Strange Screen Artifacts During Startup

Hi,
Just a couple of weeks ago, I started getting this weird screen during startup (after the light blue screen and just before the desktop shows).
I already tried unplugging everything, and havealso done a full hardware test (pressing 'D' after inserting disc 2 and doing a full hardware test which showed there was nothing wrong with my hardware).
My unit is a new (2011) Macbook Pro, 17" (sandy bridge, with 8GB of RAM). I unplugged 1 terabyte WD external drive, and unplugged my Wacom Intuos4 tablet, and also switched off AirDisplay (app for iPad), and unplugged everything else except bluetooth mouse and keyboard. The same thing occurs.
Any idea and help would be appreciated.

This problem still exists, even after (Thunderbolt) firmware update. It seems to come out when powering up the machine, after the light blue screen that follows the Apple logo.
(This issue doesn't seem to come out during a restart).
Er, help?

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Gray screen appears during startup

I have a later Mac Mini with 10.8.5. installed where the gray screen appears during startup. Have regularly backed up the disk except the last 2 days where I installed some important pictures which unfortunately were deleted on the camera.
Have now followed the following steps under support.apple.com/kb/TS2580
1) Disconnect, test peripheral devices and network cables
Didn't solve the problem
2) Perform a Safe Boot
Didn't solve the problem
3) Reset the NVRAM/PRAM
A menu showed up , I checked the disk, didn't show any problems
Then I restarted the Mac and the same problem showed up.
What's the suggestion for next step and minimizing the risk of deleting the pictures which I don't have backup on ?
Help would be greatly appreciated.

Sorry - the support link should be http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2570

Strange screen artifacts on 15-MB Pro (Mid 2010)

I have a 27" Apple LED Cinema Display connected to my Mid-1010 MB Pro (with an NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M 256 MB), and since upgrading to Yosemite the screen on the MB Pro cycles continuously through gibberish content, especially in the menu bar, but often on the main portion of the MB screen as well. The problem never manifests itself on the connected Cinema Display (my main monitor), but the MB display, where I park tool palettes when using graphic software, has become almost unusable.
I've tried messing around in the Display tab in System Preferences, have reset the PRAM, but so far nothing I've tried has resolved this issue. Anybody have any troubleshooting tricks I might try?

I agree with the optical drive, mine acted strange, and i thought people were crazy and my drive was shot, but a simple cleaning disc worked miracles.
But- are you trying to reboot with both the USB install and the DVD install both plugged in? that would definitely cause confusion.
Do this, reboot with NOTHING plugged in. Once you hear the Mac chime, immediately press and hold option.
You should only see the Mac HD, and Recovery Partition.
THEN plug in your external DVD, and wait a min or two, you should see a disc icon appear next to the recovery partition that says something like windows. If that doesnt appear after a min or two, unplug it and put the USB stick and do the same thing. I had to do it this way on my mid 09 MBP.
Let me know if this works to start the install. If not we may have to start over with Bootcamp Assistant

Strange screen "glitch," during start-up.

I am a little concerned about my brand new MBP, though everything else seems to be working fine.
When I start-up and the grey apple screen comes up, and the gear icon finishes spinning, as the screen switches to blue, there is a strange glitch. The screen flashes briefly, and the apple appears for a millisecond, offset an inch or so to the right, and then the start-up finishes normally.
There is also a similar "glitch,' when starting up in Vista on the MBP's bootcamp partition.
Windows starts up, but as the final screen loads after logging in, the screen flashes off/on very briefly before Vista finishes loading it's welcome folder, window.
Again, everything else seems to be working fine. Hardware tests show all is normal, no permissions errors, no disk utility repairs needed, and no problem files found with Diskwarrior.
I have also previously run an archive and install of Leopard, to deal with another earlier issue. Still the glitch...
Anyone else experience this, or have any answers.

i just experienced something similar. BRAND NEW MBP with tons of problems running leopard. my computer ran out of power completely last night because i forgot my power adaptor, so when i plugged it in this morning, and opened the case, i saw a totally gray screen that lasted for about 15 seconds, when it flashed into my desktop with all the applications i had opened when it lost power, HOWEVER, it was also grayed out with a strange meter (much like the ones that pop up for brightness or volume) filling slowing in white. After about 15 seconds of that, the screen un-grayed and looked normal EXCEPT for the top toolbar with the time, power, etc had a ton of tiny black glitchy lines through it and i couldn't see any of the information. the rainbow pinwheel was turning and turning forever and ever when that stopped and i was able to click on the desktop. at that time the glitchness disappeared and everything went back to "normal". Except for the fact that my keyboard stopped working! and i had to reboot. the black glitchy lines worry me.

