MBP Stuck on Blue Screen - Backing Up?
Yesterday afternoon, I was doing normal work on my (almost two year old)MBP, and at one point I did something that would certainly be taxing (opening up a GarageBand file + browsing the iTunes store + opening a new window in Safari at the same time) but not enough to warrant it freezing. I restarted the computer, and now, what happens is that it spends a lot of time at the gray apple and spinning gear, goes to the "Starting Mac OSX" window, which loads about halfway before going to a blue screen that flashes a spinning gear every few seconds.
I read this article regarding the symptoms, but I am cautious because it is intended for 10.3.9 and earlier (I have 10.4.11).
I am familiar with the method of putting in the Mac OSX install disk and booting it from there, but instead of booting up, it goes straight to asking me if I want to install Mac OS X. None of my files are backed up (I know, I know, that's stupid of me), and I know reinstalling carries some risk of wiping out my hard drive. My question was whether that risk is great enough for me to back up my files, or if I should just chance it.
Also, safe boot won't work. I'm not sure if I'm doing it right, but the gray apple and spinning gear appear at different times so I don't know when to release the shift key.
Thanks for any help!
I left my macbook plugged in over night, we're now going on 14 hours of this blue screen with the spinning wheel/symbol. Anyone?
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MBP stucks on blue screen on login, even after complete reinstall
Hi everyone!
This is REALLY driving me nuts. Three days ago, I found one of my MBP apparently on sleep but with fans running full speed and unable to wake up. As usual, when this happens I just force it to turn off but this time after the Apple logo (OS loading) I got stuck on a blue screen before the login window.
*What I already have DONE trying to solve this (please read)*
- PVRAM reset
- SMC reset
- Full check with Disk Utilities (no problems)
- Started on verbose and single-user mode and done almost everything there (fsck, checking console.log, etc…)
- FULL OSX REINSTALL, erasing every partition (even "zeroing" the disk) and installing from external drive (installing from DVD didn't seem to work, but the optical drive is fine). Still same problem.
*Other symptoms*
- After waiting like 5-10 minutes on the blue screen, it shows the login window just fine and I can login. From there everything seems to work OK. I can use my computer "fine"
- OSX loading (gray screen with the Apple logo) takes forever
- Mac doesn't wake up from sleep
- It runs quite hot
- I can boot in safe mode, but the auto-check at the start of that mode doesn't solve the problem
- When it is stuck on the blue screen, no cursor is shown. If sleep mode kicks in, the computer freezes on the login screen, can't do anything.
At the beginning I said that one of my MBP was affected. Well, one day after the EXACT SAME happen on my OTHER MBP, EXACT same symptoms. (MBP 4,1 and 3,1 both on 10.6.6)
I think this could be a corrupt firmware (remember this happens even with the complete reinstall) or a really weird hw failure or something beyond the OS.
As you can read, I can use my computer (both). I'm writing this on it in fact. But I can't fully fix it and I have spend almost entire days on backups, possible fixes, forum browsing… really this makes my days a living **** (not kidding!)
Please help me! Thanks in advance (And sorry for my english and the long post!)nachX00 wrote:
HD is almost empty. 10 GB out of 320 used.
Retail SL
Well, neither of those should be the issue.
Can't check the FW ports, as I don't have a FW cable (they are somewhat hard to find on my city)
The reason I ask is because there have been a few cases here where the initial boot process was searching and searching for a FW port, but the port was dead, and it caused long delays similar to yours.
No, no new HD or RAM, but is not stock HW (upgraded RAM and HD several months ago, never a single problem on either computer).
RAM may be suspect. Have you updated software recently? Some RAM can be compatible with an earlier OS, but then out of spec after an update. If you have the original RAM, I would put it back in and see if that's the issue. If issue persists, try removing one of the modules and booting; if that doesn't work, swap the module into the other slot. Repeat with other RAM module. This will troubleshoot the RAM and both slots.
