Resolved Startup stuck at "Loading drivers"

[AshFriedrich]

Hi all,

My Macbook Pro (mid 2012, i7, 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD) is hanging at startup. When I start it in verbose mode it goes as far as to "Loading drivers" and then a number of dots and then it just sits there (see attached image).

What I've tried so far is to reset SMC, PRAM, start in safe mode (didn't start), disk and permission repair from recovery and talking softly to it - none of which has worked.

I got worried it was a problem with the harddrive after reading about startup issues on forums, but I couldn't find anyone describing my exact problem. I also started the machine in 'target disk mode' and I could access all the files on the disk just fine. The harddrive is not even half a year old so it would be strange if it was faulty already no...?

The last thing I did before the problem arose was to install an app called Hear (https://www.prosofteng.com/hear/), which needed to restart the computer after installation. I'm assuming this has something to do with the problem..

Thanks for reading, I would greatly appreciate any input as to how I can resolve this.

Ash

 

[Weaselboy]

Logic would make you think that Hear install wrecked things, but if it still won't work with a safe mode boot (holding the shift key), that points away from the new app installation. A safe mode boot bypasses all startup and launch items and runs a stripped down OS for troubleshooting, so in theory even if Hear was messed up, a safe mode boot would bypass that.

Have you tried a command-r boot tor recovery? See if that works and use Disk Util from there to check the disk.

 

[AshFriedrich]

@Weaselboy
Thanks, that makes it even more of a mystery then.. As I wrote above I have tried disk repair and permissions from recovery to no avail.

The Hear app puts itself as a filter before the sound output, like an 'aggregate device' I would guess, but maybe it has more tricks up it's sleeve since it needed a restart after installation. I don't know. Since can access the disk just fine from another machine, is there I way I can uninstall the app remotely or something? I don't know if that would even be the way forward but at least I can access the disk so maybe that is of some help.

Thanks,
Ash

 

[Weaselboy]

I still don't understand how it could be launching in safe mode though. It is worth a try killing it from target disk mode. Try looking in all these folders for any startup items associated with it.

/Library/LaunchAgents
/Library/LaunchDaemons
/System/Library/LaunchAgents
/System/Library/LaunchDaemons
username/Library/LaunchAgents

 

[AshFriedrich]

Reading more about this it seems one possible solution would be to reinstall Mavericks through recovery. It says here on apples pages that I won't loose any files or settings. Can someone tell me what actually is changed then? I guess something must disappear..

 

[AshFriedrich]

@Weaselboy: thanks, just looked through those folders and couldn't find anything hinting at the name 'hear' or the developers 'prosoft'. Strange.

I guess it would have helped if starting in verbose mode gave more info then those dots.. It's a very odd way to be verbose, unless the apple devs are like "oh, it stops at the 37th dot, that would mean it's this driver right here"

 

[Weaselboy]

Reading more about this it seems one possible solution would be to reinstall Mavericks through recovery. It says here on apples pages that I won't loose any files or settings. Can someone tell me what actually is changed then? I guess something must disappear..

Yeah... just a straight reinstall without erasing the drive will not wipe any settings or anything.

Do you have a backup though? This scares me a little because a reinstall causes a LOT of disk activity and if you have a failing disk causing this, all the work of a reinstall could push it over the edge.

 

[AshFriedrich]

@Weaselboy thanks again, then I will try this when I've made a proper backup.

 

[AshFriedrich]

Reinstalling OSX solved the problem of the indigestible loading driver dots.

Thanks @Weaselboy for helping me through!