My Mac Won't leave the grey apple screen at start-up.

Hey,
My macbook, when it starts, will just stay at the grey apple screen with the loading thing under it. I've tried turning it off, turning it back on, Doing the Command COntrol Power thing, and nothing seems to work.
How can I fix this?

yes, i have the same problem exactly, and according to another thread, it seems to be happening to macbook users who upgrade to the latest itunes. my fix can get you macbook up and running, tho it requires an external drive. your 'can't install' message may be a sign of something more serious now tho- it could be your internal drive's data is lost.
anyway, plug in an external fw/usb2 drive so the leopard install disk can see it for installing on to. my internal drive showed up as an option, but i chose to install to the external. after this was finished, i booted off the external, and there was all my data, available from the internal drive (still couldn't boot from it tho) after saving what i wanted to save, i then used the install disc to do a reinstall using the 'archive and install, preserve user and network' option, under the option/custom button.
back to macbook! btw, the external need to be formatted using a 'guid' flag (it's for intel booting), so if your external's not in this format, it will need to be repartitioned. (it's always something!)

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I have a MacBookPro1,1 running mac os x 10.6.8. It keeps freezing whenever i use it, and often takes 5 or more attempts to turn on. It just stays at the grey apple screen, causing me to force shut down. Is there anyway i can fix this?

When i am using the mac. often it will suddenly freeze, only the coloured loading wheel still moving. I will leave it for hours to unfreeze but nothing. The only remedy is to turn it off by the button. Moreover, sometimes when i turn it on it gets stuck at the grey apple screen and i have to turn it off by the button and on again. This can happen up to 10 times until it turns on! What can i do?

Shut down your computer and disconnect all peripherals (keyboard & mouse if pertinent) from your computer. Now reboot.
If the Mac starts up normally, shut it down again and then plug in one of the peripherals (keyboard or mouse first) and start up your computer again. If it does so successfully repeat the process, adding one peripheral at a time until your Mac acts up. At that point, disconnect the last peripheral you added, reboot your Mac and search the peripheral vendor's website for an updated driver.
If no driver exists or the problem remain after installing the new driver, try a different cable or a different port on your Mac.
If none of the above works, again disconnect all peripherals from your Mac, hold down the "shift" key to start up in "Safe Boot" mode.
If the Mac starts up correctly, restart without pressing the "shift" key.
If your computer still does not start up properly, shut it down and restart it while holding down the Apple+Option-P-R keys; keep holding "all 4 keys" down until you hear the startup sound "twice."
If none of the above work Disconnect all peripherals from your computer. Boot from your install disc & run Repair Disk from the utility menu. To use the Install Mac OS X disc, insert the disc, and restart your computer while holding down the C key as it starts up.
Select your language.
Once on the desktop, select Utility in the menu bar.
Select Disk Utility.
Select the disk or volume in the list of disks and volumes, and then click First Aid.
Click Repair Disk.
(If Disk Utility cannot repair, you will need a stronger utility (3rd party) - Diskwarrior or Techtool PRO)
Restart your computer when done.
Repair permissions after you reach the desktop-http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=25751 and restart your computer.
If you are able to reach your desktop take note of how large your hard drive is and how much hard drive space do you have left?
Remove any 3rd party ram.
Reinstall Snow Leopard - This will install a "fresh" copy of Snow Leopard without archiving old system files but leaves the rest of your files in place.
If your computer is still under warranty or you have Apple Care, take full advantage of it by letting tech support deal with your problems. It's what you're paying them for.
Out of warranty - take the computer to an Apple store or an AASP. Whichever is more convenient for you.

My G5 shut down + when it restarted it won't go past the grey apple screen

here's a general rundown of how I got to this point...
last yr the hard drive on my '05 G5 went, so i had it replaced (6-7 months ago) and for the last 2-3 months i've had problems with involuntary shut downs (cut to black) it started happening once a day and then there were days where it would happen more often and then less often and eventually got to a point where it was happening every 5-20 minutes, so i brought it in to get looked at and was told that it was the power supply that was malfunctioning. I mentioned that I would likely be buying a new mac in the coming weeks ( i did yesterday) and was told that I should be ok between now and then without having it fixed and then when i did get my new computer they would transfer all of my old data onto the new computer and would be installing the new power supply before selling it to a local school. then, 3 days before I was going to get my new mac, it shut off yet again, but when it rebooted it never went past the grey apple screen. after 4 or 5 minutes the fan comes on and is amazingly loud and this is where it stays until i shut it off. i'm not sure if this is simply the power supply finally going going gone or if this has something to do with the very new hard drive or who knows what else; i just want to get my info from the old computer onto the new and hopefully get the couple hundred dollars that i was told my g5 was worth. is there something i can do to get past the grey screen before i bring it in?
thanks in advance,
Jeremiah

