White screen of death/blinking folder icon

My wife's macbook has a white screen of death which started when she had to force-quit out of firefox. The wheel of death spun for a good 15 minutes before she powered it off. Upon turning it on again, nothing but a white screen with a flashing folder icon that starts after a few minutes.
I've crawled other forums and was attempting to follow these instructions: http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=7740855. I am able to put the install disk in, hold c, and get to the installer to run disk utility. I see her hard drive with a "smart status: verified."
The HD has a sub entry which I assume is supposed to be the partition. The instructions said to click repair disk, but the option is grayed out because the partition is not mounted: "mount point: not mounted."
I see the mount button in the top bar, but I wanted to double check that this is what I should do before mucking around. I'm PC-savvy, but pretty noobish when it comes to macs. I haven't touched anything yet, so I have access to anything in the install screen. Recommendations?

Yes, go ahead and select the Mount function. However, it is not necessarily going to mount considering that it crashed in the first place while using an app and then would not restart after a forced shut down. That should not have happened, and may indicate there is something amiss with the drive.

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MacBook Pro won't boot at start. I get a white screen with a blinking folder with a question mark in the middle. Any ideas?

MacBook Pro won't boot at start. I get a white screen with a blinking folder with a question mark in the middle. Any ideas?

Read this article...
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1440?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US

What does a white screen with a flashing folder icon with a question mark in it mean?, what does a white screen with a flashing folder icon with a question mark in it mean?

My computer seemed locked up, nothing would open. I had to force quiy everthing. I tried to normally shut it down and it wouldnt shut down. I held the on off power switch. When I tried to turn it back on It stays tuck on the white screen with a flashing folder icon with a question mark in it . Has my hard drive gone bad?

Reboot the computer holding the option key down, you will get a selection of your OS X internal boot drive or the perhaps the disk you stuck in.
You can choose what you can boot into.
If it's the hard drive and it's there, then select that and head to System Preferences and change the startup disk to the hard drive, you shoudl be fine.
If only to disk, then select that and run Disk Utility > Repair, If your drive doesn't appear on the left, it's likely dead.
Repair the drive and reboot holding the Shift key down, see if that fixes things some more and reboot again normally.
https://discussions.apple.com/community/notebooks/macbook_pro?view=documents

White screen with a blinking file icon

just turned on my MacBook and get a white screen with a blinking file with a question mark on it. It won't do anything and I have no idea what is wrong.
Please help!

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1440

My PC won't startup normally or in safe mode . I have a white screen with a flashing folder icon which has a ? on it. How do I get it to start?

My PC will not start normally or in safe mode. I have tried several times in safe mode. All I have now is a white screen with a folder icon containing a ? questiomark. This icon is flashing. No cursor available.

The blinking question mark means the startup drive can't be found.
It could be that it has failed or needs major repair. Boot from the Snow Leopard DVD and run Disk Utility.

Mac stuck at white screen later shows blinking folder with question mark

Today for some reason my mac froze and I had to manually start it back up. After I started it back up it was stuck at a white screen and later on a blinking folder with a question mark came up. I've tried using shortcut keys on startup but none of them are working. it just keeps on showing the white screen and later on the blinking folder with the question mark. Is it just a problem with the HDD that's supposed to read the HD? Or is my HD the problem and I lost all my data?
MacBook Pro
Late 2012 model
15 Inch

Reinstalling OS X Without Erasing the Drive
Boot to the Recovery HD: Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the menu screen appears. Alternatively, restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD and click on the downward pointing arrow button.
Reinstalling OS X Without Erasing the Drive
Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions: Upon startup select Disk Utility from the main menu. Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions as follows.
When the recovery menu appears select Disk Utility and press the Continue button. After Disk Utility loads select the Macintosh HD entry from the the left side list. Click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If Disk Utility reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit Disk Utility and return to the main menu.
Reinstall OS X: Select Reinstall OS X and click on the Continue button.
Note: You will need an active Internet connection. I suggest using Ethernet if possible because it is three times faster than wireless.
Alternatively, see:
Reinstall OS X Without Erasing the Drive
Choose the version you have installed now:
OS X Yosemite- Reinstall OS X
OS X Mavericks- Reinstall OS X
OS X Mountain Lion- Reinstall OS X
OS X Lion- Reinstall Mac OS X
Note: You will need an active Internet connection. I suggest using Ethernet
if possible because it is three times faster than wireless.

My MacBook Pro won't start. Every time it has a white screen with a blinking folder in the middle with a question mark inside... What should I do?

Thanks for any suggestions!

There are four general causes of this issue:
1. The computer's PRAM no longer contains a valid startup disk setting when there aren't any problems with the disk itself. This can be checked for by pressing the Option key and seeing if the drive appears.
2. The internal drive's directory structure has become damaged. This requires usage of an alternate bootable system to perform the repair.
3. Critical system files have been deleted. This requires usage of an alternate bootable system to reinstall them.
4. The internal drive has died or become unplugged. This is the most likely case if the computer took a sharp impact or there are unusual sounds coming from its location.
(91987)

At start up I get a white screen then eventually a blinking folder icon with a question mark in the middle

Help! As of today, my iMac will not boot up. When I turn it on I get a blank white screen then, after about a minute, a blinking folder icon with a question mark in the middle.

