Unable to boot normal, in safe mode or from install DVD

When I walked into my office this morning and hit my keyboard to wake my Mac all I saw on the screen was a white mouse arrow and a black screen. I held down the power button to restart, it starts to boot and then stops at a gray screen telling me to hold down the power button and restart. Doing this brings me to the same screen. I have attempted the following:
Booting while holding the Shift key - this takes a bit longer but takes me to the same gray screen
Booting with the install DVD in and holding the "c" key - DVD spins a bit then gray screen
Booting while holding "option" and selecting the install DVD - DVD spins a bit then gray screen
Booting in Single User mode and ran "/sbin/fsck -fy" it returned - *** FILE SYSTEM WAS MODIFIED ***, ran it again and returned - ** The volume Macintosh HD appears to be OK
I am not sure where to go from here, and advice would be much appreciated.
Thanks,
Bob

I posted in the wrong forum, I am using 10.5, I have reposted this in that forum.

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Can not boot in safe mode or from install disk

Having major issues. MBP getting stuck at a blue screen after the gray apple screen. Tried pressing and holding shift key while starting for safe mode and still goes to blue screen. Tried holding c key and starting with sl install disk in drive and still goes to blue screen. Issue started with continous cycle back to login screen from my main user account and due to my stupidity of turning on automatic login from a admin test account (thinking I could trick it), I am now in this vicious cycle.
And no I don't have a bootable clone. I just updated to SL and like an lazy idiot didn't go ahead and make my bootable clone.
FYI I do have a timecapsule with a week old or so backup.
Any suggestions?

having a time capsule with TM backups is certainly good. you can always restore your system from it in a pinch.
do you have a firmware password set perhaps? it would preclude booting in safe mode or from the dvd using "c". reboot and hold option at the chime. this should boot you into startup disk manager where you can choose to boot from the DVD.
if you do have a firmware password set it will ask you to enter the firmware password before letting you use the startup disk manager.

Will not boot up in safe mode

Here's another headache which is testing my temperament to the extreme.
My Mac crashed this morning and when I restarted I got the classic Spotlight in the corner icon. The usual procedure here is to restart in safe mode, empty the wastebasket and then restart as normal.
Unfortunately, my Mac simply refuses to boot up in safe mode! Instead it shuts down. Now this is nothing to do with me leaving on my finger on the button too long or not long enough, as I've done the safe mode restart countless times...the bugger just will not go into safe mode no matter what I try and do.
Any insights would be greatly appreciated before my full head of hair turns into a massive bald patch!!
PowerMac G5 Mac OS X (10.4.2)

I just had an issue like this. I was able to boot up with an external firewire drive, although it was a lot of trouble. I think doing an option boot finally worked; holding down the option key, I eventually got to see the firewire drive was bootable, and booted from it.
I put the thing in verbose boot mode (command - v , I think; but please look it up. I have no Mac books at work to check). In verbose mode, you could see that the hard drive could not mount; the OS tried to do fsck, but it failed around 2/3 of the way, and the CPU was halted.
I was occasionally able to boot normally, but never in safe or single user modes; these do a disk test first, which invariably failed.
I could see from the system and console logs when I managed to get the firewire boot going that there were repeated errors trying to access drive s03, the internal SATA drive. The logs on the SATA drive showed huges numbers of errors. At a wild guess, for some reason a lot of sectors went bad all at once. There had been a some erratic behavior before, but I'd put that down to the single processor G5 problems. (these were non video related, just freezes).
Applecare wanted me to carry the huge thing into the local Apple store, but I persuaded them to just send me a replacment hard drive, which they did. The new one works perfectly.
PowerMac G5 1.8 SP (late 2004), 1.42 mhz 14 iBook Mac OS X (10.4.3) both with 1.5 GB Ram