Psychedelic screen artifacts during video

During video playback, the pod started "messing up" the image. At first, it was the centers of the letters on the beginning credits blacking out. Then, areas of solid black were being replaced by pink and purple -- well, this video was encoded as grayscale so there is no purple. This video had previously played fine on the Mac and an older video ipod. To see if maybe the video file itself had become corrupted, I tried a different movie (in color), one from iTunes store. Video on this one was totally psychedelic, and then the frame began shifting. "Horizontal Hold" was slipping, if you are old enough to know what that means. Lol.
A reset of the pod fixed it up. Anyone else have a problem like this? I just hope it doesn't keep recurring....

Make sure you're running Touch software 1.1.2.
You might want to restore it once with 1.1.2 to see if that helps.
I've not really seen this since the pre-1.1.2 days...

TS2570 what to do grey screen appears during startup

anyone else having trouble booting from osx install disk after replaceing hard disk?

Hello,
Open console in Applications>Utilities, check the system log for the date/time of the last problem & the Startup right after that for clues.
Have you blown the dust out lately?
Get Temperature Monitor to see if it's heat related...
http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/12381/temperature-monitor
One way to test is to Safe Boot from the HD, (holding Shift key down at bootup), run Disk Utility in Applications>Utilities, then highlight your drive, click on Repair Permissions, Test for problem in Safe Mode...
PS. Safe boot may stay on the gray radian for a long time, let it go, it's trying to repair the Hard Drive
Reboot, test again.
If it only does it in Regular Boot, then it could be some hardware problem like Video card, (Quartz is turned off in Safe Mode), or Airport, or some USB or Firewire device, or 3rd party add-on, Check System Preferences>Accounts (Users & Groups in later OSX versions)>Login Items window to see if it or something relevant is listed.
Check the System Preferences>Other Row, for 3rd party Pref Panes.
Also look in these if they exist, some are invisible...
/private/var/run/StartupItems
/Library/StartupItems
/System/Library/StartupItems
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Artifacts during startup

Between the apple logo loading screen and the initial login screen, there is a few seconds of this on gray screen. I just replaced my logic board for the 3rd time, so I'm wondering what this could be about.

I doubt that it's software related - the soldering/thermal paste on the 15" and 17" model logic boards is simply faulty and it seems as if you've managed to get faulty logic boards all along, if this is a symptom repeating itself.
Of course, you should have the logic board replaced. And there's still a chance that you'll get another bad one. If you're asked to pay for another board after your 90-day warranty has expired, you may want to look at having the GPU reballed. But get that logic board replaced first - I seem to have stumbled onto a 'decent' one when I had my logic board replaced (under AppleCare) in January. 10 months and, thus far, no problems as yet. You're a bit 'double-jinxed' because if this board goes belly up, you could only get a replacement in a 15" Retina model. Just no more 17" models since 2011.
have the board replaced and keep your fingers crossed that you get a good one this time around.
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My MacBook5,1 pro screen blinks during startup. Does anyone have any suggestions?

I bought my Mac in December 2008 and for the first time today, I see my computer screen blinking when I started up the computer. Does anyone have any recommendations?

