Major problem - Stuck on white screen after chime

Alright, long story short, I tried to install bootcamp, I got the partition and everything and it rebooted to the win XP blue screen install thingy.. I formatted the drive (thinking it was the drive bootcamp created) and I think I probably formatted OS X's drive, so I quit installing XP. So now when I start my iMac, I just hear the chime and I am stuck at the white screen, probably because I have no OS.
I want to reinstall OS X (I just got my mac, nothing to lose) but I cannot seem to be able to boot from the install CD no matter what I do...
Anyone know what I should do? I tried holding C, option-C, apple-option-C, everything while restarting with the OS X cd in.
I will have a OSX-less christmas at this rate
On a normal PC I would just go into the BIOS and boot from CD but I don't know how that works on a Mac... HELP!

Welcome to Apple Discussions. Sorry about your Mac-less holiday!
An FYI, Macs don't use Bios, they use the more modern Extensible Firmware Interface (EFI).
Just an idea for you. There is an entire Apple Discussion forum dedicated to Boot Camp and Windows XP.
Whereas, not everyone here with an Intel iMac has installed, tried to install or has experience with BC & XP, everyone there has or at least has an interest. You may attract help more quickly there. And that would be where the Boot Camp pros hang. This has probably happened to others.
The Forum is at the bottom of the main Apple Discussions page under Windows Compatible Technology.
Here is a link;
Forum: Boot Camp Public Beta
Good luck!

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IMac will not boot. Stuck at white screen after chime.

I am starting a new thread this because it seems that other people with this problem are able to get their Macs working with some sort of keyboard combination on boot. I am not. Nothing is working. My computer is currently a 27 inch brick... Actually a lamp, since it is frozen on a really nice white screen.....
Installed Yosemite on my 27" iMac (early 2010, i7) when Yosemite came out a couple weeks ago. Everything was working fine but it wouldn't read my external drive, so I did a reboot. After the reboot, it freezes on the white screen after the chime. No keyboard combinations work to get it to do anything....also, if I hit the power button it shuts off immediately.
Nothing is working to get it moving. And yes, I am using a usb keyboard, not the Bluetooth, to try to hit any of the keyboard combinations posted in various discussions.
My AppleCare is expired, so I'm going to be very upset if I have to go pay to have Apple fix their problematic software. Any help you guys can give will be greatly appreciated.
Thank you,

See if you can boot into the Safe Mode using your normal account. Disconnect all peripherals except those needed for the test. Shut down the computer and then power it back up after waiting 10 seconds. Immediately after hearing the startup chime, hold down the shift key and continue to hold it until the gray Apple icon and a progress bar appear and again when you log in. The boot up is significantly slower than normal. This will reset some caches, forces a directory check, and disables all startup and login items, among other things. When you reboot normally, the initial reboot may be slower than normal. If the system operates normally, there may be 3rd party applications which are causing a problem. Try deleting/disabling the third party applications after a restart by using the application un-installer. For each disable/delete, you will need to restart if you don’t do them all at once.
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My Mac boots and after the spinning wheel at apple logo vanishes it gets stuck on white screen..
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White screen after chime.

Hey guys,
A friend told me her laptop was screwed so I said I would have a look at it. If it was a software issue it would be fixed already. However, I turn the laptop on, I get the chime, and then the white screen stays stuck. I have tried all the keyboard combinations, nothing new comes up. I put in a Windows disk to see if I could boot into anything but nothing then and now that the disk is stuck in there, I can hear it whirl up for a bit.
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Boy that is way too bad.
Could you tell us what the error message was?
While sometimes the error messages are not very informative, other times they are. That might be a clue as to what is going on.
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HTH

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Hello zacmon,
Thanks for using Apple Support Communities.
From your post I see that your Mac will not boot past the gray screen, even after doing the troubleshooting steps you've mentioned. There are still some steps to complete in the article linked to below, starting with removing any third-party RAM.
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Have a great weekend,
Alex H.

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To get the stuck cd out of the sick Mac, reboot holding the trackpad button down, this should force a hardware eject.
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I don't know if this will write to the EFI parititon or not, replacing the hosed up mess there or not, you'll find out.
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White Screen after start up chime and Apple logo, any common issues/reasons?

