I had a lot of tabs open and several applications as well. things really slowed up when I added El media player to the mix. finally computer froze completely and now can't get it to restart (stuck on grey screen) tried SMR plus PRAM procedures without success.
MacBook Air (Late 2008), Mac OS X (10.6.7)
Hmm... try doing this:
1) Force your Mac to shut down by pressing and holding the power button for about 5 sec.
2) Start in Safe Mode. Press the power button to turn it on, and before you hear the Startup "Dummmmm" chime, hold down the Shift key. For a few sec, you won't see the Apple logo. Keep pressing the Shift key until you see it. If you press it after the Apple logo appears, start from Step 1 again.
3) This time, your Mac should take longer to boot. (Like a minute or 2 longer as it is going thru the necessary files to boot from, and not just everything like in Normal Startup mode; which caused it to hang)
4) Does your Mac boot sucessfully to the Login Screen or Desktop? The login Screen should show SAFE MODE in red at the top. The Desktop should have Sound disabled and seems a lot slower. If you see either of these, backup ALL your files (if you have not already done so) on to an External HDD. Create a new User Account in System Preferences>Accounts with about the same info as your current account (The name will have to be different though, if your previous account was John, this time, add your last name as in John Appleseed.) Make sure it is an Admin account. Then, login into the new account and delete your previous account. Copy all your files over to your new account and restart your Mac correctly by going to Apple Menu>Restart.
5) This time, don't press anything and let it boot normally. Does your Mac boot correctly? I hope that helps you a little. Get back to me if it does not work! 😉
Hmm... try doing this:
1) Force your Mac to shut down by pressing and holding the power button for about 5 sec.
2) Start in Safe Mode. Press the power button to turn it on, and before you hear the Startup "Dummmmm" chime, hold down the Shift key. For a few sec, you won't see the Apple logo. Keep pressing the Shift key until you see it. If you press it after the Apple logo appears, start from Step 1 again.
3) This time, your Mac should take longer to boot. (Like a minute or 2 longer as it is going thru the necessary files to boot from, and not just everything like in Normal Startup mode; which caused it to hang)
4) Does your Mac boot sucessfully to the Login Screen or Desktop? The login Screen should show SAFE MODE in red at the top. The Desktop should have Sound disabled and seems a lot slower. If you see either of these, backup ALL your files (if you have not already done so) on to an External HDD. Create a new User Account in System Preferences>Accounts with about the same info as your current account (The name will have to be different though, if your previous account was John, this time, add your last name as in John Appleseed.) Make sure it is an Admin account. Then, login into the new account and delete your previous account. Copy all your files over to your new account and restart your Mac correctly by going to Apple Menu>Restart.
5) This time, don't press anything and let it boot normally. Does your Mac boot correctly? I hope that helps you a little. Get back to me if it does not work! 😉
Thank you for responding to my problem. I did follow the procedure you layed out for starting in SAFE MODE. A bar appeared at the bottom of screen that began filling in from the left. Before it reached halfway it disappeared and I'm left with the apple logo and unending spinning wheel ... 10 minutes and counting.
You show you are running Snow Leopard. Boot to your "system recovery disk". (hold down option key while booting, and select the stsem recovery disk (plug it in before anything).
Launch Disk Utility, and Repair Disk, Repair Permisssions on your internal drive. Shutdown and remove your Recovery Drive, boot normally. If it works, you are done. If not, I hope you have a Time Machine backup.
You will use your System Recovery Disk (SRD) to reinstall OS X (over your existing installation). If this doesn't work, use the SRD again once more to erase the drive, and use your Time Machine backup to restore your backup.
Yes, thank you for responding. I wish I could implement your suggestion only my superdrive was stolen - I have nothing backed up. I guess I'll have to take it to the GENIUS BAR tomorrow. I feel sick ...
I feel sooooo sorry for you dude... 😟
QUESTIONS TO ASK WHICH MIGHT SAVE YOU:
Do you have any other Mac or PC at home? If yes, you could be saved.
You said you have the Mac OS X Snow Leopard Install Disc? What if you can somehow copy the contents into a Thumbdrive, insert it in your Air, and still do everything as if you had a SuperDrive?
I'm just trying to help
I really do appreciate you taking the time to look at my problem. actually, I'm now running lion which I installed via the internet. so obviously I have no startup disk. I have an appointment th is afternoon at the genius bar. I'm hoping that if anything can be done these guys would be able to do it. thanks again for your great input. Take care ...
You are running Lion?????
Your first post in this thread said that you were using Snow Leopard "Mac OS X (10.6.7)").
The response I made was with this in mind. If you have Lion, then you have a Recovery Partition from which you may be able to launch Disk Utility, and Repair Disk, Repair Permisssions on your internal drive. And even begin the process of reinstalling the OS, if necessary.
Yes, SP Forsytheis correct. You showed Snow Leopard as the product you have, but
now you say Lion. Lion automatically makes a Recovery Partition as SP Forsythe
said called Recovery 10.7. You boot into that by holding down the Option key when you
Power on your Air (same steps as Safe mode, except you hold the Option key) and you'll
see 2 pictures of hard drives; one called Macintosh HD and the other called Recovery 10.7.