Boots only in Safe Mode - Macbook mid 2007

My Macbook mid 2007 with Snow Leopard will not boot correctly. The only successful means is Safe Mode (key S during boot).
All measures published in various postings have been conducted without any peripheral devices. These are:
verify harddisc
verify RAM
resetting PRAM and NVRAM
A detailled overview can be found under here.
The existing original RAM and harddisc were successfully tested using a second identical Macbook. A new installation of Snow Leopard on the harddisc using the second Macbook was successful and started in this second Macbook as expected. This harddisc was then inserted into my Macbook, but it would not boot. Hence it is safe to exclude problems with RAM and the harddisc.
Attempts to boot with the Snow Leopard DVD (either via C plus boot or Option during boot and select Install DVD) are not successful. Attempts to boot from an external drive are also not successful. The boot process (regular, DVD, external) progresses to different states including grey screen with Apple and frozen wheel. There is no consistency.
From the various postings I have found and studied along with my numerous tests, I have deduced the following possibilities:
There is a problem with the GPU.
There is a problem with the keyboard (maybe someone spilled something).
I have found numerous solutions for "boots only in Safe Mode". All include booting via Install DVD, but this does not work in my case.
I have exhausted all my possibilities. Hopefully someone can provide more insight.

lruetimann wrote:
What I am not able to test is booting with an external CD/DVD drive. However, there is no indication that the built-in drive is malfunctioning.
If you have a second MacBook (#2 working OK), you could use its CD/DVD drive loaded with the 10.6 DVD as the target disk to boot into, as the first Macbook (#1 the troubled one) reportedly cannot see a 10.6 DVD normally.
How to use and troubleshoot FireWire target disk mode
In your case this would be:
With the MacBook(1) on (Host), the MacBook(2) off (Target) connect the firewire cable.
Start the MacBook(2), hold T key to make it the boot drive. It will appear on the MacBook's(1) Desktop.
Insert the 10.6 Install DVD into the MacBook(2).
It too will appear on the MacBook's(1) Desktop.
From the MacBook(1), select Restart and hold down the Option key to select Start-up Manager.
From Start-up Manager, select the 10.6 Install DVD which will take you into the installation.
If this occurs, then you have booted into the install 10.6 DVD, From there you could try and install it, see what happens.
However, if it does not see the DVD disk, then this would indicate a defect in the logicboard (motherboard), though which component I would not guess.
If it does see the DVD, in Macbook (2) and can boot into it,… I'd be surprised!

Firefox won't open in normal or safe mode.

I get a crash report each time when I try to open it normally, nothing happens when I type in the extension for safe mode. Because I can't open safe mode, the Mozilla troubleshooting guideliens cannot help me. I'm working from Windows vista, have all current updates to Windows, and have scanned my computer.

To start in Firefox Safe Mode, hold down the Shift key while clicking on the Firefox desktop icon. To exit Firefox Safe Mode, exit from Firefox (Firefox button > Exit or File > Exit), wait a few seconds (10-30), click the desktop icon to restart Firefox.
NOTE: Establish a habit of exiting/closing Firefox with Firefox button > Exit or File > Exit to allow an orderly shutdown of Firefox and closing of all of the files that Firefox has open.
#Stop the Firefox process:
#*[http://kb.mozillazine.org/Kill_application Mozillazine - Kill application]
#*Windows 7 users click [http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/window-on-windows/reap-the-benefits-of-windows-7s-task-manager/2576 here]
#*Mac users: http://techheavy.com/2011/02/the-mac-task-manager/
#Why Firefox may hang:
#*[http://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/Firefox+hangs Firefox hangs] (see Hang at exit)
#*[http://kb.mozillazine.org/Firefox_hangs Firefox hangs (Mozillazine)] (see Hang at exit and Closing Firefox properly)
#*[https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/Firefox+is+already+running+but+is+not+responding Firefox is already running but is not responding]
#Use Firefox Safe Mode to find a problem with an Extension or Plugin:
#*Don't check anything when entering Safe Mode, just continue
#*If the problem does not occur in Safe Mode it is probably an Extension or Plugin causing the problem
#*See:
#**[[Safe Mode]] and [http://kb.mozillazine.org/Safe_Mode Safe Mode (Mozillazine)]
#**[http://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/Troubleshooting+extensions+and+themes Troubleshooting extensions and themes]
#**[http://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/Troubleshooting+plugins Troubleshooting plugins]
#**[http://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/Basic+Troubleshooting Basic Troubleshooting]
'''If this reply solves your problem, please click "Solved It" next to this reply when signed-in to the forum.'''
Consider updating Firefox; your version is 9.0.1 --> current version is 10.0.1
*See --> https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/Updating%20Firefox

