Stalled on grey screen during startup

Oh dear. I hope someone can help.
Whenever I try starting up my Mac Mini, it doesn't get past the grey screen with the grey apple logo. It doesn't have the moving grey icon thing at the bottom of the screen at all. I did a hardware check and everything passed. I tried to start up from the install cd, and it didn't work. I'm trying desperately not to have to reinstall my software. Does anyone have any suggestions? I could really use the help.
Thanks!

There's been a lot of debate over time about whether DiskWarrior or Tech Tools Pro are amongst those 'essential' applications or not, with many people on both sides of the fence. I must admit that in situations where a drive has failed and there is no backup, it's often very effective (though sometimes distinctly not) at getting the system up and running, commonly showing no sign that there had been a problem. The downside is that as MacOS updates or new versions are installed, Apple often adjusts the way it addresses the disk, making older versions of these utilities hazardous to use - in fact so hazardous that they can create more problems than before. That makes it essential to ensure the version of the utility is up to date and specifically compatible with the MacOS version on the system. That's caused many issues recently in the move from Panther to Tiger, and then Tiger to Leopard.
Likewise, Data rescue II is only of use when a problem has already occurred, though it is one of the most effective data recovery tools I've ever used, so it can be an invaluable aid. It's also not so critical of MacOS versions, so there's less of a need to match the right version of it against the MacOS version of the system.
Ultimately though, in the debate about how valuable these things are, my money doesn't so much go on repair/recovery tools as it does on backups. I'd rather spend $150 or thereabouts on a good external FW drive and a copy of SuperDuper! and make daily, scheduled, incremental backups of the entire drive. That way if and when it fails (and it will) the boot drive can be reformatted or replaced and a full restore completed in a few minutes. Not only that, but the backups can be regularly tested because they're available in the Finder to work with, so users can have a lot of confidence in quick and painless data recovery.
Of course that doesn't really help in this situation, and it's not an argument against such utilities as DiskWarrior, but aside from the (very) old days of pre-System 7 Mac use, I've never owned, or needed disk repair tools more sophisticated than Disk First Aid/Disk Utility because when drives have failed, I've restored from backup. Personally, I'd have more confidence in a new drive or a newly formatted one with a data restore just done, than one that's been repaired by a utility.
But that's just the system administrator in me!!

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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.

I'm getting the grey screen during start up and can't boot the computer. I did a cmnd R but worried it would automatically wipe my hard drive and reinstall OS. Is there a risk at cmnd R will result in wiped HD without me actively making that choice?

I'm getting the grey screen during start up and can't boot the computer - MacBook Pro with lion.
I did a command r after doing some research but got nervous that it would automatically wipe my hard drive and reinstall OS.
I was nervous because it asked me for language for software use before any options were presented (such as repair via disk utility). It looked similar to an OS install.So I powered off....Is there a risk at command r will result in wiped HD without me actively making that choice?

Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions - Mavericks, Lion/Mountain Lion
Boot to the Recovery HD:
Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the menu screen appears. Alternatively, restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD and click on the downward pointing arrow button.
Repair
When the recovery menu appears select Disk Utility. 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 then click on the Repair Permissions button. When the process is completed, then quit DU and return to the main menu. Select Restart from the Apple menu.
Reinstall Mountain Lion or Mavericks
OS X Mavericks- Reinstall OS X
OS X Mountain Lion- Reinstall OS X
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three times faster than wireless.

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.

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.

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

PB G4 stuck on grey screen at startup

I've got a PB G4 running 10.5. Everything was going fine until a couple of weeks ago when startup started stalling at the grey screen, sometimes with the apple logo and spinny thing sometimes just blank grey. After reading up on this, I popped in the original discs and ran disk utility. It ran for a while (there were lots of red errors flying by, most of them said the same thing, something about reserved file does not have data...?), and at the end it said one volume was repaired and one volume could not be repaired. I tried the repair permissions button, but that wouldn't work.
Last night, I had to yank out the HDD so I could get files off of it for work. Assuming that my HDD is working (picking up an enclosure tonight; fingers crossed) and that I can cram everything back in and close up the PB, is there anything to be done? I understand that this laptop is quite mature, but was hoping to get some more time out of it.
Thanks!
Brian

When you get a volume cannot be repaired message from Disk Utility, you have a few options. If the error is a soft error, that is, where pointers or index are scrambled, a program like Disk Warrior or TechTool Pro can usually straighten things out. If those programs can't fix it, then it's usually a hardware problem. You could erase the hard drive writing zero's to it to see if that fixes it, although that may be temporary. If that doesn't work, buy a new hard drive, which may cost less than Disk Warrior and TechTool Pro. A program like SmartUtility can show you the SMART sensor indicators, which can sometimes help you with making a decision on buying a new drive. You can download from http://www.volitans-software.com/smart_utility.php

MBP won't boot after failed 10.4.9 install (stalls at grey screen)