There also seem to be a growing number of issues with non-Apple-branded HDs, so I'm not sure that can be ruled out. If you have original HD, and the time to put it in, and you want to get to the bottom of this, you may want to give that a try. -
MBP stuck on blue screen with spinning loading icon during update to 10.6.7
I have a mid-2010 model Macbook Pro 13inch, 2.4ghz/4gb ram
I've been scouring apple forums and even reddit and my googlefu has yielded no such luck. Basically, System Update has been yelling at me for a few weeks now to upgrade to 10.6.7 (among other updates) and I've been putting it off and putting it off, with the intention of eventually doing the update, but I just kept forgetting.
Finally tonight, I remembered, and decided to open System Update, and do all the recommended updates that it was asking me to do. So, without thinking twice (I've never had an issue with this before) I clicked download and install, and away it went, downloading like usual and then rebooting.
Thing is, it's been stuck at this blue screen with the spinning spiral coming up on 5 hours now. I know the 10.6.7 update was close to 400mb, but I've never had anything like this happen before.
My hard drive had more than 150 gigs free on it last time I checked, and it's been running absolutely flawless up until now.
Has anyone else experienced this? Is it supposed to take so long? What do I do?
I've been contemplating shutting it down by holding the power button, but since it's a OS update I'm afraid the drive will be corrupted, and unfortunately I don't have a current backup of the drive either... HelpI left my macbook plugged in over night, we're now going on 14 hours of this blue screen with the spinning wheel/symbol. Anyone?
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10.6.8 update stuck on blue screen... 4 hours and counting
Upon selecting automatic software update my system seems stuck on blue screen with spinning grey gear. How long should I tolerate this (going on 4 hours now) before attempting to do something?
I can access the hard drive of this computer from others on my local network and am able to copy files from it. I'm wondering if I should try to grab all that is valuable to me before anything worse happens.
Advise?If your data is not backed up copy any important documents you can from your Mac's startup drive.
Once you are done copying your data, use the power switch to turn off your Mac and disconnect everything except a wired keyboard/mouse and monitor. Start up in safe mode by holding the shift key down right after you hear the startup chime. Keep holding down the shift key until you see the Apple Logo and spinning gear.
Mac OS X: Starting up in Safe Mode Mac
OS X: What is Safe Boot, Safe Mode?
Safe mode will do some maintenance routines and checks/repairs the disk if needed so it will take quite a lot longer than normal to boot. Once your Mac boots restart normally. It will take a little longer than normal to boot but not as long as booting in safe mode.
If things don't work as expected install the Mac OS X 10.6.8 Update Combo -
G5 stuck on blue screen at set up point?
I've read other listings and they all have tried everything they know. I know nothing except to turn the computer on and off. Last night it worked then this morning it is jusst stuck at this start up point. I held in the button and turned it off and on again, got stuck at blue screen point again. I unplugged everything and still stuck? Please advise as I just spent hundreds adding this G5 to our system of g4's throughout the house and are looking forward to using it.
Thank YouHave you tried starting from your install disc and using 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.
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Please post back with results, -
PowerBook Stuck at Blue Screen?
Hi there, I have a old Powerbook G4 15" thats having the common blue screen with cursor on startup error. Since then, Ive wipe OSX off and has been using Linux on this powerbook for some time and it works fine and i always though the blue screen issue is just a normal software issue. Recently, i decided to reformat it back to OSX 10.5, the installation went on smoothly and it completed without any issues. After rebooting, it stucks a the "blue screen with cursor" again. Heres what ive tried and some facts.
- Reseted PRAM
- Reseted PMU
- Reformatted the HDD
- Boot in Normal Mode and it stucks at blue screen v cursor
- Verbose Mode shows no signs of errors and it continues to blue screen n sits there.
- Boot in Safe Mode and it works
- Works perfectly fine with Linux
- HDD tested OK
- RAM tested OK
- Ran Disk Utility to check for permission errors.
- Tried removing Airport card.
- DVD drive removed (after installation)
- Was able to boot from 10.5 Installation DVD
- Can't do AHT (Apple Hardware Test) as i do not have the original DVDs
- Warranty is obviously over.
Does anyone has any suggestions for me? Thanks!!15-inch PowerBook G4s with 1.5 and 1.67Ghz processors had a serious logic board fault that caused one RAM slot to fail. Use "About this Mac" to see if all the RAM installed is recognized, or remove one RAM module at a time and see it the computer runs properly on the other module.
