Stuck on grey apple screen at boot up

Mac Mini Intel Core 2 Duo 1.83GHz, no hardware changes since purhcased, a year and 4 months ago. OS 10.5.6. Today it decided to croak. When I tried to restart, it got stuck on the grey apple screen. I did the following:
• Reset PRAM
• Reset SMU (I even tried the PMU reset, which results in the fan spinning at max speed)
• Tried booting up from DVD
• Tried booting up from external firewire drive
• Set it in target mode and verified via firewire that the internal drive is working fine (I checked it with Disk Utility with no errors found and even booted up from it). In this mode even the DVD in the Mini's drive showed up on the other computer's desktop.
• Reseated the RAM
• Replaced the RAM
Is it the motherboard? In which case, this will be an excellent door stopper... Thanks for any help.

I'm concerned, with you creating and using all the discs. Only the right one is supposed to be used, refer to http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1237
Boot ROM Version: MM11.0055.B08
SMC Version (system): 1.3f4
Based on your computer description, the Correct RESTORE CD appears to be V1.3 or 1.7. the applicability is at the bottom of the page.
http://support.apple.com/downloads/FirmwareRestoration_CD_17
Follow instructions
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2213
You might want to try 1.7 again. If you don't get a complete code, your computer could already be at the correct firmware status. I'm am not familiar with any other reasons for why it would provide an incomplete installation. My guess is the software checks the Boot Rom and SMC version and stops, if it sees the right version. My computer reacted similarly when I upgraded recently. Now that is working, I can see the Boot Rom and SMC version are correct. At the time I never got to a choice of where to startup. refer to previous posts.
Which means this firmware update doesn't solve the problem.
So back to basics:
After completing the Firmware update, did you try that trick with the remote to chose your startup device? Does it let you boot from CD? or HD?
Selecting start-up CD = grey screen
Selecting hard disc = greay screen
You reseated the RAM, Did you perform the hardware test? http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2341
Verify the RAM is available.
I know that my disk utilities CD said my HD was good, but when I ran it with my new Snow Leopard utility it said there was a problem that required reformatting. If you were considering upgrading, I would do it now.
My solution was the remote trick, but that doesn't appear to be working for you.
Dave

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2012 MB Pro 13" came with Lion - nearly new, second owner. Stopped responding yesterday in the middle of work. Forced quit, booted up single user, ran fsck -fy, mount -us /, reboot. Stuck on grey apple screen with spinning wheel forever now. Please help

2012 MB Pro 13" came with Lion - nearly new, second owner. Stopped responding yesterday in the middle of work. Forced quit; reboot stuck on grey apple screen. Booted as single user; ran fsck -fy; mount -us /; reboot. Still stuck on grey apple screen with spinning wheel.
Any advice please?
Thanks

Run through this list of fixes, your solution is there
Step by Step to fix your Mac

New iMac is stuck on grey apple screen after restart from Migration Assistant

New iMac is stuck on grey apple screen after startup. It is a 3.4GHz Quad-core Intel Core i5 running OS 10.9.4. The problem occurred after a migration from my older 2009 iMac which is running Snow Leopard 10.6.6. When the restart occurred from Migration Assistant, the new computer will not boot up to the login screen. Disk utility did not solve problem. Followed instructions for a soft reinstall of Mavericks but that also did not solve problem. Any suggestions?

