Grey status bar every boot

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Grey status bar every boot

Hi everyone,

I'm new here so please be gentle! I have been searching forums and the internet like crazy looking for an answer to this one and have been totally stumped so far so any help would be greatly appreciated.

I have a 2.4Ghz 24 inch Intel iMac which has been working fine up until (I think!) I applied the latest firmware update to the machine. Every since then, every time I boot the machine, I get the normal grey screen with the apple logo, but as an added bonus, a grey status bar. I then have to wait what seems like an AGE in comparison to the normal boot time for the status bar to do it's thing before the machine continues booting. As I say, I think it started after applying the latest firmware, but I can't be certain as I often put the machine into standby rather than powering off (even more so now that it takes so long to boot!).

I'm running Snow Leopard, plus the latest updates.

I anyone can give me any clues to get this one fixed I will be massively grateful!

Cheers,

Ian

iMac 24" 2.4Ghz, Mac OS X (10.6.2)

Posted on Dec 8, 2009 12:13 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Roald Hoolwerf

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40 points

Dec 8, 2009 1:18 AM in response to ianlazyboy

As this seems to be a recurring theme, could you check your Startup Disk?
*System Preferences* > *Startup Disk* > Check if your drive is selected.

If it's not, it'll look for several boot possibilities (like network booting and disc booting and such) which will take quite some time. By selecting the proper disk to startup from, it will skip the boot-possibilities-check and just go for it.

Hope this helps 🙂

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Answer 2

ianlazyboy Author

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Dec 8, 2009 1:47 AM in response to Roald Hoolwerf

Great, thanks very much for the help! I will check this tonight when I get home from work and feed back.

Cheers,

Ian

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Answer 3

ianlazyboy Author

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Dec 9, 2009 2:13 PM in response to Roald Hoolwerf

Finally got the chance to give this a try. I made sure the startup disk was selected, restarted the machine and I still get the same problem... 😟

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Answer 4

Dec 9, 2009 4:54 PM in response to ianlazyboy

I am experiencing this as well.

The only notable changes I have recently made are installing the LED Cinema Display iSight Firmware Update 1.0 and installing ScreenFlow.

I tried rebuilding permissions. No luck. I removed all USB connections from the MBP and it still happens. I chose the startup disk in System Preferences and it still happens.

Any other ideas?

Thanks

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Answer 5

Dec 10, 2009 9:27 AM in response to EarthStationOahu

Restored from a Time Machine backup. not fun, and not quick, but the problem is gone. I would advise against installing the latest LED camera firmware upgrade and/or the latest Java update if you have my setup.

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Answer 6

Dec 10, 2009 10:08 AM in response to EarthStationOahu

This issue is quite worrisome, but at least someone else has had it happen... My thread here ( http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2259359&tstart=0) describes the same issue, except, I did not even upgrade any firmware on the iMac recently.

iMac is incapable of booting up beyond the status bar and logo - then it just shuts off.

EDIT: Actually, now that I think of it, I did apply the recent Java update to the iMac...

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Answer 7

brasspig

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Dec 31, 2009 7:02 AM in response to Marginaljustice

I, too, am having the same issue. Every time I boot up, it takes at least 5 minutes for the status bar to complete. Can there be a simple fix for this?

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Answer 8

ianlazyboy Author

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Jan 1, 2010 12:17 AM in response to brasspig

Happy new year everyone!

I finally had another chance to look at this and had a bit of a headslap moment. I booted my iMac in verbose mode (by holding down cmd + v when starting up) and actually found out what is taking so long when it boots. It seems that when the mac checks the disk on startup it is finding a problem with the filesystem ('incorrect number of thread records' is the error to be exact) and is trying to repair it. It tries and fails three times before it decides to just try to boot anyway (which it does successfully).

So I have found the cause of my problem, which is good. Bad news is it appears to be the disk, which might be repairable, or might need replacing! I am going to try booting from my Snow Leopard CD (by inserting it and holding down C at boot time) and running a repair through disk utility.

Fingers crossed it works.... Will feed back in a little while.

Ian

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Answer 9

ianlazyboy Author

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Jan 1, 2010 12:27 AM in response to ianlazyboy

Ok, little update for you: Disk not repairable. Time to try a reformat and reinstall of Snow Leopard and then a restore from time machine....

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Answer 10

ianlazyboy Author

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Jan 1, 2010 7:11 AM in response to ianlazyboy

Problem finally fixed with a reformat of the drive and an OS reinstall.

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Answer 11

Feb 27, 2010 7:23 PM in response to ianlazyboy

I have the same problem: Grey status bar that makes imac take 5 min to boot. Disk doctor says to reformat the hd. Done that and the problem persists. Is the HD dying? It has only 3-4 months... It´s a 27" imac 3.06 Ghz. First all those performance problems, now this...

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