Safe boot issues tried everything

Howdy From NZ
I have a MBP with a bad case of safe Boot Issues
Things I have tried:
Disk Repair
Checked S.M.A.R.T status of HDD under linux and run a full surface scan to check HDD is fine
Replaced SATA Cable
Reloaded OSX (upto yosimite)
tried another hdd just in case
replaced top panel (thought maybe it was holding down the shift button)
and a few others I cannot remember at the moment
i'm Thinkin' it's motherboard related but would like a second opinion from the forum guru's
Also I've taken it to the closest apple authorised repair store, and they said it was the HDD, but clearly it isnt as I have replaced it with a brand new one and the sata cable
interestingly enough, If i 6 second death it, upon reboot it works fine, but if i restart normally it hits this problem, I'm thinking maybe its doing some sort of start up check thats causing it?, it seems to work fine if you boot with verbose mode every time without fail, so is verbose mode disabling something upon startup?
I run a repair store here, but im not apple authorized, but as stated before, have gotten further than the people that are.... any help will be greatly appreciated

Good Timing,
I was heading to Christchurch (the only town in the south island with an "apple genius store")
they told me it was the HDD again, even after telling them I have put a new HDD in and also changed the Sata cable!!!
Clearly this isn't going anywhere fast, and although I appreciate the help you have given me, I'm going to nut this one out by myself.
***update***
I borrowed a mates mac that was the exact same model and swapped the Motherboards over, worked straight from the get-go
Thank for the help, it was appreciated in making me think I'm not crazy.
Scott

Similar Messages

MacBook Pro will not boot, only in safe mode. Tried Everything!

My MacBook Pro was working fine yesterday. Went to boot it up today, and it freezes on the Apple grey boot screen, will not progress further.
It does however start in safe mode, but will not start normally.
I've tried everything I can find, reset the PRAM, reinstalled OS X, ran the Apple Hardware test which came back clear, I don't know what else to try and why it's not working. It's been fine until now. Please help! Thank you

Please read this whole message before doing anything.
This procedure is a diagnostic test. It won’t solve your problem. Don’t be disappointed when you find that nothing has changed after you complete it.
Third-party system modifications are a common cause of usability problems. By a “system modification,” I mean software that affects the operation of other software — potentially for the worse. The following procedure will help identify which such modifications you've installed. Don’t be alarmed by the complexity of these instructions — they’re easy to carry out and won’t change anything on your Mac.
These steps are to be taken while booted in safe mode.
Below are instructions to enter some UNIX shell commands. The commands are harmless, but they must be entered exactly as given in order to work. If you have doubts about the safety of the procedure suggested here, search this site for other discussions in which it’s been followed without any report of ill effects.
Some of the commands will line-wrap or scroll in your browser, but each one is really just a single line, all of which must be selected. You can accomplish this easily by triple-clicking anywhere in the line. The whole line will highlight, and you can then copy it. The headings “Step 1” and so on are not part of the commands.
Note: If you have more than one user account, Step 2 must be taken as an administrator. Ordinarily that would be the user created automatically when you booted the system for the first time. The other steps should be taken as the user who has the problem, if different. Most personal Macs have only one user, and in that case this paragraph doesn’t apply.
Launch the Terminal application in any of the following ways:
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Terminal in the icon grid.
When you launch Terminal, a text window will open with a line already in it, ending either in a dollar sign (“$”) or a percent sign (“%”). If you get the percent sign, enter “sh” and press return. You should then get a new line ending in a dollar sign.
Step 1
Triple-click the line of text below to select it:
for k in /Sy*/L*/Ex*/{,.?}*.kext; do test -f "$k/Contents/Info.plist" && /usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -c "Print :CFBundleIdentifier" "$_" | egrep -qv "apple|Accusys|ArcMSR|ATTO|CalDigit|HighPoint|hp-fax|JMicron|print|SoftRAID|stex" && echo $k; done | open -f -a TextEdit
Copy the selected text to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C. Then click anywhere in the Terminal window and paste (command-V). A TextEdit window will open with the output of the command. Post the contents of that window, if any — the text, please, not a screenshot. You can then close the TextEdit window. The title of the window doesn't matter, and you don't need to post that. No typing is involved in this step.
Step 2
Repeat with this line:
sudo defaults read com.apple.loginwindow LoginHook | open -f -a TextEdit
This time you'll be prompted for your login password, which you do have to type. Nothing will be displayed when you type it. Type it carefully and then press return. You may get a one-time warning to be careful. Heed that warning, but don't post it. If you see a message that your username "is not in the sudoers file," then you're not logged in as an administrator.
Note: If you don’t have a login password, you’ll need to set one before taking this step. If that’s not possible, skip to the next step.
Step 3
Repeat with this line:
ls -1A /e*/mach* {,/}L*/{Ad,Compon,Ex,Fram,In,Keyb,La,Mail/Bu,P*P,Priv,Qu,Scripti,Servi,Spo,Sta}* L*/Fonts 2> /dev/null | open -f -a TextEdit
Important: If you formerly synchronized with a MobileMe account, your me.com email address may appear in the output of the above command. If so, anonymize it before posting.
Step 4
osascript -e 'tell application "System Events" to get name of every login item' 2> /dev/null | open -f -a TextEdit
Remember, Steps 1-4 are all copy-and-paste — no typing, except your password. Also remember to post the output.
You can then quit Terminal.

