Advice if a mac mini wont boot (white screen)

[Sir Ruben]

Hi All,

Okay had my first 'glitch' today, but being a mac n00b i realised I didnt actually know what to do when things go wrong (unlike with a pc).

Basically I was watching a vid in VLC and a vid in Quicktime player. Afterwards I deleted the vid but couldnt empty it from trash as it said it was still in use. I had completely closed both players so I was confused as to why it was saying this.

I decided to reboot the mini but on doing so I was faced with a white screen. I turned the mac off via the power at the back and then on again. Same thing, white screen. I started searching websites via the iPad in a bit of a panic, but while doing this the mac eventually showed the apple logo and it began booting up normally.

Its now running okay (havent rebooted it again though), but can anyone offer some basic tips on what to do should this happen again but not boot at all.

Thanks in advance!

EDIT: Hmmm just rebooted again, seems I am getting a white screen for an extended amount of time before the apple logo shows each time now.

 

[dasx]

EDIT: Hmmm just rebooted again, seems I am getting a white screen for an extended amount of time before the apple logo shows each time now.

So it ends up booting? Have you then tried repairing permissions? What software did you install lately? (If any)

The trash thing usually happens. Don't worry if it happens again. Just forget about it and you'll be able to delete it after some minutes.

 

[Snowcake]

Hi All,

Okay had my first 'glitch' today, but being a mac n00b i realised I didnt actually know what to do when things go wrong (unlike with a pc).

Basically I was watching a vid in VLC and a vid in Quicktime player. Afterwards I deleted the vid but couldnt empty it from trash as it said it was still in use. I had completely closed both players so I was confused as to why it was saying this.

I decided to reboot the mini but on doing so I was faced with a white screen. I turned the mac off via the power at the back and then on again. Same thing, white screen. I started searching websites via the iPad in a bit of a panic, but while doing this the mac eventually showed the apple logo and it began booting up normally.

Its now running okay (havent rebooted it again though), but can anyone offer some basic tips on what to do should this happen again but not boot at all.

Thanks in advance!

EDIT: Hmmm just rebooted again, seems I am getting a white screen for an extended amount of time before the apple logo shows each time now.

These problems usually happens if OSX don't know where to boot from.

Go to: Apple --> System Preferences --> Startup Disk - and select OSX.

On your Mac it looks a little different, but generally it looks like the image below:

 

[Sir Ruben]

So it ends up booting? Have you then tried repairing permissions?

Yes it does boot eventually. How do I do this?

----------

These problems usually happens if OSX don't know where to boot from.

Go to: Apple --> System Preferences --> Startup Disk - and select OSX.

On your Mac it looks a little different, but generally it looks like the image below:
Image

Just tried this but it still takes just as long :/

I use time machine, is there any way I can just restore the mac? Would that help?

 

[Snowcake]

How do I do this?

Just follow the steps in this short youtube-video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qRKL-tQgtpE

 

[dasx]

Yes it does boot eventually. How do I do this?

Easy way: Open terminal and type:

diskutil repairPermissions /

 

[Sir Ruben]

Okay Ive just doe a vid so you can see exactly what happens from the moment I restart the mac:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8-zQiXtc0M&feature=plcp

So far I have tried:

* repairing the permissions
* resetting the pram
* System Preferences --> Startup Disk - and select OSX.

Not sure where to go next, will rolling back the mac to an earlier date resolve?

 

[dasx]

Try the following. Reboot and press the option key. It should show a list of bootable partitions pretty fast. Choose OSX's one and see if the white screen takes that long. If not it's a problem with the system knowing where to boot from.

 

[Sir Ruben]

Resolved!

Okay I have found the issue and it is resolved.

Firstly thanks for all the suggestions, they will all come in handy for future issues and I have had a speed lesson on trouble shooting mac issues so thanks. Thank god for helpful internet forums when you need help fast!

So on to the solution. A couple of you has mentioned the mac not knowing where to boot from which made sense. I was browsing my time machine settings and it said last backup was yesterday which was odd as I have had the mac on for hours. Then I saw it, next back up "when the drive is connected"!

Now the drive IS connected however have you ever found that external drives sometimes dont respond even though they are on and connected and a reboot kicks them back into action? I rebooted the external drive which brought it back to life and then rebooted the mac. This time it booted at the correct speed.

So from that all I can gather is that the mac detected the drive on startup however due to it not responding the mac was having a bit of a HDD dilemma as it couldnt prioritise the disks at startup (or something along those lines!). Hence the long wait at startup.

So again thanks to everyone who helped, it really has been a little bit of education for me, plus now that its fixed I can get on with all the home DIY that I promised the other half would get done today

 

[dasx]

The problem was probably the system trying to determine whether or not that drive was bootable. I guess it couldn't mount it therefore gave that long white screen while trying.

Good to know it's solved!