PB G4 Won't Boot, but stays in gray boot screen indefinitely
When I attempt to turn my powerbook on, it chimes and begins to boot in its classic gray OSX boot screen. However, it remains in that screen indefinitely. The computer will boot from install discs but not from the HD. I performed Apple hardware test, with everything passing. I tried archiving and reinstalling OSX, but the install discs wouldn't allow me, saying that there was an installation error every time I tried reinstalling. Any ideas?
Powerbook G4 Aluminum Mac OS X (10.4.4)
Powerbook G4 Aluminum
Do the following:
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. Then select Disk Utility from the Installer menu (Utilities menu for Tiger.) After DU loads select your OS X volume from the list on the left, 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. Now shutdown the computer for a couple of minutes and then restart normally.
If DU reports errors it cannot fix, then you will need Disk Warrior (3.0.3 for Tiger) and/or TechTool Pro (4.5.1 for Tiger) 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. Note that Disk Warrior will not work on Intel Macs.
If you still cannot start up then try the Archive and Install again, but only if the drive is verified as OK.
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My MacBook Will Power up but stays at the loading screen.
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The disk may need repairing.
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Mac Pro won't boot, screen flashes, no mouse cursor
Hello.
I've had a Mac Pro 1,1 for about 3.5 years now and it's worked fantastic until recent weeks. Suddenly, I started getting weird glitches on the screen that was fixed by a simple PRAM reset and a safe boot. Worked fine for about a month after that, then it froze on me and refused to boot, so I removed all hardware, followed all steps to find the problem and I'm still stuck. I've formatted the system drive now and reinstalled 10.6.3 and it will only boot in safe mode, but when it does, the screen flashes intermittently and there is no mouse cursor which makes it tricky to get around. I've moved some ram around and found a configuration that seems to have no issues, so now I'm just wondering what's left. I do have an appointment for the genius bar tomorrow but I'd like to get the problem fixed on my own, if possible. Oh, and sometimes when I boot up the screen turns entirely pink with a blue or purple mouse cursor. I've searched online and no one else has seemed to ever have this sort of problem. Like I said, the computer was working perfectly fine until recently, and I didn't change anything or add any hardware or install any new software either.hey - thanks to those of you that actually had supportive advice in helping me to fix this problem.
for the record, i did take the computer to the "genius" bar and they did not turn me away. they opened the computer and found that i had a bad stick of ram. got new ram installed, and the computer booted up fine, but still had visual distortion and would freeze up if i did anything taxing on the graphic card, especially the iTunes visualizer. Anyway, thanks to you guys i looked up the baking situation which threw me off at first. the graphic card in my machine was a 8800 GT, so i put it in the oven for 8 minutes, reinstalled, and my computer has been running fine since. i realize that this is probably just a temporary fix, but i thought i'd let you guys know that the problem has been resolved for now, and i really appreciate you guys taking time out to help!
thanks, happy xmas + happy 2014
JOA -
HELP! 09' Macbook Pro Start-Up Stays on Gray/White Screen
When I turn on my Macbook pro, it stay on the gray/white screen with the apple logo. I have tried booting up in safe mode by pressing shift+command+V, and try resetting the PRAM by pressing command+shift+P+R. Also, I have inserted my OS X disk to try to do a disk repair, but I don't see any pop-ups. Can someone please help me
*I'm running OS X MavericksHave you tried booting into your Recovery partition (holding down the command and R keys whilst booting)?
If you get that far you can use Disk Utility to verify and, if needed, attempt to repair your hard drive.
Clinton -
I bought this iPod mid-March, I've only had it for a little less than 5 months. I bought it at Best Buy, I don't know if that matters or anything- I have a geek squad and apple warranty. I'm only nineteen years old and this was my first real big purchase and I'm very disappointed. I've had other iPods before and never had any issues with them, my last one lasted from 2008 - 2013. I take very good care of my iPod Touch, never dropped it or anything of the sort and I keep it in a thick case. This iPod worked fine up until recently. First the home button became unresponsive, I had to activate the assistive touch because I use this iPod for school work. I was about to take my iPod into Best Buy so they could take a look at it and see if there was anything they could do before I contacted apple, but now my iPod is completely dead. It won't respond at all. I had to disconnect the charger because the iPod screen was getting hot and it wasn't charging. It's been disconnected for a few hours and the screen still feels hot. I'm really concerned, especially with recent news reports of handheld devices overheating and burning people or even exploding. Will the apple warranty cover this so I can get a new iPod? What are my options?