Find your original install disk, insert it and re-boot holding the "C" key during startup. It will take longer but should boot. Then you need to select Disk Utilityfrom the Menu Bar. Do a Repair Disk on your hard drive. When it finishes re-boot normally.

TS1812 Hi Everyone, I have tried all the solutions mentioned by apple and still have a white screen with a blinking file folder with a question mark in the center, anyone have any ideas or experienced this?

Hi Everyone, I have tried all the solutions mentioned by apple and still have a white screen with a blinking file folder with a question mark in the center, anyone have any ideas or experienced this?

Nooo or you would use OS X Recovery Mode: Disk Utilty and then Startup Disk.
Mac OS X & Mountain Lion Community
https://discussions.apple.com/community/mac_os
https://discussions.apple.com/community/mac_os/os_x_mountain_lion?view=discussio ns
Recovery Mode
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4718
ExpressLane
https://expresslane.apple.com/
Mac OS X Help
http://www.apple.com/support/macbasics/
Isolating Issues in Mac OS
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1388
https://www.apple.com/support/osx/
https://www.apple.com/support/quickassist/
http://www.apple.com/support/mac101/help/
http://www.apple.com/support/mac101/tour/
Get Help with your Product
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=304725

White screen of death w/ question mark folder & cd in drive

Ok, so i left my MacBook running overnight downloading off of Limewire and I woke up to it not responding to anything. A restart left me with the white screen of death and then eventually showed the folder with a question mark. Now i know i can put my installation disk in but there is already a disk in the computer and it will not eject. What do I do?

ok, i finally reset some pmv...thing. i forget the name. anyways, the disk came out, and i have the question mark folder to deal with now. only catch, the install disk is at home & i'm at school. anyway to deal with this without a disk?
p.s. thank you for getting back to me so soon.
Message was edited by: joshalo3

After installing windows xp accidentlly i erased macintosh hard disc. Now my macbook shows blank white screen with sign of folder with '?' blinking. Now what to do please help

After installing windows xp accidentlly i erased macintosh hard disc. Now my macbook shows blank white screen with sign of folder with '?' blinking. Now what to do please help

Avoid using hand-tools or power equipment .
"My mac book did not come with dvd. Now what should i do?"
Bring it to the Apple store. They can help.

Hi, I have an iMac which I just booted up and have a white screen with a blue folder with a question mark blinking on and off. Any help would be appreciated. Tommy

Hi, I have an iMac which I just booted up and have a white screen with a blue folder with a question mark blinking on and off. Any help would be appreciated. Tommy

That means your iMac could not find a system to use for startup. That may mean the internal hard drive has become faulty, or the hard drive mechanism is fine, but the startup volume ("Macintosh HD" unless you renamed it) may have some type of data corruption that makes it unbootable.
First, you should try resetting PRAM
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1379
and if that does not help, use this procedure to reset SMC (power management). If your iMac is from 2008, this is the procedure for Intel (not PowerPC) Macs.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3964
(This forum category is for "iMac (PPC)," so if this iMac is older (with a PowerPC processor), please post back.)
Disconnect all peripheral devices. When you connect it back to power, if you have been using a power strip of some type, try connecting it directly to a wall outlet, by itself (at least initially). Start up with nothing but the power cord connected, then add only standard mouse and keyboard. If it works, run it that way for a while.
If PRAM and SMC reset have no effect, you should insert your Mac OS X installation disc (for the currently installed system) in the optical drive, and restart with the C key held down. This should get you to the Installer screen, where you can run Disk Utility from the Utilities menu.
In Disk Utility, does the internal hard drive appear in the sidebar? If so, select Macintosh HD in the sidebar and go to the First Aid tab. Use Repair Disk. If an error is found, note if Disk Utility was able to fix it or not.
You can then quit Disk Utility and attempt to restart normally.

Imac G5 ALS shows grey screen with blinking folder icon on startup

Helping a friend - her imac G5 got the blinking folder icon with question mark and grey screen and then wouldn't start. She had OS 10.4.11. I booted from install disk successfully- Disk Util said No repairs Necessary. Disk Warrior hung (never had that happen before). Performed Safe Boot. Multiple reboots were all successful.
But a few days later, it happened again. Then I did a clean install of 10.5 and all software updates. Restored her user folder from a clone I'd made before starting. All seemed well.
Now, the grey screen with folder question mark still occurs fairly often. If she restarts, she does get booted. (so far anyway)
My question: what do I need to do to resolve the grey screen with blinking folder icon on startup?
Additionally, the computer is slower than before. Does Leopard run slower on these machines than Tiger? (I'd already advised her to get more ram)
Thanks for your help!

The blinking folder means just that, it can't find an OS to boot to. Tray zapping the PRAM and it wouldn't hurt to run Rember and if the RAM checks out, she might want to add some, 512 is really a minimum, and Leopard should really have at least 1GB.

