My Mac mini won't respond to startup commands

Hi, first of all I'd like to say that I tried to find a solution not only in this forum but all over google could offer me and still no success in finding a solution to this problem I'm having, so you guys are my last hope before taking my computer to maintenance.
Well, the thing is, I have a Mac mini Intel Core Duo 1.66GHz that, while trying to install Windows XP through bootcamp I accidentally deleted the Mac OS X disk partition, no harm there as I have a time machine backup, but now I'm trying to boot my OS X 10.6 disk to reinstall the OS but only Windows XP is starting up. I tried to startup with the keys option pressed but no menu to select the source it should boot. I also tried start it up with C pressed, I could hear the DVD spinning and the laser doing its job but only Windows XP boot up.
During my journey trying to make my OS X disk to boot, I realize that almost no startup command was working as its suppose to be, I tried to ZAP PRAM using CMDOPT+PR but no double chime, tried then CMDOPT+NV to clear NV RAM and nothing. My keyboard is the original Apple aluminum wired keyboard that came with my iMac and it's working perfectly.
I also tried to reset PMU, SMC and still no success.
Message was edited by: Carlos Grossi

Found out what's going on on this very same forum, during my research I actually wasn't using the right words on the search box to find what I need, but who'd know that the official Apple keyboard was the source of the problem, anyway for those who came here with the same problem as mine, turns out that my iMac Aluminum Keyboard isn't "compatible" with startup commands although it works for pretty much everything else, I just used an old PC USB keyboard to give the boot options using Alt as the Option key and Windows Logo as Command key.
And that's it!

Similar Messages

  • Mac Mini won't boot, distorted startup chime, gray screen

    Hi all --
    I've seen similar posts (http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=12170891&#12170891) but thought I'd start a new one, mainly because I haven't heard anyone mention the startup chime.
    I woke up my 2007 stock Mac Mini Friday morning and the cursor was frozen. Unplugged and replugged the mouse to no avail. Couldn't force quit, so I had to power down. Restarted with a badly distored startup chime (not "speaker breakup" from excessive volume, just distortion, and some "stuttering") and a gray screen that didn't go away. Restarted many, many times. Inserted Snow Leopard DVD to run Disc Utility but it wasn't recognized -- just a gray screen. Tried resetting the PMU and SMC with no results. Tried booting into single-user mode (with a wired USB keyboard) to eject the DVD, but no luck. Tried open firmware, but nothing. Once in an while I would get the Apple icon and a spinning progress bar that never went away.
    Took it to the Genius Bar, where they tried to boot from a Firewire drive, with no success. The best they could do was tell me my 17-month old Mac was out of warranty. That confirmed, I took it home, cracked it open and removed the Snow Leopard DVD (with a credit card) to insert the install disc it shipped with. That didn't work. A couple of times it looked like it would, but then after the spinning bar I got the multilingual system bomb message. Tried to run Hardware Test, but nothing. Put in original Disc 2... and that gave me a flashing folder! Progress! Forced the DVD out and slipped in Disc 1. That started to read, and then I got some kernel-panic looking text and a shutdown. My last attempt was to create a USB boot drive from the original install discs, but my old Sawtooth won't let me run the installer.
    Is there any hope at this point? I just bought the thing last May, so I've had it less than a year and a half. The distorted startup chime makes me think the logic board is fried and no amount of fooling with the startup drive will make a difference. The only thing out of the ordinary in this case was that it went to sleep last Thursday night with a DV camera hooked up via Firewire.
    I'm not thrilled about giving Apple any more money for another Mini, but I'm heavily invested in Logic Studio so I don't have much of a choice of platform.
    I'm pretty sure I'm doomed, but I thought I'd post anyway. A quick internet search shows I'm not the only one with the gray screen of death on a fairly new Mini. Thanks in advance for any pointers.

    Thanks.
    The Genius was able to get to the Apple logo and spinning... thing (what used to be the beachball). His theory was that as long as the Snow Leopard disc was in there, the boot process would never get to the Firewire port. Once I got home I literally pried the Snow Leopard disc out and put in the original install disc. But any progress whatsoever ends in the system bomb message.
    Thing is, I had tried to eject the disc by booting with the mouse button down. But on restarting, the laser in the optical mouse flashes quickly, once. I don't think the USB ports are going "live" at all... so I can't get into single user mode, safe mode, hardware test, anything. The Genius' keyboard was no help in that regard. So yeah, I suspect a hardware problem.
    A search of "gray screen of death" shows this happening to a lot of models.

