Apple Event: May 7th at 7 am PT
I have never seen this before and the other discussions seemed to be more about restart.
Normal startup, normal login and possible to use the iMac normally for a random but short period then all of the sudden grey screen. Blank grey screen.
Reset PRAM and smc, Verified Disk (OK), checked and fixed one permission and there is a lot of free space.
Does anyone have any other ideas that I could check.
Much appreciated
iMac
Hello,
Open console in Applications>Utilities, check the system log for the date/time of the last problem & the Startup right after that for clues.
Have you blown the dust out lately?
Get Temperature Monitor to see if it's heat related...
http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/12381/temperature-monitor
One way to test is to Safe Boot from the HD, (holding Shift key down at bootup), run Disk Utility in Applications>Utilities, then highlight your drive, click on Repair Permissions, Test for problem in Safe Mode...
PS. Safe boot may stay on the gray radian for a long time, let it go, it's trying to repair the Hard Drive
Reboot, test again.
If it only does it in Regular Boot, then it could be some hardware problem like Video card, (Quartz is turned off in Safe Mode), or Airport, or some USB or Firewire device, or 3rd party add-on, Check System Preferences>Accounts (Users & Groups in later OSX versions)>Login Items window to see if it or something relevant is listed.
Check the System Preferences>Other Row, for 3rd party Pref Panes.
Also look in these if they exist, some are invisible...
/private/var/run/StartupItems
/Library/StartupItems
/System/Library/StartupItems
/System/Library/LaunchDaemons
/Library/LaunchDaemons
Hello,
Open console in Applications>Utilities, check the system log for the date/time of the last problem & the Startup right after that for clues.
Have you blown the dust out lately?
Get Temperature Monitor to see if it's heat related...
http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/12381/temperature-monitor
One way to test is to Safe Boot from the HD, (holding Shift key down at bootup), run Disk Utility in Applications>Utilities, then highlight your drive, click on Repair Permissions, Test for problem in Safe Mode...
PS. Safe boot may stay on the gray radian for a long time, let it go, it's trying to repair the Hard Drive
Reboot, test again.
If it only does it in Regular Boot, then it could be some hardware problem like Video card, (Quartz is turned off in Safe Mode), or Airport, or some USB or Firewire device, or 3rd party add-on, Check System Preferences>Accounts (Users & Groups in later OSX versions)>Login Items window to see if it or something relevant is listed.
Check the System Preferences>Other Row, for 3rd party Pref Panes.
Also look in these if they exist, some are invisible...
/private/var/run/StartupItems
/Library/StartupItems
/System/Library/StartupItems
/System/Library/LaunchDaemons
/Library/LaunchDaemons
I appreciate the response. I tried it all but I was still having the issue. I broke down and took it to my local shop which has been great in the past. After some diagnostics it looked as though the drive was slowly dying. We managed to get important data off the drive (time machine was 2 weeks old and would not complete a new backup). Replaced the drive, cleaned out a bunch of dust, installed the OS and then proceeded to restore from the time machine.
There also seemed to be issues with File Vault. It was taking a great deal of the system resources so I decided to turn it off.
All is operating correctly after all the OS updates except my backup. I can't get Time Machine to complete a backup. I have a feeling it's the WD MyStudio Drive that is causing the problem. I hope it's not an incompatibility with the latest OS.
Thanks again.
Thanks, good to hear part of the problem is fixed. 🙂
grey screen appears during normal use