MBP intel CD2 2.33 2GB RAM previous 10.4.8. attempted install of 10.4.9 Received an error stating 10.4.9 could not be installed. Restarted and now the grey screen with the small apple symbol and spinning wheel at startup just keeps going. It never reached the blue screen. I let it sit for at least an hour and still the same. Reboot and it does the same... stalls at the grey screen with apple symbol.
Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I looked through the support files and threads but could not find anything about this.
I don't have a backup (ouch) but will be doing that immediatley if I can get this fixed.
BTW.. I did attempt to boot from the install disk and it does show the boot folder on the HD as 10.4.9 although it said the install failed.
Thanks again
Chris

Thanks guys. I need to get a firewire>firewire cable. I'll boot into target mode and backup my home folder.
What about re-installing the OS with the option of preserving the previous settings and user account. Would I be able to access my old applications or just the files? I was considering reformatting anyway because of all the "crap" I've loaded on over the year.
Rregardless I will try target mode first and let you know.
Thanks!

OSX Lion, stuck on grey screen at startup w/ spinning gear.

i believe i have tried everything i could find, so any info is good.
about a week ago my 2009 macbook pro 15 inch stopped starting up, always going to a grey screen with the apple logo and spinning gear.
what i have done so far.
reset nvram
repair disk and disk permissions.
try startup with various combinations of periferials
i am obviously able to start into lion recovery, but my time machine backups are on the other side of the world.
when i do a safe boot if stops with two entrys of nstat_lookup_entry failed: 2
any help is much appreciated

You can do two things
1: Install Lion over itself via the Recovery, won't touch your files or most programs.
Any program has a kernel extension file in System/Library/Extensions folder, that will get kicked out. Thus those few programs won't work and require a reinstall of their software
2: Install Lion on a blank powered external Disk Utility > Erase with Zero + GUID OS X Extended Journaled formatted hard drive, hold the option key and boot from it, same named user, and then access your internal drive to recovery files, disconnect then do #1
 Cheat sheet to help diagnose and fix your Mac
https://discussions.apple.com/community/notebooks/macbook_pro?view=documents

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!

I have a grey screen at startup and cannot go any farther.

Hello,
My problem is similar to other folks problems. At startup I first experienced a flashing file folder with a question mark. After I tried to shut down and reboot I experienced a grey screen. After another shutdown and reboot I experienced an apple symbol with a spinning sphere below. I rebooted again after several minutes of watching this and no action. Now, I just recieve a grey screen.
I have tried some of the support tips with no success. Can anyone assist in walking me through a sure fire method(s) of getting my macbookpro up and running again.
I'm running on snow leopard. Macbook pro circa 2006..
Thanks

Here's a great Apple doc. on the subject.
DALE

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.

Gray screen during startup after boot camp installation

I cannot either Mac and Windows t start on Mac Mini after I updated with Windows7 on Bootcamp.

Hi there Sudarshan21,
I would recommend taking a look at the troubleshooting steps found in the article below.
Mac OS X: Gray screen appears during startup
http://support.apple.com/kb/ts2570
-Griff W.

Can't get past the Blue Screen during startup

I decided to upgrade the 4/8/08 firmware on my aluminum bluetooth keyboard this afternoon using my mac mini. Shortly after the procedure started, something happened to the keyboard and it could not complete the install. I tried a second time, but again no luck. I then decided to replace the keyboard batteries and try again, but I was no longer able to connect the keyboard to the mini.
I decided to restart the computer and try the whole procedure again. But after the grey screen comes up with the Apple logo, the mini went to the blue screen with the spinning gear, then the mouse appeared in the upper left hand corner, then a little later the gear, then nothing, then the mouse, then the gear... I could never get past this blue screen.
I plugged in a wired keyboard and was able to startup 10.5 using the install DVD, which allowed me to check and repair the permissions and the disk. After a restart, still stuck on the blue screen.
I tried zapping the pram. Still couldn't get past the blue screen.
I was not able to start up in safe mode (is the timing critical for when to hold down the shift key?)
I started up in single user mode and attempted to move the preference files as described here:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106464#symp1
but got an error that I did not have the correct permissions. I assume that is because I was trying to save the preference1.old (and preference2.old, etc) files to the root part of my hard drive.
Any suggestions? Does it make sense that upgrading the firmware on a bluetooth keyboard could take down the whole computer???

Disconnect all peripherals from your computer.
Boot from your install disc & run Repair Disk from the utility menu. To use the Install Mac OS X disc, insert the disc, and restart your computer while holding down the C key as it starts up.
Select your language.
Once on the desktop, select Utility in the menu bar.
Select Disk Utility.
Select the disk or volume in the list of disks and volumes, and then click First Aid.
Click Repair Disk.
Restart your computer when done.
Repair permissions after you reach the desktop-http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2963 and restart your computer.

Stalled on grey screen during startup

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