PB G4 OSX10.5 grey screen on startup/not recognize harddrive?

Powerbook G4 won't startup, stops at grey screen with folder alternating Finder icon/question mark.
Reseting PRAM has no effect.
When started in Safe mode, will go to two buttons, no drive icon.
When started in Safe mode with install DVD inserted, can get to Install screens.
Hardware tests (quick and long) show all okay.
When try to reinstall system, no icon for location to install to is shown.
Can put computer into Target mode, firewire icon appears on screen whether or not the install DVD is in. If install DVD is in, this will appear on second computer. If install DVD is not in, nothing appears on second computer.
History:
I purchased this unit preowned by single owner about a year ago with 10.5 installed. It has run well, almost exclusively Office 2004. Yesterday Entourage timed out Shut Down and would not allow Finder to be accessed by clicking on the desktop or Apple icon, so computer was shut down by press/holding power button.
Thank you for any assistance you can provide.
Troy.

if the drive is not visible at all in Disk Utility it's not a good sign.
sometimes the issue could be caused by drive cable connection or cable going bad, it's quite rare though
sometimes the drive may work when put into an external enclosure
DriveSavers is a well known recovery service, could be expensive:
http://www.drivesaversdatarecovery.com/

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Ibookg4 will not go past the grey screen and will not accept a disc

my ibook will not go past the grey screen and will not accept a disc

Have you tried starting up in Safe Mode? If not, I suggest that you give it a try. This will take quite awhile longer than a normal startup because it does a file check and repair of the hard disk.
If this works you will see your normal desktop. Once completely started up in Safe Mode, try to restart normally, and go to Applications > Utilities > Disk Utility. Click on the top hard drive icon in the left sidebar and note the S.M.A.R.T. status at the bottom right of the pane. What does it say?
Select the named boot volume in the left sidebar, ("Macintosh HD" unless you've renamed it). What is the hard drive capacity and how much space remains available on it? Repair permissions on it.
See if you are able to do a little hard drive maintenance to help things out.

TS2570 Grey screen on startup...

I am using 2008 White Macbook with OSX lion running on it. Recently I tried to update the OS and then I started getting a folder with question mark on startup. After that I started getting a continuous grey screen on startup. I tried various options like command + option + P + Q, then Command + R, etc. but did not get any response. After that I pressed option key on startup then there was a response. A lock icon appeared on screen asking for a password. I tried the MacBook password and it is not taking that password as well. I tired all the passwords I remembered but nothing worked. My cd drive is not working and also I do not have original OS disks with me now. The apple service centre told that they can resolbe it as it is a vintage model. I called apple care but they are asking 29 $ for a call Which is ridiculou. Pl. help me

Does the lock screen look like the one on this page…
http://osxdaily.com/2014/01/06/set-firmware-password-mac/
That is an EFI password - it stops the firmware accepting ANY startup commands so you cannot boot from other media or use the startup keys to get into recovery mode, single user mode, target disk mode etc.
If you can't remember the password you will need to remove the battery & leave it unpowered for a few days. If you are lucky it will reset. If it doesn't reset you need to open the case & remove the internal clock battery. Not something anyone should do without the skills to work on electronics - take it to an Apple Store or an Apple approved service centre would be my advice.
It is also possible that you have Filevault password instead of an EFI password - did you need to enter a password after every reboot before the OS failed. This shouldn't be confused with a normal user account password.
If you have Filevault enabled you can still try booting into recovery mode, but you must enter the password to repair the boot disk.
The 'question mark folder' means it cannot find an OS that is bootable - it need to be repaired but you can't get to recovery mode without the EFI password - a catch 22 situation.
Since you have no install disks or other ways to boot it seems you are probably not going to be able to fix this. If you have another Mac you could try to download 10.7 & create a USB install disk & use that to try to repair the Mac, but it seems unlikely since it appears to have a firmware password.

Stuck on Grey Screen During Startup

I updated to Yosemite on Saturday and everything has been working fine, I have been able to shut down and startup as normal until today.
Last night I forced my Early 2011 MacBook Pro to shut down and today it will no longer get to the login screen.
I hear the chime, the Apple appears with the Yosemite status bar underneath, it takes a long time to get about halfway then both the Apple and status bar disappear leaving just a blank grey screen.
- I can get into Single User mode, using "fsck -fy" it reports that everything is OK.
- I can't get into Safe Mode.
- I have reset PRAM
- I have NOT reset SMC (is it worth a try?)
- I have a bootable Yosemite USB, holding option I can select that but instead of presenting the Utilities window it just brings up the Apple and status bar then grey screen. For some reason my WiFi network isn't in the list either. Also, the image of my hard drive that appears has a custom icon that I haven't used for at least 5 years, very odd indeed.
I'm at a loss, any help would be greatly appreciated.
NOTE
My left fan is faulty, I have ordered a new one online. I have been using SMCFanControl to monitor it, if the computer has been feeling hot I have been increasing the RPM for a minute to cool it just to be safe until the new fan arrives. Last night I increased the RPM and SMCFanControl became unresponsive which is why I forced the computer to shut down because I couldn't reduce the fan speed back to normal.

