White Screen during Startup

Everything was working fine on the Mac until about an hour ago when I tried to install software updates and then the screen fades and a message pops up saying the computer needs to be restarted by holding down the power button.
After doing that, the computer is now stuck on a blank white screen every time it is restarted. FYI, there is no external hard drive connected to the computer. Here's what I have tried thus far to troubleshoot:
Completely disconnect from the electrical outlet and restart.
Restart with the OSX Install disc in (also tried this holding down "c", both times just goes straight to white screen and won't do anything else)
Tried resetting PRAM (it made the second chime but still wont go past the white screen)
Restart in single-user mode and safe mode (still just stuck on the white screen)
Tried restarting with any USB cables disconnected
Tried restarting with the Ethernet cord disconnected while holding down the D key per the instructions in the "Everything Mac" book (only thing connected was the keyboard + mouse)
NONE of this has worked or caused any different result, it's still just showing a blank white screen.
Can anyone suggest another possible solution or cause for this problem?
Thanks!

My iMac is brand new, barely 2 months old. I've been getting the white screen quite often at startup. The only way I can get past it is to hold down power and reboot. One thing I've noticed... I'm pretty sure it only happens when I have external drives connected. If I shut down with my hard drives mounted and restart, I tend to get a white screen. If I disconnect them, startup is perfectly fine. I'd hate to have to disconnect Time Machine every time I power down, though. What a pain. Just installed Snow Leopard; perhaps it will fix this (though it did not, sadly, fix the missing "new mail" sound, so who knows)?

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IMac Freezes at white screen during startup

Hello,
I was off of my iMac for an hour or two so my screen saver when on. I went to wake the computer and it was frozen. I tried using the keyboard and mouse to wake up the computer from the screen saver, but it would not work, so I powered the iMac down manually from the button on the back. I let it sit for 15 minutes, then I tried to start the computer up again. Now at start up, I get to a blank white screen with the spinning moving pin wheel, and that is it. Any suggestions?

You could try to use SafeBoot mode on startup, essentially you'd hold the Shift
key down on startup, perhaps you may need to login after waiting quite awhile,
then continue holding the shift key down until you see a traditional desktop.
And then use Disk Utility to verify HDD, & repair disk permissions.+ Restart.
Or if you have a system install-restore DVD, boot from that and have the
Installer's version of Disk Utility check verify repair the hard disk drive.
It can also repair disk permissions, too, from the booted version of D.U.
Then when it is done, choose the startup disk from installer menu options.
The DVD should eject, but if not, it should be ignored as a boot volume
after you've chosen the Mac HD as a boot system.
PS: If your computer is now running a system later than Snow Leopard,
where no DVD would be needed if it has a Recovery partition in the HDD
then you could see about booting into Recovery (command + R) to access
the later system's OS X Utilities, and choose Disk Utility to check/repair, etc.
These may help.
Good luck!
edited

Help with white screen on startup PLEASE!

My new imac is only showing a white screen on startup. I am not really confortable with mac's yet to start trying a bunch of different things, I did try a restart where you press four buttons (p and r restart I think).
I made an appt. tomorrow for the mac store. My question to you is, is this a hard drive issue. I have read a little that others have had this problem...did you loose everything on your hard drive?
Thanks guys,
Michelle

To add to the conversation, my iMac has decided not to start up any further than the grey screen with apple logo and scrolling symbol. I haven't a clue what to do with it!
I tried doing a safe boot but that didn't work. I then tried to access the disk utility repair but i upgraded the operating system on my comp to tiger so i don't know if i should be using that cd or the one that came with my computer thus old operating system.
If anyone could shed any light on this i'd be most gratefull.. i hear reports of needing a replacement hard drive.... nooooooooooooo

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White screen at startup and stays?? How can I get past this?

Safe Boot is perfoming a disk integrity check and repair process which may take a long time. Let it complete, though if the startup disk requires repair to begin with, it is likely already in a failed state.
If the Mac eventually starts, take that opportunity to back up your important data if you have not already done so. It may be your last.