Mac Startup Issues- tried EVERYTHING.

I have tried everything, I have followed the Apple Support article on start up issues and I'm still not getting anywhere, I have tried the following:
Booting from Installation Disc and running the Disk Utility, when I try to repair the permissions, they appear to be repairing but after I Verify Disk, the permissions still differ.
Running fsck in single-user mode.
Running in verbacose mode, I get a large string of error messages, I don't know if they'll be any use to anybody?
Repairing the disk.
Everything it says on the article page I have followed to a T and my MacBook still won't load past the grey screen with the Apple logo, irregularly I boot to the blue screen, in which it changes from a dark blue to a light blue on a loop.
I cannot boot into Safe Mode either. I've tried to re-install the Mac OS X, but there is a tiny scratch on the disc and it refuses to install past 27%. Would Apple send me another disc? Or is there somewhere I could download it?
If anyone has any ideas please help!

If you no longer have your Leopard Install DVD, you may be able to obtain it from Apple Customer Relations - 1-800-767-2775.
You can get replacement System Install & Restore CD/DVDs from Apple's Customer Support - in the US, (800) 767-2775 - for a nominal S&H fee. You'll need to have the model and/or serial number of your Mac available. If you're not in the US, you may need to go through the regional Apple Store that serves your location to find the contact number. Here's a list of links to all of those -
http://store.apple.com/Catalog/US/Images/intlstoreroutingpage.html
You will need the above in order to run the Repair Disk option.
Carolyn

Safe Boot issue..?

