My imac 27" screen is stuck on grey screen

My imac 27" screen is stuck on the gray screen. I've tried starting in safe mode and nothing happened.  I don't get the apple or the spinning wheel. it just sits there and it doesn't sound like it's trying to do anything. Any ideas?

Last night the electricity went out and my power surge protector was not working so my iMac just force shut downed.
So, when the electricity came back i turned on my Mac but it is *Stuck in the Startup/Boot Screen with a Grey Apple Logo,a Empty Progress Bar with stays for 1 or 2 minutes and a small Spinning Wheel which would Spin Forver! I Have tried the SMC and Pram reset but no use, i have also tried to insert my OS X Lion 10.7 Installation disk and it would not load if i hold the C Key in the Startup, I Have Managed to go to Disk Utility Through "Recovery HD"  but the Volume "Macintosh HD" is Greyed out and Unmounted and i cannot repair it. There are some files that i'd like to Recover if there is a way to fix it without deleting files.
**PLEASE HELP ME FIX THIS!**
Details about the iMac:
iMac 21.5 Inch i think from Mid 2010,
OS X Lion installed maybe 10.7.2 or 10.7.3 (im not sure)

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    Generally that indicates a serious problem with the hard drive.
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  • Powermac G5 stuck on grey screen start up and fans running wild

    Hi All
    I also have the recurring problem all of a sudden - yesterday all seems well, today am stuck on grey screen and fans getting stronger by the minute. NOTHING works - have been through all sorts of forums and the most I got was to try disk utility - which says all is well - replaced the battery - tried just about anything short of pouring some acid on the **** thing, won't boot from original install CD either - I really need this machine as I earn my living with it and cant afford a new one and why as it was working just perfect - now this mess. In a way don't know why the excellerating fans are not built to simply pick up speed and then eat into the PC board and CPU - at lest this way we know for sure there is nothing we can do.
    Does no one here know why the mac is doing this - not even the mac fundies? Unbelievable. I live in Namibia and Apple Mac support here is similar to that on this website - might as well write this on a wall - that is why I am really frustrated... **** Mac

    Follow these steps in order:
    http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2570
    The G5 is also subject to solder failure around the RAM slots and memory controller.
    It is a fatal condition, but one that can sometimes be temporarily sidestepped by heating the logic board between the RAM slots with a hair dryer.
    Heat the board until very warm (hot) then start.
    If your machine starts after heating, then you better just leave the machine on all the time.
    You never know when the trick won't work......

  • Stuck on grey screen screen at start up...apparent Qmaster bug.

    So I found what appears to be a bug. At least for me...and at least in 10.6. Not sure if this effects other OS versions.
    I was having an issue with start up getting stuck on grey screen. Symptom is eventually start-up circle segments would stop spinning and left hanging there on the grey screen.
    There are Apple doc's and ample google hits on this subject. But I have found nothing pertaining to Qmaster as being a possible cause.
    It took me awhile to figure it out and was not an obvious issue.
    I thought it might be helpful posting this here to bring this up on a google search for someone who may be having the same problem.
    My issue:
    Doing image sequence Maya render's. However, I doubt it is Maya related.
    If I pause the render in the Batch Monitor. And shutdown. Something with Qmaster still being active hangs my startup. It is repeatable behavior.
    I have to start up holding shift key for safe mode.
    You will note, if you have 'Show Qmaster service status in menu bar', under the Advance button of QM's System Pref's pane, that the green light is on.
    That green light being on, gave me the clue that it was something to do with Qmaster.
    Clicking; Stop Sharing and restarting clears the start up hang.
    It appears, whatever permutations Qmaster expresses with a paused render on start up, is somehow preventing normal start up.
    Since I have read that menu bar items may be one possible cause for start up issues. It's also possible and therefore worth mentioning that unchecking "Show Qmaster service status in menu bar". May also resolve the problem. I have not tested that.

    Issues like this are often caused by startup jobs that are taking far too long to finish. It definitely looks like a serious bug so it's worth reporting it to Apple at either of the following places:
    http://www.apple.com/feedback/compressor.html
    http://bugreport.apple.com

  • STUCK ON GREY SCREEN! !PLEASE HELP!