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 startup failure is to secure the 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 the last backup, you can skip this step.
There are several ways to back up a Mac that is unable to start. You need an external hard drive to hold the backup data.
a. Start up from the Recovery partition, or from a local Time Machine backup volume (option key at startup.) When the OS X Utilities screen appears, launch Disk Utility and follow the instructions in this support article, under “Instructions for backing up to an external hard disk via Disk Utility.” The article refers to starting up from a DVD, but the procedure in Recovery mode is the same. You don't need a DVD if you're running OS X 10.7 or later.
b. If Step 1a fails because of disk errors, and no other Mac is available, then you may be able to salvage some of your files by copying them in the Finder. If you already have an external drive with OS X installed, start up from it. Otherwise, if you have Internet access, follow the instructions on this page to prepare the external drive and install OS X on it. You'll use the Recovery installer, rather than downloading it from the App Store.
c. If you have access to a working Mac, and both it and the non-working Mac have FireWire or Thunderbolt ports, start the non-working Mac in target disk mode. Use the working Mac to copy the data to another drive. This technique won't work with USB, Ethernet, Wi-Fi, or Bluetooth.
d. 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
If the startup process stops at a blank gray screen with no Apple logo or spinning "daisy wheel," then the startup volume may be full. If you had previously seen warnings of low disk space, this is almost certainly the case. You might be able to start up in safe mode even though you can't start up normally. Otherwise, start up from an external drive, or else use the technique in Step 1b, 1c, or 1d to mount the internal drive and delete some files. According to Apple documentation, you need at least 9 GB of available space on the startup volume (as shown in the Finder Info window) for normal operation.
Step 3
Sometimes a startup failure can be resolved by resetting the NVRAM.
Step 4
If you use a wireless keyboard, trackpad, or mouse, replace or recharge the batteries. The battery level shown in the Bluetooth menu item may not be accurate.
Step 5
If there's a built-in optical drive, a disc may be stuck in it. Follow these instructions to eject it.
Step 6
Press and hold the power button until the power shuts off. Disconnect all wired peripherals except those needed to start up, and remove all aftermarket expansion cards. Use a different keyboard and/or mouse, if those devices are wired. If you can start up 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.
Step 7
If you've started from an external storage device, make sure that the internal startup volume is selected in the Startup Disk pane of System Preferences.
Start up in safe mode. Note: If FileVault is enabled, or if a firmware password is set, or if the startup volume is a software RAID, you can’t do this. Post for further instructions.
Safe mode is much slower to start 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 the login password in order to log in. If you’ve forgotten the password, you will need to reset it before you begin.
When you start up 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, the startup volume is corrupt and the drive is probably malfunctioning. In that case, go to Step 11. If you ever have another problem with the drive, replace it immediately.
If you can start and log in in safe mode, empty the Trash, and then open the Finder Info window on the startup volume ("Macintosh HD," unless you gave it a different name.) Check that you have at least 9 GB of available space, as shown in the window. If you don't, copy as many files as necessary to another volume (not another folder on the same volume) and delete the originals. Deletion isn't complete until you empty the Trash again. Do this until the available space is more than 9 GB. Then restart as usual (i.e., not in safe mode.)
If the startup process hangs again, the problem is likely caused by a third-party system modification that you installed. Post for further instructions.
Step 8
Launch Disk Utility in Recovery mode (see Step 1.) Select the startup volume, then run Repair Disk. If any problems are found, repeat until clear. If Disk Utility reports that the volume can't be repaired, the drive has malfunctioned and should be replaced. You might choose to tolerate one such malfunction in the life of the drive. In that case, erase the volume and restore from a backup. If the same thing ever happens again, replace the drive immediately.
This is one of the rare situations in which you should also run Repair Permissions, ignoring the false warnings it may produce. Look for the line "Permissions repair complete" at the end of the output. Then restart as usual.
Step 9
If the startup device is an aftermarket SSD, it may need a firmware update and/or a forced "garbage collection." Instructions for doing this with a Crucial-branded SSD were posted here. Some of those instructions may apply to other brands of SSD, but you should check with the vendor's tech support.
Step 10
Reinstall the OS. If the Mac was upgraded from an older version of OS X, you’ll need the Apple ID and password you used to upgrade.
Step 11
Do as in Step 9, but this time erase the startup volume in Disk Utility before installing. The system should automatically restart into the Setup Assistant. Follow the prompts to transfer the data from a Time Machine or other backup.
Step 12
This step applies only to models that have a logic-board ("PRAM") battery: all Mac Pro's and some others (not current models.) Both desktop and portable Macs used to have such a battery. The logic-board battery, if there is one, is separate from the main battery of a portable. A dead logic-board battery can cause a startup failure. Typically the failure will be preceded by loss of the settings for the startup disk and system clock. See the user manual for replacement instructions. You may have to take the machine to a service provider to have the battery replaced.
Step 13
If you get this far, you're probably dealing with a hardware fault. Make a "Genius" appointment at an Apple Store, or go to another authorized service provider.

Screen Stuck on Grey Apple Screen

Hello, I have been trying to power on my mac since this morning and it's stuck on the grey apple screen at boot-up. I have powered it off/on and it's still doing it. I also powered it off for 8hrs. and it won't come on tonight again. Can anyone please help. Thanks.

I like the free demo of SuperDuper to make clones. It's free, Tiger ready and is easy to use. If you buy the full version you can do incremental backups.
You should use Disk Utility to do a Disk Repair, as shown in this link, booted up on your install disk, before you make a clone of it.
I then partition my external disk, in Disk Utility, with a partition that is the same size , actually a tad bigger, as my system disk. I then use SuperDuper to clone my system disk over to that partition.
With a clone on an external FireWire drive (USB drives are not bootable on Macs) you can bootup on it to do your repairs or just run your Mac anytime you have trouble with your main drive. Be careful, there are a few external FireWire drives out there that are not bootable on Macs. Check the drive's manual to be sure.
 Cheers! DALE

After Update to 10.5.8, stuck on Grey Apple screen with turning gear...

