What else causes the question mark icon?

I just replaced the hard drive in my early 2008 iMac. On start up I'm still getting the question mark icon like I did when the original hard drive failed. I know that may have not gotten the connections in all the way. Also, the new drive could be bad. They didn't say it was refurbished or used, but it was pretty inexpensive.
I was told that my original hard drive was bad by a Certified Apple Reseller. Is there ANYTHING else it could be? Please help!

There are four possibilites:
1. PRAM problem. Try OPTION booting.
2. Directory corruption. Try using Disk Utility or other similar utility to repair the hard drive.
3. System files have been deleted or damaged. Reinstall OS X.
4. The internal drive has died or is otherwise non-functional.

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What causes a question mark icon to appear in a finder window?

Hello,
I was wondering if anyone knows what causes a question mark icon to appear at the top of a finder window?
Thanks!

Either the file or folder which was in that spot(if any) got moved or deleted, or a bad write to the Finder's plist file.
(67394)

Hi. I am reinstalling Macbook Pro OS X from the "question mark icon". During process, there is a question "select the disk where to install Mac OS X" but there is no option/selection in the box. I really need your help guys. I need it badly. :'(

Hi. I am reinstalling Macbook Pro OS X from the "question mark icon". During process, there is a question "select the disk where to install Mac OS X" but there is no option/selection in the box. I really need your help guys. I need it badly. :'(

If you got the question mark and you do not see any partition to install OS X to, it is not good.
Close the OS X installer by pressing the red button at the top left corner of the Install OS X window, and open Disk Utility. Then, look at the left sidebar and tell me if you see your hard drive. You should see something like this:
Do not worry if you do not see Macintosh HD or if the option with an arrow shows a different name. This is normal.
If you see it, choose it, go to the Erase tab and erase the drive. Finally, close Disk Utility and reinstall OS X. You will lose everything if you do not have a backup.
If you do not see the drive, it is damaged and it has to be replaced. You can replace the hard drive of a MacBook Pro without voiding the warranty, and any 2'5" SATA hard drive is valid. If you are not an experienced user or you do not want to go inside the MacBook, take it to an Apple Store or reseller.

What does a flashing question mark icon mean, alternating with the finder icon, at startup?

When I power up a small folder appears against a grey screen. Insode the folder are alternating question mark and finder icon.

It means that your iMac cannot find an operating system to boot from.
What version of OS X are you running?

Please help me with my mac. when i turned it on, a small question mark icon (?) appears at the center.

hi,
Please help me out with my MAC model m6497. when i turned it on, only a smallquestion mark appears at the center and does not proceed to its descktop at all

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.
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, boot from the recovery partition (Command +R on boot) and use Disk Utility to repair your OS 10.7 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.

Support Assistant Quick Access question mark icon on toolbar not responding

hp support assistant version :7.0.39.15 As in the subject described the question mark icon on the toolbar is not responding. The Support Assistant works without any broblem.
This question was solved.
View Solution.

Uninstall the HP Support Assistant by using the Program and features section in Windows.
Download and install the latest version from the operating system appropriate download section of your notebook's support portal.
Help us to help you by posting the following information.
1. The complete Model Name. or Product Number. of the notebook - see This HP web document if you don't how to locate the model number and\or product number.
2. The complete version and name of the operating system you are using ( ie Windows 7 64bit ).
****Please click on Accept As Solution if a suggestion solves your problem. It helps others facing the same problem to find a solution easily****
2015 Microsoft MVP - Windows Experience Consumer

What is with the little blue box with the question mark.

what is with the little blue box with the question mark?

See '''''cor-el's''''' answer to that question here (only the portion down to the line break): http://support.mozilla.com/en-US/questions/781372?s=resend+&as=s
 
 
'''Other issues needing your attention'''
The information submitted with your question indicates that you have out of date plugins with known security and stability issues that should be updated. To see the plugins submitted with your question, click "More system details..." to the right of your original question post. You can also see your plugins from the Firefox menu, Tools > Add-ons > Plugins. 
 
*Next Generation Java Plug-in 1.6.0_17 for Mozilla browsers
**7 updates behind
**'''''Security update version 1.6.0_24 released 2011-02-10'''''
#'''Check your plugin versions''': http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/plugincheck/
#*'''Note: plugin check page does not have information on all plugin versions'''
#'''Update the [[Java]] plugin''' to the latest version.
#*Download site: http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/downloads/index.html (Java Platform: Download JRE)
#**'''''Be sure to un-check the Yahoo Toolbar option during the install if you do not want it installed.
#*Also see "Manual Update" in this article to update from the Java Control Panel in Windows Control Panel: http://support.mozilla.com/en-US/kb/Using+the+Java+plugin+with+Firefox#Updates
#* Removing old versions (if needed): http://www.java.com/en/download/faq/remove_olderversions.xml
#* Remove multiple Java Console extensions (if needed): http://kb.mozillazine.org
#*Java Test: http://www.java.com/en/download/help/testvm.xml

What does the question mark in upper left hand corner mean

what does the question mark in upper left hand corner mean

Do you mean on a thumbnail in the organizer?That means that organizer has lost track of the original file. Usually that happens when you've done something with the photo outside of organizer, like moved it or deleted the original. If you want organizer to be able to keep track of your photos, you need to do all moving and deleting from within the organizer, not in Windows Explorer or the Mac Finder.