If the iPod is defective and not abused Apple will exchange it at no cost under your warranty.
Make an appointment at the Genius Bar of an Apple store.
Apple Retail Store - Genius Bar -
HT3964 my mac comes on but stays at the white screen with the apple on it, what should i do?
white screen with apple loading?
restart the computer and hold the left shift key until the apple logo appears. This will (attempt) to start the computer in Safe Mode. Safe Mode performs a disk directory check and repairs the drive if necessary, starts the computer with a reduced set of drivers (so some things may not work, such as your printer), and deletes the temporary caches. Since part of what Safe Mode does is repair work, you can attempt to restart the computer normally if it successfully boots with Safe Mode.
If this doesn't work, let us know. -
Computer won't start up, stuck on gray logo screen.
Hey I have been having this problem for about 2 days now. When I try to turn on my computer, it won't fully start up, it gets stuck on the grey screen with the apple logo and stays like that forever. I tried to fix the problem using single user mode, typing "/sbin/fsck -fy" as well as trying to go on recovery mode and pressing "repair" on disk utility, MacHD ect. Now I have a backup from a month ago but is there any way to fix the problem? The error is: incorrect number of thread records. Oh and I have bootcamp, windows on Mac that run fine, I'm guessing that might have messed with my computer a bit though. Please let me know how to fix this soon. Thanks!
If you want to preserve the data on the boot drive, 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, you can skip this step.
There are several ways to back up a Mac that is unable to fully boot. You need an external hard drive to hold the backup data.
1. Boot into Recovery (command-R at startup) or from a local Time Machine backup volume (option key at startup.) Launch Disk Utility and follow the instructions in the support article linked below, under “Instructions for backing up to an external hard disk via Disk Utility.”
How to back up and restore your files
2. If you have access to a working Mac, and both it and the non-working Mac have FireWire or Thunderbolt ports, boot the non-working Mac in target disk mode by holding down the key combination command-T at the startup chime. Connect the two Macs with a FireWire or Thunderbolt cable. The internal drive of the machine running in target mode will mount as an external drive on the other machine. Copy the data to another drive. This technique won't work with USB, Ethernet, Wi-Fi, or Bluetooth.
How to use and troubleshoot FireWire target disk mode
3. 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. -
All it displays is the gray loading bar like it is updating then it gets a quarter of the way through at which point the wait circle appears and the computer shuts down. I need to get my computer working for college again anyone have any suggestions. I did the hardware test an it shows me a -1007D
You probably have some type of hardware failure. The only people that can fix hardware failures are Apple or an authorized Apple repair center by replacing the part or parts that have failed. So you'll need to take the system into Apple to be diagnosed and repaired.
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? I have a problem with the cloud app. i have downloaded it several times and have no problem. when it runs it then opens up but stays blank so i cant see my apps or download any HELP
>opens up but stays blank
BLANK Cloud Screen http://forums.adobe.com/message/5484303 may help
-and step by step http://forums.adobe.com/thread/1440508?tstart=0
-and http://helpx.adobe.com/creative-cloud/kb/blank-white-screen-ccp.html -
I have a MacBook that needs its internal hard drive's Macintosh HD partition repaired, as the boot screen freezes on startup. I am running a separate, working mac OS from an external hard drive in order to run disk utility and repair the MacBook's internal OS. The issue is, it has dismounted the internal Macintosh HD partition, and won't remount. And in addition to that, the Verify Disk option returns with, "The volume Macintosh HD appears to be OK." I've run Verify Disk and Repair Disk a few times, all with that same result. And the internal OS still won't boot.
