My Imac will not move beyond the Grey Screen with the spirl spinning any ideas

Recently I rebooted my IMac, it now will not move past the grey screen with the spinning spirl.
Please help

Turn off your machine, then power on whilst holding down cmd+alt+p+r until the screen goes off and you hear the chime again.
Also, what iMac do you have/how old?

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My MBP will not lot start up. It chimes on but will not load up the OS. Any Ideas on how to reboot, btw i do not have the OS Disc.

My MBP will not lot start up. It chimes on but will not load up the OS. Any Ideas on how to reboot, btw i do not have the OS Disc.

The System DVDs that originally came w/your MBP has the troubleshooting tools. Suggest that you find them.
Do you have any 3rd party utility DVDs? If so, they may work. DW would be your best choice. Does wonders.
You can get replacement System Install & Restore CD/DVDs from Apple's Customer Support - in the US, (800) 767-2775 - for a nominal S&H fee. You'll need to have the model and/or serial number of your Mac available.
If you're not in the US, you may need to go through the regional Apple Store that serves your location to find the contact number. Here's a list of links to all of those - http://store.apple.com/Catalog/US/Images/intlstoreroutingpage.html Another resource: International Support Phone #s.

Mac book will not boot up,only grey screen with ? on it,Why?

Why won't my Mac book boot up,start up only grey screen with ? showing?

That folder with the question mark icon means that the MacBook can't find the boot directory. That can either mean it can't find the hard drive or the Operating System data on the hard drive is somehow corrupted.
With 10.4, 10.5 or 10.6 put your install DVD into the optical drive (CD/DVD drive) and reboot. 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. As soon as you hear the boot chime, hold down the "c" key on your keyboard (or the Option Key until the Install Disk shows up) until the apple shows up. That will force your MacBook to boot from the install DVD in the optical drive.
Or if you are running 10.7 Lion, 10.8 Mountain Lion or 10.9 Mavericks, boot from the recovery partition (Command +R on boot) and use Disk Utility to repair your OS 10.7, 10.8 or 10.9 partition.
When it does start up, you'll see a panel asking you to choose your language. Choose your language and press the Return key on your keyboard once. It will then present you with an Installation window. Completely ignore this window and click on Utilities in the top menu and scroll down to Disk Utility and click it. When it comes up is your Hard Drive in the list on the left?
If it is, then click on the Mac OS partition of your hard drive in the left hand list. Then select the First Aid Tab and run Repair Disk. The Repair Disk button won't be available until you've clicked on the Mac OS partition on your hard drive. If that repairs any problems run it again until the green OK appears and then run Repair Permissions. After repairing use Startup Disk from the same menu to choose your hard drive for restarting from your hard drive.
If your hard drive isn’t recognized in Disk Utility then your hard drive is probably dead.

My iMac does not move beyond the white screen with apple logo?

When the iMac turns on it does not advance it's start up beyond the 'White Screen' with the apple logo at the center.

the following article addresses the mac booting to gray screen issue you described:
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2570
you should get resolution from this, good luck!

IMac will not boot, just runs apple screen with turning circle

Trying to turn iMac on, but only get the gray screen with Apple icon and turning wheel. Any advise on how to get iMac to boot?

That isn't a good sign, it's rying to repair the drive & cannot useually with that.
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 at top of the screen. (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, or are running 10.7+, at least try it from the Safe Boot part onward.
If 10.7.0 or later...
Bootup holding CMD+r, or the Option/alt key to boot from the Restore partitiion & use Disk Utility from there to Repair the Disk, then Permissions.

IMac G5 doesn't go past grey screen with apple and spinning gear

I have an iMac G5 (Ambient Light Sensor) running Mac OS X 10.5.2 Leopard. Last night my computer froze while using QuickTime. I had to force shutdown the computer by holding the power button for 5 seconds after everything else failed.
Now it won't start. I hear the chime, the apple logo on grey screen appears and I see the spinning gear. But it stays like that indefinitely. I can boot with the Leopard DVD with no problem. I verified/repaired the boot disk. I verified/repaired the permissions. Everything is super fine. Made sure the selected startup disk was the correct one. I can even start up in FireWire Target Mode. I've resetted the PRAM and the SMU. Starting in single user mode also works.
How can I solve this startup issue. Are there things I could try before resorting to a archive install or clean install of Leopard. My HD is 232GB and I have 197GB of data.
Thanks for the help.

