Restart fail - grey screen

Two failed updates. Downloads and seems to install ok but hangs after the 'restart to complete' leaving just a blank grey screen and my mouse cursor. Prior to that the progress bar only reaches about a third before vanishing. Disconnected all other devices, did all the recommended grey screen trouble shoots - same result. All was well with Mavericks. Anyone any bright ideas? Thanks.

Resolved eventually - had to restart in Safe Mode. Then made sure I backed everything in Time Machine. After which I restarted again (in normal mode) and after disconcertingly pausing again about a third of the way through the progress bar (held breath), I was finally able to access the new Yosemite interface as expected.
No idea what the issue was - the upgrade moved one Apple file to the 'incompatible software' folder and marked Apple's own MainStage software as incompatible but left it (I later deleted it to be safe).
Mmm... user status feedback for the process not good, especially the dodgy progress bar and at one point (I now forget where) I was viewing flashing images of my wireless mouse and trackpad with no idea what was expected i.e. they were already switched on. Indeed, both were rendered useless and I could not progress until I dug out an old USB mouse to let me click the next install screen.

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Mac mini shut down on its own, will not restart, grey screen, spinning wheel. Unplugged everything, will still not restart. Did safe boot, will not restart after safe boot, only grey screen with spinning wheel.

Mac mini shut down on its own. Could not restart, chime, grey screen and spinning wheel. Unplugged everything but monitor, still only chime, grey screen and spinning wheel. Started in safe boot, shut Down, will not restart.
This happened a couple of months ago, unplugged everything and it restarted, now that won't work.

Hi BDAqua,
I just did the repair as you suggested. T ran the disc repair, and twice it cam back, the volume macintosh seems ti be okay, I also ran the verify and permissions repair, both came back okay.
I was actually hoping that they would find something, so they could repair. I shut the computer down, and restated with out holding a key, and I started up great. I'm baffled. I have moved 20 GB to an external hard drive, as I only had 10% open space.
I have Tech Tool 6, would you recommend to run a repair check on that, or just leave well enough alone.
I agree with you on the new Mac's, I have problems with no disc for back up, until they realize their mistake I will stay with Snow a Leopard. This is the first problem I have experienced, so I can't complain. Their last programs are not as perfected as under Steve, prior to his handling over the reins, hope this is not going to be the future we can expect from Apple.
I will wait to here back as to your suggestion regarding the Tech Tool check
Thanks for all your help.
Gratefully,
Cheri

Server Won't Boot - Grey Screen of Death Strikethrough Circle

My Xserve is having some serious difficulties and as a result, so am I.
To start from the beginning, I've been running a standard install of 10.5.1 for a couple of weeks now and thus far it has been smooth sailing. Last week we upgraded to 10.5.2 and some issues reared there ugly head (not saying that .2 is the cause but this was the chain of events). Firstly SMB started going skewiff, not letting users login in to shared folders, then mail stopped some services and could not be restarted.
This culminated with what seems to be a failed restart (in that i told the device to restart but didn't see it through to coming back), a weekend passed and on monday nothing was live any more. When a monitor was plugged in, all that we saw as the grey screen, apple logo and spinning gear. After sitting there for 5mins or so the display would go black, the Xserve would restart, the grey screen and spinning gear would appear, and the cycle would continue.
We were able to boot from the install dvd, but at this point we decided to call apple and get some pro advice. Based on this we tried to verify disk permissions but got an error of something like failed on exit. The apple rep wanted to go into single user mode and mount drives and run disk util from command but we got no were. To clarify we were using a two risk mirror raid and verify disk returned an all ok report.
As we were getting no ware the apple rep recommend removing on of the raid disks (to have a keep a backup) and try restoring the system from our time machine backup on an ext drive. We chose a date before we thought the issue may have developed (but not before the upgrade to 10.5.2). When this had finished and the system did its restart, the grey screen appear with the apple logo for a moment, but this would then change to a circle with a strikethrough it. We attempted another TM restore from a point before the 10.5.2 backup but got the same result.
After getting fed up with all this, we tried a fresh install (without deleting the disk partitions and re-initialising the disk) and low and behold the system started up again. Tried to do a restore from TM via the install dvd process but this set us back to our strikethrough circle problem again.
To tell you the truth, I'm so frustrated with this thing right now I'm considering sending it back!!!
Any help or thoughts would be greatly appreciated.
Nige

