Start up problem-can't get past Apple grey screen and spinning gear

Upon trying to start up my laptop, got nothing but the apple logo, grey screen and spinning gear. I tried several things to resolve the problem on my own (hardware test said it could not verify the disk/could not start up from the OS X install disk/reset the power mgmt. unit/disconnected all peripherals)and finally went to the Apple store. Genius bar said they were able to start up from their hard drive and suggested that I buy an external hard drive, go home, start up again and back up all files. I bought a My Book. Got home and same thing happened: Apple logo and spinning gear. I am an Apple user of 18 years, but have not had to do much in the way of diagnostics. Have tried fsck routine today that I found on another posting here today. If the Genius guy got it going, I assumed that I could too. I was wrong. Any advice would be appreciated. It looks like this is the end of the road for my Powerbook, but I'd like a shot at recovering data.
Message was edited by: Debbie Wach

Hi Debbie/Gregg -
I may have missed something but can't you just put a new hard drive in your laptops? You may not be able to recover your data but it doesn't mean the end for your computer. The same thing happened to my TiBook and I put a new 120Gig hard drive in and it's had a new lease of life.
I bought a new internal hard drive along with an external enclosure and connected it up to my computer and from there cloned it. Then I transferred the external into the TiBook and put the old drive into the external and I use that as an external now. I realise your hard drives are dead but you could use another computer to so the same thing and just install the OS on it.
I bought this -
http://www.macupgrades.co.uk/store/productinfo.php?productsid=452
Then followed the instructions here -
http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Mac/PowerBook-G4-Ti-DVI/HD-Replacement/33/6/
Once your new hard drive is installed you may be able to try and repair the old one in the external enclosure?

Similar Messages

Another iBook cannot get past the grey screen with spinning gear

I have read the other posts on iBooks not starting up. I too have used Onyx recently but this was to cure the problem of a freeze. Now start up cannot get past the grey screen. PRAM has been zapped and safe mode will not work. Worse, the CD drive will take CDs so cannot go back to start up disk.
Bizarrely, a visit to the Apple Store and the iBook started no problem. System was reinstalled using archive option and various health checks apparently showed no problems. But then got back home and again start up froze at grey screen with spinning gear. I have left it on this for over 15 minutes but to no avail. I have tried to connect to another ibook using T key to get target mode. I'm not sure if I am doing this right. I have started up working iBook plugged in the firewire to both machines and then started up ailing iBook holding down T key. 2nd iBook wont start at all.
Any suggestions?

An Archive and Install will preserve you user settings and data. You will need a minimum of 5 GB free on the hard drive to perform an A&I; you can reduce the space required by about 1 GB by selecting the option to install language support only for the language you use (assuming you don't need multiple languages).
However, after seeing your other post (BTW, it'll be easier to keep track if relted issues are in the same thread), you do not want to try an A&I if Disk Utility is reporting anything about 'could not be repaired'. Doing so will would ensure problems down the road, if it worked at all. It's possible for one disk problem to mask another. Whenever Disk Utility (or any other repair utility) reports making repairs, it's good practice to repeat the repair until it reports no problems found or it becomes clear it cannot repair the disk.
DiskWarrior has an excellent track record at repairing problems that Disk Utility cannot (especially Disk Utility versions prior to OS X 10.4.2).
If the drive cannot be repaired, you may be able to keep it by doing an erase install with the write zeros (one pass) option. That will update the hard drive firmware record of bad disk sectors to avoid using. If there are only a few bad sectors, that may let you keep using the hard drive for several more years. An erase install will do just that to your data, through. If you have access to another Mac with either a large amount of free disk space of a DVD burner, you can try using the other Mac as host and the eMac as target in FireWire target disk mode. You can run the host's copy of Disk Utility on the eMac hard drive, and hopefully be able to mount the emac HD so that you can back up the data in your Home directory.

On my iPhone 4, I cannot get the "not enough storage on iCloud" message to close. Therefore, I can't get past this box/screen AND I can't turn the device off. Please help.

On my iPhone 4, I cannot get the "not enough storage on iCloud" message to close. Therefore, I can't get past this box/screen AND I can't turn the device off. Please help.

Try resetting it by holding the power and home buttons at the same time until you see the Apple logo, then releasing. You won't lose any data by doing this.

Rebooting old mac g5: Can't get past the grey screen.

