MBP won't boot up past gray screen

Stays at the gray on gray apple logo screen with the rotating dial. Tried resetting PRAM, etc. Saw a similar post but it had no response. Hopefully I'll do better.
thanks

Boot from your system CD, run Disk First Aid from your Disk Utility and repair your permissions. If that does not work, try an Archive and Install.
Mac OS X: About the Archive and Install feature >>
-Bmer
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Similar Messages

MacBook Pro won't boot up past gray screen?

Okay, so I was running chrome and iTunes and spotify. Spotify was playing and Avast! Detected an infection and moved it to the chest. I quit chrome and opened up a Steam game called Garry's Mod, but it wouldn't open no matter how many times I tried it. So I tried to open chrome again and it bounced but didn't open. Tried to open system preferences and it opened but didn't show a window and wasn't responding. So I tried to restart but it wouldn't restart, so I force shut it down. Then it wouldn't go past the gray screen.
So I restarted the PRAM. Didn't work. Tried booting into safe mode. Didn't work. When into single user and checked the directories I think. Didn't work. Called apple and repaired permissions and that didn't work. Then I downloaded OS Mavericks and reinstalled it. Didn't work. So I'm redownloading to see if it might work if i do it again. Otherwise, he said I'd have to completely restore and lose my data, which would suck. I don't have a backup unfortunately.
What I'm wondering is if there's anything you think I could do that just might fix this?
Or, is there anyway to save my data if it won't boot up and I don't have a backup? I have lots of writing and music I really would not like to lose.

Your disk may be sick or dying. As you surmised the top priority at this point is to make a copy of your data.
First, check the health of the disk. Boot in Recovery Mode (Boot, Command-R). Run Disk Utility. Click on the upper left disk icon. Does the S.M.A.R.T. status say “Verified”? If not the disk/SSD is unhealthy and needs to be replaced. Click on the icon indented below, usually called “Macintosh HD” and Verify Disk. If it finishes with a green “OK” message then all is well with the disk. If it shows errors in red then you have found a problem to address once the system is backed up. Do not attempt software repairs until you have secured the data. Post back with the results of this test.
If the disk will not show up at all in Disk Utility to run these simple testes then it is probably already dead. A trip to an Apple store to confirm that would be in order.
If you have an external disk drive you can use as a backup drive then do so. If not I’m going to council you to purchase a drive you can use to replace your internal drive if need be. The silver lining is this new drive will be much faster than the old one. Google “Seagate 1 TB SSHD”. You should find a drive for about $100. Google “USB 3.0 enclosure”. That should cost $10 to $20. When they arrive plug the drive into the enclosure.
Assuming it is still breathing you can recover the data without booting from the sick disk.
Reformat the external disk Boot in Recovery Mode. Start Disk Utility. Plug in the new disk. Select it’s disk Icon (the second one down, left justified). Select the Partition tab.
Partition Layout > Single Partition
Name: Emergency Recovery 1 (or whatever name you wish to use)
Format: Mac OS Extended (journaled)
Options… > GUID Partition Table > OK
Apply
Select the Restore tab.
Drag the old system volume (Macintosh HD) to Source.
Drag the new disk volume (Emergency Recovery 1) to Destination.
Click on Restore.
If that will not complete post back for another emergency data recovery method.
If the backup succeeds use the First Aid tab in Disk Utility to select the old volume (Macintosh HD) and Repair Disk. If it repairs with a green OK message, will it boot normally?
Post back for further instructions. How to proceed will depend on what has transpired to that point.

IBook won't boot, stops at gray screen--HELP

I couldn't find this exact topic at first glance and I am hoping someone can help me. My ibook is about 5 years old and has only really crashed on my once 2 years ago but I was able to reinstall the OS and go on my way. This time, however, nothing works. I tried to boot up yesterday and the gray screen appeared and that was it along with a strange buzzing sound. I tried Disk Warrior, wouldn't even boot off that. Also tried booting off system disk 1 and didn't get past the language screen, just hung up with that buzz again.
Does this sound like a logic board issue? Can it be rescued?
Thanks in advance for any help!

