? mark in file icon on iMac

A ? mark has appeared in a file icon on screen, this has happened once before and I cannot recall how I fixed this last time, help would be appreciated

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Where do you see the file? If it's in the Dock, just drag it off the Dock and it will be removed

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Power book G5 flashing ? mark with file icon !

My power book G5 is showing a flashing ? mark in the middle of a file icon, it doesn't want to respond to any disk's or function keys, please help.

I might add, here is an image of the machines known as the PowerMac G5:
A very similar Mac which is not a G5, is called a Mac Pro:
Note the extra drive bay on top for the Mac Pros.
iMacs came in both G5 and Intel models and are both white in appearance. To tell the difference between those two, you need to read the EMC model on the foot, and use Apple's article here:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1463?viewlocale=en_US
Powerbooks and iBooks are both clearly indicated what machine processor they are under the screen. If your 4 or 3 key is broke, feel free to use Roman numerals:
III is 3
IV is 4
It is very important you state which Mac model you have, so we can tell you what article can better identify your Mac so we can troubleshoot your problem further.
Message was edited by: a brody

Question mark on "file icon" appears on startup screen

I need some help, when I turn on my iMac 9 out of 10 times it makes a "clicking" noise and then a "file icon" with a question mark on it appears, it doesn't start. Some times it starts just fine, please let me know if there's a solution. Thanks in advance...

Welcome to Apple Discussions
First do you have and iPod or external HD connect, if so disconnect them and restart to see if that helps.
If not use the article in link below to help you repair your startup volume from the Install Disk 1 that came with your iMac.
[Mac OS X - Using Disk Utility to Repair a Disk|http://kb.wisc.edu/helpdesk/page.php?id=3810]
Message was edited by: den.thed
Hi elmac an OS X reinstall is a little drastic at this point in time, shouldn't the OP try to repair it first!
Dennis

Question mark in file icon

In the middle of class my friends macbook froze and shut down. Upon restarting it for her, the blue screen flashed a question mark in a folder icon. Listening closely, there seemed to be a clicking noise coming from the hardware. The computer is a 3 year old macbook.
This has happened twice to me, both times with my MBP. Each time I had to completely replace my HD and I lost everything. Could this mean anything differently for her? Losing 6 months of law school notes and outlines isn't really an option at this point so if she is going to lose the HD is there any way to save any of the files?
Thanks for any help.

Back up, back up, back up your data. For crying out loud, who in their right mind, going to law school, would not take the time and spend a little money on a back up hard drive?
It does sound like the HDD is dead.
Good Luck.
Adam

White screen with file icon and Question mark after a kernel panic???

I'm using my girlfriends 20" iMac and her computer keeps having kernel panics. And then at times when we restart the computer, we get a white screen with a file icon and a question mark inside. Any ideas on what to do???? Her graduation project is on that computer and she is stressed like you wouldn't believe. Safe to say, I'm taking the brunt of it. Please help!!!

It sounds like you might be having a hard drive problem. The folder icon with question mark means the computer can't find a startup drive/system folder. I suggest that you back up all important data, especially her project. Before bringing it in for service, run the Apple Hardware Test - put in your original system restore DVD and restart the computer, holdng down the "D" key. Run the extended diagnositics (it will take over an hour (depending on how much RAM you have) and will tell you if there is anything wrong with your hardware. If it dinds a problem then you can take it to the nearest Apple authorized service provider to check it out.

Blinking file icon with question mark at startup

my computer sort of froze so i forced restarted it (second time i've done that in its one year lifetime) and when it started back up the screen displayed a file icon with a question mark blinking on and off every two seconds. eventually the fan started humming too. i have since forced restarted it twice with the same results. any ideas on why my darling will not start properly?

My MacBook Pro did the same thing last night, and I don't think this is good news.
So far I have:
-Reset PRAM and PMU
-Startup from install disks and run Disk Utility. DU doesn't even see the drive! Even Target disk mode doesn't reveal the drive.
-Archive and install; the installer doesn't see the drive
None of these worked, and from reading on other disussions, it looks like it is a hareware problem. I will be going to the Applestore this afternoon when I get off of work to see if they can fix it.

Flashing File Icon with Question Mark Upon Start-Up

Today when I went to use my computer (which was already on) it went blank and then came up with a gray screen with a flashing file icon with a question mark in the middle of it. I have already troubleshot things with several forums online and nothing has worked. I have tried to restart in Safe mode, single user mode, verbose mode, and tried to get on using my option key which got me to an internet login screen finally. I tried to log in and eventually got to an apply.com/support screen with -1007f underneath. I am not 100% which operating system I am on. I know that it is Mac OS X and pretty recent. Please respond if you can help!

Reset the SMC and PRAM
Intel-based Macs: Resetting the System Management Controller (SMC)
About NVRAM and PRAM
To boot from DVD:
Press C during startup
Start up from a bootable CD, DVD, or USB thumb drive (such as OS X install media).

How do I fix flashing question-mark-file-icon issue on reboot?

My Mac Book Air 11" has been a bit strange recently, so I decided that a full clean would be a good idea. I had no important files I wanted to keep, so i went ahead and reinstalled the OS. Apparently that doesn't delete everything, so I did some research. Apparently I have to delete the drive. So I did, using the command-r method. I erased my HD and made a new one, but upon reboot I get this flashing-question-mark-file icon. How do I fix this?

After you erased the drive, did you install the OSX?
Ciao

My mac is flashing a file icon with a quetion mark when i start it up

When i start up my mac book pro it flahes a file icon with a question mark on it and stops there. Please help.

The MBP is having problems connecting to the HDD. Look at this support article:
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2570
Ciao.