After Update to 10.5.8, stuck on Grey Apple screen with turning gear... and it just stays there...
Apparently I can't safe mode it
Started it in verbose mode and it say disk02 i/o error
Then I restarted it in single user mode, did a sbin/fsck -fy and it says that:
*files have been modified*
*REBOOT NOW*
I reboot and still the same problem.
When I put in the install disk it says *cannot install in this drive* (was thinking about archive and reinstall, but I suppose not ) then when I repair and verify, it says All seems OK
Yikes. Yikes!
Please help.
Message was edited for additional clarity by: BrzrKrk

Well, I brought to the Apple Store's genius bar. Can't say enough about the experience... they archived and reinstalled... tried everything else and like sometimes happens, transfer of data can become corrupt in a spot that just makes things go haywire. So the Archive and Reinstall worked like a charm.
Moreover, they replaced my Macbook's top board casing (don't know what else to call it..) (where you rest your hands to type) it was cracked and stuff... not under warranty, but they will replace it free due to design ... I am impressed and pleased... *and me? I am a cynical critic* still, they made the experience as painless and certainly pleasant as possible.
For all who are having problems, I urge you to not damage the wall any further with continuous headbanging: make an appointment and definitely visit the Genius Bar. Your head will thank you

MacBook stuck at grey apple screen with spinning logo

I have a 2010 White MacBook that is stuck at the grey apple screen with a spinning logo. This seems to have happened after I installed the newest version of iTunes. The system slowed down a lot and when I ran the system monitor It said all of the memory was being used up. I had to force shut down by holding the power key. Upon reboot, I got the grey apple logo screen, a spinning wheel, and a progress bar. The progress bar gets about a quarter of the way and disappears. The spinning wheel remains. Initially, I let it run for awhile. Nothing different happened. I took off the Mac jack adaptor, and replaced the battery. Nothing happened. I kept trying to start it up and one time it worked. I backed up my files to two external hds via time machine.
Upon the next boot, i have been stuck at the grey apple logo screen, spinning wheel, and progress bar. Each time the progress bar remains and then disappears after going about a quarter of the way. I have tried cmd-D, cmd-s,cmd-opt-p-r, cmd-v but I don't think any of those work (I don't know of i'm doing them right) . It just stays on the grey apple logo screen. I tried using the option button at the startup and it goes to a lock screen. I typed in the administrator name. That didn't work. I tried the apple password. That didn't work. I tried every password that I know. None work.
What can I do to fix this?
Thank you.

See if this Apple note will help. When it gets to Disk Utility, boot holding the command and r keys down so you get into recovery mode, and run Disk Utility from there. Assume you have OS X 10.7 or later. If you're still on OS X 10.6, then follow directions to boot off the OS X DVD sent with your system or a retail OS X 10.6 DVD.

Screen stuck on grey apple screen with a loading sign

I thought i had lost my charger and i wasnt willing to fork out the money to buy one for awhile. During a recent move i found it. I charged it up but when i got to my login screen i kept trying to type my password and it wouldnt except it. After looking online i found several posts about click buttons i dont remember what exactly i clicked but it was along the lines of " option and the R key" Another screen popped up and it had several options one of which was to try to do a back up/ restore it through timemachine. I treid that and it wasnt working. I went back to the screen and saw an option that said install the lion thing. i tried that and it didnt work. I was frustrated so i decided it would be best to just shut down my computer and try again when i was less riled up. Well now it has been stuck on the grey apple screen with a loading sign under it for atleast a day now if not longer. I have no idea what to do. I'm not sure if i have apple care or not. Oh and not really sure what operating system i was using.

Reinstalling Lion/Mountain Lion Without Erasing the Drive
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 the Hard Drive and Permissions: Upon startup select Disk Utility from the main menu. Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions as follows.
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 click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU and return to the main menu.
Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion: Select Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion and click on the Continue button.
Note: You will need an active Internet connection. I suggest using Ethernet if possible because it is three times faster than wireless.

Mac mini stuck at grey apple screen

I was in the process of streaming some music through itunes from a samba share when my mini locked up hard and I was forced to do a hard reboot, upon startup now the mini is always stuck at the grey apple screen.
I hear no startup sounds other then the disk firing up (no welcoming chime) and from what I've tried, the system seems unresponsive to startup options (ie. holding shift, command v etc.).
I tried the obvious and disconnected everything and tried to restart but had no luck. Has anyone else been able to revive a bricked (bricked from what?? ) mini?