I'm not sure if the computer can be checked out at home in such a way
in its present state, to see if there is a logic board failure behind it, now,
or not. There could be a hard disk drive failure, or ATA controller failure;
and a short list of other possibilities, best checked over by a specialist.
Certain keyboard commands and things could be tried (and I usually
assume they'd been tried before asking here, but that's often not so)
just to see if one or more of them could get a rise out of the dead Mac.
Be sure, if you can get the installer disc to boot the Mac, that you
try and use the Disk Utility to repair disc; maybe more than once;
and do not try to just reinstall an Archive and Install. The HDD may
have corruption issues and it may need low-level zero-data and re-
formatting before a new system could go on there, if it worked at all.
{Even trying to reset PRAM/NVRAM and then seeing if you can get
the bootable OSX installer disc to start up the Mac could be OK.
Maybe that PMU reset, as a last resort? It probably won't hurt...}
A system on an external bootable enclosed hard disk drive could be
used by a tech or a prepared home-tech owner, and a clone of the
machine's system then attempted to be used to boot the ailing Mac.
If the optical drive and other components relying on the logic board
are dysfunctional due to a defect on that main board, most external
devices may also have a hard time trying to use these methods of
outside efforts to troubleshoot be nominally successful.
There may be a way a tech can use an second computer to get
data off the drive in your iBook, should it come to that, by using
the FireWire Target Disk mode and see if your iBook can start
and act like an external hard disk drive. A copy of the drive's
content or parts of it may be made by the second healthy Mac.
A clone (perhaps not bootable if data on it is damaged and not
recoverable) could be made if the second healthy computer has
a clone utility and also an external drive it can copy/clone the
iBook's drive content over to. This may be asking too much;
but the home user who has stuff on hand could do it shortly.
Anyway, there are some ideas online, if you can search google
and choose appropriate words; I looked but you may need to
read through several different source links to see if anything
sounds like it may work. re: iBook won't start past grey screen
Some users have tried resetting the PMU, others tried NVRAM
and PRAM; a few tried SafeBoot to see if the system was OK
enough to load in a reduced startup mode; maybe where the
system's own Disk Utility could be ran to at least fix permissions.
And of these, if it is truly a logic board or a failed hard disk drive,
they won't really do much. Probably no harm; and that is part
of what troubleshooting is all about, working with zeros and ones!
Good luck & happy computing!
edited to add a chapter.

Macbook Pro won't boot and getting gray screen, help!

I have a Macbook Pro 15" from mid2011. The warranty just expired one week ago.
I was normally using it without any problem, when suddenly the screen started to freeze and get some horizontal line. I had to force shut down with the power button couple times. The next day, my MBP wasn't booting during the startup.
When I turn on, I can hear the chime, the Apple logo show up and the little wheel turns, but after those things the screen remaing gray without any thing happens.
I have tried some steps that I found on discussion, forums, and websites like:
- PRAM
- cmd-s (to verify and clean the HD)
- hold option and restore using a flash drive with Mountain Lion (after I choose the drive, I get a "blue" screen)
- Remove the RAM and put back
All those things weren't successful.
What do you guys think I should do now?
What are the main causes of gray screen or blue screen?
Should I replace my RAM or HD?
I'm avoiding to take to a technichian or a geek, because I have a lot of confidential work inside. Luckly, I have a backup of everything.
I appreciate every reply made.
Thanks!!

Hi Eric,
Thanks for your fast reply.
Yes, I've tried cmd-R. I get a "blue screen" with vertical lines. Pretty weird.
I'm unable to access the Disk Utility.
Do you think the HD is damaged?

IBook wont boot up past gray screen

my iBook wont boot up past the gray screen with the spinning wheel thing. the wheel will spin but wont go past the gray screen. if anybody knows whats wrong or how to fix it please let me know. i need my computer. and i have no time top take it into the apple store. thnx

Hi, and welcome to Apple Discussions.
Here are links to Apple Knowledge Base articles regarding startup problems:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=50959
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106464
http://forums.osxfaq.com/viewtopic.php?t=7269
I hope something there helps.

MacBook Pro won't boot up past grey screen! Help!

Long story short, my Mac was working fine yesterday and then it froze. I held down the power button and didn't think twice about it. Now it won't start up past the grey screen. Actually, I just recently held down the "d" key before it started up and now I'm at Apple Hardware Test but I'm not sure what I'm suppose to do. My hardware is testing for something. Does anybody have any troubleshooting things I could try to help make it come back? I am very depressed it's not working. I tried calling Apple Support but the guy only sent me an e-mail telling me how to fix it.

AHT test can take up to 4 hours...
Intel-based Macs: Using Apple Hardware Test
You can also try Disk Utility (fsck)
Resolve startup issues and perform disk maintenance with Disk Utility and fsck

POWER MAC G5 WON'T BOOT UP AFTER GRAY SCREEN!!!!!!!

My wife was on my G5 one day and then came and told me it was messed up. When i turned my G5 on, the fans came on and it appeared that it was booting up. The computer got to the gray screen, had the little working icon under the apple logo came on, then it appeared to black out right around the the icon. The screen went black and then the screed said no connection.
Any help with this would be greatly appreciated.