I doubt that your data have been lost, the hard drive should be fine. Too bad that you're going to sell it, you could have used the hard drive in an enclosure to back up your new computer to. Please remember to make frequent backups/clones, I use SuperDuper! and it works perfectly. I have used it to re-clone a drive from the external when things have gone bad, you can also boot from a SuperDuper! clone.
Anyway, let us know how things go, I'm pretty sure your drive will be fine.

My G-5 Won't go past the Grey Apple Screen......HELP HELP HELP

I have a G-5 PowerMac.
Its about a year old.
I have used it more than sparingly. I bought it for video editing and have no other programs installed on it that didn't come with the computer besides Final Cut Pro
I tried to turn it on this morning to edit a project i'm working on and the thing just wont get past the Grey Apple Screen.
I really need help here. My hardware warranty runs out on December 31st and I dont have money for the Applecare $250 is really steep.
Help me turn the thing back on and get my editing going please
Email me at [email protected] if you can help me out
thanks
Chris
Power Mac G5 Dual Processor Mac OS X (10.4)

Hey Cris
I just got thru the same problem. My G5 was only 30 days old. I contacted Apple and after many phone calls I ended up purchasing the Applecare.
The parts were on back order for two weeks and they ended up replacing the logic board and the processor.
Good Luck!!!

My computer suddenly decides not to work and turns on but does not go past the grey apple screen with the loading wheel.. it will not go to my desktop. What should i do?

can somebody please help me fix this issue, i have been sitting at my computer all last night and this morning trying to figure it out. It could be the hardrive or anything really i just need to get it working. Alot of important things that need to be done using this computer and i am freaking out.
My computer suddenly decides not to work and turns on but does not go past the grey apple screen with the loading wheel.. it will not go to my desktop. What should i do?

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, boot from the recovery partition (Command +R on boot) and use Disk Utility to repair your OS 10.7 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.

G4 won't boot past grey apple screen

Hi. I have been having the same issues with my G4 15". I'm frustrated. The whole thing started with stalling during applications. So I decided to reinstall my OS X 10.5. After reinstall, I copied my saved files from my "My Book" drive back to my hard drive. Stalling issues returned. I reinstalled again. still had some stalling issues, so I performed disk utilities. I repaired permissions. SMART status is verified. System still ran extremely slow. So, I followed directions on apple support for resetting the PRAM and NVRAM. After I did this, the computer won't boot past the grey apple screen. I have reset the PRAM and the NVRAM again. Still nothing. I rebooted up from OS install disk. I performed disk utilities repairing permissions and repairing HD. I did this for both my drive and the computers drive. I choose restart and again the grey apple screen. I have been trying to get this thing going for a week now. I'm near tears. Cornelius or anyone, can you help me? It says no errors are found, SMART is verified. But I can't get the computer to boot unless it is from the CD. Is the computer confused on where to boot from? Or is it shot? HELP ME PLEASE, before I play frisbee with my dear beloved mac!!!! It seems like this ALL started happening after I installed the update 10.5.8. I had ZERO problem prior to any software updates!!!

There have been report of some external drives/enclosures that do not work as a boot device. Not sure if the MyBook is in that category or not, just make sure that there is nothing else plugged into the Powerbook then try again.
Does the WD need its own power to be plugged into an AC power source? Try the other firewire port
I have one more question for ya... You were able to load OSX on this EHD using the OSX install disk in the Powerbook? And the installer saw the EHD with no problems?
If non of the above works try booting while holding down the x-key, this should force it to look for an OSX volume, not sure if it works the same on an EHD but worth a shot.