This problem concerns an old mac g5 that I had replaced three years ago because it hadn't been working properly. I am getting it out because my son needs a computer and I was hoping that the thing would work for a little while.
I can't get past the grey apple screen. I have the installation disc in and restart while pressing the c. I just am not getting any further than that. The fans begin to sound like a jet taking off. I have tried resetting the pram while starting up, but that doesn't seem to be working either. I have heard about a hair dryer trick and don't really know what is supposed to get warmed up by that.
Does anyone have any suggestions?
Thanks.

No hair dryer. What you need to do is make sure the PRAM battery is new. It is a coin shaped battery on the logic board. Radio Shack sells them.
Option key booting sometimes works. You have to us a Mac OS X 10.5 or 10.4.6 retail disc, which are black with a white X logo, and do not say Update Dropin or OEM on them. If you have the original iMac G5 disc that's fine, but web browsing with older operating systems is not very friendly. Some of these machines were known to have leaky capacitors, and getting the power supply replaced on them now would be quite hard because of the age.
http://www.ifixit.com/ may be able to help if you suspect that.

Unable to restart my intel based iMac, I can't get past the grey screen

I shut down my imac and when I went to restart it, I can't get it to get past the grey screen. I can't even get to the apple screen. I have unplugged everything and nothing works. Help!!

See if this helps:
Gray screen appears during startup

My emac won't get past the grey screen with spinning indicator

before i went to bed last nite it was fine. when i woke up i click on the screen and got the little rainbow ball. that lasted for about 5-10 minutes so i had to push the button. when i try to turn it on now it gets to the grey screen with the spinning indicator but won't get past that. any help would be appreciated

An Archive and Install will preserve you user settings and data. You will need a minimum of 5 GB free on the hard drive to perform an A&I; you can reduce the space required by about 1 GB by selecting the option to install language support only for the language you use (assuming you don't need multiple languages).
However, after seeing your other post (BTW, it'll be easier to keep track if relted issues are in the same thread), you do not want to try an A&I if Disk Utility is reporting anything about 'could not be repaired'. Doing so will would ensure problems down the road, if it worked at all. It's possible for one disk problem to mask another. Whenever Disk Utility (or any other repair utility) reports making repairs, it's good practice to repeat the repair until it reports no problems found or it becomes clear it cannot repair the disk.
DiskWarrior has an excellent track record at repairing problems that Disk Utility cannot (especially Disk Utility versions prior to OS X 10.4.2).
If the drive cannot be repaired, you may be able to keep it by doing an erase install with the write zeros (one pass) option. That will update the hard drive firmware record of bad disk sectors to avoid using. If there are only a few bad sectors, that may let you keep using the hard drive for several more years. An erase install will do just that to your data, through. If you have access to another Mac with either a large amount of free disk space of a DVD burner, you can try using the other Mac as host and the eMac as target in FireWire target disk mode. You can run the host's copy of Disk Utility on the eMac hard drive, and hopefully be able to mount the emac HD so that you can back up the data in your Home directory.

Can't get past startup grey screen or progress bar.

Running late 2011 Mac Book Pro. Recently added a SSD which runs software and the HDD for user data. All was running fine with data migration etc. Running Yosemite all updated. 16GB Ram.
Was using photoshop and it grey screened. Have tried lots of different things-
Won't boot in safe mode or verbose mode.
Ran fsck -fy in single user mode.
Changed RAM and ports.
Won't boot from the HDD which still has the operating system or from OSX Install which is on an external drive.
Ran a recovery boot up with download from Apple.
Ran a hardware test (extended and normal) with no errors.
Cleared PRAM and SCM.
Won't give me the option to boot from time machine back up.
Tried to to boot from recovery partition.
Would not mount as an external drive but could only daisy chain through another hard drive so not sure if it doesn't mount or wouldn't when daisy-chained.
None of this has worked and leads to either a grey screen or progress bar stopping halfway.
Unable to get an appointment at the Genius Bar and don't want to take it to a premium reseller as would rather Apple look at it first.
I know it must be a hardware issue but don't know what hardware!
HELP!

