My iMac won't start up properly, it powers on the bong sound happens and then the little gear spins forever

My iMac won't start up properly, it powers on the bong sound happens and then the little gear spins forever
ive tried booting from my leapord disk
smc reset
pram reset
and safe boot

Please carefully read Apple's advice letter Gray screen appears during startup for troubleshooting steps.

Similar Messages

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    Can't back-up new iMac with fusion HD.  The back-up proceeds to within 10% of the total storage needed and then the "of" number increases.  I suspect there is a problem with backing up the fusion drive.  We have a new 3 TB time Capsule.  I tried excluding different parts of the software from the back-up but it didn't make any difference.  I even tried exluding "invisible items" to no avail.  Any ideas?

    When you setup the wireless and ethernet in the computer.. ipv6 will be on automatic.. this is wrong for the latest TC firmware and airport utility. http://support.apple.com/kb/TS4597
    Go to the wireless and ethernet setup in preferences and change ipv6 to link local.
    Once you do the big backup by ethernet the wireless will function fine for incremental.. it is obviously not estimating the size correctly..
    A full back-up on the iMac would be about 650 GB.  The partial updates that I have been trying start out at 115MB and keep growing indefinitely.  The original back-up never finished nor have any of the follow-up attempts.
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    See A10 here.
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  • Help! imac won't start up properly

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    Message was edited by: allyp

    To Apple Discussions!
    "I get an error message along with a power symbol that says "you need to restart your computer."
    Is this what you are seeing?
    If so, you are having what is known as a kernel panic - What is a kernel panic? (Mac OS X)
    Other info to review:
    http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106805 Mac OS X: "Broken folder" icon, prohibitory sign, or *kernel panic* when computer starts
    User Tips: Kernel Panics
    You won't lose any info from starting from your System Install DVD. However, most people here recommend that you always have a backup.

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    Recently, one of my school's iMac's broke down and the IT guy was brought in to fix it. It ran smoothly for a bit but then started freezing, then not even being able to reach the login screen. It will take up to sometimes exesses of an hour to finish the white screen with the apple on it bit. Then it will go blue, and won't load anything after that.
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    My iMac is doing the same thing, started the day I downloaded the first update for leopard. No one can figure out what's going on except I have no hardware problems it just can no longer find os to boot up on. Leopard has killed my computer and many others and it seems because some people have complained wrongly apple is not going to step up and repair the damage done by there software. And ore intel macs like my g4 iMac really get crashed at least the new macs stay up enough to uninstall leopard.

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    Reinstall OS X.
    Reinstalling OS X Without Erasing the Drive
    Boot to the Recovery HD: Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the menu screen appears. Alternatively, restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD and click on the downward pointing arrow button.
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    When the recovery menu appears select Disk Utility. After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list.  In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive.  If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU and return to the main menu.
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    Also see:
    Reinstall OS X Without Erasing the Drive
    Choose the version you have installed now:
    OS X Yosemite- Reinstall OS X
    OS X Mavericks- Reinstall OS X
    OS X Mountain Lion- Reinstall OS X
    OS X Lion- Reinstall Mac OS X
         Note: You will need an active Internet connection. I suggest using Ethernet
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  • TS1367 My MacPro won't start up properly?

    My MackBook pro won't start up properly. Screen comes on with apple logo and sound but won't boot properly.
    Any help would be appreciated, thanks
    PS I'm not computer savvy!

    Please carefully read Apple's advice letter Gray screen appears during startup for troubleshooting steps.

  • 24" iMac won't start when iPod is connected

    My 24" iMac won't start up/restart if my iPod is already connected to it. If I restart with the iPod connected, I just get a gray screen (with no apple logo) forever. Has anyone else experienced this problem? If so, any solution? I have Windows installed with boot camp, don't know if that's the problem, but I tried reseting the p-ram, but to no avail...
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    My suggestion would be disconnect the iPod. That's just me though.
    http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=93953
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  • Imac won't start white screen apple icon spinning gear

    imac won't start.  when turn on, I just get a white screen with apple icon and a spinning gear below the apple icon.  what should I do to get it started and fix the problem?  Thanks.

    See if any of the suggestions in this link help:
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  • 2008 24" IMac won't start.

    Hi.
    I have a early 2008 24" 2.8ghz IMac that won't start. There is a short dvd drive sound only. No hard drive noises, fans or display. Nothing else. Status led's 1 through 3 are lit. Not 4. Tried the usual tricks from the boards already. Any ideas?
    Thanks in advance.

    My computer is a 2008 so this applies:
    LED #4
    Indicates that the computer and the LCD display panel are communicating. This LED will be • ON when the computer is turned on and video signal is being generated. If the LED is ON and there is no image on the LCD display panel, the LCD display panel or inverter might be installed incorrectly or need replacement.
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  • IMac won't start with Thunderbolt Display connected after firmware update

    After updating my thunderbolt display firmware to version 1.2 this morning via the App Store, my mid-2014 iMac won't start up with the external display connected.  I can get the iMac to start up only by disconnecting the display's thunderbolt connector. After the iMac comes up, I can reconnect the display and everything appears to function normally.  I've tried several restarts and the iMac won't start up with the display connected.  Anyone else experience this?

    Hello rameta,
    It may help to reset your Mac's SMC and PRAM.
    Intel-based Macs: Resetting the System Management Controller (SMC)
    http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3964
    Reset your computer’s PRAM
    http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1379
    Cheers,
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  • After installing update, iMac won't start up

    After installing the last updates my iMac won't start up, starts what look like install then just shuts down.