I opened the back cover according to the instuctions in the manual to check the internal battery (which is fine and strong according to my little battery tester). I followed the steps in the support article "iMac G5: Troubleshooting when your computer won't turn on". According to the LED, my power supply is fine. I turned on my computer with the back cover off using the internal power button. It turned on, chimed, did the usual SuperDrive sound and did a complete boot. I took a peek at the screen by lifting a corner cause it was laying face down on a soft towel on my bed. And I saw the user prompt asking me my password, and the galaxy theme desktop picture. So I turned this off and placed the cover back on. But it still won't start using the external power button. Thanks with all your help Miriam. I'm now gonna look for a solution with the external power button issue.

Macintosh HD will not open, stays on grey screen with spinning wheel

Recently things have been funny with my computer. Safari suddenly wouldn't fully open, but Explorer would. Often my computer would not go to sleep. Sometimes the mouse freezes on the screen after the computer has been idle for awhile. When the computer was opening it made a very quiet clicking noise. Sometimes the screen would go dark grey and up in the left hand corner there would be white typing talking about a "kernel". I have no idea what it meant.
I decided to try and reinstall Safari and use disk utility from my start-up disk (Tiger) to try and fix errors on my HD. The disk utility could not complete repair or verification. Here's the messages.
Verify Disk:
Invalid catalog record type
Error: The underlying task reported failure to exit
1 HFS volume checked
Volume need repair
Disk Repair:
Invalid catalog record type
Error: The underlying task reported failure to exit
1 volume could not be repaired because of an error
I've done numerous searches on the internet using my other hard drive (luckily I have two). I've tried everything I could find: Safe Boot; fsck; disk utility. Nothing could finish or work properly. I would like to be able to get back to my main HD and save pictures and documents that I really need. I can than erase and reinstall the operating system if needed.
Any suggestions?

Hi Silverc, welcome to the Apple Discussions! Great job describing some of your symptoms, they really help those who read the post in trying to understand and troubleshoot the issue without actually seeing the issue.
The symptom that stands out to me the most is the clicking sound you're able to hear from within the case (if I understand your description correctly). From my experience, a clicking sound can originate from a hard drive that is physically failing. It's good that you have a second HDD that you can boot the system from!
Does this problematic HDD show up on the desktop when you boot from your other drive?
Even if it does not, there's a good chance the system sees the hard drive on the IDE channel, which means you should be able to run a SMART test (SMART = Self-Monitoring Analysis and Reporting Technology) to see if that drive is failing. SMART technology is included with many HDDs and can help you determine if a drive believes it is physically healthy, failed, or predicting failure.
The third case (predicting failure) recently happened to me. From within Mac OS X, copying files to the drive suddenly became very slow. When I opened the case while the system was running and attempting a file copy operation to the problematic drive, I could hear the dreaded clicking sound. Upon running a SMART test, the results indicated a pending failure. After copying as much data as I valued from the drive (which, in its state took a very long time and is submit to integrity verifications), I shutdown the system and removed the drive.
Good news in terms of SMART testing is there are freeware tools available to perform the task, and the results are user-friendly (i.e. no need to understand the technical stuff of SMART).
The freeware tool that comes to my mind for checking the status of your problem drive (providing the system can see the again...though again, it might not show on your desktop even if OS X can see it) is SMARTReporter:
http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/23232
Be sure to carefully read the documentation and explore the preferences. If your system has 2 internal hard drives installed, both should hopefully be possible to verify and report the results to you. Keep in mind that a failing drive can respond unpredictably and very slowly, so be patient when trying the program for the first time. Sometimes the system can appear to be frozen when it is not!
If you want a more complete disk utility solution, I always recommend DiskWarrior:
http://www.alsoft.com/diskwarrior/
This commerical-grade utility includes a bootable CD which can be used to run SMART checks (using the Hardware tab), check/repair/optimize disk directories, and even has some file recovery functionality. DiskWarrior was actually the program I used to run my SMART test.
Finally, if you can access the drive, or if the drive is visible to the system but does not show up on the desktop, there are some software packages available that can attempt to recover data from failed drives. From a similar issue I discussed in another thread, a much more experienced person recommended is DataRescue (which I haven't tried, but it does include very limited trial functionality to see if it will even work for you):
http://www.prosofteng.com/products/data_rescue.php
A lot of information here, read it carefully, take your time, and please reply with questions and let us know how you progress through the problem. Best of luck!

HT204406 I attempted to download iTunes match w/o success. Step 1 was fine. Step 2 gets stalled and will not move beyond 80%... Any suggestions for a solution? Why is iTunes stalling on step 2?

I attempted to download iTunes match w/o success. Step 1 was fine. Step 2 gets stalled and will not move beyond 80%... Any suggestions for a solution? Why is iTunes stalling on step 2?

