MacBook Pro won't go past grey screen with loading bar and wheel

I'm having the same issue here - was working on my 2011 MacBook Pro and then pop! Grey screen and then had a blue screen - doing safe boot is allowing me to get in and back everything up...

But just went blue again! my fear is its the logic board (i hope not)...

What i am looking to do is back it up and then wipe the drive and do a clean install...

Jow is it going for you Marianalo??

Mac OSX Recovery fixes - see my earlier post

Unfortunately, I think many of you will find your answer in this thread:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4766577

Miguel1810: After a very very scary night, loads of attemps (safe boot, recovery mode, disconnecting every device, disk utilities, restarting the computer over and over again and reset the ram memory) I gave it up. Let my mac rest overnight, and today I was trying to boot it up normaly, and it still got stuck on the grey screen. I tried safe booting a couple of times and it worked! 😀 My mac is back on track. (well, it still takes a while to boot up and shut down, but at least it works).

If your mac still doesn't work, leave it for a few hours and try again booting it up in safe mode. It might take a while.

I would advise you to book an appointment at the genius bar anyways to get it checked-up. In my case, I think it was just a bad peripheral that caused it, but still, I'll get it checked-up.

Best of luck! Hope it works on yours.

If you are using a MacBook Pro early 2011, you may want to check this discussion...

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4766577

Yes indeed! especially for those who are using MacBook Pro early 2011.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4766577

Apple please do something. :(

I went to an Apple store this friday (the 25th). They checked out my mac, ran a couple of tests and they said that everything was fine. They couldn't tell me what happened, but they were really concerned in getting it fixed. I told them that this has been happening a lot to people who have early 2011 macbooks... They won't do anything because.. well what can they do? they don't know what causes this. They just told me that it was a coincidence (yeah, right...).

After a couple os tests, they repaired my drive and told me that everything was fine and if this happens again, it is due to a hardware/drive problem. That means that I'll probably have to get a new internal disk. Don't feel like it, considering that I bought a new battery this year, and it cost me a LOT.

MIkki's post worked for me! Huzzah! Had to reformat but oh well. Always backup!

I had a gray screen problem with my computer where it would freeze with a gray screen and not continue to the desktop. The Apple store said it’s the hard drive, they changed it and the problem didn’t go away. Then they said everything was ok with my computer and they didn’t have the time to diagnose it at the store and that I had to mail it to a different location for a repair with a flat rate of about 350 dollars. I did that and literally a day later my computer was fixed and the next day I got it via FedEx. The problem was computer’s logic board. The experience was great but I had to pay 350 dollars for something that apparently Apple has had so many problems with. Even a guy at one of Apple’s authorized repair centers told me that he will not fix it and because there has been so many problems with MacBook pro logic boards that I had to send it to apple repair center.

Ive ran into this same issue. With Yosemite upgrade not clean install, more on that in a moment.

Opened my MBP Late 2011 from sleep and it froze.

Hard Reboot only to be greeted by a progress bar that never finishes (10-20%) then goes to gray screen.

Every and all of the PRAM/SMC recovery console, terminal repairs, any other suggestions were fails. The issue i found with the "booting" error NOT VIDEO errors with Yosemite is there is a "on" or "instant on" issue. I had installed Yosemite over Lion not a clean install. The issues happened about 2 weeks later. They progressively got worse. Issue started with a small freeze here or there and a hard reset. I even went as far as erasing the drive and installing Yosemite again. That did not fix the issue, I could never get back to my desktop/finder.

Fix for me for the "gray screen" and unable to boot past the progress bar was to make a USB Bootable drive with Yosemite. And erase all the drives (2 partitions on my 256 Samsun SSD EVO). Reformat to a single drive. Run disc repair and verify permissions. Repartition to your needs and start all over. I may be speaking too soon but this issue has NOT come back, going on 3 days. You will need to boot to an external drive to erase/partition the main hard drive.

Boot to USB Disk with Yosemite

ERASE drive

PARTITION TO 1 DRIVE

ERASE drive

DISK CHECK

DISK VERIFY

PARTITION TO 2 DRIVES

ERASE drives

DISC CHECK

DISK VERIFY

Boot to USB Disk with Yosemite

Install Yosemite

Just for "info"

I have the discrete graphics card in my laptop (many people claim the same symptoms are fixed with a new logic board). It would do the boot and fans go at high speed etc all those things you read about. If you can boot to your recovery screen (command+r), then it should not be the graphics card causing the gray screen. All functions like terminal, disk utility etc worked, even downloading from the internet (internet recovery) would work but I would still be greeted by the gray screen. Downgrading to Lion via internet recovery did NOT help the issue, I was able to get to my log in screen (one step farther than the apple progress bar screen with Yosemite loaded), enter my name/pw and there would be a "beachball of death" (Lions version of the progress screen), never a gray screen after the downgrade. Thats when i decided to do a FRESH/CLEAN install of Yosemite. I have Time Machine backups and those would NOT get my MBP to boot past the gray screen.