Hi mik.e245
Pop in the Install Disk 1 that came with your iMac and run disk repairs as described in the articles below:
http://kb.wisc.edu/helpdesk/page.php?id=3810
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=DiskUtility/10.5/en/duh1018.html
Not always, but many times Kernal Panic's are associated with a ram issue's. If a ram module was recently added it may have become partially dislodged/unseated and needs to be reseated.
If your still having trouble run the Hardware Test from the same install disk as per this article.
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=303081-en
Dennis

Beyond grey screen....nothing's working here

I am a total novice technology wise. I think I have an iMac OSX (?) running snow leopard
Here's the deal...
Yesterday safari was running slow that's the only out of ordinary precursor
Got a kernal panic, shutdown computer
Tried to restart, result grey screen with file folder and "?"
Tried a safe start
Tried PRAM
Tried install cd, no files listed on the left to choose, no options for repair became available
Tried restart with options key, nothing listed to choose from
Tried to to time capsule thing didn't list any options to proceed
Lastly, got another grey screen on yet another restart and what looks like an Ethernet connection symbol floating on the screen
-turned off computer, fought back tears and have now crafted this note for the second time on my ipad.
Can anyone please advise? Is my Mac toast? If it is how can I just start over? I have a snow leopard install cd and my install cd for office for Mac...that's it. What do I do here??
JW

As I suspected from your initial post, your hard disk has failed, or is otherwise unreadable. The reason you are getting the folder with the ? on it is because as far as the kernal knows, there is no hard disk in the computer, which is prooven by the fact that the isntaller does not recognize the HDD. If you go into disk utility from the installer, can you see the disk?

Intel iMac - won't start - grey screen & progress bar

I have a 2006 Intel iMac - 20" model, Intel Core Duo, 2GHz, 2GB RAM, 250GB HDD, etc. It was one of the very earliest Intel iMacs. Kept updated, running OS 10.6, etc.
It has worked extremely well for over 5 years - apart from the Superdrive being temperamental sometimes - but has suddenly gone wrong.
Last week the machine completely froze for no apparent reason. I had to force a reboot. This failed - grey screen and the grey spinning wheel (if that's what it's called), indefinitely.
Forced reboot again and this time held down the shift key to go into safe boot mode. This time it was successful, and I was able to get to the logon screen & log myself in. I opened Disk Utility & attempted to do some diagnostics but the machine froze again.
Looking around various other forum postings...I rebooted the machine in single user mode and was able to get to the command line to type 'fsck -fy' to attempt to fix disk problems. This failed repeatedly, with an error message 'invalid node structure'.
I tried to boot my machine from the OS X disc but my Superdrive refused to play ball - it would not read the disc (or any other disc for that matter, including a copy of DiskWarrior that I have).
I have now got hold of an external DVD drive in the hope that this would show up as a boot device when I switch the machine on while holding the option key down. No such luck - the drive powers up ok (power via USB) but I'm not given the option to boot from it - in fact that screen doesn't appear at all.
All that happens now on powering up - regardless of what I do - is the grey apple symbol appears and a progress bar beneath it. The progress bar gets stuck about 5% of the way along, and then after about 10 minutes it disappears and is replaced with the grey spinning wheel thingy. And then it just gets stuck - nothing else happens.
HELP!
All my important data is backed up on an external drive via Time Machine, so that should be safe, but I'm desperate to get the machine running again.
One thing that occurred to me is that I've had a program called ReFit installed on the machine which allowed me to run the machine as dual boot etc. (and I do have a couple of other small partitions on the drive, not currently used) but the ReFit welcome screen stopped appearing a couple of weeks ago for some reason. I'm wondering if this has somehow messed things up...?
Grateful for any suggestions...
Thanks,
Alan.