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I have 24 inch iMac and I get either an almost black screen/white screen or sometimes a green and white vertical pinstriped screen. This happens suddenly with no warning & I have to hold the start button in to shut down. It then starts up fine with apparently no harm done. It is very annoying but I need to know why my Apple is doing this. Computer is around 2-3 years old and now running 10.6.8. I had to buy this as when I inherited the machine know one knew where the OS software was.
Does anyone rate Genius bar - can they determine what the prob is? I took a G5 tower in as it wouldn't start but they were unable to help - local PC shop sorted it charging me £100 - realised later it needed a new battery (£7) so you can't rely on anyone out there I'm afraid!
I will need a new iMac 27 inch anytime soon but am loath to give anyone currently selling machines the money!

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Welcome to the Apple Support Communities
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The computer worked fine a couple of days ago, when the computer was given to me. I reformatted and reinstalled OS X through disk utility to remove all of the previous data. It worked fine up until I took it took school. When I took it out of my school bag, I thought that I had broken the LCD because of the plain white screen with nothing working; not even OS X Utilities would open. I have tried the suggestions on the apple page for "Gray screen appears during startup" but none of these do anything. I have tried everything that I can, I replaced the hard drive, tried to boot with recovery assistant thumb drive in, tried starting while holding Control R, tried holding Option key. The only things that these soloutions have gotten me is, the folder with a "?" and a cursor over the white.
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HELP ME!

Hi, I had this exact same problem with my 15in mbp just before Christmas. I shut it down one afternoon, and then later in the day switched it back on. It wouldn't boot past the white/grey screen. It wouldn't even get as far as the apple symbol. I tried to start it up several times, but to no avail.
I called up apple support, and they had me run through various keyboard combinations at start up. Nothing worked. According to my observations and the apple telephone operator's knowledge, it was as if the keyboard wasn't booting up at all during the startup sequence, hence it was not responding to the key combinations. There was no fix available over the phone and the advice given to me was to take it to an Apple Store to have the keyboard replaced. Living in Prague Czech Rep, as I am, there is no apple store, only one reseller, which I resolved to take my mbp to the next day.
However, before the night was up, I decided to to do one more thing. According to my (less-than-Vulcan) logic, since I was taking it to be opened up, and knowing that since the dawn of time, hitting machines has seemed to give them a new lease of life, I decided to see what a sharp thump to the side of the computer might do. It wasn't overly forceful, just enough to make me feel satisfied. Would you believe it, the **** thing started up the next second I pushed the power button!
Well, I had many weeks of uninterrupted, blissful computer use until a few days ago. If you haven't heard, quite a few mbp users have been reporting cases of unresponsive keyboards and trackpads whilst running leopard, leading to kernel panics and I have now unwillingly joined their ranks. I am in no way an authority on computers (I think that's rather obvious from my repair technique mentioned above) but I have a suspicion that my little episode last Christmas is related to the current issue of the internal keyboard and trackpad becoming unresponsive, so I'd watch out for that in the future once you're able to get your laptop up and running again. There doesn't seem to be much information as to why this is happening, but for my part, I've found that it's more frequent if pressure is placed underneath the battery, and less frequent under Tiger than Leopard.
I really hope, you're able to get your mbp up and running again. I know how utterly frustrating it is when it's not working and you have no idea why.

A White Screen at Startup......What Now?

I fixed my RAM and got past the 3 beeps when starting up my iMac, but only to find a plain white screen. Is there a way to fix that or do I need to take it in for repair? I would appreciate any suggestions. Thanks.

Which iMac do you have..? > How to identify iMac models
What OS X are you running...? 10.4.11, 10.5.8, 10.6.8, 10.7.5 or 10.8.2
In any case, perhaps > Mac OS X: Gray screen appears during startup will help you out...

I have a white screen at startup after installing Yosemite. Help!

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Hello Hackdog1,
It sounds like you are unable to boot your Mac after updating to Yosemite I would recommend you use the troubleshooting in the following article to help resolve the issue:
Mac OS X: Gray screen appears during startup
Start with these steps, and work your way down the rest of the article if needed:
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).
Thank you for using Apple Support Communities.
All the very best,
Sterling

Macbook stuck at white screen on startup

Whenever I on my MacBook it gives off this white screen as seen in the pic. I tried command+r and holding down the option key on startup but it still leads me to this white screen. Help please and thanks on advance.

Mac OS X: Gray screen appears during startup - Apple Support
Intel-based Mac: Startup sequence and error codes, symbols - Apple Support
I think you'd better off making Genius Bar appointment and show them your problem.

White Screen during Startup

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