I have attempted to make a disk image of the internal Macintosh HD partition and save it to my external hard drive so I can wipe the internal hard drive clean and restore the image, but I receive errors when trying to create the disk image, and when trying to erase the hard drive (I know, I should try to erase the hard drive when I haven't made an image. When I tried to erase the hard drive, the image wasn't done and I thought it was. I got an error for erase, and I got an error for making the disk image) I have tried making a disk image multiple times and haven't been able to create one.
There is also a boot camp partition on the internal hard drive which is of no importance as to whether it stays or is erased.Reinstall OS X without erasing the drive
Do the following:
1. Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions
Boot from your Snow Leopard 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 Utilities menu. 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. Reinstall Snow Leopard
If the drive is OK then quit DU and return to the installer. Proceed with reinstalling OS X. Note that the Snow Leopard installer will not erase your drive or disturb your files. After installing a fresh copy of OS X the installer will move your Home folder, third-party applications, support items, and network preferences into the newly installed system.
Download and install the Combo Updater for the version you prefer from support.apple.com/downloads/. -
Please some one help me ...
A) my mac won't shut down with external HD connected (if it's been used)
B) there are disk permissions that can't be fixed SUID stuff ..
C) I have now verified the Mac HD and it tells me it's corrupt in bold red writing and to start up from install DVD
D) it won't boot from DVD so I cannot run the repair , initially the machine was spitting it out on start up , now it appears to be attempting to boot off DVD , well it sounds like it is .... BUT it's hanging with the Mac Logo and a wheel ... For um .... 30min now...
E) weirdly when OSX is booted off the hard drive , it won't recognise the Install DvD or the applications one... It just spits them out....
I had an old PPC 17" and it was a beaut .... Never had a single problem with it ...
I bought this one December 2010 and it's been nothing but issues for a computer in excess of £1000 I'm extremely disappointed ... And weirdly the shutting down issue started when it was a week out of warrantee ... I feel conned and am almost at the point of throwing it at a wall and buying a PCOk so I've done what you said and this is what it's come back ....
I don't know that these are the errors , but they're the things which don't look right ...
Throughout the shut down there is a recurring line ;
It says ;
Com.apple.launchd 1 0x100600e70.anonymous.unmount 301 PID still valid
Then there are 2 more which I think are related ;
Com.apple.securityd 29 PID job has I overstayed its welcome , forcing removal.
Then the same with fseventd 48 and diskarbitrationd 13
Oh and on Launchd1 : System : stray anonymous job at shut down : PID 301 PPID13 PGID 13 unmount...
Then the last process says "about to call: reboot (RB_AUTOBOOT).
Continuing...
And stops ...
Hope this means something to you ... Thanks again for your help so far :-) -
My MacBook Pro has 10.5.8 but came with 10.5.7 install disc and won't boot up and can't reinstall
My MacBook Pro has 10.5.8 but came with 10.5.7 install disc and won't boot up and can't reinstall.
the disc is spinning and I see the apple on the screen with the spinning gear and after a while it just turns off OR the few times it does get past that point when I go into disc utility it tells me that it can not install on this machine!
It's driving me crazy, please help!!!Welcome to the Apple community.
I'm not entirely sure I follow you here, home sharing comes with iTunes 10.2, so far as I am aware even iTunes 10.6.1 only requires OS X 10.5.8 or better. On that basis I'm not sure why you think you have a problem. -
Startup Manager displays Mac HD but won't boot to it
I have a 2008 MacPro (2x2.66 GHz Dual-Core Intel Xeon) that has been successfully running Bootcamp for a couple years with a Windows XP partition and a Mac 10.5~ partition (actually I can't remember if it was 10.6 or 10.5). We recently made a new partition for Windows 7. (This is in a classroom full of identicle MacPros, but noteably, the problem machine is the teacher's station).