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10.5.3 won't install... stuck in blue screen loop
I chose to install it from software update. It told me to restart. I did.
I got hung up on a blue screen loop.
But no error messages or anything.
I had to hard reset.
Then started up fine- but system profiler shows I'm still 10.5.2.
And software update still shows the update as "downloaded".
If I click "install" it immediately asks me to reboot, and sticks in the blue screen loop again.
I have done this three times now.
If I choose restart from the apple menu- same thing.
So I decided to shut down- can't shut down. Get stuck in the looping blue screen.
So it seems like something is gumming up the shut down process. I've heard of startup items making things freeze- can the same thing happen when shutting down?
Not sure what the issue is.
The other people posting problems seem to be getting error messages, etc.
I am going to try to repair permissions, and if that doesn't work maybe I'll try the standalone installer- but why is this happening? this is like a 2 week old MBA with next-to-no third party stuff installed on it... what could be corrupted already?
fortunately I have backups if worse comes to worse...
Any other tips/thoughts?
Thanks!Alexroet wrote:
should i try the standalone installer?
You could try, it's been known to sort system issues because it's fuller than the incremental "delta" update, so it should overwrite any files that are damaged or missing.
Remember to Verify Disk before update and repair permissions after update from /Applications/Utilities/Disk Utility.
But if you can't boot into Safe Mode something is amiss*. Since, you are able to use your system (not stuck on blue screen, try this first:
Go to System Preferences >> Accounts >> Login Items and remove them. Boot normally and test. If not go to ~(yourHome)/Library/Contextual Menu Items and move whatever is there to the desktop. Then do the same with /Library/Contextual Menu Items. Lastly, try moving ~(yourHome)/Library/Fonts to your desktop and restarting.
*EDIT: You do have to hold the shift key for Safe Boot until you see the spinning gear, just in case you didn't do that.
-mj
Message was edited by: macjack -
Imac 8,1 does not boot stuck on blue screen
imac8,1 mid (2008) 20" stuck on blue screen after boot ,It starts in safemode, below is a list of thing i have check so far
1 Apple hardware test (says every thing is ok)
2 Disk utility repair (was successfull)
3 reset PRAM ,SMC
3 Boot for OSX dvd and reinstalled (still only starts in safe mode )
4 boot in single user mode and used fsck ( said every thing was ok)
Yet when i boot i get stuck on a grey/blue screen . it starts in safe mode though, Is there some EFI , firmware restore file that i can install ???
What else can it try????Please closely follow Apple's advice in Gray screen appears during startup. There are a number of steps to take, be methodical and follow the directions closely.
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GE60 0NC-622UK laptop is stuck on Blue Screen can't login! please help..
Had this laptop for just one month, before it's all good. Windows 8 64bit.
In last two days, the mouse and touchpad became dysfunctional occasionally, able to move the pointer but just could't click on anything regardless of left or right, e.g. choose or open new. It would be working after logoff/relogin and reboot, but same problem still came up randomly.
Last night, I did the same thing to reboot the laptop after had the pointer dysfunction, but then it displayed a blue screen before the login with a error called 'System Thread Exception Not Handled', and then just stayed on this page would't reboot automatically (waited for 30 mins), so it left me no choice to shut it down by pressing power on/off button manually, afterwards with couple of times rebooting, it just kept going into this same blue screen and could't get into the system...Sometimes it would automatically start diagnosing before blue screen, ask me to restore or repair, but none of them fixed the problem, repeatedly stuck on blue screen every time...
And I don't have any windows 8 dvd, delivered box only has one for drivers and manual book.. so boot from dvd is not possible..
p.s. sorry about my english if caused confusion
thanks..Quote from: Neoistheone2000 on 06-June-13, 00:26:05
Try starting Windows 8 in Safe Mode, its kinda difficult in Windows 8 to do you have to be very precise when doing it, right as the system boots you need to start spamming F8 sometimes you have to do Shift+F8.
You may want to disable fast boot in the BIOS so you have some time to get ready to hit the buttons, once you get the boot menu up try Start Up Repair first and see if it fixes anything then try booting, if noting then try safe mode and un-do anything you have done to the system recently.