I can't get past the grey apple screen using mavericks

I can't get past the grey apple screen trying to boot up with Mavericks. I had been using Mavericks for about a month (only had issues of freezing occasionally). I read in one of the posts here that I should try holding command R down when booting. I did now I just get a grey screen without the apple. Any advise?
I have a Mac Mini

Hello ther cnickers,
It sounds like the initial install of Mavericks went ok, and you have been using it for a while, but now cannot boot to your desktop and are stuck at a gray screen with an Apple logo. I would recommend a couple of things here:
First, try performing a Safe Boot to see if that will load up for you. If so then leave Safe Boot and restart from the Apple menu to try and get to your deskop:
To start up into Safe Mode (to Safe Boot), follow these steps.
Be sure your Mac is shut down.
Press the power button.
Immediately after you hear the startup tone, hold the Shift key.
The Shift key should be held as soon as possible after the startup tone, but not before the tone.
Release the Shift key when you see the gray Apple logo and the progress indicator (looks like a spinning gear).
After the logo appears, you should see a progress bar during startup. This indicates that your computer is performing a directory check as part of Safe Mode.
To leave Safe Mode, restart your computer without holding any keys during startup.
From: Mac OS X: What is Safe Boot, Safe Mode?
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1564
If that works fine, I would next also verify and repair your disk if needed.
Disk Utility 12.x: Repair a disk
http://support.apple.com/kb/PH5836
Print this help page so you can refer to it later. (You don’t have access to Disk Utility Help when you restart up your computer in the next step.)In the Disk Utility Help window, choose Print from the Action pop-up menu (looks like a gear).
Choose Apple menu > Restart. Hold down the Command (⌘) and R keys as your computer restarts.When you see a white screen with an Apple logo in the middle, you can release the keys.
Click Disk Utility, and then click Continue.
In the list at the left, select the item you want to repair. (Be sure to select an item that’s indented to the right in the list, not an item at the far left.)
Click First Aid.
If Disk Utility tells you the disk is about to fail, back it up and replace it. You can’t repair it.
Click Repair Disk.If Disk Utility reports that the disk appears to be OK or has been repaired, you’re done. Otherwise, you may need to do one of the following steps.
If Disk Utility reports “overlapped extent allocation” errors, two or more files occupy the same space on your disk, and at least one of them is likely to be corrupted. Check each file in the list of affected files. If you can replace a file or recreate it, delete it. If it contains information you need, open it and examine its data to make sure it hasn’t been corrupted. (Most of the files in the list have aliases in a DamagedFiles folder at the top level of your disk.)
If Disk Utility can’t repair your disk or it reports “The underlying task reported failure,” try to repair the disk or partition again. If that doesn’t work, back up as much of your data as possible, reformat the disk, reinstall Mac OS X, and then restore your backed-up data.If you continue to have problems with your disk, it may be physically damaged and need to be replaced.
Thank you for using Apple Support Communities.
Cheers,
Sterling

G5 Boots up and hangs at the grey apple screen, then fans rev up loud!

I am so confused. For some reason my G5 boots up, I hear the tone, and it gets to the grey screen with the apple. The circular "wait" image never comes up and then after about 1 minute, the fans rev so high it sounds like my computer is preparing to take off! I tried taking out all the RAM and reseating it. I even tried booting with each pair one at a time. I tried removing the battery, and putting it back, I tried unplugging, resetting the PRAM, removing the DVD drive, and replacing the DVD drive. No luck. about 4 weeks ago i was able to get it to start up with an install DVD in there when (and this may be dumb luck) I tried a trick I read on these forums where you use a hair dryer to heat up the RAM board. I reinstalled Tiger and it seemed to work perfectly. Then it revved up the fans and froze, no kernel panic on the screen. The heat trick did not work again. Now all I get is the grey apple screen with revving fans. It won't even recognize that I have the install DVD in there when I hit the "C" key. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Hi !
(don't mind my writing in english... I speak Dutch originally)
First question : What type of Powermac G5 do you have...?
If it's a liquid-cooled, then you might (perhaps) have trouble...
(we keep this (for the moment) aside)
If it's an air-cooled, just boot up pushing the Alt-button untill the "boing" sounds.
Then start up from your system-HD (select it, if you have more then 1).
Still doesn't work: insert your back-up(cloned) HD (who doesn't make a clone these days) & re-boot (same procedure as described above)(or just connect it over FireWire & select the HD after rebooting with Alt pushed)
When you were able to boot from your (original) HD > let the "stetoscope-program" (I forgot the name, I'm now at work right now & no Mac nearby) (programs > help-programs > stetoscope) run on your HD (controlling the Disk (right side button) & it's dedications (left side button). Patience...
If you (untill now) still have no luck (but, as some people like myself, have more then 1 Mac) > (re-)install OSX 10.5.8 (if you have it) or 10.4.11 on a (spare) HD & after installing > insert in your G5 & try again...
If still no (good) news... Let (me) know.
Grtz, H.

