When I turn on my imac all I see is a white screen, the apple icon and a spinning pin-wheel that never stops spinning. My computer is stuck! Any Suggestions?
When I turn on my imac all I see is a white screen, the apple icon and a spinning pin-wheel that never stops spinning. My computer is stuck! Any Suggestions?
Follow all the steps at > Mac OS X: Gray screen appears during startup
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imac wont boot - i get a white screen with apple logo, and it loads to about 10%, then screen goes black
Hey there mtriest,
It sounds like you are unable to boot the iMac successfully as it keeps shutting down when you try to boot. I suggest the troubleshooting from the following article named:
Mac OS X: Gray screen appears during startup
http://support.apple.com/kb/ts2570
Disconnect, test peripheral devices and network cables
Note: "Peripheral devices" refers to external devices other than what came with your Mac, such as hard drives, printers, or hubs that you connect via a USB or FireWire cable.
Shut down your Mac. If necessary, hold your Mac's power button for several seconds to force it to power down.
Disconnect all peripheral devices such as external hard drives or printers (leave only the display, a keyboard, and mouse connected).
Disconnect any Ethernet cables.
Start up your Mac.
If you can start up this way, one or more of your peripheral devices (or installed software related to the device) is probably causing the gray screen issue. Connect one device, then restart your Mac to test for the issue. Repeat the process until you locate the device at issue. Make sure the device is powered if it needs to be to operate correctly. Check with the manufacturer of the device for support or possible software driver or firmware updates that may be available for the device. Try a different cable with the device if possible (such as a different USB or FireWire cable).
Note: If you have multiple peripheral devices and the issue only occurs when they are all connected, but not when each device is the only peripheral connected, see the Additional Information section below.
If you are using a desktop Mac with a third-party keyboard and/or mouse device, and the issue still occurs, try starting up with an Apple keyboard and mouse connected instead. Try starting with no keyboard and mouse connected, then connect them after start up. Also, try a different USB port on your Mac.
If the gray screen issue persists with no devices connected, go to the next section (with the peripherals still disconnected).
Perform a Safe BootSimply performing a Safe Boot may resolve this issue.
Shut down your Mac. If necessary, hold your Mac's power button for several seconds to force it to power down.
Start your Mac, then immediately hold the Shift key. This performs a Safe Boot. Advanced tip: If you want to see the status of a Safe Boot as it progresses, you can hold Shift-Command-V during start up (instead of just Shift).
Note: A Safe Boot takes longer than a typical start up because it includes a disk check and other operations.
If your Mac starts up as expected, immediately try restarting.
If the Safe Boot does not work, or the restart after a successful Safe Boot does not work, go to the next section.
There is additional information in the article with further troubleshooting if needed.
Thank you for using Apple Support Communities.
Cheers,
Sterling -
Have a 2008/9 iMac on starting up today I have only a white screen, apple icon and a continuous revolving sun. Have tried turning off and on and disconnecting and reconnecting the power with no affect - any thoughts or advice please. Thanks Matt
If your iMac came w/system DVDs, do the following:
Disconnect all devices from the computer then do the following:
Boot up from your DVD that originally came w/the iMac while holding down the "c" key.
Select the language you wish to use, and then choose "Disk Utility" from the menu bar.
Your HD should appear in a panel on the left hand side of the window which opens. Select it and then click on the "repair disk" button in the right hand section of the window.
Once this process has been completed restart your computer and repair permissions directly from Disk Utility.
If Disk Utility is unable to complete the repair, you will need to use a stronger 3rd party utility like DiskWarrior, Techtool PRO (not Deluxe) or Drive Genius. -
PLEASE HELP!!!!!! EMERGENCY Upon start up normal start up noise occurs, then after white screen with Grey Apple logo, and a spinning loading wheel under it (thee repetitive lines NOT rainbow one) ?!? then thats as far as it goes it stays on that screen forever will not boot up. Any info on how to possibly fix? I've tried several of the Start up shortcuts , it wont even start up in Safe Mode . My fiance' is crushed she is a writer and EVERYTHING SHE HAS WORKED ON is somewhere on that hard drive. Any thoughts, i'm open to any and all LOGICAL responses, thank you very much for ya'lls time ........Its just heartbreaking to see my iMac in this vegistated coma,The whole reason i bought a mac was cause I love them I have Apple EVERYTHING, so once again please help.
Try this: Switch off your iMac wait 10-15 seconds hold down the Option Key (alt) key then press the power botton but keep the option key down. This should show all the available options to boot from. I trust you have a full backup, Good luck.
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When I turn on my iMac it comes up with the login icons which I then choose and log into. The password works and I then get the apple icon and the spinning wheel. After about a minute the Apple icon turns into a prohibited icon. However, if I log in under the guest icon, I can access the wifi and get to Safari. I really don't know what to do next. Any help would be gratefully appreciated.
