My MacBook brings up the grey screen only with a folder with a "?" on it
What do you do when the grey screen comes up with a folder with a "?" on it?
Please describe in detail all you have attempted to do in order to resolve the issue.
It is very difficult to offer troubleshooting suggestions when the "os version" you are using is unknown as each os has their own troubleshooting solutions.
A flashing question mark appears when you start your Mac
Mac OS X: Gray screen appears during startup
Similar Messages
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Hello, can someone help me: my eMac G4 700 MHz. I can not boot it. If he starts appears on the screen, only a small "folder with a question mark." The Mac was not used 1 year.
Question 1: Problem = hard drive?
Question 2: Problem = PRAM battery?
the
What can I do to boot?Restart with the Option key held down.
If the internal drive shows up, it's the PRAM battery.
If it doesn't, insert a compatible Mac OS 9 or X install disk, click the button with the circular arrow, and either repair the internal drive or install a new OS on it. If it doesn't show up in Disk First Aid(9) or the Disk Utility(X), it's either not plugged in or needs to be replaced.
(97530) -
My Macbook Pro got the grey screen of death (kernel panic) and now it won't even turn on
Hey.
Well my macbook pro just got the grey screen of death and upon doing some research I unerstan that it's a kernel panic. However my issue is that my laptop won't reboot, at all. Whenever I try to press the power buttons, the external buttons will light up and the you can hear it running (barely, very low) but nothing else happens. My screen doesnt turn on and no noise comes from the computer to indicate it turning on. However if I hold the power button again it'll act as if shutting down (the noise). I've tried to look online but I havent seen any soluctions for my specific issue.
Also note: I recently got it sent in for repairs and it was sent to apple, I was told they replaced both fans and the motherboard, however I'm not sure if that would affect it.
Anyways, my mac is the world to me and I would hate to have to lose it, anyone have any solutions?steambeam wrote:
Hey.
Well my macbook pro just got the grey screen of death and upon doing some research I unerstan that it's a kernel panic. However my issue is that my laptop won't reboot, at all. Whenever I try to press the power buttons, the external buttons will light up and the you can hear it running (barely, very low) but nothing else happens. My screen doesnt turn on and no noise comes from the computer to indicate it turning on. However if I hold the power button again it'll act as if shutting down (the noise). I've tried to look online but I havent seen any soluctions for my specific issue.
Also note: I recently got it sent in for repairs and it was sent to apple, I was told they replaced both fans and the motherboard, however I'm not sure if that would affect it.
Anyways, my mac is the world to me and I would hate to have to lose it, anyone have any solutions?
Call AppleCare. Apple has a 90 day warranty on all repairs. Let them deal w/it. -
I followed the initial steps in this post and reset pram. After restarting, the screen just shows a folder with a question mark. What does this mean?
Thanks Niel, I tried using Option and nothing happened so I next tried inserting the Leopard disc and rebooting while holding C. Nothing happened until the disc was ejected and then the folder with question mark reappeared. I inserted the disc again and at this point and it booted OSX. I tried to acess disc utility to repair but my harddrive wasn't listed, only the CD drive and the OS disc. Does this mean I'm lost everything?
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Can't get my MacBook Pro to start up. Have shut it down several times and tried restarting but all I get is a grey screen with the spinning icon. Apple Support online suggested starting with power button followed immediately with the shift key. Same results. Also tried power button with shift key, command, and V. Black screen appeared instead with lots of data language but still no starting. This final page was suppose to result in an internal system check and restart but nothing happened and the black screen remains.Where do I go from here? Scheduled for the Genius Bar tomorrow but would like to resolve this beforehand.
You may be having a hardware problem that you cannot resolve on your own. Nevertheless...
...hold down the command and R keys whilst booting to try to get to your Recovery partition. If you can, use Disk Utility to try to Verify your boot drive (usually named "Macintosh HD" unless you've renamed it). If the verification fails, try to repair your hard drive. If everything appears to be OK, restart.
If you can't get into your Recovery partition, your problem is likely hardware related. If so, keep your appointment and see what the Apple techs have to say.