MBP OS Leopard update that now hangs at the grey apple screen

I ran software update for OS Leopard on my MBP yesterday and it has been in a continuous boot cycle that never gets past the grey Apple screen. The only sign of life is that periodically it will make the boot noise and the computer remains quite warm. I have tried shutting down completely and then rebooting in safe mode and also rebooting using the OS disk but I'm pretty sure the Leopard OS disk doesn't work as a boot disk. So my first issue is to try and fix the boot problem. The second is that clever me didn't back up before hand so I am looking at trying to connect by firewire to my iMac and try and recover some files... given the issue would this be possible?

See if it boots into Target mode...
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1661
If so it should act like an expensive Firewire Drive for your other Mac.

My mac is stuck on the grey loading screen?

My mac, is stuck on the grey startup screen. I have tried everything that everyone has said. Yes, I have reset the PRAM, I have tried a safe reboot, I'm NOT resetting it! It just won't start up, I have a seagate 3TB backup drive, but I have no way to get inside the computer, so I can't activate it.
Please help!

Not resetting?
Well that presents a problem because you need to check the startup disk, repair the disk if necessary, or restore OS X using OS X Recovery
You can resstore from a Time Machine backup using OS X Recovery if necessary.

Upgraded to osx lion via bootable USB stick but start up now just hangs on the grey apple screen

Hi. I've just recently upgraded from snow leopard to osx lion 10.7.3 on my laptop and it works perfectly! However I then tried installing on desktop and problems......
1. I got the 'the error can't install message' so after researching' I made a bootable USB stick with lion on it.
2. Installed on start up from bootable USB stick, no problems their.
3. Restarted and it just hangs in the grey apple screen.
I've reset the PRAM, started in safe mode, fixed disk permission etc, Even done this (http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20070204093925888).
I'm going to leave the grey screen over night to see if it does start up, but then we have the problem of an extremely slow start up.
So.... I am posting this to find out if anyone else has this problem and fixed it without having to do a full clean install as some data like email lists etc I never backed up (I know stupid).
Hope someone can help as i am lost on what else to try.
HELP!?!?!?
Dan.

Update 01.03.12
Computer is starting now but.... It takes 10 minutes and that is without my sound card, hardware and external hard drives plugged in, gonna test that now.
Are their and fixes for slow start ups?
Dan.

Another G5 iMac won't boot past grey Apple screen!! HELP!!!

Last night I tried to put my iMac to sleep. it took about 3 times, and it finally went to sleep. Today I tried to wake it up but I got the little spinning disk, and it would not wake up. I could not restart it from the screen, so I pulled out the power cord as I have had to do a few times in the past with no problems. Today when I plugged it back in it got to the grey Apple screen, but no little progress circle. I waited & waited, nothing happened so I cycled power again. This time I got the progress timer circle, but again after about 20 minutes nothing happened. I then put the install disc in and booted from that. Tried verify disc, but it failed saying it could not un-mount the volume. Tried verifying permissions, but it seemed to get stuck with just a fraction left on the progress bar, so I quit & tried again (basically where I'm at now). I have also noticed that if I choose the "start up disc" (while running from the disc) the only thing that shows in a network icon. My HD does not show up as an option. For about the past 5 months I have noticed my HD has been a bit noisy. Kind of a whirling sound that seems to get louder then quiet down & repeat....not real loud, but loud enough so I have noticed it. I have been worried that something like this might happen.
update: while repairing permissions I just got a "Disc utility error" says Disc utility has lost it's connection with the disc management tool and cannot continue. Please quit and relaunch Disc Utility. This is the same message I got the last time I tried to run it. I also have an OSX Leopard install DVD...should I be starting from that disc, or the install disc that came with it? If I should be using the newer disc, how would I get the other disc out of the machine?
So....am I up the creek with out a paddle, or is there anything I could try?
any advise would be greatly appreciate as ALL my data is on my iMac and not this POS PC I have to use now.
Thanks,
Jeff

Using Target Disk Mode is an excellent, idea, you should be able to drag your data on to the new machine.
Let us know how you made out,

My G5 (non intel) starts up but does not go past the grey apple screen

My G5 (the non intel kids machine) starts up but does not go past the grey apple screen. It chimes, the grey apple screen comes up 20 seconds later with the rotating thing-ie, then the fan kicks on 1 minute 35 seconds later. It stays on that screen indefinitely.
I tried restarting without any cables connected to it with the same outcome. I tried to insert the OS X disc and pressing the "C" key and cannot get past the password page. I also tried to start it pressing the OptionCommand+PR keys with no results.