Are you running any A-V? If it's an iMac 21.5, I don't think you're running Leopard, 10.5. Probably at least Snow Leopard, 10.6. This is the Leopard forum.
This article says meant for 10.3.9 and eariler, but contains some still useful suggestions.
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1411
Try a Safe Boot. Shift at the startup chime and expect a much longer time to boot. This will bring you to a login screen with "Safe Boot" in red.
Look at this as well.
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1417 -
My iPhone 3Gs has frozen and I can't do anything except turn it off by hard boot. When I plug it in, I have the apple icon and that is all. It was at 43 percent battery life when it happened and my Twitter app was giving me problems. Thoughts?
Put it in recovery mode and restore it as described here: http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1808.
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i tried reseting my ipod when i turn it back on all you see is the apple icon and a loading symbol how do i fix it ?
Try here:
iPhone and iPod touch: Frozen and unresponsive -
when i active my mac pro all i get is a white screen and it loading and when it fully load its turn off , and it keep on doing the same thing for hours
Hi Shahenaz,
It's a little difficult to understand exactly what's going on with your mac based on the description you gave. Is there anything else you could add? Is it stuck in a reboot loop? Or is it just showing a white screen forever?
I had pretty much the same problem a few days ago, and was worried my mac was screwed permanently, but I got it fixed up no problem!
Follow these steps to try and troubleshoot/fix the problem.
1. Boot into OSX Recovery Mode
First, turn off your Mac. If it isn't responding, or is stuck in a reboot loop, just hold down the power button until it turns off, and you hear the fans stop. Then boot it while holding the Command and R keys. If it successfully boots into OSX Recovery Mode, continue with this step. If not, skip to step two. (My Mac couldn't successfully boot into the recovery mode, so I had to go to step 2)
Select "Disk Utility" from the list of options, and find your built in hard drive from the list on the left. Usually there are two listings/names for your drive. The first should be something like "500GB longchainoflettersnumbers Media". Then the one below will be a little easier on the eyes, named Macintosh HD, if you haven't changed its name. That's the one you want, click it.
Now go to the "First Aid" tab. Click on the "Verify Disk" button in the bottom right corner, and let it do its thing. Once that's done, hit repair disk, also in the bottom right corner. If your disk is corrupted, you may need to run the repair process several times, before it comes up completely clean.
Once this is done, select Shut Down from the Apple menu and, once your Mac is completely off, turn it back on like normal. If it works, great. If not, proceed to step two.
2. SafeBoot
Sometimes, when a mac is acting up and doesn't want to start, all it takes is a safe boot, followed by a regular restart. Or maybe you recently installed a program that either has malicious or errored coding that's causing your troubles. This is where Safe Boot comes in.
Turn off your mac, and reboot it while holding Shift. (If you want to see the process that's going on in the background, boot while holding Shift, Command, and V. This will enter something called Verbose Mode).
If it boots successfully into Safe Mode, great. If you believe that there's a particular program that you recently downloaded that might be causing your trouble, now's the time to delete it. If not, just reboot normally and see if it works! If it doesn't, or if your Mac didn't even Safe Boot like mine, proceed to step 3.
3. Fsck!
For this step, you're going to be booting your mac into Single User Mode. I'm not going to go into details as to what this step does, but it works for some people. Here are the steps.
Turn off your mac, and reboot it while holding Command and S. The screen should go black, and you'll see some white text run across the screen, wait a few seconds, until you see the command prompt. Now type
fsck -fy
and hit the Enter key. This will run a series of system checks, which could take a few minutes. Be patient on this part. Once it's done, it will show one of two messages:
1. "The volume (your Mac) appears to be OK
or
2. "File System Was Modified"
If you got message 1, type reboot and press Return. Hopefully your computer works after this - if not, proceed to step 4.
If you got message 2, run the same command again until you get message 1. If it doesn't seem to be working, turn off your system and proceed to step 4.
If you couldn't even boot into Single User Mode in the first place (like me), go to step 4 anyways.
Step 4: Reset the NVRAM
The NVRAM is another kind of RAM that stores data like the computer volume you had set before you turned it off, or the screen brightness, resolution etc. This memory is saved, unlike with regular RAM. Resetting it isn't harmful to your system, it will just put your screen brightness, volume, etc. to defaults.
Turn off your Mac, and reboot while holding Command, Option, P, and R, and continue holding them down until you hear the computer restart again.
I can't really explain why to do this step, I just know it works for some people, and seems to be what unbricked my MacBook Pro. If none of these steps, fixed your Mac, well the situation is looking pretty grim. Try setting up a meeting with a Mac Genius at your local Apple store. However, I know that many other people with these symptoms ended up having a logic board failure. Apple can swap out your logic board for a new one, but the price is pretty hefty, somewhere around $300 I believe.
Well I wish you luck, I hope this helped you! -
I just opened up my MacBook Pro after a few days of not using it and it was frozen. I turned it off and back on and all I see is a white screen, there was a file with a question mark flashing for a bit but I can't do anything, please help me!!