Let me know how this goes.
Really appreciated your help!
I get into troubleshooting page by pressing F3 when laptop was booting up, and changed start up with Safe mode which works..I've done many things in Safe mode, like updated drivers, run anti-virus program, deleted recent installed software, and then somehow the blue screen error was gone after reboot...It seems one of them must be the cause for that problem.
Anyway, my laptop is working properly now, thanks a lot, if error happens again in future i might still need some help -
Hi,
I have the old MacBook Pro. Upgraded to Mountain Lion which completely wrecked the system. So downgraded to Snow Leopard.
Then updated the combo update. Now stuck on blue screen at start-up.
Need help. Greatly appreciated. Thank you.Downgrade Lion/Mountain Lion to Snow Leopard
1. Boot from your Snow Leopard 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 then click on the OK button. Click on
the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.
4. Quit DU and return to the installer. Install Snow Leopard.
This will erase the whole drive so be sure to backup your files if you don't have a backup already. If you have performed a TM backup using Lion be aware that you cannot restore from that backup in Snow Leopard (see below.) I suggest you make a separate backup using Carbon Copy Cloner.
If you have Snow Leopard Time Machine backups, do a full system restore per #14 in Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions. If you have subsequent backups from Lion, you can restore newer items selectively, via the "Star Wars" display, per #15 there, but be careful; some Snow Leopard apps may not work with the Lion files. -
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IMAC intel A1208 is stuck on blue screen after start-up. How can this condition be resolved?
Please carefully read Apple's Gray screen appears during startup
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It will load up after restart, passing the grey apple logo. When it looks like it's about to finish loading up Mac OSX it gets stuck at blue screen. Tried using Diskwarrior on it but it gets stuck in repair.
First thing to do in this situation is load the MacOS install disk, and reboot the system holding the C key down when you hear the chime until MacOS shows it is loading. This will not on;y show whether the system is basically sound and capable of booting, but also then give you the opportunity to run Disk Utility (in the Utilities menu of the installer) to check the hard drive for errors, and if any are found, attempt to repair them.
You'll need a wired USB keyboard (almost any will do, but NOT the Apple aluminium model) to boot to the installer.
When Disk Utility had finished the Repair Disk task, it if shows no faults, then you have a MacOS problem and likely need to perform an archive and install to set up a new copy of MacOS while preserving your files and applications. If Disk Utility shows errors it cannot repair, particularly reporting 'error on exit', it generally means the drive has suffered a problem. In those situations DiskWarrior is sometimes successful at recovery, though often a reformat is needed. In a small proportion of cases this problem is indicative of hardware failure - usually the hard drive itself, in which case a reformat would generally be expected to fail.
Be aware of course that reformatting the drive will wipe any and all data, so should not be done unless and until you have secured essential data. -
MacBook won't start, stuck on blue screen
My MacBook is stuck on blue screen... forever....
MacBook info:
13.3in, 2.0GHz Intel Core2 Duo, 120GB HD, 2X1GB RAM with Leopard
MacBook was running great until last night... My screen got frozen while browsing, and force quit did not work. So I used power button to turned it off. After that, my MacBook won't boot up anymore... gray screen for about 3min, apple icon screen for 15min, then stuck on blue screen.
I think I've tried everything in here..
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2570
The only command that I was able to use was "Reset the NVRAM / PRAM", but no change there...
I tried install DVD (came with the MacBook), but I cannot boot with DVD with C button and now the install DVD is stuck....
Is there any way to fix this? My warranty expired already, and I am trying to do everything before taking this to the store...
Thank you.Thanks Eric.
I have tried that before, but I gave an another try. I held the option button longer this time, until I saw the apple icon. Then cd (DVD?) image came on, so I clicked on it. But after apple icon went away (10 min?), my macbook is again stuck on blue screen. I only saw cd image, and did not see any other drives... Is that a bad sign?
Thanks,
- Hidemi -
Trying to install snow leopard-stuck at blue screen
I put disk in, computer restarted and am now stuck on blue screen.
Did you hold the C key down after the boot beep to boot from the installer dvd?
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