I'm planning to go to Mavericks soon as 10.9.1 arrives, and this turns up...
I have done a safe boot for the first time ever, following Apple's directions exactly, many times over, and this keeps happening:
Either- 1- Shift key pressed after gong- get a gray circle with a slash, then a little bit of a terminal like language, white letters on black, then a gray screen with several languages saying i restarted because i had a problem, hit the shift key and it goes into the finder and asks if I want to report a problem. .. there is an apple or two that comes up in the process as well, hard to get it all, goes pretty fast... There seems to be a problem..?!
Or- 2- A safe boot with shift, command and V keys, i.e., verbose... it goes through a whole lot of terminal like language, then shifts straight on into the finder. when I shutdown/reboot again it gives some more terminal like language and then reboots as usual. Is this Safe Boot and is it working, and if so what is happening with 1, above..?
3- And, in both cases my startup items still start up, is that supposed to happen in safe mode..?
I'm totally perfect for a year, since new, all upgrades, etc., lots of complex use, software, and all still seems totally fine every way, all rebooting, everything even now, except that now in this first try at a safe boot this occures, something I've never been moved to do before... yikes..?
AND now particularly, when I'm planning to go to Mavericks, and concerned how this might affect that..?
2012 cMBP os x 10.8.5, 16 gig ram 512 gig ssd
Hoping someone who understands such things is looking in, here is a copy of the report that comes up when I say yes to making a report, wondering if it is the same as a KP log, or, how does one get a KP log..?
Interval Since Last Panic Report: 1002177 sec
Panics Since Last Report: 9
Anonymous UUID: C3829C5E-A45F-BE30-41FB-E5C42AE717DE
Fri Nov 22 17:28:24 2013
panic(cpu 3 caller 0xffffff8000555ef5): "Process 1 exec of /sbin/launchd failed, errno 2"@/SourceCache/xnu/xnu-2050.7.9/bsd/kern/kern_exec.c:3560
Backtrace (CPU 3), Frame : Return Address
0xffffff81b7113e10 : 0xffffff800021d5f6
0xffffff81b7113e80 : 0xffffff8000555ef5
0xffffff81b7113ef0 : 0xffffff80005390f7
0xffffff81b7113f10 : 0xffffff8000568ee1
0xffffff81b7113f50 : 0xffffff800021b6b1
0xffffff81b7113f90 : 0xffffff80002b8123
0xffffff81b7113fb0 : 0xffffff80002ce47c
BSD process name corresponding to current thread: init
Boot args: -x
Mac OS version:
Not yet set
Kernel version:
Darwin Kernel Version 12.0.0: Sun Jun 24 23:00:16 PDT 2012; root:xnu-2050.7.9~1/RELEASE_X86_64
Kernel UUID: 8D5F8EF3-9D12-384B-8070-EF2A49C45D24
System model name: MacBookPro9,1 (Mac-4B7AC7E43945597E)
System uptime in nanoseconds: 917658094
last loaded kext at 648727133: com.apple.driver.AppleUSBMergeNub 5.1.5 (addr 0xffffff7f80b04000, size 28672)
loaded kexts:
com.apple.driver.AppleFileSystemDriver 3.0.1
com.apple.AppleFSCompression.AppleFSCompressionTypeDataless 1.0.0d1
com.apple.AppleFSCompression.AppleFSCompressionTypeZlib 1.0.0d1
com.apple.BootCache 34
com.apple.iokit.SCSITaskUserClient 3.5.1
com.apple.driver.XsanFilter 404
com.apple.iokit.IOAHCIBlockStorage 2.2.0
com.apple.driver.AppleSDXC 1.2.2
com.apple.iokit.AppleBCM5701Ethernet 3.2.5b3