What causes the rainbow swirling icon that locks a program such as address book?

What causes the rainbow swirling icon that locks a program such as address book? And how do I get out of it?

The Finder is just assigning the wrong kind and icon to what I presume are plist files. Often rebuilding the Launch Services will cure this, but sometimes Finder gets a strange bee in its bonnet about some particular combination of characteristics and what they mean, and it can't be dissuaded. Unless you are opening plist files, and get really annoyed when you double click one and Address Book launches and announces "wrong type of file" you can just ignore it. In my own ~/Library/Prefences folder plists are generally labeled correctly, probably because I have them assigned to open with Apple's own Property List Editor. But there are some other preferences that Finder has decided are something altogether different than what they are: WingNuts Prefs and Saved Games are both believed to be Eudora preferences; a whole batch of other prefs from a dozen differenct programs are described as TextWrangler preferences, and there's a another group thought to be Unix Executables. As long as the program they belong to isn't having a problem finding and writing to them, don't worry about it.
Francine
Francine
Schwieder

HT203254 What is the question mark when I turn on the power?

When I turn on the power, it doesn't work but the question mark appears. What am I supposed to do? (question mark inside of a file mark)

The question mark means the system can't find anything to boot from. See this Apple note: http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1440?viewlocale=en_US
You didn't specify your operating system, so if you have Lion, go into Lion recovery by booting and holding the command and R keys down to access Disk Utiity to repair the disk.

Dock Question Mark Icons

I've set up a brand-new Mac Pro tower as a master machine for the purpose of cloning it to other Intel-based Macs in various labs on campus. I've ironed out all the bugs on the master, and it's working exactly as we want it to.
I'm using Mike Bombich's NetRestore 3.3.6 to capture an image from the Mac Pro system. The capture and restore to various Intel iMacs works fine. However, the restored systems don't behave perfectly like on the master machine.
When a new user logs in via LDAP authentication on the iMacs, the dock shows up with lots of question mark icons. However, if that same user logs in the same way on the Mac Pro, everything shows up just as it should.
What would cause this behavior, assuming a perfect clone? Is there a simple solution?

I've confirmed that the _CFURLAliasData strings were the culprits in my case. I took ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.dock.plist and opened it up with the Property List Editor (part of the Xcode tools). Anywhere I found _CFURLAliasData, I deleted that data entry, and saved it.
Since I'm in a lab environment, I needed it in the User Template, so a +sudo cp ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.dock.plist /System/Library/User Template/English.lproj/Library/Preferences+ did the trick (and I made a new image off of that). After that, any LDAP/AD authenticated user that logged on was greeted to a nice dock full of icons, not question marks.
I posted about it here (http://benkreeger.com/blog/2007/09/mac-os-x-10410-breaks-dock-app.html), and that might give more insight (and a few screenshots, too).

QuickTime 7.3.1, I get the question mark?

Hello everybody in the forum.
I have a problem with browsers when I see the trailers of the movies page apple, I get the question mark over QuickTime.
Help Please
Greetings!