Rwilliamt wrote:
Running late 2011 Mac Book Pro. Recently added a SSD which runs software and the HDD for user data. All was running fine with data migration etc. Running Yosemite all updated. 16GB Ram.
Was using photoshop and it grey screened. Have tried lots of different things-
Won't boot in safe mode or verbose mode.
Ran fsck -fy in single user mode.
Changed RAM and ports.
Won't boot from the HDD which still has the operating system or from OSX Install which is on an external drive.
Ran a recovery boot up with download from Apple.
Ran a hardware test (extended and normal) with no errors.
Cleared PRAM and SCM.
Won't give me the option to boot from time machine back up.
Tried to to boot from recovery partition.
Would not mount as an external drive but could only daisy chain through another hard drive so not sure if it doesn't mount or wouldn't when daisy-chained.
None of this has worked and leads to either a grey screen or progress bar stopping halfway.
Unable to get an appointment at the Genius Bar and don't want to take it to a premium reseller as would rather Apple look at it first.
I know it must be a hardware issue but don't know what hardware!
HELP!
Time Machine is not a bootable copy - that is normal.
Apple hardware test can miss issues, see if it can run in loop mode (cmd+L) if you want to try to provoke an error - sometimes they appear to be temperature related, so start cold & allow it to warm up.
I'm unclear on the external disks & bootable OS's you tried, try to check that these disks also boot another Mac. A 10.10 installer on a USB stick should work on other Macs, but occasionally they can fail to support booting so you need to rule that out if you have other USB sticks.
I think an Apple store would be a good idea, it seems like the Mac is failing to boot from any OS's on different media, normally indicating a fatal flaw on the mac itself.
Also see if it fits into any of these…
https://www.apple.com/support/exchange_repair/

Mac starts up but won't get past the blue screen and the rainbow wheel

I had this problem before a couple of years ago. The hard drive had to be replaced. Now I'm just trying to start it up so I can back up data. I reinstalled OS 10.4 last week, it started OK a couple of times. Now it won't go to the log-in screen again.
I know I can reinstall OS 10 again but isn't there a command key I can hold down while it's starting up that will let me log in?
Also it makes that long BEEP sound when I start it up. What does that mean?
Finally, I do not have an emergency troubleshooting guide. I don't think I ever had one. Can I download a .pdf of that somewhere?

Hi spiffyhere, and a warm welcome to the forums!
I know I can reinstall OS 10 again but isn't there a command key I can hold down while it's starting up that will let me log in?
Possibly...
Mac OS X: What is Safe Boot, Safe Mode...
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1564
PS. Safe boot may stay on the gray radian for a long time, let it go, it's trying to repair the Hard Drive.
Option key on bootup will show which devices you can boot from.
Does it boot to Single User Mode, CMD+s keys at bootup, if so try...
/sbin/fsck -fy
Repeat until it shows no errors fixed.
(Space between fsck AND -fy important).
Resolve startup issues and perform disk maintenance with Disk Utility and fsck...
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106214
Also it makes that long BEEP sound when I start it up. What does that mean?
Bad sign, and likely the source of the problem...
How many beeps?
Beep_Codes">https://mediawiki.middlebury.edu/wiki/LIS/AppleComputer_BeepCodes
The Beeps may be a Hardware problem, see if this helps...
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1547

MacBook Pro, 2012, can't get past boot up screen and the progress bar never fills.

Any thoughts on why or a different command that I can try while powering up?
I press the power button, and it dings per usual. Then the first gray screen pops up and it starts spinning. Then a progress bar appears. It fills about a quarter of the way, and then the screen goes black and the computer shuts down.
Any thoughts on why this might be happening and anything I can try to help boot it back up would be great. Thanks!

Then a progress bar appears.
The progress Bar appears when your Boot drive will not mount. It runs a task similar to Disk Utility (Repair disk) and shows you the progress. It is normal for the bar to only fill less than a third of the way.
If your Mac then shuts down, this is because the Repairs could not be completed. Your Boot Drive (either the mechanism or the contents) is in trouble.
Try booting to Recovery Mode, and attempt to make the repairs form there.
If no joy, buy a drive that could replace your Internal drive, and an enclosure to place it in while you Install a new copy of Mac OS X form fundamental sources. Making a complete copy of a drive you know to be damaged is not generally helpful, but may be needed later if you do not have a Backup.
The advice to erase your drive should be ignored. It was invented long ago, when drives cost US$1000, and the prize was getting the drive mechanism working again.