Hi folks,
I found a solution in case your MATCH is still buggy...
JUST BOOT YOUR MAC HOLDING THE SHIFT KEY (until you see a progress bar).
Then in itunes disable and re-enable iTunes Match.
It should rescan all your library and eventually works.
At the end just reboot your Mac normally.
Best regards from Paris.
Nico

Please help my iMac will not start. The apple logo comes up and the wheel goes round and then I am left with an empty white sceen can anyone help

Please help, my iMac will not start up, the apple comes up and the wheel goes round but then I am left with a blank white screen. Has anyone any ideas.

Locate your original install disk (it's grey) and use it to restart your iMac by holding the "C" key during startup. Use the disk utility to repair your harddrive.

My 5yr old iMac will not connect to the Internet. All other computers in the house will, including my Mac pro and iPad. What should I do?

My 5yr old iMac will not connect to the Internet. All other computers at home will, including my Mac Pro and iPad. I'm at my wits end. What should I do?

Which OS are you using (update your user profile).Try a
SMC RESET
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3964
Shut down the computer.
Unplug the computer's power cord and ALL peripherals.
Wait 15 seconds.
Attach the computers power cable.
Wait another 5 seconds and press the power button to turn on the computer.
The 5 second timing is important to a successful reset.

My iMac will not boot past the logo and spinning gear

My iMac will not boot past the logo and spinning gear (After a Rogue Amoeba update). I can't access the recovery disk I made on a flash drive. (Am I doing it correctly? - Hold down option while switching on? It just stays on the logo). What (if anything) can I do please?

If you installed Lion onto your machine, it should have created a Recovery HD (hidden from view, but visible in Disk Utility with its Debug menu enabled, under Show all Partitions).
That article states:
Note: In order to create an external Lion Recovery using the Lion Recovery Assistant, the Mac must have an existing Recovery HD.
Would I see the recovery menu (by holding down option on power up)
Yes.
if there was no recovery disc connected do you think?
Shouldn't matter, since your int HD is always connected.

My wireless internet is working with all of my other devices but my imac will not connect to the network?

Can anyone help? My wireless connection is working on both my iphone4S and my ipad2, but my Imac will not connect to the network.

First run Software Update to make sure your iMac is up-to-date.
Even though things are working OK on other devices there may still be issues with your modem or router so it's best to start there. Locate the manuals on both devices and reset each. Do the modem first then the router. Next make sure the router has up-to-date firmware. If the problem continues after updating resetting and updating both devices then download and install iStumbler and let it run for about 30 minutes. iStumbler will scan your area for the Wi-Fi networks being used, pay attention to the channels each network is set to. Most routers are pre-set to channels 5 or 6 and if you are in a congested area and all the routers are set for channel 5 or 6 then you can see where there might be a problem. Set your router's channel to one not being used in your area, you have at least 14 channels to choose from. Also check to see if your router is using 802.11n, if it's not then it would be wise to upgrade the router to a faster device.
Next is if you are still having issues the problem could be your ISP's DNS settings. If you want to learn about DNS please read CNET's DNS Article and MacWorld's DNS Troubleshooting . Then use the instructions below to reset the DNS settings:
1. System preferences
2. Network
3. Click Advanced
4. Click DNS tab
5. Click + sign
6. Add 208.67.222.222
7. Click + sign
8. Add 208.67.220.220
9. Click OK.
10. Exit System Preferences

After updating my software my computer will not move past the apple star up screen. What can I do to fix this?

Help! My Mac book pro is 1 year old. I just updated my software yesterday now upon starting up, the computer will not move past the start up apple screen. Any suggestions?

Thanks! I will try in the am! Appreciate the suggestion.

HT2173 my iMac will not get past the start screen, after i restarted it after it not being able to upload my photos from my iPhone 4S to iPhoto app on my iMac bc a visa vas about 3:15 min

my iMac will not get past the start screen, after i restarted it after it not being able to upload my photos from my iPhone 4S to iPhoto app on my iMac bc a visa vas about 3:15 min. What should I do to get my imac past this?

According to your posted Profile here you are running a PPC based iMac. This Forum is only for "Intel iMac's", and so to get the expert and correct help you need you should repost your question in the "PPC iMac Forum".
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HT1212 I have no idea why suddenly my iPhone5 will not move past the Password screen; also, a voice describes each button I touch, and ends with "screen locked" (not "phone locked").

I have no idea why my iPhone5 suddenly will not move past the PW screen; a "voice" identifies each button touched (the Slide button, for example) or the PW buttons, and then ends with "screen locked" (not phone locked).

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Tap General. Then double-tap General.
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My Imac will not move beyond the Grey Screen with the spirl spinning any ideas

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