Switched on this morning,only grey screen with apple in centre and revolving circle but going nowhere! Wondering what to do?

Got an iMac this week, all well until this morning, switched it on, only a grey screen and revolving circle this is continuing and nothing is happening, what do I need to do to get my login page back or my desk top? Can anyone help..

Zap the PRAM and Reset the SMC, then try again.

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Just finished downloading lion and have grey screen with apple on it and my picture in the middle..what?

I just finished downloading OS X Lion. When I rebooted after download, I got a grey screen with my picture and name in the middle, the grey apple and 3 icons, (sleep, Restart, and Shut Down). When I restart I get the same grey screen......What's up!

Click on your picture, put in your password

Installed tiger (formerly panther) now show only grey screen with apple. What should I do?

My Mac mini was 10.3.9 and I recently found that I no longer can view videos. I have a full version Tiger 10.4 so I installed it on the mini. Now it start with the right sound, the grey screen with apple comes up and that is it!! What do I do now?

You can try several trouble shooting steps are described in apple's trouble shooting article
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2570
1) disconnecting all peripherals, including the ethernet cable
2) power on system
1) power off system
2) restart holding down the shift key until the apple logo appears
1) resetting pram
2) hold down command, option, letters p and r and press the power button. Wait until you hear two chimes
There are more ideas in the trouble shooting article above

MacBook Pro failing to start up after fairly recent 10.8.4 update. Just grey screen with Apple logo displayed and then hangs.

After having to do a forced shut down (holding down power button) due to freezing I cannot again progress past the grey screen with the apple logo. The spinning cog comes on at first then disappears leaving just the apple logo (in case that is sognificant).
I have tried to find a solution through the support pages but have unfortunately been unsuccessful in my endeavours so do apologise I have overlooked the obvious and would really appreciate some help. I've just started the second year of my Uni and the timing couldn't be worse.
I have tried the following:
1) held down option and started in "recovery 10.8.4" from which I used disk utility to "repair disk", which at first needed some repairs and then I ran it again for the second time to confirm it had a clean bill of health.
2) I then ran "repair disk permissions" and repeated a second time to confirm it was all working well (however one error remained "warning: SUID file "system/library/CoreS... has been modified and will not be repaired" but have read that this should not be a big problem) After which I tried to start up again and it hung with the apple logo on the grey screen.
3) tried resetting the PRAM by holding down cmd+option+P+R before powering up, but it only chimes once and then restarts the mac, then chimes once and repeats the process again in and endless cycle.
4) I then tried 1 and 2 again and then tried to reinstall OSX 10.8.4 from the recovery mode, but this came up with the message "could not find installation information for this machine".
5) I tried starting up in safe mode by holding down shift after the chime at startup but safe mode did not start after leaving it 3 hours.
6) I tried starting in verbose mode with cmd+V but after running the script it reverts back to the grey screen.
I hope I have explained it in enough detail and appreciate any direction or thoughts as to it being salvageable and what to try next.
Many thanks

Eric
Thank you for taking the time to post those links to informative articles.
In relation to the first article entitled "Resolve startup issues and perform disk maintenance with Disk Utility and fsck"
I can confirm that i was not able to start in safe mode but was able to boot up in recovery mode and run disk utility. The only one i hadn't tried is fsck. Please correct me if I am wrong, but if from what I understand by the article, this is to be used if I could not run disk utility, with which I have been able to do and to repair both the disk and permissions. But again, if I've missed the obvious from that article please correct me.
Te second article entitled "Troubleshooting Startup and Login Items" identifies troubleshooting that should be carried out in safe mode. However I am unfortunately unable to start in safe mode and have not been able to progress past the apple logo since this problem started.
Thank you for both links and for taking the time to share. If though I have missed something more significant in this regard I would appreciate your feedback.
Many thanks

Late 2008 MacBook Pro won't boot; only gray screen with Apple, spinning gear, and then the mouse pointer.

Thanks to all in advance! Okay, last night I was trying to encrypt a Time Machine BackUp disk (Seagate 500GB Back Up Plus) and a dialog box popped up and said "POSIX could not..." And then whatever was next. So I unplugged the drive, plugged it back in, and the files still showed up, so I was like "oh okay so it's not screwed up." The next I try and boot my MacBook Pro, and of course it doesn't. The gray screen comes up, the logo shows up, the gear is spinnin, the it goes away and the mouse shows up. But that's where it stops. And sits. And sits. And sits. So I force it to shut down. I run through this many more times, as well as attempting the Recovery Mode, Safe Boot, and to no surprise, it doesn't work. So I go grab my trusty Snow Leopard disc, pop it in, ctrl-C on start up and it loads. So I select the option of restoring from a Time Machine backup and plug in the external drive only to not see it in the list. So I go to Disk Utility, and find out that the entire external drive has been erased and renamed disk8s2. So I go to my internal drive, but it shows how much has been used and it matches to how much as of last night. So I tried repairing the disk and restarting and of course it doesn't work. So now I don't know what to do. Really I'll take any suggestions besides buying anything (I'm only a 16 year old guy haha). So yeah. Thanks!

