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Stuck on Grey Screen.. Won't Boot

I downloaded updates for itunes & quicktime yesterday.
My MBP asked for shutdown or restart.
I hit restart, now it won't boot.
I'm stuck on the grey screen with the spinning wheel.

Any help would greatly be appreciated.

Mac Book Pro, Mac OS X (10.4.10)

Posted on Nov 14, 2007 1:56 PM

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Posted on Nov 14, 2007 4:41 PM

try booting into safe mode by holding down the key while you start. If this works, you can run permissions repair. You can also insert the system DVD and reboot from it to run permissions repair and disk repair.
47 replies

Nov 14, 2007 7:51 PM in response to SSaied

I am having the same problem! I downloaded several updates including a update for intel macbook pros which could not install because of an error. It asked for a restart and said i could retry installing the update that did not take when it tried to shutdown it just went to a blank desktop for much longer than it should. I tried force quitting and other key combos which had no affect- so i turned it off manually by holding the power key. when i restarted it just stayed on the gray screen for ever and got extremely HOT! I turned it off again/waited until cool and tried starting in safe mode by holding shift. It did not work. just stayed on the gray screen with the apple and the spiny thing again. I then tried booting with the OSX disc the software installation came up and I used the disc utility like suggested. I checked the permissions which showed several to be wrong, so i repaired them by using the permissions repair. I quit the install disc software and chose to restart. IT DID NOT WORK

Nov 15, 2007 1:34 AM in response to SSaied

I am having the same problem as outlined by several users on this thread; 10.4.11 update failed with error, stuck on blank desktop, subsequently cannot get past grey start-up screen with spinning wheel.

I have managed to boot from Install disk and fixed permissions etc. I think that the problem though is this; the start-up disk is labelled there as 10.4.11 - though clearly it cannot be this as the update failed. Obviously it is only partially done.

Thus it is impossible to boot from this BUT it is also impossible to do an Archive and Install because the installer sees the OS as being a later version. It will only do a complete install and I personally cannot afford to lose my data.

So, questions; assuming the complete install will work, is there any way of retrieving this data before ? Will a Firewire connection to another mac do it?

Booting from an OS on another drive?

Nov 15, 2007 3:40 AM in response to SSaied

Same here. 😟

I upgraded to 10.4.11 last night, along with other updates I hadn't done (QuickTime, iTunes and a couple of others). On reboot the grey screen/progress wheel just spins and spins. After about 25 minutes I gave up and forced a shutdown.

I reboot in verbose mode (command-v) and it shows failure having to do with mDNSresponder and other things. I can startup in safe mode, and that's how I'm here now.

I made an appointment with a Genius for tomorrow afternoon. I'm in meetings all day today. I'm hoping there's something that can be done to salvage things without a complete reinstall.

Nov 15, 2007 9:47 AM in response to SSaied

I downloaded a series of updates yesterday, including the intel macbook pro update and encountered the same problem (grey screen, spinning cog). I ran the Disk Repair utility and found several small problems, which I fixed. This did not fix the problem. When speaking to a product specialist today, they told me this is a Directory problem encountered when installing an OS update to a corrupted Directory. The only fix is to reinstall the OS, checking the option to Archive and Save User information Option. I am doing so now and hope this fixes the problem. In the future, they told me to run the Disk Utility BEFORE installing any software updates to make sure the Directory is okay. The only downside is any Applications that inserted files in the Library or System Folder will have to be re-installed. This ***** because I don't know yet if I will still have my Adobe Creative Suite and I no longer have the disks, but at least my data will be saved. Lesson learned. Hope this helps.

Nov 15, 2007 11:17 AM in response to Mihai Codleanu

I have just finished with the process decribed above and I am happy to report it did fix the problem. I reinstalled my OS, with the Archive option (you will have to select this since the OS you are running is newer than the version you will be installing, plus you do not want to do a clean install to protect your data).
The good news is, all my Applications appear to be fine and the MBP is back to normal. I am having to perform a series of Software Updates to bring everything current again, including the Mac OS X 10.4.11 that appears to have initiated the whole issue in the first place. I am hoping that by fixing the Directory problem as described above, I will not have the same problem. Will keep you posted.

Nov 15, 2007 11:41 AM in response to SSaied

Final update (hopefully). Reinstalling OS X seems to have fixed the problem. All my Apps are okay. And I have successfully updated to OSX 10.4.11. There was a hairy moment on restart (it took forever and then rebooted itself), but everything has returned to normal (so far). It does take a looong time to reboot, but it works fine. So here is the process in a nutshell if you have this problem.
1. Restart your MBP with the Mac OSX Install Dic 1 by holding down the Option key (make sure you have Disc 2 handy).
2. Select the Install Disc as the Start Up Disc
3. Start Disk Utility and repair the Disk and Permissions.
4. Reinstall OSX (making sure to Archive and Save User Information)
5. Restart your MBP.
6. Download updates
7. Restart (hold breath)
In the future, run the Disk Utility before installing any upgrades, especially to the OS, to avoid this problem.
Good luck.

Stuck on Grey Screen.. Won't Boot

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