My iMac 21" 500 GB stalls at 1st gray screen. Finally booted up after about 10 minutes. Anybody experienced this? thanks

When it "stalled at the 1st gray screen" did you see a progress bar(in addition to the normal spinning gear)? If so, you were starting up in Safe Mode.
This can happen automatically if problems with the file system are found. If you were able to get started up, that would generally indicate that it(fsck) was able to repair the problems.
Have you been able to restart since this happened?
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1564
Autumn

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My imac 17' core duo 1.8ghz a1173 freezes after about 1 minute of running

My imac 17" core duo 1.8ghz A1173 freezes after about 1 minute of running. I re-start the imac about a half a dozen times and it stays running and will re-start from the sleep mode and will continue to operate properly until I put it in sleep mode or it goes to sleep mode. If I turn it off, I must go through the same hassle. Advise/suggestions. Thanks.

Hello arty102
Welcome to Apple Support Communities
Reset the SMC > http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3964
+1. Shut down the computer.+
+2. Unplug the computer's power cord.+
+3. Press and hold the power button for 5 seconds.+
+4. Release the power button.+
+5. Attach the computers power cable.+
+6. Press the power button to turn on the computer.+
Then if that doesn't help,
Run the Extended Apple Hardware Test > http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1509
Dennis

After Replacing Hard Drive, iMac Freezes after about 40 Minutes.

I have a flat panel 15" iMac which had a bad hard drive. I replaced it with a 250 gig Seagate ATA drive. I used the Disck utility to format it and the computer recognized the correct size of the Drive. After installing OS 10.4.7 on the drive I found that the computer locks-up or frezzes after about 45 minute. I have run apple diagnoxtics and the computer hardware and ram checks out fine. I found that the computer does not lock up if I runit form an external firewire drive with os 10.x and it did not lock-up when I booted form the OS 9 Hardware test cd. I then thought that maybe I had loaded the OS x poorly on th e new drive so I reloaded the OS. The system agin freezes agter the system is on for about 30 + minutes.
Do I need a special drive or size for the G4 flat panel iMac? Is there a setting on the Segate Drive I need to set.
Any Thoughts\
Jim
G4 Dual 1.25 Mac OS X (10.2.x)

Hello,
There should be a Master / Slave setting on the drive. If it shares the same "channel" with your CD-ROM drive, then you may need to set the Hard Drive as Master.
Check your original drive, and see what it was set to. There is a Master, Slave, and Factory setting.
Look at the label on the drive, and compare that to the jumpers (little caps) on the back of the drive by the data cable connector.
Set your new drive to match the same setting your original drive was set to.
If that doesn't work, try your new drive in the external drive enclosure. See if it works right there.
If it still doesn't work right, then perhaps you got a drive with a defect.
If it works fine in the external case, and you have verified that your settings are right when used internally, then you may have damage in the iMac's logic board or hard drive controller somewhere.
But, take a look at the Jumper Settings, and try it in the external enclosure as well. See if either of those fixes it.
Hopefully you just got the jumper settings wrong.
I hope this helps.

My iMac won't boot up fully. It stays stuck in the gray screen with the pinwheel spinning, then after about 5 minutes just shuts itself off.

My iMac won't boot up fully. It stays stuck in the gray screen with the pinwheel spinning, then after about 5 minutes just shuts itself off.

Try SMC Reset (unplug it from the back of the computer for 10 seconds then plug it back. in)
Try PRAM Reset Cmd + OPtion + P + R on start up.
Try safe boot - hold down shift on start up.
Try booting to install dvd (C on start up) or recovery hd (CMD + R) and using disk utility to run a verify and repair. If you still can't boot after that reinstall the operating system. If you can't find the disc or it wont boot to the disc.
Try single mode which is cmd+S on start up. It will open with a terminal looking window in the terminal. type in /sbin/fsck -TL. If it returns *system has been modified* continue to type that command in until it comes back with macintosh hd seems to be ok. If after 5 tries it still gives you system has been modified. You may have to replace the hard drive.

When I leave my imac unattended for about 15 minutes, instead of it going to sleep, it shuts off entirely. Is there any way I can have it go to sleep after about 15 minutes of inactivity, without it shutting off entirely?

when I leave my imac unattended for about 15 minutes, instead of it going to sleep, it shuts off entirely. Is there any way I can have it go to sleep after about 15 minutes of inactivity, without it shutting off entirely?

You are correct as I tried that and still have the problem. I did the pmset -g in termal you suggest and here is mine. This original post is my exact problem that has driven me crazy for far to long. Can you help WZZZ?
Last login: Sun Feb 22 09:26:44 on console
RLs-iMac-3:~ RLMac$ pmset -g
Active Profiles:
AC Power -1*
Currently in use:
standby              0
Sleep On Power Button 1
womp                 1
halfdim              1
hibernatefile        /var/vm/sleepimage
darkwakes            0
autorestart          0
networkoversleep     0
disksleep            10
sleep                0 (sleep prevented by storeagent)
autopoweroffdelay    14400
hibernatemode        0
autopoweroff         1
ttyskeepawake        1
displaysleep         15
standbydelay         4200
RLs-iMac-3:~ RLMac$

Once my iMac and Macbook Pro go to sleep and I start them it takes about one minute to connect to my wi-fi is there a setting change that would connect me immediately?