For the drive, you should be OK with any SATA 2 at 3 MB/s transfer speed. You could also use a SATA 1, no jumpers needed. (Not SATA 3 - can't be jumpered down.) The early 2006 Intels were 1.5 MB/s -- at least the drives were, so I'm assuming the SATA controller on the logic board was also. Might just be SATA 2 hadn't yet been introduced and can run the faster SATA 3 without jumpers. My guess is not. You should be able to set jumpers on the drive for backwards compatibility. You'll have to contact the drive manufacturer or go to their website for that info.
http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/imac/stats/imac-core-2-duo-2.16-20-inch-sp ecs.html
As for the superdrive, I'd contact the manufacturer to check on compatibility.
Glad I'm able to help. BTW, in case you haven't noticed, maybe you want to have a look here.

Grey Screen on Start up and Hard disk not working

Hi , I was working and suddenly some popping noises came out of the hard drive. I tried to save my work but i couldn't because it got "stuck". I had to turn it off and when I restarted a grey screen appeared without the apple logo. It won't start up and starting from cd, safe mode, single user mode don't work. I reset the PRAM too and nothing works. I'm worried about recovering the data... what should I do? I have work there that i need!!!
thanks

thanks for your reply. I took my powerbook to 2 apple authorized technical service and both of them told me that they couldn't get the data using disk warrior.
I already removed the hard drive and replace it with a new one. However I still want to recover data. I plug the hard drive to my home powermac with a usb connector and using disk utility and terminal i was able to "see" the drive but not mount it. In disk utility the drive appears as 0 bytes.
I want to try using Terminal or Single user mode to mount the hard drive, and/or repair it and try to recover some important files that I urgently need. Do you know how?

Grey screen normal after update??

I just downloaded the 10.7.2 update, as it was restarting the grey screen remains. It's been there for over 2 hours, not booting up. Is this normal? How long should I expect the grey screen to remain? Thanks for your help. I'm new to Macs....

No, it's not normal. Force a reboot by holding down the power button until the screen goes dark, then pressing it again briefly. If you still can't boot within a few minutes, try a safe boot (shift key.) If that doesn't work either, boot from your recovery partition (command-R) and either restore from your last Time Machine backup or reinstall Lion. I'm assuming you do have backups of some kind. If not, you may be in big trouble.

Grey screen persists

Hi. For several hours now I have been trying to get my mac to restart properly. The problem began this morning while working in adobe photoshop where the spinning wheel kept causing stalls. Frustrated, quit APS I did a computer shut down. But when I wanted to restart the grey screen with grey spinning wheel kept appearing. Nothing happened. So shut down again using the command-option-shift-power keys. Then upluggied the computer, then power strip, and disconnected all external peripherals. Next, decided to start up in safe mode by hitting the shift key and power button, but again nothing but the persistent grey screen. Next, I tried to reset the pram, but grey screen then a black screen, then the grey screen.
I think maybe I should try to install my install disc and try. But is it ok to insert the disc while the grey screen and wheel is spinning? Don't want to install the disc and have something weird happen to it too.
Help most appreciative.

"Invalid sibling link", not a good sign.
You can shutdown from using your install dvd just like you always do. You can do a google search for "Invalid sibling link" and you will get lots of hits and possible solutions, most involving using terminal, which I don't think you will feel comfortable using.
One high level possibility (no guarantee) mentioned in some of those search hits is to use Disk Warrior, but is is not free.
Of course it's a little late now, but your situation is why you should always have backups of your system.
I'm not sure what else to suggest at this point other than what I mention in this post.