    Would you care to tell us what exact model and version of iMac and what version of OS X you are using?  We need a hint to help you.
    Hope this helps .

  • IMac won't start - should I reinstall OS?

    Recently my iMac won't start up - it goes to screen with folder + question mark. I've run Disk Utility, repaired hard drive, but there were no reported repairs to make.
    Occassionally it will start up, and everything seems normal until suddenly the beach ball appears and everything freezes. 99% of tries it won't start up (i get the ? folder). Is it worth erasing the disk and reinstalling everything to see if a fresh start will help, or is it likely that the hardware is damaged?
    Don't want to bother erasing it if there's no point... any advice greatly appreciated.
    Also - anyone who's had their iMac repaired - what are the costs like?

    I've just suddenly had the same problem - for no apparent reason as far as I can tell. The night before last I switched off my iMac as normal, and yesterday morning switched it back on. At first it would start, but crashed as soon as I tried to start any applications. Then it wouldn't start at all, and just got as far as the gray screen with the apple on it. After trying resetting the PRAM, switching on and holding the on button for 10 seconds, it was no different...
    So, I tried doing a archive-reinstall from the original leopard DVD I bought from apple. This did a successful disk verification, but then said it couldn't install mac os due to a problem with the basesystem package. After that it wouldn't let me try another archive-install and only gave the options to install as new, or erase and install. The latter I don't want to do, and the former just gives the same basesystem error... All I get now is a flashing folder with a question mark and not even the gray screen...
    I have tried using the diskutility to verify/ repair the hard drive and it says all is well...
    I have heard this may all be due to dodgy RAM chips, but I have never messed with them or altered them. It just seems odd they should suddenly fail when they were working fine before.....
    Any ideas would be much appreciated. A lot of data at risk
    Dan.

  • IMac won't start without install disc

    Hi, I'm new to all of this. I tried resetting my admin password using install disc on my iMac as I'd forgotten it. Now iMac won't start without disc. If disc is ejected on restart apple logo flashes between no entry sign and folder with "?" on it. Will start up with install disc in, but then wants me to choose language and install OS. Tried repairing and verifying HD and all seems ok. Tried holding option key and selecting HD on startup, but same outcome - choose language and install OS. How do I get back to normal desk top? Do I have to install OS again? Will I lose data? Please, please help! Thanks.

    It should only take a minute or so at most to boot from the DVD.
    If your sure you have the correct Install Disk for that iMac, I'd start over. Then if it still doesn't work then perhaps a trip to your Local Apple Service Provider with the Disk or Disk and iMac is in order.
    http://www.apple.com/buy/locator/service/
    Alternately using the correct Disk as per the following article, see if you can run the Apple Hardware Test? > http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1509

  • IMac won't start up passed the grey screen

    Last friday my iMac (late 2006, 24", 2.33 duo core Intel, OS 10.6.8) gave me the spinning beach ball.
    Restarting resulted in: first the apple screen with the progress indicator, followed by grey screen..
    That was it. It hangs at the grey screen.
    I've been busy this weekend testing all kinds of ideas to get my imac to fully start up again.
    I checked the RAM, it's fine.
    I flushed NVRAM, wild guess, but nothing changed.
    Starting up in safe mode doesn't work.
    Starting up in recovery mode doesn't work.
    On the upside, I was able to start my imac up in Target mode. Using the host computer and Disk Utlity I can see there's nothing wrong with the HD. All the data is still there!, so later today I'll make a copy of the complete HD, hoping/thinking that I won't copy whatever is wrong.
    I had Disk Utility repair all the permissions.
    I've used the host computer to reinstall the OS on my imac.
    But on start up my beloved iMac still won't get passed the grey screen.
    I'm thinking something goes wrong before my Mac even gets to the HD. Maybe it's the firmware, but I'm not really sure that firmware matters in this case. And I wouldn't know how to reinstall the latest version of firmware because my imac won't start up from it's disk drive
    I'm thinking maybe something could be wrong with the graphic card's RAM, though on start up I can see the apple logo just fine.
    I'm not able to start up from CD, I've tried that because I wanted to reinstall my OS (before I figured out how to do that in Target Mode) by putting the OS disk in my imac's own disk drive. Staring up with the C key still gets me the grey screen. Staring up with Option key shows no other option but the HD.
    So is there anybody out there who has an idea that could help me further along?
    Any help is greatly appreciated!
    Frank

    Hi Jan,
    If you have another firewire Mac you can check if the HD of your Mac is OK by connecting them with a firewire cable and use target-mode. That way I found out my HD was just fine.
    It also offers you the chance to run a diagnostic program to check if anything else is fine. I used TechTool to do that. But everything checked out fine.
    In the end I decided the problem is probably hardware. Some electronic part that broke. Very frustrating that some small transistor or so is keeping me from using my otherwise fine iMac.
    I contacted a repairshop that also works for the local Mac retailer. They told me my iMac was concidered 'classic' and therefor it wasn't economically not worth the trouble trying to repair it.
    I gave up, took two weeks to mourn the loss of my beloved iMac, and bought a Mac mini.
    FrankV
    Judging by your name I'm guessing I could've anwered this in Dutch.

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    My Imac has been out of warranty coverage for a while, how do I know if it's hard ware problems before paying for service?
    Any help would be appreciated!
    Alice

    Yes, I have backed up and deleted old files using target disk mode with an old macbook.  It's just the larger files I didn't have enough space and disks for.  I really appreciate your help on this as I've never had any mac issues before this so am not really sure what to look for.

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