  • Mac Mini won't boot, repeating startup chime

    This afternoon I noticed that my Mac Mini (1.5 GHz Intel Core Solo) was acting sluggish. I opened up activity monitor and saw that the process 0 (kernel_task ?) was using about 50% of the CPU. Assuming that it was in the middle of something, I left it alone for another 10 minutes. Still 50% red in the CPU Usage graph in Activity Monitor. I then turned the computer off. When I turn it back on, I get a gray screen, one normal startup chime, followed by somewhat quieter startup chimes about 1 -2 seconds apart. I've tried resetting the PMU, starting up with no USB connections, safe mode, by CD, etc. I don't think the keyboard is even recognized. I know that works, because I tested it on my laptop.
    Any suggestions?
    Thanks!

    OK, well it would not make any difference that the install disk was already inserted - as long as the Option key was being held down at the right moment, the system would go into the boot loader screen even if there were no bootable volumes.
    Make sure the Option key is down immediately you hear the first chime. If you've been doing that, it would be an indication of a more serious fault.
    Try an SMC reset to make sure the system hasn't just corrupted the management controller, then try again.
    An SMC reset can be accomplished as follows:
    -From the Apple menu, choose Shut Down (or if the computer is not responding, hold the power button until it turns off).
    -Unplug all cables from the computer, including the power cord and any display cables.
    -Wait at least 15 seconds.
    -Plug the power cord back in, making sure the power button is not being pressed at the time.
    -Then reconnect your keyboard and mouse to the computer.
    -Press the power button on the back to start up your computer.
    If that doesn't work, there's a hardware fault. In which case the nature and pattern of sounds you hear after the initial chime may be the clue, since these may be the system giving an audible report from the power-on self test. Are these regularly repeating beeps? rather than chimes? If so, you should hear a pattern of 1, 2 3 or 4 of them followed by a second pause, then repeating.

  • My Mac Mini won't get past the initial startup screen with the Apple logo. What can I do?

    After a long distance move, my Mac Mini won't startup past the logo screen. What can I do?