Use the mouse (or arrow keys) to select the Recovery partition and press enter.
The rest, appears on screen! 🙂 Use Disk Utility and follow the things that SP Forsythe
said!
Yes, I do apologize for the confusion. The 10.6.7 was what I remembered, only I couldn't confirm that on my computer for the very reasons above. "I'm not sure" was not one the options in that required field when I started the thread. But yes, indeed, I installed Lion a few weeks ago. I followed the procedure for bringing up the partitioned repair disk. It worked perfectly up the the point of clicking on the repair disk. At this juncture the apple logo with spinning wheel appeared. And this is as far as things go. The guy at the genius bar did a diagnosis which concluded total failure of hard drive. Baring any other procedures that might work, I'm left with finding someone, or some store or company that can recover data from the disk. I'm quite receptive to suggestions or referrals. And I do thank both you guys who gave your concern and knowledge in helping me try to fix this.
I greatly appreciate the concern you gave this problem, MrAnythingAboutMacs. It does appear that the hard drive will no longer operate (as I was informed by a young man at the Genius Bar in the Pasadena Apple Store). If there's any reason to question that conclusion I'm certainly game.
Hey, its possible that some information can be recovered. But I wont guarantee all information will be in tact.
I had a External HDD which I loaded several hundred pictures into it. The wire got loose and the 500 GB disk was corrupted. Now, everytime I insert it in, the name which used to be Ryan (my real name) is now IMG@284.bin. I can open it, but anytime I click on ONE image file my computer gets a Kernel Panic and forces me to shut down. So, I think I get what you mean there, and the frustration of it all 😠
What the guy at the Genius Bar said is true; A hard drive that failed means it can no longer be used. Your files will be corrupted (like in my HDD case) and since yours is a MacBook Air, the Battery, Hard Drive, and RAM cannot be taken out. The only sad resort; get a new Mac. This time, get a MacBook, or a MacBook Pro (like me). Its faster, longer battery life and can be repaired when needed. 😉
I'm sorry for you, robbes. I really am. Do you have any important info or private things in that Air? They might be corrupted, or even gone. 😢
(Oh, and I don't actually know how the Genius Bar works or if they even lie to get your money. I live in Singapore, and there are no Official Apple Stores here, and I'm only 12)
Well thanks for the encouraging words. I certainly am going to put effort into recovering the data - particularly bookmarks and notes, a whole bunch of photos etc. The Genius Bar at an apple store is for explaining stuff and solving problems. They are separate and distinct from the "specialists" who handle sales. The Guy simply told me the outcome of the diagnostic testt. And that was it. There is absolutely no hard sale tactics among this legion of employees in blue shirts. Just exceptionally nice people ready to answer questions and demonstrate features on various products. One developement since we last spoke is I tried bringing up the Lion recovery (HD?) again just for the heck of it, and this time I 'clicked' the recovery volume image (as opposed to pressing 'enter'), and that worked! From that menu I went into Disk Utility verified the (disk that starts up and contains all my data) and repaired permissions. I'm not sure what to do from here, or whether reloading Lion from apples servers could fix, help or ruin my chances of data recovery. Or if this is exercise in futility given prognosis of HD.
Cool! Happy that you got somewhere! 😎 You say it worked? As in you got to the screen? and theres a menu bar on top and a window in the middle? If yes, then GREAT! You might wanna take a look at this baby and its instructions...
http://www.apple.com/macosx/recovery/
Could work for you, right? And read the second paragraph:
"If your Mac problem is a little less common — your hard drive has failed or you’ve installed a hard drive without OS X, for example — Internet Recovery takes over automatically. It downloads and starts Lion Recovery directly from Apple servers over a broadband Internet connection. And your Mac has access to the same Lion Recovery features online. Internet Recovery is built into every newly-released Mac starting with the Mac mini and MacBook Air."
Could you really be saved? 🙂
Dude... Its been a long time since I heard from you... Are you alright? How's everything? Did you try what I posted earlier?
Hi.
I'm having exactly the same problems at the original poster, but on the new 2012 MacBook Air 11".
It had been working and booting for most of today while I was installing apps and carrying files across from my 2012 MBA. All of a sudden it's stuck on the grey screen.
• I can boot into recovery, and have made disk verifications (all OK) and verified and repaired permissions (all OK).
• I cannot boot into safe mode. Just like the OP, I get a progress bar which runs to about 1/2 way, then disappears and I'm stuck on the screen again.
• I've started in Verbose more (Shift-command-V) and the last line of the technical mumbo-jumbo is:
AirPort: RSN handshake completeon en0 It goes no further
• I've reset the NVRAM and PRAM with no change
• I've reset the SMC also with no effect
Is my only option to reinstall the OS via the internet? I've read this might be due to a faulty/failing SSD. For what it's worth my SDD is a Toshiba.
Is there something else I can try before reinstalling the OS and repeating my 5+ hour setup 😟
Thanks in advance.
mac book air stuck on grey screen with apple logo and spinning wheel