I can't get past the grey apple screen using mavericks

I can't get past the grey apple screen trying to boot up with Mavericks. I had been using Mavericks for about a month (only had issues of freezing occasionally). I read in one of the posts here that I should try holding command R down when booting. I did now I just get a grey screen without the apple. Any advise?
I have a Mac Mini

Hello ther cnickers,
It sounds like the initial install of Mavericks went ok, and you have been using it for a while, but now cannot boot to your desktop and are stuck at a gray screen with an Apple logo. I would recommend a couple of things here:
First, try performing a Safe Boot to see if that will load up for you. If so then leave Safe Boot and restart from the Apple menu to try and get to your deskop:
To start up into Safe Mode (to Safe Boot), follow these steps.
Be sure your Mac is shut down.
Press the power button.
Immediately after you hear the startup tone, hold the Shift key.
The Shift key should be held as soon as possible after the startup tone, but not before the tone.
Release the Shift key when you see the gray Apple logo and the progress indicator (looks like a spinning gear).
After the logo appears, you should see a progress bar during startup. This indicates that your computer is performing a directory check as part of Safe Mode.
To leave Safe Mode, restart your computer without holding any keys during startup.
From: Mac OS X: What is Safe Boot, Safe Mode?
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1564
If that works fine, I would next also verify and repair your disk if needed.
Disk Utility 12.x: Repair a disk
http://support.apple.com/kb/PH5836
Print this help page so you can refer to it later. (You don’t have access to Disk Utility Help when you restart up your computer in the next step.)In the Disk Utility Help window, choose Print from the Action pop-up menu (looks like a gear).
Choose Apple menu > Restart. Hold down the Command (⌘) and R keys as your computer restarts.When you see a white screen with an Apple logo in the middle, you can release the keys.
Click Disk Utility, and then click Continue.
In the list at the left, select the item you want to repair. (Be sure to select an item that’s indented to the right in the list, not an item at the far left.)
Click First Aid.
If Disk Utility tells you the disk is about to fail, back it up and replace it. You can’t repair it.
Click Repair Disk.If Disk Utility reports that the disk appears to be OK or has been repaired, you’re done. Otherwise, you may need to do one of the following steps.
If Disk Utility reports “overlapped extent allocation” errors, two or more files occupy the same space on your disk, and at least one of them is likely to be corrupted. Check each file in the list of affected files. If you can replace a file or recreate it, delete it. If it contains information you need, open it and examine its data to make sure it hasn’t been corrupted. (Most of the files in the list have aliases in a DamagedFiles folder at the top level of your disk.)
If Disk Utility can’t repair your disk or it reports “The underlying task reported failure,” try to repair the disk or partition again. If that doesn’t work, back up as much of your data as possible, reformat the disk, reinstall Mac OS X, and then restore your backed-up data.If you continue to have problems with your disk, it may be physically damaged and need to be replaced.
Thank you for using Apple Support Communities.
Cheers,
Sterling

Can't get past the white screen at start up

I can not get past the white screen when it starts up. It will chime and then stay at the white screen. I have replaced the hard drive, memory, battery. I have reset the PRAM and the SMC.

Reinstall OS X without erasing the drive
Do the following:
1. Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions
Boot from your Snow Leopard Installer disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu. After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU and return to the installer.
If DU reports errors it cannot fix, then you will need Disk Warrior and/or Tech Tool Pro to repair the drive. If you don't have either of them or if neither of them can fix the drive, then you will need to reformat the drive and reinstall OS X.
2. Reinstall Snow Leopard
If the drive is OK then quit DU and return to the installer. Proceed with reinstalling OS X. Note that the Snow Leopard installer will not erase your drive or disturb your files. After installing a fresh copy of OS X the installer will move your Home folder, third-party applications, support items, and network preferences into the newly installed system.
Download and install the Combo Updater for the version you prefer from support.apple.com/downloads/.

My MacBook Air can't get past the gray screen with the apple logo. What's the fix?

My MacBook Air can't get past the gray screen with the Apple logo, so I can't login. Does anyone know the fix for this?