MacBook Pro won't boot. Grey Screen appears, apple logo then nothing

I'm very frustrated. I was using my laptop and suddenly the rainbow wheel appears and it freezes. I tried to hard reboot it and when it restarted a grey screen appears and the apple logo shows up. I bought it used from a Micro Center and I believe it's out of warranty. What is going on and what are my options?

Take each of these steps that you haven't already tried. Stop when the problem is resolved.
Step 1
The first step in dealing with a boot failure is to secure your data. If you want to preserve the contents of the startup drive, and you don't already have at least one current backup, 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 that has changed since your last backup, you can skip this step.
There are several ways to back up a Mac that is unable to boot. You need an external hard drive to hold the backup data.
a. Boot into the Recovery partition, or from a local Time Machine backup volume (option key at startup.) When the OS X Utilities screen appears, launch Disk Utility and follow the instructions in this support article, under “Instructions for backing up to an external hard disk via Disk Utility.”
b. 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. Use the working Mac to copy the data to another drive. This technique won't work with USB, Ethernet, Wi-Fi, or Bluetooth.
c. 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.
Step 2
Sometimes a boot failure can be resolved by resetting the NVRAM.
Step 3
Press and hold the power button until the power shuts off. Disconnect all wired peripherals except those needed to boot, and remove all aftermarket expansion cards. Use a different keyboard and/or mouse, if those devices are wired. If you can boot now, one of the devices you disconnected, or a combination of them, is causing the problem. Finding out which one is a process of elimination.
If you've booted from an external storage device, make sure that your internal boot volume is selected in the Startup Disk pane of System Preferences.
Step 4
Boot in safe mode. Note: If FileVault is enabled on some models, or if a firmware password is set, or if the boot volume is a software RAID, you can’t do this. Post for further instructions.
Safe mode is much slower to boot and run than normal, and some things won’t work at all, including wireless networking on certain Macs.
The login screen appears even if you usually log in automatically. You must know your login password in order to log in. If you’ve forgotten the password, you will need to reset it before you begin.
When you boot in safe mode, it's normal to see a dark gray progress bar on a light gray background. If the progress bar gets stuck for more than a few minutes, or if the system shuts down automatically while the progress bar is displayed, your boot volume is corrupt and the drive is probably malfunctioning. In that case, go to Step 5.
If you can boot and log in now, empty the Trash, and then open the Finder Info window on your boot volume ("Macintosh HD," unless you gave it a different name.) Check that you have at least 9 GB of available space, as shown in the window. If you don't, copy as many files as necessary to another volume (not another folder on the same volume) and delete the originals. Deletion isn't complete until you empty the Trash again. Do this until the available space is more than 9 GB. Then reboot as usual (i.e., not in safe mode.)
If the boot process hangs again, the problem is likely caused by a third-party system modification that you installed. Post for further instructions.
Step 5
Launch Disk Utility in Recovery mode (see Step 1.) Select your startup volume, then run Repair Disk. If any problems are found, repeat until clear. If Disk Utility reports that the volume can't be repaired, the drive has malfunctioned and should be replaced. You might choose to tolerate one such malfunction in the life of the drive. In that case, erase the volume and restore from a backup. If the same thing ever happens again, replace the drive immediately.
This is one of the rare situations in which you should also run Repair Permissions, ignoring the false warnings it may produce. Look for the line "Permissions repair complete" at the end of the output. Then reboot as usual.
Step 6
Reinstall the OS. If your Mac was upgraded from an older version of OS X, you’ll need the Apple ID and password you used to upgrade.
Step 7
Repeat Step 6, but this time erase the boot volume in Disk Utility before installing. The system should automatically reboot into the Setup Assistant. Follow the prompts to transfer your data from a Time Machine or other backup.
Step 8
This step applies only to older Macs (not current models) that have a logic-board ("PRAM") battery. Both desktop and portable Macs used to have such a battery. The logic-board battery is separate from the main battery of a portable. A dead logic-board battery can cause a boot failure. Typically the boot failure will be preceded by loss of the startup disk and system clock settings. See the user manual for replacement instructions. You may have to take the machine to a service provider to have the battery replaced.
Step 9
If you get this far, you're probably dealing with a hardware fault. Make a "Genius" appointment at an Apple Store to have the machine tested. If you can't get to an Apple Store, go to another authorized service provider.