com.apple.driver.AppleUSBHub 5.1.6
com.apple.driver.AirPort.Brcm4331 600.15.20
com.apple.driver.AppleFWOHCI 4.9.5
com.apple.driver.AppleAHCIPort 2.4.0
com.apple.driver.AppleUSBEHCI 5.1.5
com.apple.driver.AppleUSBXHCI 1.1.0
com.apple.driver.AppleEFINVRAM 1.6.1
com.apple.driver.AppleSmartBatteryManager 161.0.0
com.apple.driver.AppleRTC 1.5
com.apple.driver.AppleACPIButtons 1.6
com.apple.driver.AppleHPET 1.7
com.apple.driver.AppleSMBIOS 1.9
com.apple.driver.AppleACPIEC 1.6
com.apple.driver.AppleAPIC 1.6
com.apple.driver.AppleIntelCPUPowerManagementClient 196.0.0
com.apple.nke.applicationfirewall 4.0.39
com.apple.security.quarantine 2
com.apple.driver.AppleIntelCPUPowerManagement 196.0.0
com.apple.driver.AppleUSBMergeNub 5.1.5
com.apple.driver.AppleUSBComposite 5.0.0
com.apple.iokit.IOSCSIMultimediaCommandsDevice 3.5.1
com.apple.iokit.IOBDStorageFamily 1.7
com.apple.iokit.IODVDStorageFamily 1.7.1
com.apple.iokit.IOCDStorageFamily 1.7.1
com.apple.driver.AppleThunderboltNHI 1.6.0
com.apple.iokit.IOThunderboltFamily 2.0.3
com.apple.iokit.IOAHCISerialATAPI 2.5.0
com.apple.iokit.IOSCSIArchitectureModelFamily 3.5.1
com.apple.iokit.IOEthernetAVBController 1.0.2b1
com.apple.iokit.IO80211Family 500.15
com.apple.iokit.IONetworkingFamily 3.0
com.apple.iokit.IOFireWireFamily 4.5.5
com.apple.iokit.IOUSBUserClient 5.0.0
com.apple.iokit.IOAHCIFamily 2.2.0
com.apple.iokit.IOUSBFamily 5.1.6
com.apple.driver.AppleEFIRuntime 1.6.1
com.apple.iokit.IOHIDFamily 1.8.0
com.apple.iokit.IOSMBusFamily 1.1
com.apple.security.sandbox 220
com.apple.kext.AppleMatch 1.0.0d1
com.apple.security.TMSafetyNet 7
com.apple.driver.DiskImages 344
com.apple.iokit.IOStorageFamily 1.8
com.apple.driver.AppleKeyStore 28.18
com.apple.driver.AppleACPIPlatform 1.6
com.apple.iokit.IOPCIFamily 2.7
com.apple.iokit.IOACPIFamily 1.4
com.apple.kec.corecrypto 1.0
Model: MacBookPro9,1, BootROM MBP91.00D3.B08, 4 processors, Intel Core i7, 2.6 GHz, 16 GB, SMC 2.1f175
Graphics: Intel HD Graphics 4000, Intel HD Graphics 4000, Built-In, 384 MB
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M, NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M, PCIe, 1024 MB
Memory Module: BANK 0/DIMM0, 8 GB, DDR3, 1333 MHz, 0x859B, 0x43543130323436344246313333392E4D3136
Memory Module: BANK 1/DIMM0, 8 GB, DDR3, 1333 MHz, 0x859B, 0x43543130323436344246313333392E4D3136
AirPort: spairport_wireless_card_type_airport_extreme (0x14E4, 0xF5), Broadcom BCM43xx 1.0 (5.106.98.100.17)
Bluetooth: Version 4.1.7f2 12718, 3 service, 21 devices, 3 incoming serial ports
Network Service: Wi-Fi, AirPort, en1
Serial ATA Device: SAMSUNG SSD 830 Series, 512.11 GB
Serial ATA Device: MATSHITADVD-R UJ-8A8
USB Device: hub_device, 0x8087 (Intel Corporation), 0x0024, 0x1a100000 / 2
USB Device: FaceTime HD Camera (Built-in), apple_vendor_id, 0x8509, 0x1a110000 / 3
USB Device: hub_device, 0x8087 (Intel Corporation), 0x0024, 0x1d100000 / 2
USB Device: hub_device, 0x0424 (SMSC), 0x2513, 0x1d180000 / 3
USB Device: BRCM20702 Hub, 0x0a5c (Broadcom Corp.), 0x4500, 0x1d181000 / 6
USB Device: Bluetooth USB Host Controller, apple_vendor_id, 0x821d, 0x1d181300 / 9
USB Device: IR Receiver, apple_vendor_id, 0x8242, 0x1d182000 / 5
USB Device: Apple Internal Keyboard / Trackpad, apple_vendor_id, 0x0252, 0x1d183000 / 4