When my iMac, Macbook Pro, iPad and iPhone go to sleep it takes about one minute to connect to my wi-fi when they are awakened, is there a setting that will keep my wi-fi connected at all times?

http://www.macworld.co.uk/news/mac-software/mac-os-x-yosemite-wifi-airdrop-fix-u pdate-new-features-bugs-uk-video-10-10-2-3493748/
"Here's everything you need to know about Mac OS X Yosemite and the WiFi issues that are plaguing users, including a possible fix. Plus discover the new features that have arrived with OS X 10.10 and the fixes that arrived 10.10.2."
That fix was supposed to resolve the WiFi problems.

I restarted my iMac and all I have is a gray screen and a color wheel .

I restarted my iMac about an hour ago and all I have is a gray screen and a rotating color wheel.

Follow the steps @ > Mac OS X: Gray screen appears during startup

IMac stuck at gray screen when booting

Hi - My 2011 iMac with 10.8.2 is stuck on the gray screen when rebooting. I was in Windows 7 bootcamp, and restarted to OS X. I see the screen below, and once the progress bar reaches 100%, the computer shuts off. Every time I reboot, the same problem. I've disconnected everything, except for the standard bluetooth wireless keyboard. I've tried some various boot options, such as holding down Shift while rebooting, as well as command+R, but neither had any impact, it is the same problem over and over. Any tips on what to try next?

If you want to preserve the data on the internal drive(s), 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, you can skip this step.
There are several ways to back up a Mac that is unable to fully boot. You need an external hard drive to hold the backup data.
1. Boot into Recovery (command-R at startup) or from a local Time Machine backup volume (option key at startup.) Launch Disk Utility and follow the instructions in the support article linked below, under “Instructions for backing up to an external hard disk via Disk Utility.”
How to back up and restore your files
2. If you have access to a working Mac, and both it and the non-working Mac have FireWire or Thunderbolt ports, boot the non-working Mac in target disk mode by holding down the key combination command-T at the startup chime. Connect the two Macs with a FireWire or Thunderbolt cable. The internal drive of the machine running in target mode will mount as an external drive on the other machine. Copy the data to another drive. This technique won't work with USB, Ethernet, Wi-Fi, or Bluetooth.
How to use and troubleshoot FireWire target disk mode
3. 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.

Imac intel won't restart, I get gray screen and spinning wheel then shut off

My imac intel only restart after running disk utility, otherwise I get a gray screen with apple logo and spinning wheel then after about 2min it shuts off. this all started after a power outage. I have tried everything that I have read online to fix this, it seems doing a clean install is last resort. Does anyone have any other options for me?

nessman wrote:
I have tried disconnecting the periperals, restarting in "safe boot", resetting the pram and I tried starting up in single user mode. It will only start up if I start up from the original gray 10.4 start up disk and run "repair disk"....I get errors including "The underlying task reported failure on exit". I then eject the disk and restart and it works fine but if I have to shut down or restart for any reason it's back to the gray screen.
Your system profile confirms you are using OS 10.5.8. Boot up from your OS 10.5.x install dvd. Use the "repair disk" setting. If you get the same error, then run Apple Hardware Test from your original system dvd.

Why my imac start with question mark sign on gray screen

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Click here and follow the instructions. If the computer was running Mac OS X 10.6.8 or earlier and you reach the third set of steps, insert a Mac OS X install disk.
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After installing Mt.Lion on my 27" iMac (2010), my copy/paste and move files would no longer function after a few minutes of use. I re-opened in Safe Mode and found everything okay, so I was told it was a bad extension. Now what do I do?

I have tried to look for an extension like Air Print Activator, which I tried and ignored. I thought it might have some timing method that would stop my copying and pasting and moving files after a minutes ot two. So I re-installed the latest version and "uninstalled" it, hoping it would then remove an errant extension. But that didn't help. It seemed to start when I first tried out Mail and moving new emails into their mailboxes after reading. I tried to figure out how to do a Clean Install, too, but it would not allow me to "move" the InstallESD.dmg to a USB disk, "resource busy". Everyway I turn, I'm blocked from carrying out a method of finding the culprit, short of starting from scratch -- but losing years and years of mail, files, receipts, etc. It's just too much to sacrifice. I have no idea what to do next, since I have no idea what extension is causing it or how to isolate and destroy it. Any suggestion would be much appreciated.

You can try repairing the boot drive, Since you are running OS 10.6.8 you will need the OS DVD. Do you have it?
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Imac Spinning Beach Ball after about 3 minutes of operation.