Clinton -
MacBook pro has grey screen of death, it all began when I tried to install something new last night like my laptop asked and when it went to restart, it went grey....
tried start up in safe mode and nvram/pram
on safe mode it said ' the volume macintosh hd could not be repaired '
My MacBook has not been backed up and it would be heart breaking if I lost everything from it...
can anybody help?!!!
Message was edited by: lolaroseukBe prepared for a broken heart...
It's obvious that you need a new drive - when you purchase one you should also purchase a USB enclosure for your old drive and connect that drive to your machine to see if you can rescue any data from it. You may have to purchase a utility such as Data Rescue 3 or DiskWarrior (each $100) to facilitate restoring some of your data.
And start a couple of backup schemes... when you can't afford to lose data, a couple of backup schemes can help.
Clinton
MacBook Pro (15-inch Late 2011), OS X Mavericks 10.9.5, 16GB Crucial RAM, Crucial M500 960GB SSD, 27” Apple Thunderbolt Display -
Start the computer and only show a folder with question mark
Hi,
I need help please.
A few day ago I startup up my iMac and only a folder with a question mark was shown in the screen.
I boot from the Lion DVD, run disk utility but the only drive I get was the DVD and disk1/Mac OS X Base System.
I turned off the computer and next morning I turned on agian and this time with no problems, I use it for a few days with no problems but yesterday it happens again...
I do run disk utility again onlu turn it off, and this morning I tried to turn it on again, but the same foder appears...I run disk utility (get the DVD and disk1) and turn it off for a few hours.
Now I'm praying that when I'm back from work I could turn it on with no problems.
What I should do ? Is there any 3rd party tools that I can try do use to solve this issue ?
Many thanks!
PS: when the iMac started up with no problems I run disk utility and made a repair disk to the mac HD...leonel junior wrote:
I boot from the Lion DVD,
There are no Apple supplied Lion boot DVD's , you use command r to boot into Recovery HD partition, if that doesn't work good chance the drive is dead, it likely will have to pulled to test any data recovery efforts made.
I turned off the computer and next morning I turned on agian and this time with no problems, I use it for a few days with no problems but yesterday it happens again...
Hold Shift key upon boot to fix the drive, reboot holding option and select OS X to boot and head to System Prefs, change the startup drive to OS X.
If you can't do this, your looking at data recovery efforts or repalcing the drive, total erase & restore.
PS: when the iMac started up with no problems I run disk utility and made a repair disk to the mac HD...
The option key, set startup disk in system prefs should resove the issue.
https://discussions.apple.com/community/notebooks/macbook_pro?view=documents -
My Mac Book will not go past the grey screen
I had my Mac Book Pro at a apple store and they had to reformat the hard driver. Now several weeks later I installed the 2012 turbo tax software and restarted the machine however now I cannot get past the grey screen.
What is wrong with this, they stated the reformat would solve the problem.
Need helpWhich os version are you using and is it compatible with your os?
Mac OS X: Gray screen appears during startup -
my macbook pro will not boot. It gets the grey screen with the apple until the bar is half way across and then shuts down. The only screen I can get to is in safe mode and I don't know what to do with that
Mac OS X: Gray screen appears during startup - Apple Support
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I have a Macbook and I left it unplugged. It started up slowly when I plugged it in again, but it seemed fine. Once it started charging I shut it down so it would be easier, but now it will not go past the grey screen with the apple. What do I do?
I have Snow leopard on my computer, and I tried to do a hard restart as an article suggested, but it did not work. I also tried cleaning out the PRAM.
The only things I did last night:
-cleaned the history of Firefox out, including cookies
-let it unplugged all night
-plugged it back in the morning, it took a long time to figure itself out, but eventually the time was correct and I got on the internet for a bit
-shutdown the computer since I was going out and thought it would help the computer charge
-came back, tried to turn it on, and found that it would not go past the grey screen the apple on it and the spinning wheel even though I left it for 20 minutes or more
-tried turning it off and on to no availBefore doing a reinstall, which may not be needed at this point,
Try using Disk Utility to do a Disk Repair, as shown in this link, while booted up on your install disk.
You could have some directory corruption. Let us know what errors Disk Repair reports and if DU was able to repair them. This could just be a start in repairs and you may need a better utility to finish the job.
Then Repair Permissions.
No need to report any Permissions errors........we all get them.