Solution to problem found:
Got to looking around, and found this: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5425709?start=0&tstart=0
The gist is this:
The OS X 10.8.5 update, at least for a lot of folks, made the mach_kernel visible and relocated it to the Documents folder. It needs to be in the root folder, must be there same folder as system and applications, and it is usually invisible there.
I remembered finding it in the Documents folder and tossing it in the trash. Fortunately I hadn't emptied the trash yet. I simply moved it to the root folder, rebooted as added insurance repaired permissions, rebooted again, and now all is well, perfect safe boot and everything. I never did a safe boot before so had no idea it loped the way it does. Pretty cool…
As an added bonus, what got me to trying a safe boot was that the latest Office update wouldn't recognize mountain lion, it thought i was running something prior to 10.5.x, so it wouldn't install. It has now installed perfectly.
Additionally, per the above link/forum thread, I hid the mach_kernel again, with this command in the terminal- sudo chflags hidden /mach_kernel which also worked perfectly.
All is well, yea!

Toubleshooting iMac Slow Boot/Slow Safe Boot Issues

I have a 24-inch iMac 2.8GHz. Several months ago I was having issues with very slow bootup and slow response times in operation. For example, I would click the Apple Menu icon, the wheels would spin, and take up to a minute to load the icon. In addition the computer seemed to be running hot. I installed a temp monitor, and the temperature never got above 108F.
I reformatted the harddrive and installed Snow Leopard, and everything was great. Until now…the problem is back. My main complaint is the 5+ minutes it takes to boot up. It hangs for a while on the gray screen with the spinning gear and hard drive is silent. After a while, I'll hear some churning, then the blue screen appears, then it will be silent, and eventually the desktop will appear. Icons graphics are lagged, but once booted, performance is ok. I removed all startup items that were in the Accounts preferences and there were no startup items in the startup folder.
I've tried booting into Safe Mode, and it hangs on the status bar about 1/4 of the way in. I have been able to successfully boot from DVD. I ran Disk Utility and repaired the HD and permissions and there were no problems. I also ran the hardware test from the DVD and everything tested ok. I also booted into Verbose Mode and it hung several times. The last time it hung before I abandoned verbose mode it said: disk0s2: I/O error. It hung there for around 5 minutes and I eventually just forced shutdown.
It is eventually booting...but there is clearly an issue. My question is…what’s the next step from here? I’m leaning towards a bad HD sector, but unsure what the right method for diagnosis (short of bringing it into the Apple Store, which I would like to avoid).
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!
Message was edited by: vesta75
Message was edited by: vesta75

Your welcome and yes that error confirmed the HD is failing. While Time Machine is a good start, I would strongly recommend getting a second HD and creating a bootable clone of your internal HD. It's wise to have redundant backup's in the event one fails, I've had this happen myself! MacWorld writes articles about having redundant backups all the time. Here are links to two:
http://www.macworld.com/article/157414/2011/02/mybackupplanlex.html
http://www.macworld.com/article/156643/2011/01/howi_back_up_frakes.html?lsrc=top1
After you have done so then it's time to take your iMac into an AASP or Apple Store to have the HD replaced. Please get it done quickly as it's going to fail and they have a nasty habit of failing when you have something important to do.
Best of luck and let us know how it turns out.
Roger

Imac wont boot up, tried everything

Hi.
I have the June 2011 imac 21.5. I installed Lion onto it and have had no problems at all. Today i tried to to a partition with the boot camp assistant app that was already on the mac. Everything was going fine, i put the disc in with windows 7 and it rebooted. When it rebooted i had a screen saying ''no bootable device, insert boot disk and press any key'
I tried it and nothin happened. I have been on my phone for the past 2 hours looking at solutions such as resseting pram (cmd alt p r) that done nothing. I cant boot into safe mode and holding alt/option at start up does nothing. Im getting really annoyed with it now, nothing will work and i need this fixed tonkght as i have college work due in tomorrow. Any help will be appreciated.
Thanks !
Ps - sorry for bad spelling, im using my phone and dont have time to check back through it.
Oh and i can provide a photo of the screen if need be

is the disk still in your cd drive? hold eject to take it out and then try
you might want to try making this if you have a usb flashdrive with nothing on it. http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1433
however you'll need a computer to make it. this is not a good sign however,
YES!!! good to know!

Itunes/Iphone/Ipod device driver issues - tried everything. Still not working.