I am able to get into Internet Recovery Mode but eventually the globe disappears and it's right back to the Apple and status bar then grey screen again.
When holding Option only my hard drive shows, there is no recovery drive option.

Macbook Pro won't load past a grey screen on startup!

I apologise for what will most likely be an essay ahead.
I have a Macbook Pro (2.16ghz) that is just over three years old. It is running on Leopard with all the up to date patches / updates. Over the past week or so, it has been 'playing up' in the sense that the spinning loading icon would appear at random intervals and stay there for a good 20 to 30 seconds or so, not allowing me to do anything. If I would be listening to music, the music would pause and then come back on.
It would normally appear when something was trying to load. For example, the final straw was when I was using Adobe Bridge and it was taking an extremely long time to load up the photos I had imported and in the end I gave up. Speed has never been an issue before and my MBP has 2GB of RAM.
So I backed up what I needed and proceeded to do an 'Erase and Install(Leopard) format. Once formatted, the MBP booted up and I completed the registration, took my User picture blah blah etc. Once done, the MBP booted into OS X - this is where the problems occurred. The spinning loading icon appeared and after about 30 seconds or so, the Finder window / toolbar at the top disappeared, as did the Macintosh HD icon on the desktop. All I was left with was my wallpaper and Dock with icons in. However, if I clicked on any of the programs, nothing would happen.
Naturally, I tried restarting it and the same thing happened again. I figured that because my MBP was connected to a second Dual monitor, that this might have been the issue so I decided to boot from the OS X Leopard CD and do another 'Erase and Install'. I once again got past the registration screen, but this time, instead of booting into OS X my MBP stuck itself on a grey screen. It would not go any further.
I then decided that the spinning loading icon issue may be a RAM problem. When I first got my MBP, I upgraded the RAM so I knew how to take it out and replace it. So I tried taking out the RAM stick (1GB) I put in orignally and booting it with the original 1GB stick. The same problem occurred. I tried the other way round, putting in my 1GB RAM stick and taking the original out - nothing worked. I tried every possible combination, even swapping the sticks around.
Eventually my brother tells me he has some spare RAM which I also try and once again, this does not solve the issue. So I figure it cannot be a RAM problem.
So next I try booting from the OS X Disc on startup and run Disk Utility. I verify and repair the Mac HD which comes up fine. No errors, no issues, nothing.
I finally scour the internet for info on what could be the cause of the problem and the biggest suggestion seems to be formatting. So I once again try formatting my MBP for a third time - however this time, I get the original problem. It boots up into OS X but then the Finder toolbar and Mac HD icon disappear, leaving me with Dock and Wallpaper.
The final thing I try is resetting the MBPs PRAM on startup. This does not solve the issue.
So here I am. If you could be bothered to read all of that, well done haha I'm not sure if I could have.
If anyone has ANY suggestions or advice, please post!
I do not have Apple Care so if I was to take it to the local Genius bar, would they look at it for free and diagnose it? Or would that cost me? I have never had to take my MBP in before.
Thankyou again

I just skimmed over this because the post is like a small novel! lol Try a Apple Hardware Test. I think it's probably a bad logic board.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1509
Don't take it to a Genius Bar until you've done this, saves time and you might have a little more info to give them. Also that way you won't feel pressured into anything. It's out of warranty, so sometimes I've noticed they can be a little pushy especially on a very high dollar replacement such as a new logic board on an out of warranty item. Also the "enhanced diagnostic" is around $100, so you might have to at least fork over a hard earned Benjamin and not get anything fixed. And whatever you do, DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT tell them you upgraded the RAM yourself. If they are feeling in a good mood and decide to knock off any money or waive any sort of fees, this will kill it instantly. RAM is considered "user serviceable," but they normally try to plead "the part you installed is not Apple Authorized" or the "installation caused the issue and was not an ACHT." Put back in the original stick and leave it alone. Hope this helps you out!