I get the spinning beach ball (SBBOD) after a few minutes of operation. The hard drive is indexing as well. I tried booting the computer in Safe Mode and I get NO beach ball and the computer seems to be perfectly fine. I recently upgraded my hard drive about 6 months ago. I am not sure if this is a hardware or software problem. I also tried running the hardware test, but I downloaded lion via the App Store and pressing "D" at boot up doesn't do anything. I am about ready to erase my hard drive and try to re-install my info from time machine. Unfortunately, I haven't done a back up in quite a while. Any suggestions?

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http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/sbbod.html
article, it's about the best article on troubleshooting what is causing your specific problem.

HT1750 After powering up, my (late 2012) iMac (bought March 2013) 'freezes' on the the grey log-in page for about 7 minutes before I can even enter my password and get started. Anyone know why, please?

It just hangs on the grey log-in page, with the mouse cursor stuck in top left corner, and unable to key password into window, until after about 7 minutes.
I always close all applications and programs prior to shut-down, but it's as if something is running in the back-ground...
Any suggestions welcome, thanks.

If you have more than one user account, these instructions must be carried out as an administrator.
Launch the Console application in any of the following ways:
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Console in the icon grid.
Step 1
Make sure the title of the Console window is All Messages. If it isn't, select All Messages from the SYSTEM LOG QUERIES menu on the left. If you don't see that menu, select
View ▹ Show Log List
from the menu bar.
Enter "BOOT_TIME" (without the quotes) in the search box. Note the timestamps of those log messages, which refer to the times when the system was booted. Now clear the search box and scroll back in the log to the last boot time when you had the problem. Select the messages logged after the boot, during the time something abnormal was happening. Copy them to the Clipboard (command-C). Paste into a reply to this message (command-V).
For example, if the problem is a slow startup taking three minutes, post the messages timestamped within three minutes after the boot time, not before. Please include the BOOT_TIME message at the beginning of the log extract.
If there are runs of repeated messages, post only one example of each. Don’t post many repetitions of the same message.
When posting a log extract, be selective. In most cases, a few dozen lines are more than enough.
Please do not indiscriminately dump thousands of lines from the log into this discussion.
Important: Some private information, such as your name, may appear in the log. Anonymize before posting.
Step 2
Still in Console, look under System Diagnostic Reports for crash or panic logs, and post the entire contents of the most recent one, if any. In the interest of privacy, I suggest you edit out the “Anonymous UUID,” a long string of letters, numbers, and dashes in the header of the report, if present (it may not be.) Please don’t post shutdownStall, spin, or hang logs — they're very long and not helpful.

IMac takes a long time to boot up after login

I have a lab of about 23 computers, most all of them are running OS X 10.5.8. I have a couple running 10.6.7. DHCP server was down this morning. I rebooted the server, and still the computers won't let students login. I couldn't even login as root or admin accounts.
Finally after about 30 minutes, students could login but it takes up to 10 minutes for them to get to the desktop. All are running wired, not wireless.
These are iMac Intel based, Core duo desktops.
DHCP server is running now, you can remote in as well as ping it. I also rebooted the Xserve.
Any ideas on why they take so long to log in?
As far as I know, no updates were pushed out on Friday or of last week some time.
Any help would be great.
Thank you!

I suspect the HD has crashed. Locate the original disc 2 that shipped with the computer and run Apple's Hardware Test in extended mode 2-3 times. If it reports errors take it in for service, if you don't have the discs then take it in for service.

27" imac yosemite update hangs. Required power cycle and safe boot to get the update going. Now all OS X update do the same.

27" iMac Yosemite update hangs.
The original upgrade to Yosemite (10.10) took almost a full day! The computer hung during one of the reboots and just showed a blank grey screen, no apple logo, no progress bar, nothing. I left it like that for about an hour thinking it might be working in the dark... Eventually I had to power cycle. Disconnected power at the wall outlet for about 5 minutes, then reconnected and tried to start. After about 20 minutes, got to the same point, grey screen:no action, again waited at least an hour.
Then I did a safe boot. System came up OK in safe mode to the log in screen. As soon as I logged in, it proceeded with the interrupted update, which ran to completion. Yay!
Now, every update to Yosemite that arrives gives men the same grief!
To add some more, the "Pro Video Formats 2.0.1" update has installed about 4 times, and is asking to be installed again? There's no indication that it fails the update so whats going on?

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Asking for a refund tomorrow. Past the 14 days so maybe they'll say no but if so then every time this happens I will swap it out. At least then I know it is a three hour fix and as I was working on this for hours today it occurred to me that if the trick is to do 57 different things and maybe one will work then that is not why I made the switch to Apple. I could plug everything in on my PC and it all 'just worked'.
Really poor customer service - the support folks are very nice and I am sure they know that this is a systemic issue but aren't allowed to say so. Feeling pretty stupid for going on faith right about now.

My iMac 21" 500 GB stalls at 1st gray screen. Finally booted up after about 10 minutes. Anybody experienced this? thanks

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