After hours and hours of research, I'm completely stuck. Here's the basic problem.
When I plug in my Iphone to my laptop, windows pulls up a little window that says installing device driver software. After several minutes, the process fails and a message comes up that says windows found drivers for my device, but encountered an error and wasn't able to install them. In the device manager, the iphone is listed as an "other device" with a yellow triangle/exclamation point. Itunes never recognizes the device.
When I plug in my ipod nano 4th generation, the exact same thing happens, except it's listed in the device manager as an ipod. (same yellow triangle though.)
Up until today, both of these devices have been working properly, syncing without trouble. The iphone synced wirelessly and the ipod every time I plugged it in. I can't figure out what on earth happened to my laptop today that messed things up.
It's also worth noting that I have another older ipod nano... second generation, I think, that plugs in and is recognized immediately, works perfectly.
Here is what I've done so far:
1. I worked through every single troubleshooting guide that Apple has to offer. No change.
2. I did a complete clean install of itunes and all additional components, rebooted and reinstalled. No change.
3. I uninstalled/re-installed usb controllers in the device manager. No change.
4. reset both the phone and the ipod. No change.
5. I've tried various cables. No change.
6. I've run system checks and repair utilities for windows vista.
7. I've used selective start up to see if another program is interfering. I've stood on my head and counted to one hundred. I've only said seventeen swear words.
At this point I've done so much searching and troubleshooting, I can't imagine how anything is going to fix this issue. So this is my last hope. Please oh please be smart enough to tell me what to do...

Not sure if this is significant, but in a weird turn of events, when I tried plugging the ipod in this morning, the little message that pops up to install device driver software actually told me the drivers were installed successfully. However, in the device manager, it still says the drivers are NOT installed properly, the little yellow triangle is still there and the ipod still isn't registering in itunes, or my computer. So. Not really any improvement, but a different symptom none the less?
I'm desperate, guys. Someone help?

Serious Issues tried everything, about to give up

Hey there,
Here's the story:
Downloaded some new music for the first time in a couple weeks, went to plug my 3rd gen iTouch in to sync and iTunes said I had an update available for iTunes and Itouch, both got updated. After iTunes finished, iTouch wasn't being discovered. I tried to restore, which deleted all my music from my ipod and left me with the connect to itunes screen. After about 2 weeks of searching the net and trying different things I finally got iTunes to recognize it again by having to use Windows Vista working information to overwrite some stuff on my Windows 7 Itunes. Now it says I need to connect it to another computer to restore (error message 13). So i do this... All is well again! Yay! Not so much, now i have to rewrite my iTunes library and figure out why my Wifi and bluetooth are greyed out and not accessible. I decide its not really worth it right now, i'm not to worried about the wifi so i just rewrite the library. I sync all my music, test it out and everything works. So i decided to try the wifi this morning just in case, start with the basics by turning the ipod off and letting iTunes turn it back on when connected, MISTAKE! Now im back to the connect ipod to itunes screen and error message 13. This is getting EXTREMELY annoying...
Anyone know what to do to fix my error message 13 and wifi?

Same thing happend to me and my daughter, ended up with 2 comatose touches. Apple was no help (big surprise!). My son is a Mac fan and was able to restore everything on his Mac but all was lost again when synced to my HP or Dell, finally got it to be a toy with apps but no music. ****** as I am at Apple, I bought a Mac and got another touch for free, synced my old touch to the Mac and all is well. Buying a Mac may not be the best alternative if you are not in the market for one--Apple answering a question would be a better alternative. Obviously my 2 are not the only Touches to experience this problem and Apple will do nothing! Apple Store was very helpful but their thoughts, recommendations, etc. didn't seem to match corporate Apple's since I did what they recommended and basically got the middle finger from customer service and support at Apple. Good luck!

Mountain Lion going into safe boot

Hi, I downloaded mountain lion and it started intstalling. When it restarted to install the upgrade, it starts in safe mode..i tried shutting down and restarting few times but every time it starts installing the updates and then goes into safe boot mode..
Note: yesterday I got a problem with my key board, there was a spill into my mbp keyboard and most of the keys are not working. Right now i am using my Bluetooth keyboard now.
Pls let me know how to fix this safe boot issue with the installation.

A problem with a keyboard will cause your Mac to startup in Safe Mode.
If you can, use a USB keyboard instead of Bluetooth.

I have late 2006 iMac 24" and I cannot boot it up. I have tried everything but it will only come up in safe boot. I can, at last, boot up on the option key and it now gives me the option of the Recover HD but when I select this, it still won't boot up?

When I select the Recovery drive it tries and then I can't get further than a white screen. My curser so has 2 columns of marks like a horizontal barcode. I think it's a software problem. When I boot up in safe boot, I have run the disc utility and it says the disc is fine and I have run the repair permissions but it makes no difference.