The encryption never actually followed through.
You started it, though. That makes the volume inaccessible to any OS X version before 10.7.

When I turn on my MacBook Pro I get a grey screen with a folder icon and a question mark. I can't the computer to boot up.

What do I do when I power up the computer and get a grey screen with a folder icon and a question mark?

vickyfromosseo wrote:
What do I do when I power up the computer and get a grey screen with a folder icon and a question mark?
Read this: A flashing question mark or globe appears when you start your Mac

Grey screen with apple at start up on macbook pro but can play music ?

hi, i have my macbook pro not working properly, it start up but the grey screen with apple stay here and i can listen my music with the play touch. how i can shut it down with my keyboard witout make a force shut down.
thanks

hi, i have my macbook pro not working properly, it start up but the grey screen with apple stay here and i can listen my music with the play touch. how i can shut it down with my keyboard witout make a force shut down.
thanks

Computer won't start, grey screen with Apple logo only. Ideas?

Last night my wife's G5 froze. It is a G5 2.0 running OS X 10.4.11. I shut it down (had to use the power button) and tried to restart. No luck, just made it to the grey screen with Apple logo and spinning wheel. After a few seconds the Apple logo disappeared and a black box took its place, then the wheel stopped spinning. It was late, decided top wait until morning before trying again.
This morning I tried to start up again. This time got a warning(?) in upper left that a Firmtek item had already started. I'm sorry I didn't write this all down at the time, so I don't remember the entire message. Since there is a Firmtek card installed in one of the PCI slots I thought that might be the problem, and I pulled the card, as well as another Adaptec card that was also installed. Tried to start again, got to grey screen with Apple but this time no spinning wheel.
Opened media slot manually and inserted Diskwarrior. Tried to start with Diskwarrior but again only reached grey screen. Let run for ~5 minutes, until fans started to run and were begining to get noisy.
Next I reset the PRAM. No luck, still stuck on grey screen. Tried Diskwarrior again, this time got another message in upper left. Here is most of it -
System Failure : cpu=1; code=60000009 (Invalid pmap)
Lateset crash info for cpu1;
Exception state (sv=0x609bb280)
PC=0x000a4ad0; MSR=0x02003000 followed by more similar strings, then
backtrace terminated - unaligned frame address; 0xfc088891
So what's the diagnosis? I've had various issues with my G5s in the past, but have never had one refuse to boot with Diskwarrior before.
Thanks in advance for any help!

Whew, could be many things, from RAM, (or RAM slots/solder issue), to CPU #1 being bad, (CPU#1 is actually the second one.
Does it boot into any of these modes?
Target mode...
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1661
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
We might get clues with verbose mode...
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1492

My mac froze in an application so I shut it down by powering off with button, now when I try to turn it on I have a grey screen with Apple loge and the timer swirling but it doesn't get past this, please help!

I Shut down my Mac by holding in the power button after my iMac froze and now when I try to turn it back it on all I get is the grey screen with Apple loge and the timer and doesn't get any further. I have tried the diagnostic test but nothing was found.

Take each of these steps that you haven't already tried. Stop when the problem is resolved.
To restart an unresponsive computer, press and hold the power button for a few seconds until the power shuts off, then release, wait a few more seconds, and press it again briefly.
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 a desktop Mac hangs at a plain gray screen with a movable cursor, the keyboard may not be recognized. Press and hold the button on the side of an Apple wireless keyboard to make it discoverable. If need be, replace or recharge the batteries. If you're using a USB keyboard connected to a hub, connect it to a built-in port.
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 in OS X 10.9 or earlier, 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.

Mac book will not boot up,only grey screen with ? on it,Why?

Why won't my Mac book boot up,start up only grey screen with ? showing?

That folder with the question mark icon means that the MacBook can't find the boot directory. That can either mean it can't find the hard drive or the Operating System data on the hard drive is somehow corrupted.
With 10.4, 10.5 or 10.6 put your install DVD into the optical drive (CD/DVD drive) and reboot. Be sure to either use the disc that came with your Mac, or, if you installed a later Mac OS X version from disc, use the newer disc. As soon as you hear the boot chime, hold down the "c" key on your keyboard (or the Option Key until the Install Disk shows up) until the apple shows up. That will force your MacBook to boot from the install DVD in the optical drive.
Or if you are running 10.7 Lion, 10.8 Mountain Lion or 10.9 Mavericks, boot from the recovery partition (Command +R on boot) and use Disk Utility to repair your OS 10.7, 10.8 or 10.9 partition.
When it does start up, you'll see a panel asking you to choose your language. Choose your language and press the Return key on your keyboard once. It will then present you with an Installation window. Completely ignore this window and click on Utilities in the top menu and scroll down to Disk Utility and click it. When it comes up is your Hard Drive in the list on the left?
If it is, then click on the Mac OS partition of your hard drive in the left hand list. Then select the First Aid Tab and run Repair Disk. The Repair Disk button won't be available until you've clicked on the Mac OS partition on your hard drive. If that repairs any problems run it again until the green OK appears and then run Repair Permissions. After repairing use Startup Disk from the same menu to choose your hard drive for restarting from your hard drive.
If your hard drive isn’t recognized in Disk Utility then your hard drive is probably dead.