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 Recovery by holding down the key combination command-R at the startup chime, or from a local Time Machine backup volume (option key at startup.) Release the keys when you see a gray screen with a spinning dial. When the OS X Utilities screen appears, launch Disk Utility and follow the instructions in the support article linked below, under “Instructions for backing up to an external hard disk via Disk Utility.”
How to back up and restore your files
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 by holding down the key combination command-T at the startup chime. Connect the two Macs with a FireWire or Thunderbolt cable. The internal drive of the machine running in target mode will mount as an external drive on the other machine. Copy the data to another drive. This technique won't work with USB, Ethernet, Wi-Fi, or Bluetooth.
How to use and troubleshoot FireWire target disk mode
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
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.
Before reconnecting an external storage device, make sure that your internal boot volume is selected in the Startup Disk pane of System Preferences.
Step 3
Boot in safe mode.* The instructions provided by Apple are as follows:
Shut down your computer, wait 30 seconds, and then hold down the shift key while pressing the power button.
When you see the gray Apple logo, release the shift key.
If you are prompted to log in, type your password, and then hold down the shift key again as you click Log in.
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.
*Note: If FileVault is enabled, or if a firmware password is set, or if the boot volume is a software RAID, you can’t boot in safe mode. Post for further instructions.
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 damaged and the drive is probably malfunctioning. In that case, go to step 5.
If you can boot and log in now, 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 4
Sometimes a boot failure can be resolved by resetting the NVRAM.
Step 5
Launch Disk Utility in Recovery mode (see above for instructions.) 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 produces. Look for the line "Permissions repaired successfully" at the end of the output. Then reboot as usual.
Step 6
Boot into Recovery again. When the OS X Utilities screen appears, follow the prompts to 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.
Note: You need an always-on Ethernet or Wi-Fi connection to the Internet to use Recovery. It won’t work with USB or PPPoE modems, or with proxy servers, or with networks that require a certificate for authentication.
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 backup.
Step 8
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.

How can I get past the white screen?

When I start my iMac I see a message that my start up disk is full and that I need to delete files. After I type in my user name and password, all I see if a white screen. This problem started today. The error message about the start up disk started two days ago, and when I looked at the disk, I saw that over half of it has files described as "other". The hard drive is 250 GB. I have Time Machine backups but I don't know how to get to them to help me. So, I guess that I have two questions: how do I get past the white screen, and what are the files that are catogoraized as other? Thanks.

I did not put the OS info in my question because I am not sure what I have. I upgraded to Lion so that I could use the cloud between my devices, however I do not know the number.
Apple menu item->About this Mac and the version is listed there. Click on that and get the build number. Click again and get the machine's serial number.
I am stuck on the white screen. Any other advice?
Start with a google search for white screen mac. This one might do the trick: http://www.mac-forums.com/forums/apple-desktops/138137-imac-wont-get-passed-whit e-screen.html

HT4623 I can not get past the license agreement and term and conditions page after updating my i5 IOS

I can not get past the license agreement and term and conditions page after updating my i5 IOS

Restart your phone and if that doesn't help, reboot the device.
Restart the iPhone by holding down on the sleep button until the red slider appears and then slide to shut off. To power up hold the sleep button until the Apple logo appears and let go of the button.
Reboot the iPhone by holding down on the sleep and home buttons at the same time for about 10-15 seconds until the Apple Logo appears - ignore the red slider if it appears on the screen - let go of the buttons. Let the phone start up.

Ipad screen is white. Restored it on iTunes. Press home and on switch goes black then back to white with no logo at all. Can't get past the white screen. This happened after running app updates. 16GB OS 7.1.1

The ipad screen is white. Holding buttons didn't work so I restored it on iTunes. When I press home and on switch, the screen is white, goes black then back to white with no logo at all. Can't get past the white screen. This happened after running app updates. Is there any fix besides going to Apple store? In iTunes on computer can see what is on there. 16GB OS 7.1.1

FORCE IPAD INTO RECOVERY MODE
1. Turn off iPad
2. Turn on computer and launch iTunes (make sure you have the latest version of iTune)
3. Plug USB cable into computer's USB port
4. Hold Home button down and plug the other end of cable into docking port.
DO NOT RELEASE BUTTON until you see picture of iTunes and plug
5. Release Home button.
ON COMPUTER
6. iTunes has detected iPad in recovery mode. You must restore this iPad before it can be used with iTunes.
7. Select "Restore iPad"...
Note:
1. Data will be lost if you do not have backup
2. You must follow step 1 to step 4 VERY CLOSELY.
3. Repeat the process if necessary.

Start up problem-can't get past Apple grey screen and spinning gear

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