MacBook Pro hanging with blue screen and spinner after installing Software Update

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Level 1

8 points

MacBook Pro hanging with blue screen and spinner after installing Software Update

Hi I was wondering if someone could help me with this current issue. Just a few hours ago I finished reinstalling Mac OS X Snow Leopard in my MacBook Pro. I performed a clean installation as part of a yearly spring cleaning that I do on all my systems to keep them optimized. So there was I downloading some software updates which included the combo update of OSX 10.6.8 and others. The updates finished downloading and the system logged out to install the updates, when the updates finished installing my MacBook proceeded by logging out into a blue screen and show a gray spinner similar to the one seen when you start your Mac. Here's the problem after 2 hours the system is showing the spinner and the blue screen, I think that my computer has just hanged in the reboot process.

I was wondering what should I do? Do a force restart? Or leave it overnight?

Also, where can I find any information on what error is causing this issue?

I appreciate your responses and help.

By the way, I installed Mac OS X from a USB stick that has the original image of the disk installer that came bundled with my computer.

Posted on Feb 21, 2012 6:58 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

Kappy

Level 10

361,731 points

Feb 21, 2012 7:02 PM in response to mikey110

Force a shutdown. Do not restart yet, but first do the following:

Repair the Hard Drive

Boot from your Snow Leopard Installer disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu. After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported, then quit DU and return to the installer.

If DU reports errors it cannot fix, then you will need Disk Warrior and/or Tech Tool Pro to repair the drive. If you don't have either of them or if neither of them can fix the drive, then you will need to reformat the drive and reinstall OS X.

Next, boot into Safe Mode then restart normally.

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Answer 2

mikey110 Author

Level 1

8 points

Feb 21, 2012 7:11 PM in response to Kappy

Kappy wrote:

Force a shutdown. Do not restart yet, but first do the following:

Repair the Hard Drive

Boot from your Snow Leopard Installer disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu. After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported, then quit DU and return to the installer.

If DU reports errors it cannot fix, then you will need Disk Warrior and/or Tech Tool Pro to repair the drive. If you don't have either of them or if neither of them can fix the drive, then you will need to reformat the drive and reinstall OS X.

Next, boot into Safe Mode then restart normally.

Hi Kappy,

Checked the hard drive after forcing a shutdown and booting from my Snow Leopard Installer USB Key and the status of the HDD says "Verified". I ran the repair and the volume was repaired successfully. Clicked on "Verify Disk" and it says "Macintosh HD appears to be OK". So I ran a second repair and again no errors were reported.

As suggested I booted back again in Safe Mode and restarted normally. All software appears to have been installed successfully. But I don't understand why my computer hanged and showed the spinner after installing the updates in the blue screen that appears just before rebooting. I am aware that the system shows that spinner after a OS update but the longest it lasts is 30 seconds at the most in my previous cases.

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Answer 3

Kappy

Level 10

361,731 points

Feb 21, 2012 7:14 PM in response to mikey110

Does it shutdown OK now? If so then don't worry about it. Just a glitch - one of those things.

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Answer 4

mikey110 Author

Level 1

8 points

Feb 21, 2012 7:24 PM in response to Kappy

Yes the computer shut down OK... After returning from Safe Mode and it shut down fine in Normal Mode as well.I ran SU for a second time to get the Security, Safari, Java, and other updates and the updates installed fine and the system rebooted successfully.

The fact that it hanged still bugs me but what can I do? 😉 Well let's hope is smooth sailing after this.

Thanks for the assistance.

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