Late 2012 iMac Freezing at Boot

[pmfjoe]

Have a Late 2012 Imac 12.5" that is freezing during the boot process, the status bar stalls at about halfway (sometimes 99% of the way). The unit will boot into Safe Mode though.

• I have replaced the hard drive because I originally thought that was failing but this has not helped.
• I have also tried installing Sierra and High Sierra on the new drive.
• Holding D or Option+D does not bring up any diagnostics on either the old or new drive.
• Have tried using Verbose Mode, but it scrolls through everything and then winds up at an Apple Logo with a status bar and freezes.
• I did try a diagnostic program from the store but if found nothing (sorry, I can't remember the name).

Any suggestions on what the cause could be?

 

[Fishrrman]

IF it will boot in safe mode and then let you enter your password to get "to the finder", then I don't think it's a drive problem, and wasn't one in the first place.

It could be an extension or something that is trying to load at bootup that is stopping the boot process.
When you boot to safe mode, the Mac -ignores- 3rd party software/extensions.

I would remove or isolate any 3rd party extensions you have installed, if you've installed any.

Something to try next:
a. boot to safe mode
b. open users & groups pref pane
c. create a NEW, temporary account. Give it whatever username and password you wish. MAKE SURE you give it administrative privileges.
d. Now, log out of your "regular" account and log into the NEW account.
e. once again, open users & groups, and DISABLE automatic login (for your regular account) if you had that selected. You want the Mac to boot to the login screen.
f. Now, power down, ALL THE WAY OFF
g. press the power on button.
h. does the Mac get to the login screen?
i. if so, can you now log into your NEW, temporary account?
j. right to the finder?

IF that's the case, again, in points to "something wrong" in your regular account. It could be "a login item", or some other app/file/process that opens when your account opens. I'll bet that's what's "hanging it up".

 

[pmfjoe]

IF it will boot in safe mode and then let you enter your password to get "to the finder", then I don't think it's a drive problem, and wasn't one in the first place.

It could be an extension or something that is trying to load at bootup that is stopping the boot process.
When you boot to safe mode, the Mac -ignores- 3rd party software/extensions.

I would remove or isolate any 3rd party extensions you have installed, if you've installed any.

Something to try next:
a. boot to safe mode
b. open users & groups pref pane
c. create a NEW, temporary account. Give it whatever username and password you wish. MAKE SURE you give it administrative privileges.
d. Now, log out of your "regular" account and log into the NEW account.
e. once again, open users & groups, and DISABLE automatic login (for your regular account) if you had that selected. You want the Mac to boot to the login screen.
f. Now, power down, ALL THE WAY OFF
g. press the power on button.
h. does the Mac get to the login screen?
i. if so, can you now log into your NEW, temporary account?
j. right to the finder?

IF that's the case, again, in points to "something wrong" in your regular account. It could be "a login item", or some other app/file/process that opens when your account opens. I'll bet that's what's "hanging it up".

Thank you, unless it is a default extension, it froze on the first boot after installing MacOS to the new drive prior to even creating an account, so I am assuming it is some type of hardware issue.