    Take each of these steps that you haven't already tried. Stop when the problem is resolved.
    Step 1
    The first step in dealing with a startup failure is to secure the data. If you want to preserve the contents of the startup drive, and you don't already have at least one current backup, 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 that has changed since the last backup, you can skip this step.   
    There are several ways to back up a Mac that is unable to start. You need an external hard drive to hold the backup data.
         a. Start up from the Recovery partition, or from a local Time Machine backup volume (option key at startup.) When the OS X Utilities screen appears, launch Disk Utility and follow the instructions in this support article, under “Instructions for backing up to an external hard disk via Disk Utility.” The article refers to starting up from a DVD, but the procedure in Recovery mode is the same. You don't need a DVD if you're running OS X 10.7 or later.
    b. If Step 1a fails because of disk errors, and no other Mac is available, then you may be able to salvage some of your files by copying them in the Finder. If you already have an external drive with OS X installed, boot from it. Otherwise, if you have Internet access, follow the instructions on this page to prepare the external drive and install OS X on it. You'll use the Recovery installer, rather than downloading it from the App Store.
    c. If you have access to a working Mac, and both it and the non-working Mac have FireWire or Thunderbolt ports, start the non-working Mac in target disk mode. Use the working Mac to copy the data to another drive. This technique won't work with USB, Ethernet, Wi-Fi, or Bluetooth.
    d. 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.
    Step 2
    If the startup process stops at a blank gray screen with no Apple logo or spinning "daisy wheel," then the startup volume may be full. If you had previously seen warnings of low disk space, this is almost certainly the case. You might be able to start up in safe mode even though you can't start up normally. Otherwise, start up from an external drive, or else use the technique in Step 1b, 1c, or 1d to mount the internal drive and delete some files. According to Apple documentation, you need at least 9 GB of available space on the startup volume (as shown in the Finder Info window) for normal operation.
    Step 3
    Sometimes a startup failure can be resolved by resetting the NVRAM.
    Step 4
    If you use a wireless keyboard, trackpad, or mouse, replace or recharge the batteries. The battery level shown in the Bluetooth menu item may not be accurate.
    Step 5
    If there's a built-in optical drive, a disc may be stuck in it. Follow these instructions to eject it.
    Step 6
    Press and hold the power button until the power shuts off. Disconnect all wired peripherals except those needed to start up, and remove all aftermarket expansion cards. Use a different keyboard and/or mouse, if those devices are wired. If you can start up now, one of the devices you disconnected, or a combination of them, is causing the problem. Finding out which one is a process of elimination.
    Step 7
    If you've started from an external storage device, make sure that the internal startup volume is selected in the Startup Disk pane of System Preferences.
    Start up in safe mode. Note: If FileVault is enabled, or if a firmware password is set, or if the startup volume is a Fusion Drive or a software RAID, you can’t do this. Post for further instructions.
    Safe mode is much slower to start and run than normal, and some things won’t work at all, including wireless networking on certain Macs.
    The login screen appears even if you usually log in automatically. You must know the login password in order to log in. If you’ve forgotten the password, you will need to reset it before you begin.
    When you start up in safe mode, it's normal to see a dark gray progress bar on a light gray background. If the progress bar gets stuck for more than a few minutes, or if the system shuts down automatically while the progress bar is displayed, the startup volume is corrupt and the drive is probably malfunctioning. In that case, go to Step 10. If you ever have another problem with the drive, replace it immediately.
    If you can start and log in in safe mode, empty the Trash, and then open the Finder Info window on the startup volume ("Macintosh HD," unless you gave it a different name.) Check that you have at least 9 GB of available space, as shown in the window. If you don't, copy as many files as necessary to another volume (not another folder on the same volume) and delete the originals. Deletion isn't complete until you empty the Trash again. Do this until the available space is more than 9 GB. Then restart as usual (i.e., not in safe mode.)
    If the startup process hangs again, the problem is likely caused by a third-party system modification that you installed. Post for further instructions.
    Step 8
    Launch Disk Utility in Recovery mode (see Step 1.) Select the startup volume, then run Repair Disk. If any problems are found, repeat until clear. If Disk Utility reports that the volume can't be repaired, the drive has malfunctioned and should be replaced. You might choose to tolerate one such malfunction in the life of the drive. In that case, erase the volume and restore from a backup. If the same thing ever happens again, replace the drive immediately.
    This is one of the rare situations in which you should also run Repair Permissions, ignoring the false warnings it may produce. Look for the line "Permissions repair complete" at the end of the output. Then restart as usual.
    Step 9
    If the startup device is an aftermarket SSD, it may need a firmware update and/or a forced "garbage collection." Instructions for doing this with a Crucial-branded SSD were posted here. Some of those instructions may apply to other brands of SSD, but you should check with the vendor's tech support.   
    Step 10
    Reinstall the OS. If the Mac was upgraded from an older version of OS X, you’ll need the Apple ID and password you used to upgrade.
    Step 11
    Do as in Step 9, but this time erase the startup volume in Disk Utility before installing. The system should automatically restart into the Setup Assistant. Follow the prompts to transfer the data from a Time Machine or other backup.
    Step 12
    This step applies only to models that have a logic-board ("PRAM") battery: all Mac Pro's and some others (not current models.) Both desktop and portable Macs used to have such a battery. The logic-board battery, if there is one, is separate from the main battery of a portable. A dead logic-board battery can cause a startup failure. Typically the failure will be preceded by loss of the settings for the startup disk and system clock. See the user manual for replacement instructions. You may have to take the machine to a service provider to have the battery replaced.
    Step 13
    If you get this far, you're probably dealing with a hardware fault. Make a "Genius" appointment at an Apple Store, or go to another authorized service provider.

  • Mac Mini won't boot after failed XP installation

    Recently upgrade HD to 320GB 7200 rpm and 3GB ram. Running 10.5.8 fine.
    I tried to install Windows XP through Boot Camp, but wasn't successful, I terminated the installation. Then Mac Mini won't boot up. When powered on, you heard the chime, then grey screen showed and stayed. Tried starting with "C" (boot from CD), "OPT" (boot option), "T" (target), and reset PRAM. None of them worked.
    What should I try next?
    Thanks
    Message was edited by: Yijian Cao

    If you install XP on Bootcamp, your startup disc will be changed to XP Windows partitioned you did. To restore your startup disc back to Mac OS, make sure your Mac is turned off. 1. Plug the power back and press the power button ON. When you hear the power On sound, press and hold the ALT key on your keyboard until you see the hardrives. 2. Select the HD that says MAc OS, then your mac will boot back to Mac OS.
    Let me know if you have more problems, maybe I can help.
    Abel

  • TS3824 2011 mac mini won't go past white screen with apple logo

    My Mac mini won't move past a white screen with apple logo in the center. What should I do?