Jerricayoung,
you have a 13-inch Mid 2012 MacBook Pro. It’s modern enough that it supports booting into Recovery mode. To do so, hold down a Command key and the R key as you start up. It should eventually show a Mac OS X Utilities menu. Select Disk Utility from that menu; when the Disk Utility window appears, select the bootable volume from the left-hand side of the window. (It’s typically called “Macintosh HD”.) When the volume is selected, some buttons will appear on the right-hand side. If it’s not greyed out, press the Verify Disk button; if it is greyed out, or if it reports on errors that it found, press the Repair Disk button. Once the verification/repair is completed, exit Disk Utility and select Restart from the Apple menu; that will restart your MacBook Pro in its normal mode. With luck, that will be enough to get you to your normal login screen, rather than the white screen. -
For some reason when I plug my phone up to charge it just keeps showing me the apple logo and then it goes away shows the battery sign is low and that its charging. So I'm wondering why it wont turn on would I have t get a new one, and would it be free
If you've tried the basic troubleshooting steps (restart, reset, restore from backup, restore as new), and you've tried charging from a wall socket and these all fail, then you have a hardware problem.
If your unit is still in warranty, you will be eligible for a replacement with a refurbished unit free of charge. If you are out of your warranty period, you will be eligible for an out of warranty exchange which will cost the equivalent of 200 US dollars. -
while in email today, the computer began flashing. I had to turn off with button. When I turned it back on, I got the apple icon and the moving loading wheel. It would turn for about 60 seconds and then stop. I turned off again. I now have a black screen.
Hi wiesenruth,
If you are having issues starting up or booting your computer, you may find the following articles helpful:
Troubleshooting: My computer won't turn on
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1367
Mac OS X: Gray screen appears during startup
http://support.apple.com/kb/ts2570
Regards,
- Brenden -
My itouch won't turn on. All that shows is the apple icon and then the screen goes blue to white. Is there a way to fix this or is my itouch unfixable? HELP ME!!!
Try:
- iOS: Not responding or does not turn on
- Also try DFU mode after try recovery mode
How to put iPod touch / iPhone into DFU mode « Karthik's scribblings
- If not successful and you can't fully turn the iPod fully off, let the battery fully drain. After charging for an least an hour try the above again.
- If still not successful that indicates a hardware problem and an appointment at the Genius Bar of an Apple store is in order.
Apple Retail Store - Genius Bar -
When I started my Mac the screen was white with the Apple logo and power motion icon running. I attempted to turn off Mac then a message stating "Debugger called: <Button SCI>. Also "Waiting for remote debugger connection." What is my next step?
Hi , and a warm welcome to the forums!
Could be many things, we should start with this...
"Try Disk Utility
1. Insert the Mac OS X Install disc, then restart the computer while holding the C key.
2. When your computer finishes starting up from the disc, choose Disk Utility from the Installer menu at top of the screen. (In Mac OS X 10.4 or later, you must select your language first.)
*Important: Do not click Continue in the first screen of the Installer. If you do, you must restart from the disc again to access Disk Utility.*
3. Click the First Aid tab.
4. Select your Mac OS X volume.
5. Click Repair Disk, (not Repair Permissions). Disk Utility checks and repairs the disk."
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106214
Then try a Safe Boot, (holding Shift key down at bootup), run Disk Utility in Applications>Utilities, then highlight your drive, click on Repair Permissions, reboot when it completes.
(Safe boot may stay on the gray radian for a long time, let it go, it's trying to repair the Hard Drive.)
If perchance you can't find your install Disc, at least try it from the Safe Boot part onward.
If 10.7.0 or later...
Bootup holding CMD+r, or the Option/alt key to boot from the Restore partition & use Disk Utility from there to Repair the Disk, then Repair Permissions.
And sorry to report that OSX is more Widows like than ever, but….
If that doesn't help Reinstall the OS. -
My iMac wont't boot. I get the tone, the gray screen with apple icon and the turning gear. I Unplugged for 1 min.(+) and attempted to restart with the same result. Idid this twice. I reset the PRAM by holding Command Option P and R on restart. Same result. I held the Option key on restart and got a picture of 1 hard Disk. I hit Enter and got the same routine with the gray screen, apple icon and turning gear. I inseted the Hardware Test CD and ran the test, but it stopped at 2min and 27sec. That's after about 30 minutes of elapsed time -- it just gets hot so I held the power button to shut it off. Repeated and got to exactly same point in 2min and 27 sec. I'm stuck. Any ideas?
Unfortunately, it sounds like the startup disk is failing or has failed.
Which O S X is installed? Troubleshooting advice can depend on that information. -
My pro crashed. When I restart all I see is a white screen.
My pro crashed. When I restart all I see is a white screen. How can I get it restarted?
Try
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=Mac/10.7/en/mchlp2580.html
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