Anyone doing the change from 10.x to 10.xx Id make a suggestion to do a clean install.

Good luck. If you are unable fix the issue, make an appointment with a Genius.

I have 2013 Macbook Pro 13" with OSX 10.9.5. Model A2178(2009 model and up before the new retina display models). This is my second time my computer has come across "Hard Drive(HDD) Problems". The first incident I had the infinitely spinning beach ball, and the second occurrence, my computer displayed the Grey Screen with "folder with the question mark" along with the "No Entry" sign. In both cases the HDD Cable went bad. If you look through other forums, this is a common problem with the 13" Macbook. BEFORE YOU REPLACE HDD OR REINSTALL OPERATING SYSTEM, Try replacing the HDD Cable first. This may save you much pain and suffering. I've seen this 3 times already, twice with my own macbook and once with my girlfriend's Macbook. Her Macbook is a 2011 13", but it is still Model A2178. I don't know if the 15" Macbook have a similar issue but it wouldn't hurt to try to replace the cable before reinstalling the operating system or replacing the HDD.

For the HDD Cable you can get it replaced at the apple store or buy it online and install it yourself. If you plan to buy the cable online, just look up "Macbook HDD cable Model ######(Model # can be found on the underside of the Macbook)".

If replacing the HDD cable does not fix the problem, then it is most likely the hard drive is corrupted or damaged. I would try reinstalling the Operating System first then if that fails, Then replace the HDD(This should be your last option)

NOTE: If you take your macbook to apple, they will run their diagnostic tests. When I took it there, they said that my hard drive was fine and suggested that we do a OSX reinstall. THAT DID NOT CORRECT THE PROBLEM. They eventually replaced the cable and my mac was working again. Ask the Apple Genius if they can replace the cable first before doing any type of, OS reinstall, HDD reformatting, or replacing of the HDD.

Hope this helps.

I had the same problem - it was the logic board - currently covered under extended warranty on all macbook pros from early 2011 - i took mine to the IStore on the Strand - immediately knew the problem, ran a diagnostics check, ordered the parts, emailed me throughout the process - collected it two days later...for FREE...awesome job by these guys...cant recommend them enough - http://www.albion.co.uk/

I encountered the same issue. In all likelihood your graphics chips is bad. Mine was, yet my 2011 MBP serial number did not fall under the limited Apple repair program. My problem was solved by having ps3specialist.com reball the graphics chip on the main logic board. see this link - http://bit.ly/1JOGXzS.

If you can't get satisfaction from Apple, you will get satisfaction from ps3specialist.com.

http://www.apple.com/support/macbookpro-videoissues/

Apple has issued a Repair Extension Program for Video Issues. I was experiencing the same problem and had tried several solutions that worked for a short period of time, but ultimately I was unable to get my MBP up and running last night and brought it into an Apple store. They determined that my issues was in fact a video issue and qualified for free service.

If you suspect that your MBP is experiencing the same issue and check out the page URL above to see if your MBP qualifies for service.

Here's an excerpt from the page

=========

Apple has determined that a small percentage of MacBook Pro systems may exhibit distorted video, no video, or unexpected system restarts. These MacBook Pro systems were sold between February 2011 and December 2013.

Apple or an Apple Authorized Service Provider will repair affected MacBook Pro systems, free of charge. See below for details on affected models and service options.

Symptoms

An affected MacBook Pro may display one or more of the following symptoms:

• Distorted or scrambled video on the computer screen
• No video on the computer screen (or external display) even though the computer is on
• Computer restarts unexpectedly

Products affected

• 15-inch and 17-inch MacBook Pro models manufactured in 2011
• 15-inch MacBook Pro with Retina models manufactured from Mid 2012 to Early 2013

Hey guys!

I had sort of the same problem.

It went ONLY GREYSCREEN, no logo or nothing. Tried cutting power and everything. didn't work.

Then I unplugged an i-Lok (a USB thing) and all other USB things I had in the USB ports, and all by itself the mac fixed itself in 3 seconds and started as normal. No reboot or nothing.

I would try this before starting to reboot...