Thanks AAndy but I had read all of that and tried everything but I have no disks as I upgraded from Snow Leopard over the internet. I have my Snow Leapard box but the disk is missing so I can't use that and anyway, I can only boot up in safe boot so it wouldn't recognise the superdrive. I had a copy of the recovery on a flash but it doesn't recognise that. I have redownloaded it but cannot get it onto an external because of safe boot. I have done the following
Reset the PRam, reset the desktop.
Tried the D key - no responce
Tried opt D and Command D - no responce
Comant R, jusr R and opt R - no responce
By no responce, I mean that the wheel goes round under the apple and then it goes white - and stays like that.
The only thing that I can do, is to boot up on the option key when it give me a choice of drive. If I select Recover, wheel turns under apple - white wcreen
If I boot up on the shift key, it boots into safe mode and there it stays, quite happy surfing the internet and playing stupid Facebook games, so long as I don't want to use any search engines (none of which work (not finder, not mail, not anything) and then after a few hours of forgotton pleasure, it crashes!
The only thing I can think of to do is to redownload Lion - it appears in my purchased account in the App Store but, Sod's law, our satellite internet is not working and I don't think my phone account has enough MBs - anyone know how many Lion is?
I can't backup because I can't use an external drive and old one stopped working a few months ago, so I haven't been backing up and as this is the first problem I have ever had with my iMac in 7 years, I had got a bit comlascent! However, I am pretty certain that I can re-install Lion without wiping my hard drive - I have done it years ago with an older system and an older Mac.
Do you think that downloading Lion again and re-installing it will help? Does anyone else have any suggestions?
Thanks for responding so far.

Hi i am having a big trouble. MY mac wont start past the gray screen. I tried starting on safe boot, single user user mode , recovery mode. Everything it gets stuck on the gray screen i even tried reinstalling it , same thing what should i do?

MY mac wont start past the gray screen. I tried starting on safe boot, single user user mode , recovery mode. Everything it gets stuck on the gray screen i even tried reinstalling it , same thing what should i do? it lets me reinstall sometimes Sometimes.... it is weird.

orshikhfromsc,
boot from the Mac OS X Install DVD that originally came in the box with your MacBook Pro (by holding down the C key as it starts up). When the desktop appears, select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu and erase your internal disk. After it’s been erased, reformat it. After it’s been reformatted, exit Disk Utility and reïnstall the version of Mac OS X from that DVD onto your internal disk. After that version of Mac OS X has been reïnstalled, boot from your internal disk and run Software Update to get it up-to-date within that version; that should allow you to redownload and reïnstall Mavericks, if desired. If Mavericks is reïnstalled, run Software Update again to get it up to date.
If you no longer have the two grey installation DVDs, you can purchase a replacement set from either Apple or iFixit.

IMac G5 - boots up to blue screen - tried everything

I have an iMac G5 (no iSight) 2GHz. Came across following problem (running MacOs 10.4.11):
- Normal boot: Mac goes through normal start up, but never gets beyond the blue screen - i.e. just before log in.
- Safe boot: boots up OK & can log in.
Up to this point, has been working fine for however long I have had it (maybe 3 years, I think).
I have trawled through the various sites and tried everything, including:
- Resetting PRAM
- Resetting SMU
- Disk Utility - repair permissions (some problems, now fixed)
- Disk Utility - repair disk (no problems)
- Apple Hardware Test from install disk 1 (no problems)
- Re-formatting disk & re-installing Mac OS from install disks (MacOs 10.4)
None of the above has fixed the problem - in normal boot it stops at blue screen, and if safe boot it gets through OK & works fine.
Next stop is the local Mac repair shop. But before I head off there, I wondered if anyone here could suggest anything.
The following link has three docs - full system profile, console log for unsuccessful boot (i.e. to blue screen) and console log for successful boot (safe mode):
http://www.pondlife.co.uk/public/iMac%20G5%20problem/
Thanks in advance
R.

my powermac is doing the exact same thing, did you ever find out what the issue was?
Thanks,
Landon