    Hi ..
    If you have v10.7 Lion installed, use Lion Recovery  to repair the startup disk if necessary, or reinstall the Mac OS X.
    If you are running a prior Mac OS X, boot from your install disc, run Disk Utility. The startup disk may need repairing >  Using Disk Utility to verify or repair disks
    And try Resetting your Mac's PRAM and NVRAM

  • Mac mini won't boot anymore

    My Mac mini won't boot anymore. It's been running fine for months.
    It's running Leopard Server 10.5.2 Build 9C31
    It starts to boot, I get the first spinning gear with the gray screen, then the blue desktop blinks, then a second spinning gear on a gray screen and it appears to hang (the gear stops spinning).
    I booted off the install DVD, ran disk utility, repaired the HD, repaired the permissions: the behavior is the same.
    Safe mode doesn't work (same hang as above).
    Single user mode does work.
    I can connect to it via Server Admin while it appears hung.
    The last few lines of the system log are:
    May 15 18:38:58 server emond[67]: SetUpLogs: uid = 0 gid = 0
    May 15 18:38:58 server emond[67]: SetUpLogs: opening /Library/Logs/EventMonitor/EventMonitor.error.log
    May 15 18:38:59 server kextd[23]: writing kernel link data to /var/run/mach.sym
    May 15 18:39:09 server KernelEventAgent[59]: tid 00000000 received unknown event (12)
    May 15 18:39:20 server kernel[0]: display: Not usable
    May 15 18:39:20 server com.apple.KerberosAutoConfig[126]: Kerberos configuration is up to date
    May 15 18:39:20 server com.apple.ATSServer[125]: FODBCheck: New annex file created
    May 15 18:39:21 server ARDAgent [130]: ******ARDAgent Launched******
    May 15 18:39:21 server com.apple.KerberosAutoConfig[132]: Kerberos configuration is up to date
    May 15 18:39:22 server ARDAgent [130]: call logout from LoginLogoutProxyCallBackFunction
    May 15 18:39:22 server com.apple.launchd[1] (com.apple.RemoteDesktop.agent): Throttling respawn: Will start in 9 seconds
    May 15 18:39:24 server loginwindow[58]: Login Window Started Security Agent
    May 15 18:39:29 server servermgrd[53]: servermgr_calendar: created default calendar virtual host
    May 15 18:39:31 server ARDAgent [146]: ******ARDAgent Launched******
    May 15 18:39:32 server ARDAgent [146]: ******ARDAgent Ready******
    May 15 18:39:33 server mdworker[109]: (Error) SyncInfo: Boot-cache avoidance timed out!
    May 15 18:39:54 server Python[47]: CGImageSourceCreateWithData data parameter is nil
    May 15 18:39:54 server com.apple.wikid[47]: Thu May 15 18:39:54 server.jeff.carpenter.name Python[47] <Error>: CGImageSourceCreateWithData data parameter is nil\n
    May 15 18:39:56 server kernel[0]: AppleYukon2 - bad packet received. length: 1440, packet status bits: MII error
    May 15 18:39:56 server kernel[0]: AppleYukon2: 00000000,00000001 sk98osx sky2 - - sk98osx_sky2::replaceOrCopyPacket tried N times
    May 15 18:49:54 server kernel[0]: serialnumberd 194 FSWRITEDATA SBF /dev/dtracehelper 13 (seatbelt)
    May 15 18:49:54 server kernel[0]: serialnumberd 194 FSREADDATA SBF /dev/autofs_nowait 13 (seatbelt)
    May 15 18:49:54 server kernel[0]: serialnumberd 194 FSREADDATA SBF /usr/sbin 13 (seatbelt)
    May 15 18:55:12 server kernel[0]: AppleYukon2 - bad packet received. length: 23, packet status bits: MII error
    Any ideas?

    Yes, it's been running Server since I purchased it.
    I doubt the serial number is in use elsewhere: I purchased the 10-user version at a retail store in a sealed package and I've only installed it once.

  • Mac Mini won't boot up.

    Mac Mini won't boot up! Just getting blank white screen, any ideas why? No apple, just a blank screen. It worked fine last night.

    Have you tried booting into the Recovery HD by pressing/holding COMMAND+R at system start or the Option/Alt key and choosing Recovery HD to boot into?
    If you can get into the Recovery HD, open Disk Utilities and Verify Disk. Repair if necessary.

  • Lion server on Mac mini server stop responding to ssh and VNC (other services like mail, ical works well)

    Lion server on Mac mini server stop responding to ssh and VNC (other services like mail, ical works well)
    Version is Lion server 10.7.4
    When I attach a monitor to it, I saw all the buttons and menus stopped responding too. I can only push and hold the power button on the box to shutdown.
    It only started happening recently.
    Anyone has any clue?
    Thanks for the help in advance!!!