I struggled with this issue for a while. One of my false successes was re-installing Flash Player which worked until I closed my browser and reopened it.
For some reason apple removed the option in the MIME settings to disable Flash Media. I think they were looking to remove the option since QuickTime wont play Flash Media. However, I looked at my com.apple.quicktime.plugin.plist in the Plist Editor that comes with Developer and discovered that the Shockwave Flash was set to "true." So, when upgrading to 7.3 somehow it not only kept my old prefs, but it enabled that option (which I never enabled) in my prefs, which is no longer an option in the User Interface Prefs. So I tried changing it to "False" but when I opened a browser session and went to a page with Flash Media, QuickTime changed it back to "True." I tried deleting the file and QuickTime recreated it with the same settings. I later found out deleting the com.apple.quicktimeplayer.plist and the QuickTime Preferences files and rebooting would fix the problem. One of these files was causing the recreation of the com.apple.quicktime.plugin.plist file. Deleteing all three of these files should fix the problem.
Location:
Users/<your user name here>/Library/Prefernces/
com.apple.quicktime.plugin.plist
com.apple.quicktimeplayer.plist
QuickTime Preferences
trash these and reboot
*QuickTime will recreate uncorrupted prefs on first launch
You could also compile this in Script Editor and run it (it targets and deletes the files and reboots your machine) Script editor is in Applications/AppleScript/.
Copy text below:
PLEASE NOTE:
This script was created to simply remove the preferences associated with the QuickTime Plugin and QuickTime Player to remove the pesky QT question mark and restore Flash playback in browsers. It is intended to fix the problem on PPC machines where when updating to QuickTime 7.3 it carries over bad and/or corrupts the preference files associated with QuickTime. These preferences will be recreated on reboot. **You need to be logged into a user account with administrative access in order to use this script**
property the_list : {}
on run
display dialog "Are you sure you want to delete yor QuickTime Preferences?" with icon caution
set CurrentUser to do shell script "whoami"
set user_account to "rm '/Users/" & CurrentUser & "/Library/Preferences/"
--DELETES THESE ITEMS---
set QTPluginPrefs to user_account & "com.apple.quicktime.plugin.preferences.plist'"
set the_list to the_list & QTPluginPrefs
set QTPlayerPrefs to user_account & "com.apple.quicktimeplayer.plist'"
set the_list to the_list & QTPlayerPrefs
set QT_Prefs to user_account & "QuickTime Preferences'"
set the_list to the_list & QT_Prefs
repeat with afile in the_list
tell application "Finder"
do shell script afile
end tell
end repeat
--PROMPTS A REBOOT---
display dialog "Reboot is required! Reboot now?" buttons {"OK", "Cancel"} default button "OK" with icon caution
if button returned of result is "OK" then
tell application "Finder" to restart
else
quit
end if
end run

Blue question mark icons

I made my site on iweb and everything looked fine. But after I publish, for some reason some of the links come up as blue question mark icons instead of the hyperlink. All of them are text links. One is a link to an external page, one is a llnk to one of my pages, and the other ones are links for emails.
What's confusing me is the fact that the link to the external age and the link to one of my pages is on the same page. However there's two other links exactly like them on the same page and those two are fine. I looked through the forums and read about the fact that some images might've not gone through. But the funny thing is that I looked through the files and html code and the links that are working don't have any images associated with them. The links that are NOT working however do have images made. Does anyone know what the problem is?

Post your URL and the users here can take a look at what you're seeing. Is this in Safari, Firefox, AND IE or just some of those?

Question mark icon blinks at start up-help

My powerbook froze when I was surfing on Safari. The usual OptCmdEsc routine did not work. I held down the power button and it shut down. When I started up again-1st a grey screen blink ed on and then off. Then a question mark icon alternates blinking on and off with a folder icon appearing in its place every other second.
Can I hold down a "T" while starting up the computer to run off a firewire drive. I've heard of this-but what does it do? And what do I need to have on my hard drive to make it work. Also, can I start up off the mac x disc instead?
I have a 1.25 gig powerbook G4 running os 10.4.10.

Will it boot in Safe Mode? See
What is Safe Boot, Safe Mode? (Mac OS X)
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=107392
Resolve startup issues and perform disk maintenance with Disk Utility and fsck
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106214
Look at A flashing question mark appears when you start your Mac
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=58042
 Cheers, Tom

Flashing Question Mark Icon on Start up. DEAD iMAC. HELP

Well, i think i've hit a break wall...
It wont even recognize my internal HDD, it just has a flashing question mark (?) icon when i start the machine.....i've used Tech Tool Pro 4 and the Leopard start up disk, both with no luck, they don't even think a HDD is present at all.
I have pics of what i'm looking at:
http://img695.imageshack.us/img695/9631/26052010014.jpg
http://img9.imageshack.us/img9/3278/26052010021.jpg
http://img684.imageshack.us/img684/6130/26052010019.jpg
http://img217.imageshack.us/img217/3041/26052010018.jpg
http://img535.imageshack.us/img535/4143/26052010016.jpg
its one dead HDD..... any clues on what to do next?
Message was edited by: Matt-Beasley

You must use the original grey system DVD disc that came with your iMac to run the Apple Hardware Test, the one that is marked with instructions for running the test on it. Depending on the version of OS X that shipped with your iMac, this could be either disc 1 or disc 2.
When you restart with this disc in the optical drive & the D key held down, you should not see a question mark icon or the leopard installer. If you do, it means that either you don't have the correct disc inserted, you waited too long to depress the D key, or you are releasing it too soon.
You don't say exactly which Core 2 Duo iMac model you have. If it is a Mid 2007 or later model, use the chart at Apple Hardware Test: iMac (Mid 2007) and later models to identify the AHT version you need. That version number should printed on the grey disc you need to use. You can't use the instructions there to start the test from the hidden HD partition if the HD is dead or damaged but the ones for running the test from the Install DVD should work fine.

What else causes the question mark icon?

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