After login screen I just get a gray screen (Mac Pro)

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Level 1

16 points

After login screen I just get a gray screen (Mac Pro)

I'm hoping someone might be able to help me get my computer rebooted properly, because I'm stuck!

I wish I could give exact tech specs for my Mac Pro, but I don't have them written down anywhere besides System Profiler...

I've had it since 2008 or 2009
There are four internal drives
Two external drives
12GB RAM
Running the latest version of Mountain Lion

Here's the story:

I had to force shut down my machine because it locked up in screensaver mode. I have it set to never sleep because when it does, I often can't wake it back up and have to force shut down.

I turned it back on, and it returned to the login screen.

I received a message saying my computer was not shut down properly, and do I want to reopen my apps. I hit OK and logged in.

After that, just gray. I hear drives spinning for a while, but then everything quiets down and remains at a gray screen. I can see the mouse cursor and move it around, but that's it.

I forced shut down again, and this time said Cancel when asked if I wanted to reopen apps. It didn't make a difference.

I force shut down again, and this time unplugged all peripherals and external drives. Still goes to gray screen after logging in.

Mac Pro, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.3)

Posted on Mar 19, 2013 5:09 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

Grant Bennet-Alder

Level 10

127,105 points

Mar 19, 2013 7:23 PM in response to Cody Wright

Hold down the Shift key as you restart.

This will boot into Safe mode, which spends five minutes running Disk Utility ( Repair disk ) then boots form your regular Hard Drive with a limited set of Apple-only extensions loaded, and asks for your username and password, even if you normally auto-login.

Safe Mode runs the display in simple mode, because it does not load the display driver for accelerated operation.

You can use Safe Mode to do software update, enable and disable things, and check out your Mac.

If booting into regular mode gets you back to the same problems, one of the extensions loaded may be the problem. A common problem on older Mac Pros is the display card is no longer willing to work in accelerated mode, because it has failed.

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Answer 2

Cody Wright Author

Level 1

16 points

Mar 20, 2013 12:02 AM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

Very helpful, thanks!

So, tried starting up in Safe Mode, but it gets about 1/4 of the way through the progress bar that appears, then nothing. It just sits there.

So, if it doesn't boot in Safe Mode, am I just screwed?

Thanks again for the help.

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Answer 3

The hatter

Level 9

60,990 points

Mar 20, 2013 4:45 AM in response to Cody Wright

you have the Recovery partition - which is where I would have gone.

from there try repair; try to backup or clone anything you have not, and always be ready to restore your system.

And do set up a bootable backup for sure.

then you are never up the creek really except time and any last minute changes.

oh, and don't put anything on the boot drive as far as data and such.

you can easily relocate and use Accounts to change the path to home account location

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Answer 4

Mar 20, 2013 8:31 AM in response to Cody Wright

As Hatter has indicated, not completing the Disk Utility ( Repair Disk ) indicates deeper disk drive problems on your Boot Drive.

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Answer 5

Cody Wright Author

Level 1

16 points

Mar 20, 2013 9:34 AM in response to The hatter

Awesome. I'll look up how to access the recovery partition.

The good news is I have everything backed up (knock on wood!!) so if it really is the worst possible outcome, at least I should be able to get all my stuff back!

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Answer 6

Cody Wright Author

Level 1

16 points

Mar 20, 2013 9:35 AM in response to Cody Wright

Weird, I can't mark Hatter's reply as "This helped me"…

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Answer 7

Mar 20, 2013 9:36 AM in response to Cody Wright

You only get two this helped and one Solved.

Hold down Command-R at Startup.

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Answer 8

The hatter

Level 9

60,990 points

Mar 20, 2013 9:51 AM in response to Cody Wright

Give Grant 400 pts, so he can roll over 40K :-)

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Answer 9

Cody Wright Author

Level 1

16 points

Mar 22, 2013 12:56 PM in response to The hatter

Just as a follow up, I rebooted in Recovery mode and ran disk repair. Worked the first time, failed the second, worked the third.

Just for kicks I decided to restart the machine and see if it made any difference. It went to gray screen initially after log in, and just about when I was going to shut it down again, the desktop reappeared!

The good news is most of the files are backed up, but it's much faster to get files to my new computer via local disks vs. online restore!

Not sure how long it will stay up, but thanks for all the help!

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