G3 Beige: grey screen at startup; no icon; won't boot from CD

G3 Beige, OS 9.2; working perfectly for past year.
I was using a D-Link wired router, to this and my other Mac, G4 Graphite OS X Tiger.
Having just gotten a netbook, I installed a D-Link wireless router (DIR-615), and changed the ethernet cables for both (non-wireless) Macs over to the new router. (It had been configured for me by a Staples Associate where I bought it.)
The netbook and the Graphite G4 worked as they should, but upon restart, the G3 Beige not only wouldn’t boot, it didn’t even show a sad Mac or a question mark. It chimed, but only has a grey screen. Cursor works (& keyboard); nothing else.
I disconnected ethernet cable; same grey screen upon restart.
Won’t boot from Norton or Mac OS 9 CD, pressing “C” at startup.
Zapping pram didn’t help.
Shift during startup didn’t help.
Now what??
TIA.
PS: Meanwhile, I'm afraid to connect my emergency spare 7300 w/G3 upgrade & OS 9.1 to that router. Should I?

The next thing to try is re-seating the sound card. The backpanel is only well-supported on one side, and the sound card takes a beating in all the Beige G3s and similar Macs with tumble-open or lift open designs (but not the All-in-One). Jeff suggests you remove the exterior third screw \[and leave it out] and bend the top tab slightly before re-installing the two screws on the rail. This helps push the sound card back into the slot and keep it firmly seated.
Do you have any SCSI devices or SCSI cables connected? A dangling SCSI cable or a badly-terminated SCSI device can cause a Hang where you describe.

My macbook pro wont get past the grey screen at startup. Help!!

After doing a run of the mill software update on my macbook pro (running snow leopard) it froze during the "moving items into place" stage. I forced a shut down and now it wont get past the grey screen with apple logo and spinning wheel. I have tried booting from the original DVD but it still freezes. When I boot it in verbose mode it seems to stop at "jnl: unknown-dev: update_fs_block: error reading fs block # 3597880! (ret 5)", the Apple AHCD Disk Queue manager :: set power state is timing out and there is a disk I/O error. I have tried to reset the power manager (not sure if it worked or not) and I have also tried clearing the PRAM (again, not sure of that worked). When I try to look at the hard drive using target mode on my imac the hard drive doesn't come up but the DVD does. I'm concerned that my hard drive is fried. Any suggestions?

It would help to state in your post which remedies you tried that didn't work.
Start here > OS X Lion: If you see a gray screen at startup
If nothing there helped, try Starting up in Safe Mode
Safe Mode deletes some system caches that may help.
A Safe Mode boot takes longer than a normal boot so be patient. Once you are in Safe Mode, click Restart from the Apple menu.
If a Safe Mode boot didn't work, since your Mac has OS X v10.7 installed, restart your Mac while holding down the Command + R keys so you can access OS X Recovery built in utilities. The startup disk may need repairing.
Tip: Hold down the Eject key while starting up your Mac to eject a disc.

Powerbook freezes at grey screen on startup

I have a 3+ year old Powerbook running 10.4.9 that won't go past the grey apple screen on startup. It pretty much spins indefinitely. I thought it might be a failing hard drive, but I'm not sure after the tests I've done. The drive is 80GB (74.53 GB capacity), with 7.99 GB available space. The drive itself is not as old as the laptop; it was replaced by Apple about a year ago. I have tried the following (with restart attempts in between):
*Zap PRAM
*Reset PMU
*Start up in safe mode (works normally, as far as safe mode is concerned)
*Ran AHT, found bad RAM module, removed module, ran AHT twice and found no other errors
*Startup in single user mode, run fsck, volume "appears to be OK"
*Attach to another PPC 10.4 machine to try to do a backup of files (mounts, works for a while, then crashes the "target" machine (iMac G5 20" 10.4.9))
*Tried to backup to iMac w/drag and drop, migration assistant (both firewire) and via direct Ethernet connection. Always works for a bit then crashes, forcing a manual shut down of iMac
*Startup from external FW drive w/OS X, ran Disk Utility, no problems found on internal HD
*Startup in open firmware, reset NVRAM
*Ran DiskWarrior 4.0, rebuilt directory
*S.M.A.R.T. status is normal/verified
Any suggestions, ideas would be much appreciated. I am really at a loss and very much want to fix this. Thank you.
-Amy
1.25 GHz AlBook 15 Mac OS X (10.4.9) 1 GB RAM

The problem may be the hard drive is too full. We have found that you don't want your hard drive to be more than 85% full. At last count 8 GB of 80 GB is 90% full.

I have a new macbook pro, just downloaded some updates and when I clicked to restart it went to a grey screen and is not restarting.