Hi All, I am sharing the same problem.
I have a Intel Mini, last night woke it up and clicked on itunes, the arrow swithced to the pinwheel.
Clicked on itunes and it said the "application was not responding" tried to force quit and nothing happened except for the pin wheel, I was able to get the computer to restart, well that process froze up too.
I did a hard reboot and the gray screen came on with no dark grey apple. Shut it down from behind the mini, went on with other thing, came back turned it on from behind again, this time I got the grey apple and grey pin wheel but it didnt go any further.
I checked out this post, restarted the computer while holding down the "C" key with the leapord disk.
Went in to disk utility clicked repair disk, message said the disk couldnt be verified/repaired. I then went to the sartup menu and shut down.
Any idea someone could tell me what to do next?

Stuck on grey Apple screen, how can I erase and restore back to original?

I've been trying to restore my imac G4 flat panel back to its factory settings, as I have recently backed up my necessary files on an external hard drive. It came with Panther and I upgraded to Tiger, but now I don't have any of the disks. I don't care if it restores back to Panther, I just want to erase and restore it. I tried to download and mount the restore disc and do it from there, but now its stuck on the grey apple screen. Any help would be appreciated.

Hi Jared, and a warm welcome to the forums!
I tried to download and mount the restore disc and do it from there, but now its stuck on the grey apple screen.
Can you explain what that is, I've never heard of it being downloadable!>

Desperate for help - stuck on grey apple screen, can't start from dvd

Hi, any help would be very much appreciated. My computer locked up a few times so I restarted and tried to repair permissions but got the message repair failed. I did a restart several times and it would immediately freeze, tried zapping pram but not luck. I was able to boot from the install dvd to try to repair disk but got the error first aid failed.
I was going to resintall the system but now it won't even let me start up from the dvd, it just gets stuck on the grey apple logo screen and the fan seems to be very loud. I tried doing the reset open firmware and also the fscky reset and even tried loggin in as single user but it locked up there also.
Any other ideas? I tried starting by holding Command-Option-Shift-Delete" to bypass booting from the harddrive no luck there either.
I'm a bit panicked since I'm a freelancer on a deadline tommorrow and am really stuck. I do have a time machine backup but can't even start up from dvd to try to do an install.
Thanks in advance!!
JEff

I got it to start up from the DVD finally, but it gave me an error while trying to install the system. I tried disk repair and repair permissions but they are both greyed out. When I click verify disk it gives this error: "filesystem verify or repair failed."
Since its booting from the disk now, i'm guessing its not a power supply issue but I can't think of what else to try at this point. I'm pretty desperate to get this baby going asap so any help would be great, thanks!!

Stuck at grey Apple screen / login window at startup

hello,
recently a friend of mine offered to update my 2009 MacBook to Mac osx Lion. when I received the computer back from him, it required a rather large update that has put my MacBook in a terrible state.
upon rebooting from the update, it froze at the grey Apple loading screen, and of course I thought nothing of it and gave it a little restart. Since then I cannot get it past the grey screen or the login window. it seems as though I cannot type in my password or click 'sleep' or any option the window gives me. I've been working on this issue all day, and I've tried countless things from the apple support community, with no avail.
I've tried clearing the cache, I've tried safe mode, I've tried the command+option+control+enter trick on the login page, I'm even trying to boot from the install disc my friend gave me...and it's just refusing to move past the grey screen.
any ideas?
much appreciated,
mark

Have you tried booting into Lion recovery mode? Reboot holding the command and R keys down. Bring up Disk Utility and do a repair disk. While you're there, repair permissions (or if you have an operating system DVD that came with your system, you can boot to it and use Disk Utility). Then try a reboot. If that doesn't work, then go into Lion recovery mode again, and reload the operaitng system, which may take 3 to 4 hours to download.
Assume your system has at least 2GB of memory and ~10GB of hard drive space free, too, which is the minimum to run Lion.

MacBook Air, purchased 2011. Stuck on grey apple screen. Help!

MacBook Air purchased in 2011, never had any trouble previously. Grey Screen stuck in thinking mode, will not accept any commands. Have let battery drain and re charged but no difference. Any thoughts? Thanks.