PB Won't start--grey screen with logo--no spinning wheel

Did an update that required a restart--got grey screen with the apple logo and that's all. Tried resetting the Pram and the PMU, no luck. Won't start in safe mode or from another DVD (tried both the original and my Tiger disks). It was working normally before the update (iTunes and I think an Airport update and a couple of other things). I've removed and re-installed the RAM with no change.

Thanks!
HD disconnected it starts from a CD. HD re-connected it now displays the spinning geary thing but doesn't get any further. Disk First Aid found and fixed many problems but it still won't go past the spinning thingy. It passed Apple's hardware tests. So--a new HD is likely in order but I want to try a more comprehensive disk repair program and recommendations for that and for a new HD are welcome!

Grey screen with spinning gear after downloaded maverick from snow leopard.

I have downloaded a osx maverick from my original snow leopard. It downloaded successfully but by the time need to restart,the grey screen appear with a spinning gear without any further progress,it jz hang there. What should I do? I have tried to re-download it for three times,it still the same. I have performed a disk utility repair, safe boot,nvram/pram reset but I haven't re-install it from a disk. Can anybody tell me what to do further? I'm not a computer genius.

Have you seen this Apple note on gray screen/spinning wheel boots?

I recently updated my MacBook Pro and now it says I need to restart every time I turn the computer on. It is on a grey screen.

I have not used my MacBook Pro for a few months and when I started it up did all the microsoft and system updates. Now it will not turn on and it goes to a grey page that state "You need to restart you computer. Hold down the Power button untilmitmturns off, then press the Power button again." I have done this several times and keep arriving at the same page.

OK, then there is little else to do other than to reinstall OS X.
Make sure you removed everything connected to the MBP including any USB devices.
If your Mac came with a System Install DVD, then insert it and hold the c key while starting your Mac. This will boot from the DVD instead of your internal disk.
If you find the grey screen reappears then it may not have restarted from the disc, so try again. You have to get past this step to do anything. If you can't, the problem may be a dirty or damaged DVD or an inoperative optical drive.
When it gets to the Mac OS C Utilities screen, select Disk Utility and repair your hard disk. Record any errors that it finds, since your problem may be due to a failed hard disk. If that is the case, the failure will probably arise again.
Then, reinstall OS X. Reinstalling is non-destructive to your user accounts or data.
If your Mac is running Lion, or Mountain Lion, you can boot OS X Recovery and perform all the above without a disc.
Read about OS X Recovery here: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4718

Trying to install snow leopard on my Macbook Pro. After already having problems with Grey screen, blinking file with a question mark, etc. Computer now says that one of the hard drives is failing.The "hitachi" drive says it's failing in disc utility.

o.k. So, I've been tinkering with several "self help" fixes for several days now with no positive results. I'll explain my initial problems and then end with my most current situation. In hopes that someone out there will have a good suggestion or possibly remedy for the issues i'm facing
First, my problem started after my wife played a game on my macbook pro and the computer froze. She went into a panic and decided to shut down via power button. When computer restarted she got the blinking file/grey screen and that problem continued for a couple of days before I began using steps from various support topics from apple concerning the grey screen/blinking file folder.
Ultimately, yesterday I decided to erase my Macintosh HD file as one tip suggested. Following the brief online and on screen (via the process) tips that were there. Once that was completed I attempted to reinstall snow leopard (my most current version on hand) into the pc.
At first, I thought this would work. It looked promising. But, after several hours the installation screen returned with failure. I attempted to repeat. And, even repair drives during this try and re-try process.
Now, today, one of the drives.. "hitachi..." states that it's failing and is in red letters with no ability to repair via the disc utility screen. The Macintosh HD drive shows that it's o.k. But, this drive is listed under the HItachi drive so I think that's where a problem might lay.
So, I guess my question really revolves around.. What if anything can I do to get the hitachi drive back up? (short of taking it to a repair facility and replacing.)
And, how on earth can i get my OSX back up to I have a laptop again.
Operating on a macbook pro here. It's my lifeline. Otherwise, I am using a Windows desktop that i'm not that fond of. lol
I'm trying to bring this 2006 laptop back to life. Trying to avoid a rather expensive repair or the purchase of a new laptop. Also expensive...
Any help would be appreciated.