White screen with flashing file icon with question mark mean

What does this mean. We are getting a white screen with flashing file icon with question mark inside the file.

It almost certainly means it can't find a bootable volume (one with OS X on it).
Which means most likely you will have to find your original system installation DVD and install it. Then you should figure out what caused the problem.
Read this to diagnose it before resorting to reinstalling the OS:
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1440
Excerpt:
Additional steps
If your Mac still starts to a flashing question mark, follow the steps below. If any step resolves the issue, you don't need to continue to the next one.
Select your Mac OS X startup disk with Startup Manager by restarting and holding the Option key. After your Mac starts up, restart again to verify that the flashing question mark does not appear.
If the issue persists, insert your Mac OS X installation disc. 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.
MacBook Air note: On a MacBook Air, there are two options for starting up from Mac OS X media: Either connect a MacBook Air SuperDrive to the MacBook Air via the USB port and restart the computer, holding down the C key during startup, or use Remote Install Mac OS X to startup from a system software DVD that's located on a partner computer. Once started up from Mac OS X media, skip to step 3.
Restart the computer, then hold the C key during startup.
From the Utilities menu, choose Disk Utility. Don't click Continue.
Select your Mac OS X disk (named "Macintosh HD" by default) in the left side of the Disk Utility window.
Click the First Aid tab.
Click Repair Disk to verify and repair any issues with your Mac OS X startup disk.
After repairing the disk, try to start up normally.
Important: If Disk Utility finds issues it cannot repair, you may need to back up as much of your data as possible (or use Time Machine to back up to a different disk), then erase the disk and reinstall Mac OS X. You should back up important files and data before erasing a drive. Erasing deletes everything on the hard disk (including things on your desktop). Also, you can install Mac OS X onto an external disk, start from the external disk, and use Migration Assistant to transfer items from your usual internal Mac OS X startup disk to the external disk, then erase the internal disk and reinstall Mac OS X.
If the issue persists, and Disk Utility didn't find any irreparable issues, quit Disk Utility, quit the Installer, select your disk when prompted, and restart.
If the issue continues, reset PRAM. Note: After resetting PRAM, if the computer starts up normally, reselect the startup disk in the Startup Disk preferences.
If none of these steps resolve the issue, start up from the Mac OS X Installation disc and reinstall Mac OS X.

Flashing file icon w/ question mark at start up

My MacBook had been working fine on Tiger since I bought it last august, and a few months ago I installed Leopard, which also worked great except for safari freezing up every once in a while. But today when I tried to start it up and the blue screen appeared, it stayed like that for about ten seconds, and then a flashing file icon with a question mark appeared. I have no idea what it means, I can't make it startup. I've turned it on and off a few times, hoping for the best, but nothing. This computer is not even a year old, any help?
Thanks in advance.

Welcome to the Apple boards:
Your first hint that something was wrong was when Safari started freezing.
You may have a bad HD or at least one that is going bad.
Boot into the Leopard DVD and in the menu select Utilities and disk utility and repair HD and permissions.
See if that helps.
You may need more powerful tools such as DiskWarrior to repair the drive if it's flaky.
If the computer is less than a year old, you may be able to get it fixed at a local Apple store.

I have an iMac with OS x 10.8. Every folder t hat opens has (in the gray zone on top) file icons and jpg photos listed. How do I remove them?

I have an iMac with OS x 10.8. Every folder t hat opens has (in the gray zone on top) file icons and jpg photos listed. How do I remove them?

Control-click each and choose Remove Item, or Command-click them and drag them out.
(85250)

Macbook air mid 2013, I erased my HD and while downloading the OS screen went of and when I switched back on I get a file icon with a question mark.

I erased my HD and while downloading a new screen went of.When I switched on again there was a file icon with a question mark

restart holding down command+r, you'll be able to reinstall your OS here

Got a white screen with flashing file icon

Why do I have a white screen with flashing file icon with question mark inside?

It means your iMac cannot located a valid system to boot.
Insert the CD that came with the iMac and allow it to boot. Once it gets the point where it's offering to install the OS, go to the top menu and choose diskutility. Perform a repair on the main drive "Macintosh HD".

[SOLVED] Can't get rid of a wine-polluted text file icon [KDE]

Hello folks,
For some reason, my KDE system likes to use a Wine program based icon for all text files when I'm using a Faenza theme. The problem occurs only for my user (not root) so I think this is an user-specific issue.
I've already checked .local/share/icons folder for matching icon images. I found one which was named "text-plain.png", being equally the same "W-space" icon image as shown in the picture below. Thus I removed this png file from all necessary subfolders (22, 24, 32, 48...), so as far as I can think, there should not be any traces for the old icon image left. I've already re-checked all folders which I think are relevant to the issue. In addition, I've updated icon cache by using gtk-update-icon-cache and kbuildsycoca4 --noincremental commands. However, the system seems to disagree with me and the annoying icon appears still in text file icons.
The problem appears practically like in the following picture:
W-space icon image is very likely related to Adobe Photoshop which I've installed on my PlayonLinux installation (.PlayonLinux/wineprefix/photoshop). I still don't understand by which logic the system decides to use this W-space image for text files.
I wonder if I need to take further steps to get rid of this annoying icon. Am I missing something? All I want is that KDE would use basic Faenza icon for text files. Any hints are welcome!
Thank you!
Last edited by Fincer (2014-09-30 11:30:43)

Allright, this was, after all, a very simple issue. As expected.
I simply removed file /var/tmp/kdecache-fincer/icon-cache.kcache, rebooted the system and all icons are fine now.
Topic marked as solved.
Last edited by Fincer (2014-09-30 11:30:58)

? mark in file icon on iMac

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