Hi foleypopo, and a warm welcome to the forums!
Could be many things, we should start with this...
"Try Disk Utility
1. Insert the Mac OS X Install disc, 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. Select your Mac OS X volume.
5. Click Repair Disk, (not Repair Permissions). Disk Utility checks and repairs the disk."
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106214
Then try a Safe Boot, (holding Shift key down at bootup), run Disk Utility in Applications>Utilities, then highlight your drive, click on Repair Permissions, reboot when it completes.
(Safe boot may stay on the gray radian for a long time, let it go, it's trying to repair the Hard Drive.)
If perchance you can't find your install Disc, at least try it from the Safe Boot part onward.
See if it will boot up to a screen by holding the Option/alt key down at bootup.
Any results?

MBP won't boot, one beep, black screen

Specs: 13" MBP (early-2011) i5
After a power off of the computer, on restart I encounter this:
One beep every 5 seconds. Nothing showing on the screen. The fan spins (I took off the back cover to remove the HD so I can get off the files); however, the computer doesn't seem to boot at all. The battery does work as the power connector glows when plugged in and the battery indicator on the side of the computer shows it's level.
I thought it may have been bad RAM, so I replaced the RAM. Tested each stick in each bay. Nothing changed.
I've scoured the boards for any solutions; however, I can't reset the PRAM or anything else as all that happens is the same back screen, one beep every 5 seconds and the fan spins.

Early 2011 ?
Contact Apple before warranty runs out. It is important.
Just for the sake of Info:
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1367

Computer won't boot past gray screen

I can't get my computer to boot past gray screen. It keeps showing the apple logo and the spinning wheel. What can I do to get into my system?

Startup - Gray, Blue or White screen at boot, w/spinner/progress bar
Startup - Gray Screen
Startup Issues - Resolve
Startup Issues - Resolve (2)

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 iMac won't boot up past the white screen with a grey apple and spinning icon

My iMac won't boot up past the white screen with a grey apple and spinning icon...please help!

command R did not result in anything different - still the white screen, etc. I do you Time Machine with and external hard drive, but I unplugged that. I have the installation DVD, but it doesn't seem to be reading it either.

MBP won't boot - "GRUB_" - tried installing ubuntu on an external drive

so i tried installing ubuntu netbook remix onto an external drive, and upon restarting my MBP won't boot to my internal HDD, once it displayed "GRUB_" with a blinking cursor, but is otherwise unresponsive.
now i just get the folder with the ? on it.
I've run disk util, repair permission, repair disk and still no luck.
i can boot the MBP into target disk mode and see the HDD on my other system and all appears to be good, and if i boot to the install dvd, the HDD shows up under the "startup disk" menu, but it just doesn't boot.
any thoughts on how to fix this?

So I have an imac that I have had for about 3yrs. About several months ago, it started acting a little strange, it wouldnt pick up the mouse or the keyboard at times even thought they were plugged in properly to the usb port, sometimes both would work sometimes one or the other would work and other times they worked fine. About a month or 2 ago, I went to turn my imac on and it got to the screen where the little circular icon pops up implying it is loading, stayed that way for 2-3min then turned of and turned itself back on and did the same thing, made the apple sound got to the load screen turned of after 2-3min then turned back on, it has been doing that for the past month. What do I do?

IBook will not start up past gray screen w/ apple logo

iBook will not start up past gray screen w/ apple logo. So I have zeroed out the hard drive and reinstalled tiger. No change except if I start up holding shift it will boot and welcome comes up then black screen that says you must restart by holding down power key.
Zeroed out the HD again with same results. Also I have a iBook G3 with the same symptoms.

What you are experiencing is a kernel panic.
Try starting up from the Mac OS X Install Disc by inserting the disc and restarting your computer, holding down the C key as the startup chime is ending. Then choose Installer > Open Disk Utility (in Panther) or (in Tiger) click 'Next' at the language screen and choose Utilities > Disk Utility and select the hard drive in the left column. Choose the First Aid tab. Click Repair Disk to test and repair the hard drive.
Once you have repaired the hard drive with the Install disc's Disk Utility, then try to restart normally, and go to Applications > Utilities > Disk Utility. Click on the top hard drive icon in the left sidebar and note the S.M.A.R.T. status at the bottom right of the pane. What does it say?
Select the named boot volume in the left sidebar, ("Macintosh HD" unless you've renamed it). What is the hard drive capacity and how much space remains available on it? Repair permissions on it.
See if a little hard drive maintenance helps things out.

How to get past gray screen on MacBook?

How to get past gray screen on MacBook?

Here are some initial things to try.
http://support.apple.com/kb/ts2570
http://lifehacker.com/how-to-troubleshoot-the-four-most-common-oh-sh-t-mac-48708 0511

MBP won't boot up past gray screen

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