Well, running on a 2006 model. I did not have a startup disc. Initially, it booted up on original software in 2006. Since then, I've upgraded to 10.6 via a box set. And, since then I think I popped it up to lion.
All I have on a disc is snow leopard. And, I can't get farther than the setup screen due to hard drive. I'm taking to a apple authorized repair store right now. We'll see what they tell me . I'm just going to weigh the cost of repair vs. buying new.
Another bad, stupid thing is I had no means of backing up my stuff. So, I might have lost things like music, vids, etc. we'll see if they can recover. If the cost is too much for repair I might just forget it and start over with a new system. Just not sure at this point.

I have a MacBook Pro bought in dec 2009. Currently has mountain lion osx installed. Worked like a dream until today. Randomly froze, so I restarted it. To find I got a grey screen. It wouldn't start. Also note my DVD drive doesn't work, but mountain lion

I have a MacBook Pro bought in dec 2009. Currently has mountain lion osx installed. Worked like a dream until today. Randomly froze, so I restarted it. To find I got a grey screen. It wouldn't start. Also note my DVD drive doesn't work, but mountain lion was installed via App Store anyway.
So here's what I done so far:
tried resetting PRAM - No success
Done disk utility. Disk verified with no errors. I even re formatted disk. - no success starting.
Tried re installing mountain lion via download . It froze halfway installing -no success.
Tried backing up a time machine backup from my USB hard drive. It froze at 1% - no success
Tried booting from safe mode - no success
Tried the command line boot - no success.
Please someone help!

Sounds like the hard dre has left the building, Died, in the Sh*tter, Gone to the hard drive resting place in the sky.
Buy a new drive connect it to the system with a SATA to USB adapter and see if you can install Mt Lion on that drive connected externally. If you can then the drive inside your system has failed.
Oh Wait!!!! You have the 2009 model. They are known for bad drive to logic board cables. So it may not be the drive itself but the cable going from the drive to the logic board. Do the same as above then if the system runs OK with the new drive connected externally install it in the system and see if it boots. If it does you are good to go. If it doesn't then it is more then likely the cable that hs failed.
I would suggest you also SAVE a copy of that download of Mt Lion and create a USB install drive from it using Lion Disk Maker, once you get your system up and running.

Just tried to upgrade to SnowLeopard with new software. iLife failed to download and now the computer will not start up--grey screen with lines going round and round in a circle. What can I do to get it to start up?

Just tried to upgrade to SnowLeopard with newly purchased software disc. iLife failed to download and when I tried to restart the computer, it will not do so--just get a grey screen with the lines going around and around. Any ideas about how to get it to start?

Mac Pro - Mid 2010
Processor 2 x 2.66 GHz 6-Core Intel Xeon
Memory 8 GB 1333 MHz DDR3 ECC
Graphics ATI Radeon HD 5870 1024 MB
Software Mac OS X Lion 10.7.2 (11C74)
This is a brand new machine that I just purchased from Apple. It was delivered yesterday
The old computer is an old PowerMac G5, but my OS X install disc is a retail version of 10.5.
I also tried the OS X 10.5 install disc that came with my MacBook Pro (2.6 Ghz Intel Core 2 Dual).
Same issue - nothing but a grey screen when the system tries to boot from the DVD

Restart fail - grey screen

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