At odd times I will get a second instance of Firefox startup. I have run avast av, spybot, malwarebytes, both in normal and safe mode and nothing has been found, any ideas?

at odd times I will get a second instance of Firefox startup. I have run avast av, spybot, malwarebytes, both in normal and safe mode and nothing has been found, any ideas?

That second one sounds like malware.
Do a malware check with some malware scanning programs on the Windows computer. 
You need to scan with all programs because each program detects different malware. 
Make sure that you update each program to get the latest version of their databases before doing a scan. 
*http://www.malwarebytes.org/mbam.php - Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware
*http://www.superantispyware.com/ - SuperAntispyware
*http://www.microsoft.com/security/scanner/en-us/default.aspx - Microsoft Safety Scanner
*http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/defender/default.mspx - Windows Defender: Home Page
*http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html - Spybot Search & Destroy
*http://www.lavasoft.com/products/ad_aware_free.php - Ad-Aware Free
See also:
*"Spyware on Windows": http://kb.mozillazine.org/Popups_not_blocked

Firefox 19 crashes on startup in normal and safe modes.

upon startup, ff19 crashes in both normal and safe modes. I've disabled all add ons and extensions.
XP Pro sp3.
It started crashing occaisionally, then increasingly more often, now, upon startup.
I tried reloading ff19.
I can't start ff with the -p command.
Crash ID: bp-89fc95f5-6efb-4c72-8721-fbf1b2110906
1361302409
1360392309
1358921494
1357934458
1354939166

its not correct crash id.
We're sorry to hear that your Firefox seems to be crashing when you open it. Please perform the following steps to give us a crash report ID that helps us find out more about the cause of the crash.
#Press the following shortcut to get a Run window: [Windows] + [R]. This should bring up a window that contains a text field.
#In that text field, enter %APPDATA% and press Enter. An explorer window should open.
#From that explorer window, double-click on the ''Mozilla'' folder, then double-click on ''Firefox'' and then on ''Crash reports''. Double-click on ''submitted''.
#Now, you should see a list of files that contain reports. Go to ''View'' > ''Arrange Icons by'' > ''Modified'' to get the most recent files at the top of the window.
#Open the most recent 5 files with a text editor and copy the IDs.
#Paste each ID with '''bp-''' into the reply window on the forums.
Thanks in advance!
You can find more information and troubleshooting steps in the [[Firefox crashes]] article.

ALWAYS BOOTS UP IN SAFE MODE

MY MAC ALWAYS BOOTS UP IN SAFE MODE. I REPLACED THE KEYBOARD DUE TO A JAMMED SHIFT KEY WHICH WAS CAUSING IT TI DO THE SAME THING, BUT ITS DOIN IT AGAIN. CAN SOMEONE HELP PLEASE?

ACTUALLY IT BOOTS THE RIGHT WAY IF I LEAVE THE KEYBOARD OFF UNTIL THE SIGN IN SCREEN COMES UP. AND YES IT IS A WIRELESS. IF I TURN THE KEYBOARD ON BEFORE I TURN THE COMPUTER ON IT WILL BOOT IN SAFE MODE. IS THERE ANYTHING ELSE THAT I CAN TRY, OR SHOULD I JUST SAY FORGET IT, AND WAIT UNTIL THE SIGN IN SCREEN COMES UP BEFORE I CUT IT ON?

