OS X wont start just grey screen

I was on my mom's computer(same model and OS as mine) setting up her new ipod. I was prompted to update the ipod software and did so. I believe the update was successful but afterwards the computer froze, and i tried to force quit itunes. This did not work so i held down the power button and turned the computer off. Then i turned it back on and it only comes to the grey screen with the apple logo. I have tried the following in this order:
-reset PRAM
-boot in Safe mode(holding shift key)
-insert install disk and repair permissions
none have produced any results.
thanks in advance

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 Utility reports and if DU was able to repair them.
 Cheers! DALE

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Tobyhead....the symptoms you describe would indicate a dead hard drive....this tutorial should explain everything you need to know/do to replace..
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Hi Folks,
My G5 won't start beyond grey screen with the logo on it. The fans simply get louder and louder.
It acts as our server and the raid drive on it had been having privileges problems. One person on another forum suggested I run Disc Utility to repair permissions. I did so, there were a couple of minor permissions fixed. After that, the Mac would not re-boot.
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I'm having the same problem though I'm running 10.4.11. After getting to about the point you are at did an "Archive and Install" but after about a day of working fine, it had a kernal panic and I couldn't boot past the gray screen again. I took it to my local Apple Store and they ran 2 hours of diagnostics w/o finding anything wrong. They told me to do an "Erase and Install." That is where I am at now because I can't get the machine to boot from my 10.3.5 Install CD--it hangs at the black screen when I try to boot from the CD by holding down "C" at boot. This is the original system software that came with the machine at purchase.
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After having to do a forced shut down (holding down power button) due to freezing I cannot again progress past the grey screen with the apple logo. The spinning cog comes on at first then disappears leaving just the apple logo (in case that is sognificant).
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Eric
Thank you for taking the time to post those links to informative articles.
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I can confirm that i was not able to start in safe mode but was able to boot up in recovery mode and run disk utility. The only one i hadn't tried is fsck. Please correct me if I am wrong, but if from what I understand by the article, this is to be used if I could not run disk utility, with which I have been able to do and to repair both the disk and permissions. But again, if I've missed the obvious from that article please correct me.
Te second article entitled "Troubleshooting Startup and Login Items" identifies troubleshooting that should be carried out in safe mode. However I am unfortunately unable to start in safe mode and have not been able to progress past the apple logo since this problem started.
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Hi there,
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Did you try a PRAM reset?
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1379
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If the optical drive tray cannot be opened, what happens if you hold down the mouse button during startup?
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I know this issue has probably been talked about a million times, but I still can't seem to find a working answer... and what better to make my first post than this problem?
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Thank you for your answer.
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Hello, I've been having several problems with my iMac G5 that seemed to all start at the same time just in this last week:
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Could this be fixed any other way by me? Or does this sound like a classic "G5 power/video issue" and I should just bite it and take it in?
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"I'm not sure what else I can do. I am, of course, aware of the "Repair Extension Program for Video and Power Issues" but as I live in Japan, outside Tokyo, it is going to be a long haul to get my computer in to be looked at.
Could this be fixed any other way by me? Or does this sound like a classic "G5 power/video issue" and I should just bite it and take it in?"
Hi Corrie, welcome to Discussions. Unfortunately I think you hit the nail right on the head. I would find a way to get this done with extension program because paying to fix it maybe cost inhibitive. (could you ship it to a friend or relative in the USA and have them take it in)???
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OS X wont start just grey screen

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