As of today, the MacPro no longer boots into the Mac OS partition. It boots, by default, into Windows XP every time. Holding down option on start up brings up the Startup Manager, and the Mac HD is visible, and you can click on it or tab to select it, but then nothing happens. We tried a bootable external hard drive, but had the same problem with the Startup Manager and an inability to select anything (the keyboard and mouse both seem to work) but nothing happens when you click on your selection.
Once booted into XP, you can see the "Mac HD" option in the Boot Camp Control Panel. You can select it, but then the computer boots back into XP.
I did get the computer to start up off a Mac OS Snow Leopard install CD by holding "C" on start up. I ran "Repair Disk" using Disk Utility and found no problems. I tried repairing the disk permissions, and although they seemed fine.
I tried zapping the PRAM but there was no effect (booted into XP).
I unplugged the computer for a few minutes to reset the "NVRAM". No effect.
I tried different key combinations to attempt to boo in Safe Mode, Single User Mode, Verbose Mode, and none of those things worked, the computer booted straight into Windows XP every time.
I tried holding "d" for a hardware test, but nothing happened. Do you need to be on the internet for this? Because, I also tried, based on some suggestions I saw online, unplugging all peripherals (like our bootable firewire drive) and ethernet cables and not using a third party mouse. No effect.
Finally, I let the Snow Leopar install CD install, and although it seemed successful this had absouletly no effect. It still boots straight into Windows XP. Granted, I did not delete everything for a clean install, as I'm not sure the files are backed up anywhere.""To update anyone watching this, we tried putting the hard drive in a different machine and still had the same boot issues,""
Are you saying that the questionable HD was put in another computer and THAT computer had the same issue as the Professors?
If so I would just backup and erase the hard drive, reformat and reinstall everything as something buggered up the Boot Manager and your going to take more time figuring it out as to redo everything.
I don't think the HD is going out but you MAY have some bad sectors on the Mac partition, if that's the problem then the bad sector might be in the bootable part and thats why it can't boot. If you want to save the HD have a disk utility do a Surface Scan to make sure.
As far as not being able to boot into Safe mode, etc, if it had a bad sector it won't be able to read the boot part which is why you can still boot into the Install DVD.
You know, looking back at your original post if you can't boot into safe mode while pressing the Shift Key after the bong, can't boot from an external HD or any of the other ways, then I would say it's a hardware problem.
Like I mentioned before, if you can put in another Dual boot HD from another machine into the Professors machine and it still won't boot into both OS's then you have confirmed it's a hardware problem.
Good luck... -
Hello,
I recently upgraded my beige G3 and installed a new CD-ROM drive. Now when I try to boot from a CD it won't boot. The computer just displays a gray screen. Would anyone have any idea why it won't boot?
I know it boots when it is connected to the j9 IDE connector on the motherboard but when I connect it to the j10 IDE connector it will not boot. Is the j10 connector not recommended?
Here are some details. My G3 beige is a rev 1. The CD-ROM is a 32x-speed drive pulled from an old b&w G3. Previously I have succesfully booted many times with this CD-ROM drive on my G3 beige when it was connected to the j9 IDE connector on the motherboard. But when connecting the CD-ROM to the j10 connector it will not boot.
I read in the G3 beige service manual that when you have only one IDE connector in use (with the other connector not in use), for best results, be sure it is the j9 connector that you use individually and not j10 individually. However that doesn't seem to apply to me because I am using both j9 and j10. (I have the j9 connector connected to a hard drive.)
So my nexrt step in trouble shooting this problem is to try connecting the CD-ROM drive back on the j9 connector. However, I was hoping to be able to use the j10 connector. Is there a way to connect a CD-ROM drive that is bootable to a rev 1. beige G3 using the j10 connector? If I have to use the j9 connector for the CD-ROM drive may I make the CD-ROM drive slave or does it have to be master? Should I put my main hard drive on j10 (instead of j9 as it is now)?
Could these problems all be something completely urelated to the j9, j10 connectors?
PS When you see a completely gray screen what does that mean? This completely gray screen worried me because it did not even display the flashing question mark disk icon typical of a mac that can't find its startup disk. Is this normal?