Fire Fox v3.6.3 will not run in normal or safe mode, also will not uninstall

FF v 3.6.3 for windows vista will not open and run in normal or safe mode, FF will not uninstall from folder or add/remove programs, tried to reinstall from Mozilla site did not work. Internet Explorer also will not run and crashes. I am using Safari it runs fine no problems. FF has been crashing for about a week unexpectedly but will reopen and run, but will not run at all now..?
== Crash ID(s) ==
ID: e3f78c3f-b182-44a9-8ef6-ca84c2100617
== User Agent ==
Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.0; en-US) AppleWebKit/531.21.8 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.4 Safari/531.21.10

From the Crash ID information, it seems this is related to the AVG antivirus, version 8.5. If possible, please try updating you AVG installation (the program) to latest version; according to [https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=547210 Bug 547210] AVG has released an update May 17. to AVG version 9 that should fix this problem.
Please let us know if this fixes the problem with Firefox crashing.

Tecra 8100 only boot up in safe mode

I seem to have lost the display drivers to my Tecra 8100.
Since I attempted to use an extra screen which worked fine until I came to boot up the following day when it would only boot up in Safe Mode.
What have I done wrong and how can I rectify it?
Driver detective doesn't work, just comes up as having performed an illegal action.

Lars,
I'm afraid that it seems that Toshiba no longer provide the drivers for the Tecra 8100 as it's such an old computer, around 12 years old. I have been on the Toshiba website and tried again on the site you suggested but to no avail. Sorry about that but am still hunting.
Regards
bfg267

G4 powermac will not boot up nomally unless i boot up in safe mode help ?

My G4 power mac will not boot up when switched on itakes several re boots and somtimes crashes.
Will boot up in safe mode. but this only allows me to use some of the application software i need and not all of them.
Can anyone help I thought it could be the hardisk but why would it boot up in safe mode?

Boot from the Tiger installation disc 1 (hold down 'C' on startup). Don't touch the installer, go to the menu bar and select Disk Utility (I think it's in the Tools menu on Tiger).
In DU, select your internal drive in the sidebar (the top item with the makers name and serial no.). Run Repair Disk.
If problems are reported, run it again until the green message says the disc seems to be OK.
Quit DU, quit the installer and restart.
If DU says there are problems it can't fix, you may need DiskWarrior.
Either way, let us know the results please.
(PS; this is the Intel iMac forum - PPC are next door!)
Message was edited by: noondaywitch

Dual G5 won't boot unless in safe mode post iLife 09' installation.

Alright so a few hours ago I had installed iLife 09 and the computer refused to restart therefor I did a manual force shutdown (by holding the power button till it shut off).
When I booted the computer up it began to load at the "spinning grey screen" then shut off within a few seconds.
I booted it in safe mode to try to fix the problem by uninstalling iLife by removing the files from the applications folder and deleting the receipts. After rebooting I still had the same issue.
Then I booted up in safe mode once more to open up Disk Utilities to fix the permissions. Found a few things it changed then rebooted once more... No dice.
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2022959&tstart=60 I took a look at that thread, booted up in single user mode ran the commands and still nothing.
Additional note that seems different than most posts i've read so far:
I cannot boot from another hard drive (internal, external or partition) unless I am in safe mode.

HI,
Can you boot from your install disk?
Insert Installer disk and Restart, holding down the "C" key until grey Apple appears.
Go to Installer menu (Panther and earlier) or Utilities menu (Tiger and later) and launch Disk Utility.
Select your HDD (manufacturer ID) in the left panel.
Select First Aid in the Main panel.
*(Check S.M.A.R.T Status of HDD at the bottom of right panel. It should say: Verified)*
Click Repair Disk on the bottom right.
If DU reports disk does not need repairs quit DU and restart.
If DU reports errors Repair again and again until DU reports disk is repaired.
When you are finished with DU, from the Menu Bar, select Utilities/Startup Manager.
Select your start up disk and click Restart
While you have the Disk Utility window open, look at the bottom of the window where you see Capacity and Available. *Make sure there is always 15% free disk space.* Not enough disk space can cause directory corruption.
Carolyn

Hi guys I'm really in need of some help. I have an IMac I3 for a while now I've been having a problem of my machine refusing it shut down , it goes to a blue screen with a spinning wheel but doesn't shut down. And now won't boot from install DvD