DALE -
Macbook not going past the grey screen
Im really bad with computers, but my problem is pretty much that every time i try to power up my macbook running leopard it stays on the grey screen with the apple logo and the wheel jsut keeps spinning, I've tried reseting the SMC and just using the reset bottons, but nothing is working, can anyone help?
You will have to reinstall OS X. See the following:
How to Perform an Archive and Install
An Archive and Install will NOT erase your hard drive, but you must have sufficient free space for a second OS X installation which could be from 3-9 GBs depending upon the version of OS X and selected installation options. The free space requirement is over and above normal free space requirements which should be at least 6-10 GBs. Read all the linked references carefully before proceeding.
1. Be sure to use Disk Utility first to repair the disk before performing the Archive and Install.
Repairing the Hard Drive and Permissions
Boot from your OS X Installer disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Installer menu (Utilities menu for Tiger, Leopard or Snow Leopard.) 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 installer.
If DU reports errors it cannot fix, then you will need Disk Warrior and/or Tech Tool Pro to repair the drive. If you don't have either of them or if neither of them can fix the drive, then you will need to reformat the drive and reinstall OS X.
2. Do not proceed with an Archive and Install if DU reports errors it cannot fix. In that case use Disk Warrior and/or TechTool Pro to repair the hard drive. If neither can repair the drive, then you will have to erase the drive and reinstall from scratch.
3. Continue with installation. When you reach the screen to select a destination drive click once on the destination drive then click on the Option button. Select the Archive and Install option. You have an option to preserve users and network preferences. Only select this option if you are sure you have no corrupted files in your user accounts. Otherwise leave this option unchecked. Click on the OK button and continue with the OS X Installation.
4. Upon completion of the Archive and Install you will have a Previous System Folder in the root directory. You should retain the PSF until you are sure you do not need to manually transfer any items from the PSF to your newly installed system.
5. After moving any items you want to keep from the PSF you should delete it. You can back it up if you prefer, but you must delete it from the hard drive.
6. You can now download a Combo Updater directly from Apple's download site to update your new system to the desired version as well as install any security or other updates. You can also do this using Software Update. -
As the title says.
I was installing the new EFI software update on my macbook pro and I became stuck on the grey screen with the window that said "installing 2 items", its been on the same screen for 2 1/2 hours. does anyone know what I can do?
I don't want to restart it because im scared that something might go wrong.
operating lionLimitLess- wrote:
Hi,
I had the power supply connected when I attempted it previously but even so my problem occurred. My rom is different and so I still need to update it.
Thanks
I wanted to mark your answer helpful too but I didn't know that I could only put it for 2 answers. Sorry
That was good advice by G-N and s/he is correct about it. Unfortunately, ASC allows only 2 "helpful" and 1 "correct" marks per thread. -
Hi guys.
I've had my MacBook Pro for 2 years now. Last night it suddenly kept glitching to a dark grey screen every now and then, then it would flash yellow / blue spots, and now it won't go past the grey screen even when I reboot it.
I don't think I can access my disk anymore as I've moved across countries since I've first gotten my laptop. it was working perfectly fine before it kept going to the dark grey screen with a little blue on the bottom.
If it helps, my camera light is still on, and it seems that my computer is working properly itself, but won't go past this grey screen.
I'm a college student and am really panicking about this - can anyone please tell me what to do?
Thank you & sorry for the long post.What operating system are you running on it? (iOS 5.1 is for iPhone, iPad...not a Mac).
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Im having trouble getting my macbook pro to boot up after a fail safe boot, im getting as far as the grey screen with the apple loggo. so im trying to run a disk repair but is saying the disk is locked, how do i unlock disk??
Some clarification may help.
You say you cannot boot normally. It shows a gray screen with the Apple logo.
Did you say it will boot successfully in Safe Mode (boot, then hold down the Shift key)?
How did you boot the machine to run Disk Utility? (Which keyboard combinations)? -
My Macbook aliminium unibody from late 2008 will not boot. I reach the grey screen with the apple icon and the spinning grey gear. I used disk utility to boot it but it said integrity test failed. I don't know what to do can anyone please help?
Sounds like you may have a harddrive issue. You are probably going to need to get that changed out and then install the OS X again to get it going.
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