My MacBook Pro is stuck on the gray boot screen

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My MacBook Pro is stuck on the gray boot screen

I hope someone out there can help. When I try to turn on my MacBook, it chimes and then sits on the gray screen with the wheel thing spinning.

I tried booting in safe mode, clearing the PRAM and I have tried booting to the install disk and running disk repair and permissions repair. No change. When I restart, it goes back to the gray screen and stays there.

Any help would be very helpful. 😀

Cheers.

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.2)

Posted on Jan 7, 2010 12:22 PM

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Answer 1

CygnusDK Author

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Jan 7, 2010 12:42 PM in response to CygnusDK

More info:

When I try safe boot, I see a progress bar, but when it is approximately one-third of the way full it disappears and the gray screen with the spinning wheel is all that remains.... and it stays that way.

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Answer 2

dwb

Level 7

32,920 points

Jan 7, 2010 1:34 PM in response to CygnusDK

I was all set to suggest safe boot - you've been there already. You might want to try restarting in Verbose mode ( command V ) to see where the stall is occurring. A bit more troubleshooting: Grab your OS system disc and try booting with it - insert the DVD restart and hold the 'C' key. If you stall at the grey screen with it restart again and hold the 'D' key to enter diagnostics.

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Answer 3

CygnusDK Author

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Jan 7, 2010 1:57 PM in response to dwb

Hi DWB,

When I boot to the Install Disk, I am able to run Disk Utilities. But even though the HD is declared verified and working, when I try to reboot the computer using the HD, it stalls on the gray screen.

I tried holding d and nothing happened.

Holding Cmd+V opened verbose mode and after a few restarts using Cmd+V to verify that the problem was consistent, I can say that it is.

The last 9 lines (let me know if you need more...I was just wanting to avoid typing them all 🙂 ) are:

com.apple.launchd 1 com.apple.launchd 1 *launched[1] has started up. *
com.apple.launchd 1 com.apple.launchd 1 *Verbose boot; will log to /dev/console. *
Bug: launchtl.c:3557 (23930):6: ioctl((s6, SIOCAIFADDR_ING,&ifra6) != -1
Running fsck on the boot volume...
Executing fsck_hfs (version diskdev_cmds-491~1).
launchctl: Dubious permissions on file (skipping): /Library/LaunchDaemons
launchctl: Dubious permissions on file (skipping): /System/Library/LaunchDaemons
launchctl: Dubious permissions on file (skipping): /etc/mach_init.d
AppleIntelCPUPowerManagement: initialization complete

There is only what appears to be a white cursor on the next line and that is where it hangs.

I hope that you will know what all that means. 🙂

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Answer 4

CygnusDK Author

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Jan 7, 2010 2:33 PM in response to CygnusDK

Ok, I have found a similar problem with an answer that makes me really uncomfortable.

http://discussions.info.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2281342

The problem is that I have been on vacation and haven't backed up for a month.

Any ideas on how to save my information.

And yes, I now know that applying the changes to all was a bad idea. Thank you. 🙂

I was trying to fix another problem, which is now obviously not worth worrying about until later. 😀

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Answer 5

dwb

Level 7

32,920 points

Jan 7, 2010 2:52 PM in response to CygnusDK

With luck, the important piece of information discovered from your verbose boot is that the failure is happening once the boot process has moved on to the hard drive and the boot from your DVD and drive check shows the drive is functional. Your operating system appears to be hosed though.

It can't hurt to attempt to install the OS again. Just boot with the SL DVD and try doing an installation - don't erase the drive, just try installing the OS.

This is one reason why I use both TimeMachine and bootable clone backup (two different drives). Even if my backups were old, I could boot with the external bootable clone, attempt to copy the important files from the computer's hard drive, and then all else failing, erase the drive, and restore using either the clone or TimeMachine and copy the files I retrieved.

If need be, you can sorta do this by installing a fresh copy of SL on an external drive and then try to copy files from the computer to it.

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Answer 6

CygnusDK Author

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Jan 7, 2010 5:01 PM in response to dwb

Hey dwb,

Thanks for your help. At the moment I'm using the Terminal to transfer some Must-not-Lose type data to an external hd, just to make sure. 😀

And of course, I started thinking... does anyone know the permissions/files/preferences I would have to change or delete to fix this problem?

Cheers.

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Answer 7

dwb

Level 7

32,920 points

Jan 8, 2010 4:21 AM in response to CygnusDK

does anyone know the permissions/files/preferences I would have to change or delete to fix this problem?

There are thousands of files that make up the System - I don't think anyone has charted the permissions of each one...and do you really want to begin setting them back to rights? Just reinstall.

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Answer 8

CygnusDK Author

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Jan 8, 2010 5:32 AM in response to dwb

I figured as much, but I had to ask... 'cause ya never know... 😀

Thanks for the help.

Kim

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