Please some one help me ...
A) my mac won't shut down with external HD connected (if it's been used)
B) there are disk permissions that can't be fixed SUID stuff ..
C) I have now verified the Mac HD and it tells me it's corrupt in bold red writing and to start up from install DVD
D) it won't boot from DVD so I cannot run the repair , initially the machine was spitting it out on start up , now it appears to be attempting to boot off DVD , well it sounds like it is .... BUT it's hanging with the Mac Logo and a wheel ... For um .... 30min now...
E) weirdly when OSX is booted off the hard drive , it won't recognise the Install DvD or the applications one... It just spits them out....
I had an old PPC 17" and it was a beaut .... Never had a single problem with it ...
I bought this one December 2010 and it's been nothing but issues for a computer in excess of £1000 I'm extremely disappointed ... And weirdly the shutting down issue started when it was a week out of warrantee ... I feel conned and am almost at the point of throwing it at a wall and buying a PC

Ok so I've done what you said and this is what it's come back ....
I don't know that these are the errors , but they're the things which don't look right ...
Throughout the shut down there is a recurring line ;
It says ;
Com.apple.launchd 1 0x100600e70.anonymous.unmount 301 PID still valid
Then there are 2 more which I think are related ;
Com.apple.securityd 29 PID job has I overstayed its welcome , forcing removal.
Then the same with fseventd 48 and diskarbitrationd 13
Oh and on Launchd1 : System : stray anonymous job at shut down : PID 301 PPID13 PGID 13 unmount...
Then the last process says "about to call: reboot (RB_AUTOBOOT).
Continuing...
And stops ...
Hope this means something to you ... Thanks again for your help so far :-)

New hard drive. Will not boot from install dvd.

Earlier this week, I dropped my computer.
It was probably a 3 foot fall.
Computer froze, so I restarted and got the flashing folder with question mark.
Started in internet recovery, and disk utility confirmed that I had killed my hard drive.
Got a new hard drive and installed. Started in internet recovery, formatted hard drive. Disk utility says it's good to go.
Was given the option to install Mavericks, but keep getting an error message.
Attempted to restart from install dvd that came with the MBP. Tried every startup shortcut there is.
Optical drive recognizes the disk, but I always get stuck on the gray screen with the wheel.
Reset PRAM. Reset SMC. Same problems. I do not have access to another mac or a PC with admin rights.
I'd rather not brave the Apple Store this weekend in the snow in a town that never gets snow (people drive poorly on a good day!).
Any tips?
Got the MBP in 2010, new. Was running mountain lion when I dropped it.
Thanks!

Yiou can't use Internet recovery on a 2010 Mac notebook to install any version of OS X on it. That is why you are getting that error. You have to use the original System reinstall discs that came with it to install OS X on a new drive or use the OS X reinstall disk to restore from a time machine backup.
Since your system doesn't seem to want to completely boot from that disc you should try an external DVD drive that connects by USB port as the built in superdrives are known to fail or partially fail at any time. Don't buy an Apple external Superdrive as they only work on Mac computer that did not originally come with a built in DVD drive. Any Brand external DVD drive will work on your Mac except Apples own external DVD drive.

No login screen in normal mode boots fine in safe mode

I have got a compaq persaio f700 went to turn it on to normal mode nothing I can hear the login alert but nothing
however I can boot it up in safe mode with no trouble . when I go into device manager i find a yellow triangle next to coprocessor. How or where can I find the coprocessor for this machine I am running vista 32

Hello @biggreg64
To get your issue more exposure I would suggest posting it in the commercial forums since the Compaq Presario F700 Notebook PC series is a commercial product. You can do this here Notebook - HP ProBook, EliteBook, Compaq, Slate/Tablet PC, Armada, LTE
The support page for your product may be helpful in the meantime: Compaq Presario F700 Notebook PC series.
I hope this helps!
Thank you for posting on the HP Forums.
Please click the "Kudos, Thumbs Up" at the bottom of this post if you want to say "Thanks" for helping!
Please click "Accept as Solution" if you feel my post solved your issue, it will help others find the solution.
The Great Deku Tree
I work on behalf of HP.

Unable to boot normal, in safe mode or from install DVD

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