    Found that the second hard drive is broken. I have to go to the apple store to have it replaced.
    I had to press the power button to turn the server off for several times, then the broken hard drive went disappeared. After that, I had to disable the Spotlight. Then the server went back to work normally.
    Now I made a CCC copy of the primary hard drive, and would like to have the server run on the external raid disk (connected through thunderbolt). Does anyone have previous experience with it? Any expectable drawback or issue with this setup?

  • Mac Mini won't start and constantly makes disc ejecting noise

    My Mac Mini won't start. It was working fine, then just locked up and won't start again. When I push the start button it just makes this repeated disc ejecting noise from the DVD drive. It doesn't make the chime noise or display anything on the monitor. I've disconnected the optical drive, but it didn't help. Then it just doesn't start at all. I thought that if I would disconnect the optical drive, that it would ignore it and just boot off the hard drive, but nothing happened. The power light comes on. Then, if I hold down the power button for 10 seconds it shuts down. The fan operates. It just never attempts to boot up. I can't put in a system DVD because the optical drive is just in eternal eject mode.
    If you have any suggestions let me know. Thanks.

    I have the same situation.
    I think the drive thinks it has a disc to eject or part of the mechanism is stuck and can't return to it's resting position. I was going to disconnect as you tried but now I think I'll try to disassemble the drive to see if there might be some debris jamming things up.
    Please let me know if you solve the problem.

  • 2010 Mac Mini won't sleep

    Hello, everything was working fine until I accessed my mac mini from my old iMac G4 to share some files. Now my new Mac Mini won't sleep. Here is what I have done. Ejected the Mac Mini on the iMac. Turned off the iMac, stopped sharing everything on the Mac Mini including files, my printer and iTunes media and reset the PRAM. Still the Mac Mini won't sleep. It's set to it's defaults of 10 minutes to sleep the monitor and itself but only the monitor goes to sleep after the 10 minutes. Very frustrated...

    Hello Euchre and thank you for replying. I have unchecked all the boxes within the "Sharing" options that I checked some time ago. When I did that, sharing was automatically turned off. Still I am having the issue. I'll try putting the monitor at 9 minutes and the computer at 10 to see if that works. I'll be back. Thanks again, Ed

  • Mac mini won't connect to my wireless router!

    I just bought my mac mini server then connected it to wifi, then after 2 weeks I had to go abroad for a week so I just turned off the switch connecting to my mac, without switching off my mac mini server. then when I get back home my mac mini won't connect to my wifi. I tried everything from manually setting up IP and DHCP nothing works. What happened?
    thanks for help,
    Jakarta

    I didn't reset the machine/router itself because 2 of my computer is still connected to wifi-and working perfectly, but the mac mini server cannot connect to wifi.
    what I did was to set up the "networking utilities"-having said that, what I did was to connect all over again to wifi, this did not work. I did tried to change from DHCP to manually set up IP, neither of these didn't work.
    I'm now stucked!
    Message was edited by: asea

  • Mac Mini won't start after installing OS X 10.6.3

    My Mac Mini won't start after installing Mac OS X Snow Leopard 10.6.3. When I turn it on, the Apple logo appears and the initialization line starts to fill, but it suddenly stops. It does that again and stops at the same point, but this time it shuts down. What should I do?

    If you are coming from 10.5.8, hopefully you backed up your important data first. Your mini will need at minimum, 1 GB of RAM to install Snow Leopard and at least 5 GB of storage remaining on your boot drive.
    I treat 10.6.3 as a fresh, full install over a 10.5.8 system. That means I choose Disk Utility from the Installer's menu and repartition the boot drive as a single partition, Mac OS X Extended (Journaled) format, and use the GUID partition scheme from the options button. At this point, while still in Disk Utility, I would verify the drive under First Aid.
    Then I turn the installer loose, and reboot into a working 10.6.3 system, ready for the software updates that take the machine to 10.6.8.
    So, following the above guidelines, reinstall 10.6.3.

  • My Mac mini won't recognize photo library in itunes so I can download pics from library and free up space in memory, I was able to download camera role but not photo library that takes up more space.

    My Mac mini won't recognize iphone 4 photo library in itunes so I can download pics from library and free up space in memory, I was able to download camera role but not photo library that takes up more space. Help thanks

    The photo sync is one-way: Computer to phone. Photos synced to your phone will have to be extracted from your phone using third-party software, if you want them on your computer, as Apple makes no provision to do so. Since you're using a Mac, you can use this:
    http://www.ecamm.com/mac/phoneview/

  • Mac mini won't start up.  Grey screen with apple just freezes.

    Mac mini won't start up. just get a grey screen with the apple and it freezes.  Please help.

    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, 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 partitirion & use Disk Utility from there to Repair the Disk, then Repair Permissions.

Maybe you are looking for