My macbook pro is stuck on grey screen with apple symbol in center with the progress circle under it continusly spinning. After I had turned it on. Prior to turning it on I had to force close and shut down a few hours prior. Please Help?

My macbook pro is stuck on grey screen with apple symbol in center with the progress circle under it continusly spinning. After I had turned it on. Prior to turning it on I had to force close and shut down a few hours prior. Please Help I have tried everything I know to do

Unfortunately this means that there is a problem in the boot sector of your hard drive. It might be indicative of a fundamental corruption in the coding that allows your computer to boot your operating system from your hard drive. I had this problem twice and it resulted in me having to get a new hard drive and restore my data.
In other words, your computer can't talk to your operating system so you can't access your data.
Here is my advice: DON'T CALL APPLE TECH SUPPORT though they are kind and usually helpful it will take you an hour just to explain the situation and they will only tell you to do what I'm gonna say here.
First: Shut down your computer completely
Two: boot up while holding down the following keys: command, option, p, and r. The computer will reboot 3 times. This solution will likely fail so if you're frustrated skip to the next step.
Three: Boot up while holding down the option key. Select recovery drive. Select your default language. Select disk utility, click on Macintosh HD, and select "verify and repair volume." Likely the verification will produce some line like "unused node not erased." Or something like that. If anything using the words "node structure" comes up, you need a new hard drive.
If after verification and repairs you still can't boot I sincerely hope you have apple care because you will need a new hard drive. Set up an appointment to come in to the apple store, they will tell you to go and get data recovery, just ask them to give you the old hard drive. Unless you have an up to date backup in which case you can just restore from that. If you're lucky the only issue is with the boot sector which means that if you ask them to give you the old hard drive, you can buy an enclosure and you have effectively been given a free external hard drive. It still works to store data just not to load an operating system.
If you have a back up drive bring it to the apple store and they'll do the whole thing right there, it should take around an hour and a half but may take longer.
Hope this helps, it's annoying but it's your safest bet.
All the best.

Grey screen with apple logo after new HDD install

I have a mid 2010 iMac A1312, this was given to me recently with the knowledge of its bad HDD, so I bought a new HDD. I followed step by step instructions on how to replace a Hard drive and I did. I switched the computer on and inserted my Snow Leopard 10.6.3 install disk and clicked the icon. It is now at a light grey screen with a dark Apple logo. I have waited about ten minutes and restarted the machine. Ive tried all variances of startup holding down c, option, command r and so forth. Currently I am going to give it a good long wait of 20 minutes or so and see if I was just being impatient and not allowing the install software chance to start up. But in the mean time... any suggestions? I have read I need the original disks that came with the computer from factory to get a new HDD going. Is this true? thank you for your time!

it has now been 30 minutes and no change. I still have the grey screen with apple logo. please help

I have snow leopard installed as an OS. When trying to reboot a MacBook Pro I am getting stuck on grey screen with apple logo and rotating symbol. What can I do?

I have snow leopard installed as an OS. When trying to reboot a MacBook Pro I am getting stuck on grey screen with apple logo and rotating symbol. What can I do?

Maybe this might help.
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2570

Macbook Pro (2011) froze while working, forced shut down, now won't turn on. Grey screen with apple logo and spinning wheel for hours. Help?

Macbook Pro (2011) froze while working, forced shut down, now won't turn on. Grey screen with apple logo and spinning wheel for hours. Help?
Unfortunately do not know the operating system since I never updated anything and I can't get in to it.
Thanks for your assistance.

If you want to preserve the data on the boot drive, and it's not already backed up, 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, you can skip this step.
There are several ways to back up a Mac that is not fully functional. You need an external hard drive to hold the backup data.
1. Boot from the Recovery partition or from a local Time Machine backup volume (option key at startup.) Launch Disk Utility and follow the instructions in this support article, under “Instructions for backing up to an external hard disk via Disk Utility.”
2. 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. Use the working Mac to copy the data to another drive. This technique won't work with USB, Ethernet, Wi-Fi, or Bluetooth.
3. 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.

Start up screen stuck on grey screen with apple logo and spinning gear

Start up screen is stuck on grey screen with apple logo and spinning gear. What should I do?

See this thread with dominic23’s suggestions: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5783326?tstart=0

Switched on this morning,only grey screen with apple in centre and revolving circle but going nowhere! Wondering what to do?

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