When you say the only tool available was to restart... do you mean Disk Utility wasn't there?
"Try Disk Utility
1. Insert the Mac OS X Install disc, then restart the computer while holding the C key.
2. When your computer finishes starting up from the disc, choose Disk Utility from the Installer menu at the top of the screen. (In Mac OS X 10.4 or later, you must select your language first.)
Important: Do not click Continue in the first screen of the Installer. If you do, you must restart from the disc again to access Disk Utility.
3. Click the First Aid tab.
4. Select your Mac OS X volume.
5. Click Repair. Disk Utility checks and repairs the disk."
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106214
Then try a Safe Boot, (holding Shift key down at bootup), run Disk Utility in Applications>Utilities, then highlight your drive, click on Repair Permissions, reboot when it completes.
(Safe boot may stay on the gray radian for a long time, let it go, it's trying to repair the Hard Drive.)
I also tried safe booting and holding down the options key..
Shift key invokes a "Safe Boot", the Option key should bring up the Boot Options screen where available boot drives are shown.
Do you have another Mac with Firewire around and does this one boot into FireWire target disk mode...
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1661
If so this Mac will look like a big Firewire drive to the other one, and if the other one is the same OS or higher you can try Disk Utility on the other one to attempt repair of the iMac's drive.

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Hello all - my first post to the community, so be gentle....
I'm having a boot issue with my early 2008 Intel based iMac. After a recent power outage, I can't get the machine to boot to OSX - the spinning gear spins for about a minute then freezes. When I boot to Snow Leopard install CD, it gets to the same point then displays a Kernel Crash screen. I can boot to Windows using the option key on startup, but Windows runds a little weird...mostly graphic display errors (dragging windows and scrolling in web browser is slow and jumpy, games crash with strange graphics displayed). I suspect a graphics card malfunction (the machine has an NVidia GeForce 8800GS), but I'm not convinced and I can't figure out how to test it. Here's more info:
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- I've disconnected all peripherals except keyboard and mouse (including Ethernet)
- I've reset NVRAM/PRAM
- Safe boot, Single-user mode won't boot
- I haven't pulled and reset any RAM modules yet.
Any thoughts would be appreciated - I'm three hours from the nearest Genius Bar, so I'd like to try as much at-home troubleshooting as possible.

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2570 Mac OS X: Gray screen appears during startup
When I boot to Snow Leopard install CD, it gets to the same point then displays a Kernel Crash screen.
OS X: About kernel panics
User Tip: Kernel Panics? Don't panic too!
How to troubleshoot a kernel panic
I'm running OSX version 10.6
Use Software Update or the OS 10.6.8 combo update to update your OS. Also, update everything SU has to offer for your computer. When done, repair permissions and restart your computer.
I'm three hours from the nearest Genius Bar
Apple Stores are not the only places that repair Macs. There may be an AASP that is closer.
International AASP’s & Other Services
AASP's Outside of the USA
so be gentle....
As opposed to....

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.

Mac mini stuck on white screen with logo during startup

Hi,
For the past couple of days my mac mini has been stuck during startup. It plays the startup chime, loads the white screen then the logo appears and it freezes there.
The RAMs were upgraded a few days ago, but it worked fine for a while after that.
Nothing is connected to the mac mini except the monitor, wireless keyboard and mouse. I have tried removing the power cord from the wall for some time, but it is still refusing to start up. I have also tried cmnd+options+p+r to reset the PRAM but nothing changed, I'm not even sure if this applies when startup isn't complete.
Please help.

Mac OS X: Gray screen appears during startup
When it says boot using install disk you can, if you have Lion or later, boot using Recovery:
OS X: About OS X Recovery
What model MIni?

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Hello canwary
Good job on troubleshooting your issue so far. For most issues that deal with your Mac not starting up, consult the article below to see what the issue could be.
Mac OS X: Gray screen appears during startup
http://support.apple.com/en-us/TS2570
Let me know if this helps,
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Hi hans0555,
Welcome to the Apple Support Communities!
I understand that you have seen colors on your display when you start up prior to the gray screen. I know the following article doesn't specifically have your experience listed but I would suggest the steps to troubleshoot.
Mac OS X: Gray screen appears during startup
http://support.apple.com/kb/ts2570
I hope this helps,
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Hey taylorkl,
Thanks for the question. After reviewing your post, it sounds like the Mac is not fully starting up. I would recommend that you read this article, it may be able to help you isolate or resolve the issue.
Mac OS X: Gray screen appears during startup - Apple Support
Thanks for using Apple Support Communities.
Have a nice day,
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Hello marvelmuriel,
Thanks for using Apple Support Communities.
For more information on this, take a look at:
Mac OS X: Gray screen appears during startup
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2570
Start your Mac, then immediately hold the Shift key. This performs a Safe Boot.
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Strange Screen Artifacts During Startup

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