I have a new macbook pro 17". Just downloaded some updates (10.7.1, itunes etc.) and when I clicked to restart, went to grey screen and unit is not responding. It has been about 30 min.

Hi j,
Gray Screen at Startup (try Safe Boot)
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2570

Mac mini and grey screen at startup

ok, so last night we come home and my mom tries to turn on her mac mini, but it just freezes on the grey screen in the startup process. i tried booting from the disk but it didnt work (no the disk is stuck in the drive cuz i cant start up the computer to eject it) i tried booting into a version of osx on my external hd by holding down option at startup, but nothing showed up not even the internal hd. none of the startup commands work (firewire target,single user,safe mode, holding mouse to eject cd) none of those worked, any ideas?

First off, why can't you insert the original install
DVD that came with your mini?
The drive won't take the disk at all. I tried other disks as well, and it won't take any of them in either. The drive is pretty much non-responsive.
Secondly, if you leave the mini on the grey screen,
what happens? Does it keep going however long you
leave it, or does it show a flashing questions mark
after maybe 15 minutes?
It remains on the gray screen for however long I leave it on.
Thirdly, since the mini was running for a couple of
days after the 10.4.8 update, the problem seems
unlikely to have been caused by that. What were you
doing the last time the mini was in use? How did you
shut it down?
Browsing the web, email, and listening to music for the most part. I put it to sleep for the night, and then when I came back the next day to activate it, it froze on me. Pointer wouldn't move, it was locked up. First time that has ever happened to me. After that I ended up turning it off by holding the power button down for five seconds. When I turned it back on, I got the gray screen.
Fourthly, what model of mac mini is it?
It's the original basic model. 1.25 G4 processor, 40 GB hard drive, and 256 MB RAM.
Mac Mini Mac OS X (10.4.8)

Unable to enter password on grey screen on startup

My macpro froze so I shut it down. When it restarted to the grey screen where I can sign in to the computer, the box to place the password in does not appear, so now I cannot access the computer at all. HELP!!!

Startup in Safe Mode
http://support.apple.com/kb/PH14204
Repair Disk
Steps 1 through 7
http://support.apple.com/kb/PH5836

Intermittent double beep and grey screen on startup

I just installed new third party RAM for my iMac (2008), because it was on sale. The initial RAM they sent me caused a kernel panic (forced shutdown) so I assumed they were faulty and sent them back. I just received my second set of RAM modules - which appear to work -- kind of. I have not had the kernel panic screen and no problems once the computer is booted, however about every second or third time I restart the computer I get the grey screen and a series of double beeps (which I have found out means incompatible RAM on startup testing). The hardware testing utility on my OSX Disc tests the RAM as being OK. I found a free app called rember which reports RAM errors. My question is: have I got a second set of faulty RAM - should I be looking at getting another brand (the one I have is "Add-On" and was specifically marketed as being for the aluminum intel based iMacs).
Thanks in advance,

Hi Machaon42
Welcome to Apple Discussions
That sounds like incorrect or incompatible RAM, double check the spec's of that RAM compared to either your User's Guide or > http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1760
Then compare OWC's price, it is iMac tested and highly recommended by forum members.
http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/memory/iMac/IntelCore_2_DuoPC2-6400
Dennis

Empty grey screen on startup, no Apple logo

I have an iBook G4 late 2003 running OS 10.3.9- On startup all I get is an empty grey screen, no Apple logo, no whirling gear. I immediately zapped the PRAM and reset the PMU with no change: the empty grey screen remained. I then restarted pressing the option key and I got a circular arrow for restart and an arrow pointing to the right, but no icons above them, meaning neither the Macintosh Hard Disk or the Tech Tool eDrive partition was recognized. I then tried to start the computer from the installation disk. The first time, I got the Apple logo, but that was followed by a kernel panic. I tried restarting again from the installation disk and got the Apple logo and the whirling gear, but that went on spinning ad infinitum leading nowhere. I gave up and turned it off. I suspect my iBook is ready for a funeral of some sort. If there is any way to revive it, I would be grateful to hear how from someone more expert than myself.