Hi all,
I have a 2011 quadcore i7, 4GB RAM MacBook Pro which has recently and suddenly developed this annoying fault. A perminant white screen after the Apple logo and spinwheel. I have removed the hard drive (from my early 2011 MacBook Pro) and did a clean install of Lion (10.7) and I know the harddrive is fine and functional as my Mac Pro is able to boot from it and works perfectly, put the same drive back into the MacBook Pro and same, start up chime - Apple Logo - Flash, screen stays white. So its not Harddrive and most likely not a software problem (as the drive has been whiped and OSX reinstalled.) Any thoughts that it may be a bust motherboard or graphics card?
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Hi all,
I have a 2011 quadcore i7, 4GB RAM MacBook Pro which has recently and suddenly developed this annoying fault. A perminant white screen after the Apple logo and spinwheel. I have removed the hard drive (from my early 2011 MacBook Pro) and did a clean install of Lion (10.7) and I know the harddrive is fine and functional as my Mac Pro is able to boot from it and works perfectly, put the same drive back into the MacBook Pro and same, start up chime - Apple Logo - Flash, screen stays white. So its not Harddrive and most likely not a software problem (as the drive has been whiped and OSX reinstalled.) Any thoughts that it may be a bust motherboard or graphics card?
Already tried:
Safe Boot
Single-user Mode
Verbode Mode
Resetting the NVRAM/PRAM
Wiping and installing OSX
Disc recovery
Internet Recovery
Many thanks in advance

IPod 4th Gen has white screen after replacement, and restore

Okay. Here's the problem. A while ago, I dropped my iPod, and it's screen cracked. I've been living with it ever since perfectly, but just with a cracked screen. Now, I ordered a new screen, and I begin to replace it. I knew how, and like an easy job, I did it pretty quick compared to others. After both ribbon cables where in, I pressed the lock button, and my iPod had a white screen. I was a little worried about that, so, I tried to reattach the screen. Now it was just black, after even using the home and lock button restart method. Eventually I got it back up and to the white screen by draining the battery and recharging, and there I was again, stuck. I looked at some forums on the internet to try to see if anyone had my problem. After clicking on the first link, it turns out, alot of people had this problem as well as me. The solution they said was pressing the home button and lock button for about 10 or so seconds, and then it goes to the apple screen and is all better again. I tried it, and my home button broke. Great. So, now I had to use the little button that the home button was pressing down to try the solution. Tried it, and, nothing. Still the blank, plain, white screen. Looked some more and saw that pressing the home and lock buttons along with the volume up button worked for some people too. Tried it, worked just as good as the previous one. Nothing. I even tried some person's idea of doing home, then volume up, then lock, in different timed stages. Nothing. I also saw people begging for them not to restore their iPods and begging for a solution. I was fine with a restore, I just had games that I played on my iPhone as well. So, I went with it, and restored it, without any backups, just going to factory mode. Afterwards I heard my iPod make the iOS "plugged in" sound, and anxiously tried the lock button. Still had the white screen. STILL. Now, I'm here, begging for a solution like others, with an iPod that won't function properly. Can someone please help me?

No nothing like that happened, I'm sure, but I actually spent the day looking for a fix. Luckily, I had the idea of taping the spring down because I though the screen didn't touch it. Turns out I was right, but however, I found out that the screen I ordered was broken in a way, because it still had the white screen after the taping. Just to make sure, I tried the other screen to clarify if the taping worked or not. I did the home and lock button restart, and up popped the apple logo. So, that means that the screen I got from the seller was either a rip-off, or was just broken somehow in process of making, or delivering in some matter. Unfortunately, I think I can't ship it back unless for alot of money because the person I got it from comes from China. I live in the USA. So that's gonna be a matter to work with myself. Thank you for trying to help.

My MacBook Pro won't go beyond a white screen, after I pushed the restart button. How can I get it to a login? I have routinely backed it up, but don't know how to bring that up, nor if I have a boot file on that external disk. Help!

My MacBook Pro won't go beyond a white screen, after I pushed the restart button. How can I get it to a login? I have routinely backed it up, but don't know how to bring that up, nor if I have a boot file on that external disk. Help!

Take each of these steps that you haven't already tried. Stop when the problem is resolved.
To restart an unresponsive computer, press and hold the power button for a few seconds until the power shuts off, then release, wait a few more seconds, and press it again briefly.
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.” The article refers to starting up from a DVD, but the procedure in Recovery mode is the same. You don't need a DVD if you're running OS X 10.7 or later.
b. If Step 1a fails because of disk errors, and no other Mac is available, then you may be able to salvage some of your files by copying them in the Finder. If you already have an external drive with OS X installed, start up from it. Otherwise, if you have Internet access, follow the instructions on this page to prepare the external drive and install OS X on it. You'll use the Recovery installer, rather than downloading it from the App Store.
c. 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.
d. 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 the technique in Step 1b, 1c, or 1d 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 a desktop Mac hangs at a plain gray screen with a movable cursor, the keyboard may not be recognized. Press and hold the button on the side of an Apple wireless keyboard to make it discoverable. If need be, replace or recharge the batteries. If you're using a USB keyboard connected to a hub, connect it to a built-in port.
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 in OS X 10.9 or earlier, or if a firmware password is set, or if the startup volume is 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 11. 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
If the startup device is an aftermarket SSD, it may need a firmware update and/or a forced "garbage collection." Instructions for doing this with a Crucial-branded SSD were posted here. Some of those instructions may apply to other brands of SSD, but you should check with the vendor's tech support.
Step 10
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 11
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 12
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 13
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.

Major problem - Stuck on white screen after chime

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