Being stuck at the grey screen generally means there's something wrong involving reading something from or writing something to the hard drive. Letting the battery die may be something that is sometimes useful for a phone or iPod, but never for a computer.
Step 1: try restarting in Safe Mode. Reboot and when you hear the chime and/or the LCD backlight comes on press and hold the shift key until you see the Apple icon. The bootup will take longer than normal because the hard drive is being examined and repaired. If this works you'll get to the desktop but Safe Mode only loads a minimal number of drivers so some things won't work. Reboot normally and see if you can get to the desktop now. If Step 1 failed or if after rebooting you returned to the gray screen try step 2.
Step 2: try restarting in Recovery Mode. Reboot and when you hear the chime and/or the LCD backlight comes on press and hold the command and R keys. You should boot into a utility mode where you can a) check the hard drive directory and repair it if need be and b) download and reinstall the operating system and that's what you should try doing.
If step 2 fails reboot holding option, command and R. This is Internet Recovery mode which is similar to Recovery mode except the drive will probably need to be formatted or partitioned before the OS can be reinstalled. This will erase all your data.
And if this fails call AppleCare or make an appointment at the Apple store.

External start-up disk not loading stuck at grey apple screen?

Hello,
I used to have a 2010 13" MacBook Pro, I sold it back in December so I took out the hard drive and placed it in an external case. I've been using the case since then and I usually started up from my external HD on other MBPs that relatives lent me now and then. Yesterday I got a new 2011 15" MBP and I decided it would be a better idea to just copy my documents (incl. fonts and VSTs) and music and do a whole reinstallation of all my applications. Unfortunately there's certain stuff I can't just copy from my old HD so I decided I'd start up from it and write some stuff down for later. After plugging the hard drive and starting up the computer with the external as a start up disk, the grey screen with the apple logo shows up, although no spinning wheel shows up. The computer then stays like that forever until I decide to shut it down by holding the power button.
I opened up Disk Utility and although I can't do anything about permissions (both buttons are grayed out), I verified the disk and everything turned out fine. Can you please help me why I can't boot up from it?
Thank you very much for your time.

Two thoughts.
1. The OS on the old HD is specific to the old MBP and won't boot the new one.
2. Macs will not boot from an OS version that is older than the one current at the date of manufacture.

Macbook stuck at grey apple screen, spinning wheel

when i start up my mac it gets stuck at this screen, but if i boot up in windows it works perfectly fine, so i figure it must be a software issue, what should i do?
would upgrading resolve the issue if nothing else works?
I tried holding down shift during startup and that didnt change anything

Reinstall OS X. You may have success with this:
How to Perform an Archive and Install
An Archive and Install will NOT erase your hard drive, but you must have sufficient free space for a second OS X installation which could be from 3-9 GBs depending upon the version of OS X and selected installation options. The free space requirement is over and above normal free space requirements which should be at least 6-10 GBs. Read all the linked references carefully before proceeding.
1. Be sure to use Disk Utility first to repair the disk before performing the Archive and Install.
Repairing the Hard Drive and Permissions
Boot from your OS X 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 Installer menu (Utilities menu for Tiger.) 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 quit DU and return to the installer.
2. Do not proceed with an Archive and Install if DU reports errors it cannot fix. In that case use Disk Warrior and/or TechTool Pro to repair the hard drive. If neither can repair the drive, then you will have to erase the drive and reinstall from scratch.
3. Boot from your OS X Installer disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When you reach the screen to select a destination drive click once on the destination drive then click on the Option button. Select the Archive and Install option. You have an option to preserve users and network preferences. Only select this option if you are sure you have no corrupted files in your user accounts. Otherwise leave this option unchecked. Click on the OK button and continue with the OS X Installation.
4. Upon completion of the Archive and Install you will have a Previous System Folder in the root directory. You should retain the PSF until you are sure you do not need to manually transfer any items from the PSF to your newly installed system.
5. After moving any items you want to keep from the PSF you should delete it. You can back it up if you prefer, but you must delete it from the hard drive.
6. You can now download a Combo Updater directly from Apple's download site to update your new system to the desired version as well as install any security or other updates. You can also do this using Software Update.

MY Computer stuck on grey APPLE screen!!!

I just did an "erase and install" option for my iBook G3. Everything seemed to work fine, but then it reset itself after instillation, the OS X Tiger disk was still inside, and now it's stuck on the grey screen and won't move on to setting up the computer with user info or anything. Please help!
iBook G3 Mac OS X (10.4)

hi domnet--
i would boot to the tiger disk, go forward one window in the installer, then find the utilities menu at the top of the screen. select "disk utility" and then "macintosh hd" or whatever your drive is named. select "repair disk". after a few times disk repair should say "no repairs necessary". after that is finished, select the first drive icon listed in the volumes window (that lists the capacity) and check to see if there is something at the bottom of the disk utility window with the drive info that says smart status. it hopefully says verified. then try rebooting normally. [ 8 ) ]

Stuck on grey apple screen at boot up

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