Hello Ira,
Does your iBook still have the original hard drive? I only ask because I had similar problems recently with the original drive on my iBook G3. After much testing and then finally replacing the hard drive corrected the problem, not that your issue is necessarily the same.
Are you able to start it up in Target Disc Mode? If so. and you have another Firewire enabled Mac to connect to, you could run Disk Utility or DiskWarrior, if you have it, on that drive to evaluate it.
If your hard drive is at fault and the Startup Manager isn't letting you select the drive, I suspect that Target mode will not work either, but give it a try.
Someone else may have a different take on this, so stay tuned.
Randy

Grey screen on startup - verbose mode:"We are hanging here..."! Please help

Dear everybody!
I'm cross-posting from the iBook forum, because I found some helpful posts over here after posting my problem there. I hope someone can help with these NEWS:
Here´s the short version:
Two days ago freeze during dragging a pdf to a USB storage. I shut down all other apps, then also finder, iBook becme unresponsive, so I shut it down with the power button. Since then, I permanently get the grey screen with four language "You need to restart your computer..." on normal startup, no problems starting in safe mode, but then some other strange things happen (e.g. no volume adjustable, no speakers and no mic in sound prefs).
AHT from original disc: no problems found
Tried Command S during startup with fsck -fy, same problem on reboot.
Tried Verbose mode, below is the very interesting last lines:
Latest stack backtrace for cpu 0:
Backtrace:
0x000954F8 0x00095BF8 0x00026898 0x0028D204 0x00296090 0x0029585C 0x0029929C 0x00292520
0x00297790 0x00297C24 0x002ABDB8 0x000ABD30 0x02461200
Proceeding back via exception chain:
Exception state (sv=0x3154D500)
PC=0x9002FD20; MSR=0x0200F030; DAR=0x0007B39E; DSISR=0x00002C1B; LR=0x9002F95C; R1=0xBFFFF8F0; XCP=0x00000030 (0xC00 - System call)
Kernel version:
Darwin Kernel Version 8.11.0: Wed Oct 10 18:26:00 PDT 2007; root:xnu-792.24.17~1/RELEASE_PPC
panic: We are hanging here...
Am I having a kernel panic? If yes, why does the console panic log not state any panic since more than a year? What's my next step?
Thanks for any useful ideas in advance!
Keywan

As for now, only thing that helped was an archive and install with preserve user settings. Seems after the reinstall of 10.4. everything that was weird has become normal again. I hope very much this state stays on for a while - or ever!
A comment to everybody: with problems that are common you get a lot of help from friendly users in here, but if like in my situation things get a bit more uncommon than the usual querks and troubles your bound to go through a whole workflow of tests and algorithms - i did learn some new things but eventually I had to go for the ultimate - the reinstall (of course, erase and install would have been more work.) and it's frustrating not to find out how it came to this problem. I wish I could nail it down to something I did mistakenly - i guess I'll find out next time.
THANKS THOUGH to those who replied.
Keywan

Grey screen on startup resolution.

Hi All
I have been getting the grey (although I call it blue) screen on startup over the past year. I have an intel imac with the latest version of snow leopard on it. I've tried everything suggested in the forums, including rebuilding my machine from scratch (not a trivial task for production music software / hardware).
One thing I can't understand is why my machine has this issue with a clean install, and no periphirals attached. My machine has been in the Apple shop and has been verified as ok.
I have contacted the Australian Consumers Comission and think that this comes under the expectation of durability, which can apply even if the manufacturers warranty has expired.
I've invested a lot of time and money into Apple hardware and software and would have expected a resolution to this problem by now. Having to manually power off my machine 3 to 4 times in a row to get it to boot propery is obviously going to impact on the lifetime of my harddrives.
I'd like as much feedback and personal experience that people have had with this issue before continuing any further.

I boot my mac with verbose settings on, I get the normal beep, then I get all the normal output (same output as when it boots ok), then a blue / grey screen. It hangs for around 15 mins. After that it continues to boot until it's logged in, but then there is no interaction with the mouse or keyboard. I can see the mouse pointer moving around, but can't click on anything. If I have the time I will log in from another machine and perform a normal shutdown, otherwise it's a hard reset.
I've tried resetting the nvram, repairing permissions, checking the hard drive, rebuilding the machine, restoring from time machine, etc. but I always end up back at square one looking for a permanent solution. All my drivers are the latest.
One interesting thing to note, when I had Windows 7 installed as the default startup OS with bootcamp I never experienced this problem. To me that kind of verifies that it's not a hardware problem.
My machine specs are...
      Model Name: iMac
      Model Identifier: iMac10,1
      Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo
      Processor Speed: 3.06 GHz
      Number Of Processors: 1
      Total Number Of Cores: 2
      L2 Cache: 3 MB
      Memory: 8 GB
      Bus Speed: 1.07 GHz
      Boot ROM Version: IM101.00CC.B00
      SMC Version (system): 1.52f9

PB G4 OSX10.5 grey screen on startup/not recognize harddrive?

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