IPod Nano white screen of death - RESURRECTED! :D

Alright, here's the deal...A friend of mine has a new iPod Nano and gave it to me because it had stopped working, and was hoping it was worth something to recover. Sorry about the long story!
It _wouldn't_ turn on. But, when connecting it to the computer via the USB dock cable, it comes on for a few seconds on a grey-whitish screen. Then turns back off, reboots, and tries again. Step 1 step 2. Nothing.
Although, 'Diagnostics mode' or whatnot it is, does work however. It would still be a faint grey screen, but whiter and more vibrant, as if it's saying "Hey, I'm alive! I'm alive!!!" and I can go through settings and make it (sometimes) change colors, and reboot the iPod.
I was thinking since iTunes never recognized it (It was plugged in the whole time) that I would drown in just for the sake of it.
Well, 3 hours later after attempting to kill the poor thing, it... resurrected itself.
I'm serious, it really seems to have unbelievably done it. When turning it on, I get 2 beeps, but no restart loop, the LCD stays on the white screen though, BUT, here's the good thing.
NOW, I hear the system 'click' sounds when using the buttons and such that it's going through the menu, good news so far! It seems like it because after the 'boot' sequence (it appears to boot very fast, strangely).
The good thing is (kinda) https://discussions.apple.com/thread/1517571?start=0&tstart=0 ... So I suspect that somehow, this method of submerging it under water, letting it dry, blowdrying it, and then leaving it in the heat, somehow restored the SD chip inside of it... possibly only for now... I'm going to use this moment to hopefully get all data off the device, and see for one last time if it's fully restorable...
I have the power! Ok, so I hooked it up to the wall charger (just put the wall connector on the USB cord) and it now beeps two times, and after about 30 seconds or so, I get to the main menu, screen still white, but I can certainly hear the click letting me know I'm 'navigating' the iPod. It doesn't appear to have any music on it, or maybe it does, but I need to connect some earphones first. Or, it supposed to be display the 'sad iPod' icon, but I just don't see it, therefor, I'm blind as to the status of it.
I likely guess it's the battery, since every time I disconnect it, it goes dead. Yep, just looked back, still on. Yep, still menu clicking. Yep, I can start it with no problems now. Any clue what I can try to do to resolve this? Obviously it's turning on, and it seems to be doing something, it boots, (apparently) so that's a good sign.
Please, is there any hope at all in this iPod? At all?
AND, IT JUST BEEPED 2 TIMES AGAIN! And I was just typing... why did it do this? (Funny thing is, how it still works!) Is that really the menu button clicking? That would explain it, I mean it only plays the menu clicking sound AFTER about 30 seconds of it 'booting' to the iPod firmware, so it obviously has some sort of life to it. If I hook up my earphones... Holy Mac! I hear music! It's alive!!! It's alive!!! Oh my man!!! Yes!
It has hope, in a way!
Atleast, I hope, but it works! Freaking amazing! Jamming to some awesome beats right now, some cool hip hop, sound quality you ask? Great, actually! I don't know how, don't want to know, but it seems trying to kill this iPod actually resulted in it being resurrected? How? Who knows! This is awesome! iPod truly CAN have 2 lives, I guess!
Cool stuff, I swear on that! My favorite song was on here too!
How to adjust the volume on the iPod Nano? I don't care, it's playing at full volume, and it's awesome!
The sad thing is, it still has the white screen of death, and the battery is apparently fried still (or needs a good 24-hour charging).
This iPod has been sitting dead as a dud in the storage room for a good 1 year or so, unused. And now it came back to life in a flash. Unbelievable.
I love you Apple.

Your problem was moisture. It was wet inside and sitting around for a year let it all dry up.
If you get this kind of thing happening, speed the process up by putting the iPod into a zip lock baggie with a dessicant (you know those little silica pouches) or even some rice to absorb the moisture. Let it sit for a few days and it should dry it all out.
i

My new mac mini (3 month) didn't start up,all that appeared was a white screen and a flashing folder with a question mark inside it.

My new Mac mini (3 month) didn't start up, all that appeared was a white screen and a flashing folder with a question mark inside it.
I followed by recommendations from 'Everything Mac': "shut it down by pressing and holding the power button for about 5 seconds.
Then hold down the Option key and press the power button again to start up the Mac mini. Keep holding down the Option key until
the Mac mini starts up."
But I got a Wi-Fi button only to chose and connect the local network. I connected to my network and I can't use this connection
becouse no icons.
Could you please help me?

Your Mini (running 10.6.4) should have come with grey-colored install disks. Now is the time to put them into service. Turn on your computer so that there is power to accept disk #1 into the optical drive. Once the disk is in the drive, shut off the computer by holding the start button down until it powers off. Then turn it on this time holding down the "C" key to make the computer boot from the disk. The question mark that you saw indicates that the computer cannot find a bootable volume. This can happen due to corrupted system files or an improper shutdown etc. Once you are in the "Installer" you can choose Disk Utility from the Utilities Menu in the menu bar. Use it to repair the disk and to see if that can solve your trouble.

White screen of death/blinking folder icon

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