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Mac boots but stays on gray screen

P

Photobychad

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Sep 29, 2011
6
0
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My Mac startup but then it goes toa gray screen.But when i boot into safe mode it cones up and then i went into disk utility and run a disk repair . It let it do it stuff when I came back i did a system software update. And then it told me to restart . So I restart it . Then it just went back to the gray screen and it's been like that for like 10 mins . So I shut it down. So can you guys help me out ??
 
Probably a corrupt preference or cache or something. Google Applejack and run it in Singleuser Mode.
 
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Oh k and if this does't work what should I do ?
 
Repair the Disk directory. Boot to DVD or repair partition and use Disk Utility to repair. If that fails get a copy of Diskwarrior and do the same thing but with DW.
 
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Oh k now what ?
 
Many things you can do still. I'd back up your data and you can do a archive preserve and install 10.5 and below with the OS disk. I believe 10.6 does archive preserve install in a different way but all the same it does it somehow, so it preserves your current applications and documents. Then you will need to update the OS again to get it up to date.

Now you could have a bad hard drive with bad sectors (blocks). Or a bad controller, or bad read write head or arm. Some different diagnostic programs can give you detailed results on that. You can run Tech Tool if you have it and it can tell you these things, so you know if its time to replace that hard drive.

However usually a grinding, really noisy or clicking drive is a sign(s) of a failing drive. With those signs its the drive and time to replace it. Hope this was of some help.
 
If you can still boo up in safe boot, you probably have a kernel extension or startup item in your root system folder that is causing the non-boot issue.
That's pretty tricky. If it was me I would boot to single user mode (cmmd-s) mount the file system and peruse the extensions via Unix shell and remove the offender if they are relatively apparent.
You could also boot to safe mode, look through HD/Library for applications that have placed things there. The best bet is to do the archive and install which will replace your system folders hopefully clearing out whatever you installed or got corrupted. Do this first as the rest is very tedious. Or backup everything in your home folder and wipe the thing.
 
I had a similar issue few weeks back, after hours of looking around the configurations at the end of the day it was a SD memory card that was plugged in my Dell monitor that I totally forgot it was there and was the culprit. Once the SD card was removed it booted as usual, cant explain how that would affect it but for me that was the solution.
 
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So I went to best buy and bought a brand new hard drive . And then I put in the Mac snow leopard cd and did a C boot at startup and now my Mac is stuck on blue screen benn waiting for 10 mins . And it's out of warranty . . So now what can you guys help me out !!!
 
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I went and bought a new hard drive and So I went to best buy and bought a brand new hard drive . And then I put in the Mac snow leopard cd and did a C boot at startup and now my Mac is stuck on blue screen benn waiting for 10 mins . And it's out of warranty . . So now what can you guys help me out !!!
 
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My Mac Pro model number is A1186
And my Disc Is the one for my Mac pro . It the gray cd for Mac . Now what ??
 
Photobychad said:
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My Mac Pro model number is A1186
And my Disc Is the one for my Mac pro . It the gray cd for Mac . Now what ??
Click to expand...

You're saying 2 different things. Just to clarify you have a 2.66GHz 1,1 Mac pro and the grey disc it came with has 10.6 on it? Cause that is impossible.
Please clarify versions for additional help.
 
A dying GPU will also cause these symptoms.

Remove one of the crucial kexts for it and if it still boots to grey screen you can rule out GPU. If removing one of the 3D kexts allows it it to boot normally, you have a dying GPU.

BTW, if you installed a 5770/5870 and try to use the installer CD with 10.4 or 10.5 on it it may very well not work.
 
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