Thank you for any suggestions.rainforest,
Starting with the gray screen, give it a little more time to resole startup issues or zap the PRAM for 2 chimes.
Macs were designed to go out and look at all hardware connected to the CPU and report back with details. PCs were never given this feature because Bill Gates said to himself, only smart people will use a computer and they will tell the computer every little thing that it needs to know. Thus, PCs are dumb. They do not look at the floppy drive until instructed, ie. you must tell it that you inserted a floppy disk and now you actually want to look at it. What a thought!
Steve Jobs said, dumb people will use computers so let's make the computer smart. It is that startup review process that gives you the gray screen until it figures out what has changed. Zapping the PRAM is designed to force the CPU to take a fresh look at all devices. If you wait long enough, the review process should finish and give you the smiling face. Some swear by letting the PRAM zap chime three times because once is not always enough.
Everytime you reconfigure your hardware, you create a new startup obstacle.
Is it possible that there is a distinction between j9 and j10? From a purely essoteric design standpoint, yes. From a functional standpoint, no. Both should work and when they do not, you have just discovered an annomily with your motherboard.
I once asked a certified auto mechanic about an electrical problem to see if it was something that was obvious or maybe part of a recall that he could easily spot. He said no. I then asked if he would have to go exploring to find the electrical problem. He said yes. I then asked if the service charge would cost more than the car was worth. He said "absolutely."
Learning what your computer will and will not do is one thing. Fixing it is a whole new adventure.
Jim -
Powermac G5 won't boot - but safe mode works fine!!!
[The computer described below is a Powermac G5 dual core 2.7gHz, purchased in late 2005, running OS X 10.4.11]
Here's an odd thing... a few months back, my powermac stopped booting. It wasn't a power supply issue. I would get the white screen with the apple to come up, but when it was time for the blue screen with the user logins, the screen would go black.
I tried swapping out all the RAM, and nothing worked. Was able to get safe mode to work, once, and then never again. Finally I broke down and took my baby to Tekserve.
Tekserve took a MONTH to get it back to me, and they claimed it was a bad RAM set. This sounded really odd to me, since I thought I had correctly tested several sticks of RAM, and even no RAM, without any success. But I'm not one of the experts, so, hey. My computer was running again and that's all I cared about.
Well, now, about 3 weeks later, my computer will not boot. It started with the loud fans. Now I'm not having any fan noise, but it still won't boot. Here's how I've troubleshot it so far:
- The computer boots FINE in safe mode. I verified the disc in safe mode, and everything checks out. Everything also checks out using fsdk -fy in single user mode. So no disc problem, apparently.
- When I reset the PRAM using crtlopt+pr after the chime, the screen resolution changes from 1200x1024 to 800x600. After the white screen, I do get the blue screen, but WITHOUT any user login, and the mouse cursor does not show up.
- When I reset the NVRAM using open firmware (reset-nvram, set-defaults, reset-all), I'm back to my normal problem of white screen followed by black nothingness (and emotional despair).
Tonight I'm going to try swapping out the RAM again, but if that doesn't work, what's next? I don't know where I put the original Hardware Test DVD that came with the powermac... is there a program I can buy to see if this is my logic board, without bringing the powermac back into tekserve? I live in NYC and have no car; bringing this heavy item into Manhattan is a real issue for me!!!
Anyways, any and all info is greatly appreciated. I really hope I'm overlooking something obvious. Natch, neither Apple nor Tekserve want to give me any advice without me shelling over more of my hard-earned cash. And this all went down 3 months after applecare expired... sigh...Very interesting... they're telling me (at Tekserve) that this problem is caused by bad sectors in my SECONDARY drive. Doesn't make any sense to me at all, but that's what they're saying... pretty sure the RAM and video card are fine. I tried resetting NVRAM and PRAM, and that did nothing... safe mode works fine, as I mentioned... even got it running in normal mode for about 30 seconds one time.
It's the shop now, so we'll see, when I get the computer back, what the real problem was. It makes me flabbergasted that bad sectors in my secondary drive could have any effect whatsoever on boot!
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