I am experiencing this problem as well. I had assumed it was a result of attempting to uninstall the Boot Camp drivers because I was getting a blue screen error every time I tried to startup with Windows. But I had also installed some updates for OS X at the same time so it could have been caused by that as well. I've erased everything now and I am trying to reinstall OS X but I'm three attempts in now because the installation has just been getting stuck in an indefinite loop at random points during the installation.

Mac stuck on the grey apple screen startup? Follow these steps to re-boot....

So today I had a little scare with my Macbook. It was stuck on the grey apple startup screen with the loading icon. Switching it on and off did nothing and neither did waiting. I did a lot of browsing to try and find a solution but all the forums ended in 'looks like thats the end of my mac' or 'I think i've lost everything' or 're-install Os' blah blah etc. I DID NOT WANT TO LOSE ANYTHING!!! and I'm guessing neither do you! Ok so enough talking, in the end I found a solution which worked perfectly for me and I did not lose anything!!!!!:
Step 1
If the Mac is on switch it off.
Once it is off, switch it on again but this time as soon as you press the power button to switch it on, hold down the Apple cmd key + S.
Hold this down untill the 'safe boot' screen appears.
A black screen with white writing should now come up.
Step 2
Once the screen has loaded, at the bottom type:
/sbin/mount -uw /
[press enter]
then type:
chmod 775 /
[press enter]
then type:
exit
this re-boots the mac. As soon as you have done this the mac should load up again as normal!! Voila!!!
Hope it helps!

Someone suggested this to be risky. worked for me but DON'T DO IT WITHOUT RESEARCHING FIRST and if in doubt CALL APPLE!!!!!

MacBook Pro Won't Boot Beyond Grey Apple Screen - Mystery Partition Found

My MacBook Pro, which suffers from appalling overheating (94 degrees C in each core last week) won't boot beyond the grey apple splash screen. I booted from a Developer's disk and ran Repair Disk/Disk Permissions. Both verified AND said the repairs failed. The drive (as opposed to the volumes) said it had no valid files and thus couldn't be repaired even though it verified. I target-disked it to one of my G4s and took off a bunch of apps and lightened its load, waited a while and tried again--it's been grey screen gear turning for 20 minutes now. I have Remote Desktop but it won't respond to that. Of course, Windows XP boots up perfectly normally on its Boot Camp-created partition, dumbly unaware of the general chaos on the other side.
While I had the Disk Utility from the boot disk on, I noticed my partition scheme had changed somehow. The big partition with the system was now in position #2, set between #3 (Windows--formerly #2 of 2) and a new one of only 200MB called #1 which is formatted OS X Journaled. I didn't make that partition and it couldn't be erased. I think the cpmputer is looking in the #1 spot for a system and can't find it because some renegade partition with no brain has pushed its way to the front. How do I annihilate that thing and get on with it? How did it get there?
Has anyone tried that alter the Apple Blower/Fan hack said to turn the fans on permanently?
For the record, I'm in L.A. and the ground has been rocking and rolling for the past 3 minutes on and off.
MacBook Pro 2.0/2GB/100GB Mac OS X (10.4.8) TiBookG4 1.0/512K/60; PowerMacG4 Quicksilver 933/1G/160; PowerMacG4 450/512K/30

I called Apple's Tech Support and they had me do perform sevral procedures I had done already, none of which worked. They suggested that the mystery partition (which has since ceased to reappear in the Disk Utility's view of the partition scheme) was an anomaly caused by the still-Beta Boot Camp--nothing was said about Windows XP booting, but I think you're right because whenever installing Windows, it always reserves a small "free space" on the PC's drive for its own purposes. Anyway, I'mre-installing now but very unhappy to hear I have suspected all along--the overheating is killing the computer. I know this from experience because Ihad a Powerbook G4 with a at-that-time-not-yet-recalled battery that overheated to such an extent that it fried the logic board and the harddrive. After a year of arguing with Apple, they replaced the computer with this MacBookPro--and overheating laptop that also had its battery recalled, has already been sent back to Texas for over heating (they replaced the superdrive which of course had no effect on the heat issue) and now has hard drive problems. I have two old PowerMac G4s sitting here plugging along--maybe I'm over laptops. Thanks
MacBook Pro 2.0/2GB/100GB Mac OS X (10.4.8) TiBookG4 1.0/512K/60; PowerMacG4 Quicksilver 933/1G/160; PowerMacG4 450/1GB/100

My Mac Won't leave the grey apple screen at start-up.

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