    !!HELP!! STUCK ON GREY SCREEN
    I have a MacBook 10.5. Its a few years old anyway it seemed to be working fine up until a couple of weeks ago then it started taking ages to startup.
    I started it in singlemode then typed /sbin/fsck -fy then a message came up "harddrive appears to be ok" next i typed "reboot" and the system started booting.It started as normal with the apple logo and spinning chime,next the screen turns blue where the login screen normally appears but then the screen turns grey with no logo with just the pointer arrow on it and it doesn't seem to load past that point.Can anybody please help me solve this problem i have my kids photos and stuff on it that are unreplaceable.
    Hopefully there's a command line that can help also I don't have a installation disk so is there a way I can download 1 onto USB??
    THANKS HEAPS!!!!!

    Hi Eug07349,
    Thanks for visiting Apple Support Communities.
    It sounds like you may be experiencing a software issue. I'd suggest trying the first two steps in this article (Disconnect, test peripheral devices and network cables, Perform a Safe Boot):
    Mac OS X: Gray screen appears during startup
    http://support.apple.com/kb/ts2570
    Best,
    Jeremy

  • My old mac powerbook g4 wont boot up, it wont show apple logo and spinner aswell just stuck on grey screen while booting please help me

    i have a old powerbook g4 which i usally use to store some photos and to listen music. the battery of my powerbook is completly dead so i used to use my powerbook using charger adapter so whenever my power cuts down my laptop will be shutdown.
    one day i had just bootedup my powerbook and some date notificateion poped up so i press enter and suddenly my power went off and laptop shuted down. and next time when i tried to boot its stuck at grey screen , i even cant reach the apple logo and spinner. please helppp me :!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    Resetting PRAM and NVRAM is not working
    and i cann't boot it on safemode holding shift button and while holding option or c button at startup i can only see three things 1 is refresh button, 2 macintosh HD with X under it, 3 arrow forward button please help me

  • My macbook pro is stuck on grey screen with apple symbol in center with the progress circle under it continusly spinning. After I had turned it on. Prior to turning it on I had to force close and shut down a few hours prior. Please Help?

    My macbook pro is stuck on grey screen with apple symbol in center with the progress circle under it continusly spinning. After I had turned it on. Prior to turning it on I had to force close and shut down a few hours prior. Please Help I have tried everything I know to do

    Unfortunately this means that there is a problem in the boot sector of your hard drive. It might be indicative of a fundamental corruption in the coding that allows your computer to boot your operating system from your hard drive. I had this problem twice and it resulted in me having to get a new hard drive and restore my data.
    In other words, your computer can't talk to your operating system so you can't access your data.
    Here is my advice: DON'T CALL APPLE TECH SUPPORT though they are kind and usually helpful it will take you an hour just to explain the situation and they will only tell you to do what I'm gonna say here.
    First: Shut down your computer completely
    Two: boot up while holding down the following keys: command, option, p, and r. The computer will reboot 3 times. This solution will likely fail so if you're frustrated skip to the next step.
    Three: Boot up while holding down the option key. Select recovery drive. Select your default language. Select disk utility, click on Macintosh HD, and select "verify and repair volume." Likely the verification will produce some line like "unused node not erased." Or something like that. If anything using the words "node structure" comes up, you need a new hard drive.
    If after verification and repairs you still can't boot I sincerely hope you have apple care because you will need a new hard drive. Set up an appointment to come in to the apple store, they will tell you to go and get data recovery, just ask them to give you the old hard drive. Unless you have an up to date backup in which case you can just restore from that. If you're lucky the only issue is with the boot sector which means that if you ask them to give you the old hard drive, you can buy an enclosure and you have effectively been given a free external hard drive. It still works to store data just not to load an operating system.
    If you have a back up drive bring it to the apple store and they'll do the whole thing right there, it should take around an hour and a half but may take longer.
    Hope this helps, it's annoying but it's your safest bet.
    All the best.

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