GREY SCREEN ERROR HELP

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Level 1

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GREY SCREEN ERROR HELP

Hi I have a MacBook 10.5.8 laptop its a few years old & it was working/running fine up until about a week ago then it started taking ages to startup so I started it in single mode and typed "/sbin/fsck -fy then a message came up "harddrive appears to be ok" so next I typed "reboot".Now it starts as normal apple logo & spinning chime,then just before the login screen would normally pop up the screen suddenly turns mid grey with no logo only the pointer arrowwhich I can move around.I was wondering if there was a sh# command line I could use in single mode to force open startup or any other solution to fix this problem or even any other ideas would be much appreciated I just wouldn't mind retrieving my kids photos off my desktop at minimum as I made the mistake of not backing them up..I also don't have a installation disk & was wondering if its possible to download a copy onto my pendrive because my cd drives out of action,

THANKS VERY MUCH !!!

MacBook, Mac OS X (10.5.8)

Posted on Sep 4, 2013 10:07 AM

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Answer 1

CaptH

Level 1

59 points

Sep 4, 2013 11:07 AM in response to Eug07349

The problem with fsck and Disk Utility is that neither check for bad blocks on a drive. They correct index problems. If a file has become corrupt and it can't be indexed then and only then will they identify it as a problem, otherwise the problem persists.

I'm guessing the hard drive is bad. I'd try the following:

If you have the install media boot from it just to make sure the system will boot completely at all. If it will it's good because you know the system is working. If it won't then you've got system problems.
If you can gain acccess to another bootable external hard drive, try to boot from that. If it comes up, once again it implies the system is OK.

The odds are the HD has simply gone bad. The symptoms you're describing are those of a drive failure. We use Scannerz to test our stuff and the company that makes the product has lots of info and downloads about drive problems that may be of use to you. Here's a link:

http://www.scsc-online.com

I wouldn't rush out and buy their drive testing product without doing the other things I've mentioned first because if your system is at fault you would just be wasting your money.

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