Mac OS X won't boot--tried everything

I did the Quicktime update that came out a few days ago... When I restarted, everything went okay until the "Mac OS X" screen. It went about a half a centimeter on the progress bar in the "Mac OS X" window and then the window disappeared and I was faced by a blue screen. I tried restarting repeatedly. Same thing every time. The "Mac Os X" window disappears. The screen changes to a lighter shade of blue after a few seconds. Every few seconds, a progress wheel like the one under the apple when you first start up the computer appears, makes half a revolution, and vanishes. I have run Techtool Deluxe, Disk Utility off of the install disk (a volume had to be repaired, but as far as I can tell repairing it didn't help at all), Mac OS X Boot Utility, reset the Pram, and booted in Safe Mode as well. Mac OS X Boot Utility said that I had a memory error--the error code was "post/0/2048". Is there anything else I can do? I don't want to have to send my laptop in to Apple.
Someone said something about a "Setup Assistant" in a reply to my earlier post, what is that? Would it help?

Hello,
this is a known issue for some who installed the QT 7.4.1 update.
Here are two suggested fixes:
(1) The first thing to try in this case (if you are in the Setup Assistant loop) is to simply choose "Shutdown" from within Setup Assistant. This may cause the QuickTime installer to resume or re-apply and a normal restart to occur.
(2)The next recommended procedure is to simply boot in Safe Mode -- accomplished by holding down the Shift key while your Mac is starting up. After the safe boot, restart normally. A number of maintenance tasks are performed during the safe boot, and you might not need to perform any additional troubleshooting. You might receive a message indicating that the update has finished installing after performing the safe boot.
Sounds like #2 of 2 should be the first thing you try.

My fairly new iMac has been giving me trouble with permissions. I tried to make the owner of the hard drive myself, instead of three groups I hadn't created. Now it won't start. I''ve tried safe boot and resetting the PRAM.. Nothing.

Reset the PRAM, safe boot, removed everything but the key
board. Gray spinning wheel.
It started with me trying to change permissions. I'm the
owner, yet it would give me problem when moving files from desktop to hard drive.
Now it says library extensions are missing. I never
touched the library.

Hi Ralph - likely you're right. The section below, taken from their site, looked like it may offer some hope:
Unlock what is rightfully yours
BatChmod can also give you back access to locked files, folders or disks. If something is locked, it can unlock it. If you no longer have permissions to files or folders, change the permissions back.
Sometimes, a whole hard disk can become inaccessible or locked and often, BatChmod can unlock those too!
If you moved a folder or files from another machine or another user on your machine, BatChmod can help set you up as their rightful owner.
As you say, a re-install is probably the best way to go, but I thought that given that nothing's working correctly now it might be worth a go. If it fails desiree274 can still proceed with a re-install.

My FCPX boots up and then says restoring windows and stays there and never completely boots. I've tried everything. Any thoughts?

My FCPX boots up and then says restoring windows and stays there and never completely boots. I've tried everything. Any thoughts?

Please state what you have tried - there's no point in people here wasting their valuable (own) time trying to help you, only to find you've already tried what they are suggesting.
Have you tried trashing your preferences?
Unexplained faults like this can often be fixed by clearing out FCP X's preferences (for some reason, they get knotted up from time to time).
Download Digital Rebellion's Preference Manager (free, simple to use, and perfectly safe, both to download and use).
With Preference Manager, you can backup the Prefs first, then if trashing makes no difference, you can restore all your settings.
If you trash them and don't restore them, you will need to manually restore all your FCP X settings again, so it's a great idea to backup Preferences from time to time when FCP X is working well, then if they get corrupted you can ditch the bad prefs and restore from your (Digital Rebellion) backup.
Can't guarantee it, but it's worth a try.
If that doesn't work, move your projects and events (if you have any) to new folders so that FCP X doesn't find them, then relaunch the application. If it launches OK, there's a very good chance one of your projects or events is corrupt or one of the files in an event is corrupt.
Quit the app, then move one event or project at a time back to the original folder and launch FCP X agian - keep going until you find the cause.
Andy

Safe boot issues tried everything

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