you are able to back everything up successfully, and you have tested your backup to be sure it is sound, then we can proceed with re-installation of the OS. The best option is to completely reformat and erase the HDD and then install the OS from disk. (I will post complete step by step directions). This will enable you to start with a clean slate/HDD. Your other option would be to use the Archive and Install option. Think it over and let me know how you want to proceed.
cornelius

Macbook won't boot past gray screen.

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