for how long? i tried holding the option key for 20 sec during startup then i got a blank grey screen with no flashing question mark but still cant get my laptop startup..help! ps i upgraded to lion a few months back, havent had any problems with that.
MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.7.2)
What are you attempting to do? If you are trying to invoke the boot manager, then do this:
Restart the computer and immediately upon hearing the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears.
If you are trying to boot the Recovery HD of Lion:
Restart the computer and upon hearing the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the menu screen appears.
i cant get my laptop to start. When I press power, screen immediately is grey, no chime. Then a minute later i get the flashing question mark. i tried pressing option immediately after i hit power. then i get grey screen again with no question mark. but then nothing...just stays grey
Then you need to reinstall Lion:
Reinstalling Lion Without Erasing the Drive
Boot to the Recovery HD: Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the menu screen appears. Alternatively, restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD and click on the downward pointing arrow button.
Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions: Upon startup select Disk Utility from the main menu. Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions as follows.
When the recovery menu appears select Disk Utility. 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 click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU and return to the main menu.
Reinstall Lion: Select Reinstall Lion and click on the Continue button.
Note: You can also re-download the Lion installer by opening the App Store application. Hold down the OPTION key and click on the Purchases icon in the toolbar. You should now see an active Install button to the right of your Lion purchase entry. There are situations in which this will not work. For example, if you are already booted into the Lion you originally purchased with your Apple ID or if an instance of the Lion installer is located anywhere on your computer.
If you are unable to do this then you will need to reinstall Snow Leopard, update it to 10.6.8, then redownload Lion from the App Store. This assumes your computer did not come with Lion pre-installed.
I sooo want this to work.....but there is NO chime. I tried hitting the command and r despite no chime, but all i get is the flashing question mark
Zap the PRAM and Reset the SMC, then try again.
hold the option key during startup?
