I have a friends IMac that has been send back from the repair shop - not repaired
It turns on with the chimes and proceeds to the apple logo then flashes black and then stays on a grey screen.
I have tried safe mode - grey screen
Verbose mode - grey screen
Reset nvram - no change
Apple hardware test - no access
Boot via dvd - no access
I can always access single-user mode - the hard drive seems ok and I can access the files
iPod touch, iOS 6.1.4
I would start in by cleaning up fonts. Remove all items from Startup items.
See this link to see what happens during Safe Mode.
Mac OS X: What is Safe Boot, Safe Mode?
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1564
Download EtreCheck and paste results here. Look for Clean my Mac, MacKeeper, Zerobits, Genieo in the report.
See
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2570
And while in single user, run FSCK to repair the drive directory, if needed. See Use FSCK here.
Thank you for your reply
How do I find the fonts?
I have checked the startup folder and all is empty.
How can I download and run Etrecheck? Can I run it in single-user via USB stick?
Thank you for your reply
I have run through all that I can in the link provided - but I can't access a lot of it and I don't have another mac.
I can access single-user and fsck comes back ok - I can search folders and files
I have removed .setupdone to try and restart the setup.
The dvd just pops out the drive even if you try starting from the drive or not
You might see if an SMC Reset does any good. Could try several and pay attention to the timing.
EtreCheck version: 1.9.11 (43) - report generated 26 May 2014 23:32:23 GMT+01:00
Hardware Information:
iMac (27-inch, Mid 2011)
iMac - model: iMac12,2
1 3.1 GHz Intel Core i5 CPU: 4 cores
8 GB RAM
Video Information:
AMD Radeon HD 6970M - VRAM: 1024 MB
System Software:
Mac OS X 10.7.5 (11G63) - Uptime: 0 days 0:6:4
Disk Information:
ST31000528AS disk0 : (1 TB)
disk0s1 (disk0s1) <not mounted>: 209.7 MB
Untitled (disk0s2) / [Startup]: 999.35 GB (978.15 GB free)
Recovery HD (disk0s3) <not mounted>: 650 MB
OPTIARC DVD RW AD-5680H
USB Information:
Apple Computer, Inc. IR Receiver
Apple Internal Memory Card Reader
Apple Inc. BRCM2046 Hub
Apple Inc. Bluetooth USB Host Controller
Apple Inc. FaceTime HD Camera (Built-in)
Thunderbolt Information:
Apple, Inc. iMac
User Login Items:
None
Internet Plug-ins:
QuickTime Plugin: Version: 7.7.1
JavaAppletPlugin: Version: 14.3.0 - SDK 10.7 Check version
Audio Plug-ins:
iSightAudio: Version: 7.7.1 - SDK 10.7
iTunes Plug-ins:
Quartz Composer Visualizer: Version: 1.3 - SDK 10.7
3rd Party Preference Panes:
None
Time Machine:
Time Machine not configured!
Top Processes by CPU:
1% WindowServer
1% Safari
1% fontd
0% SystemUIServer
0% activitymonitord
Top Processes by Memory:
106 MB Safari
57 MB WebProcess
57 MB mds
49 MB Finder
41 MB WindowServer
Virtual Memory Information:
6.27 GB Free RAM
796 MB Active RAM
159 MB Inactive RAM
814 MB Wired RAM
209 MB Page-ins
0 B Page-outs
Nothing untoward there, but how were you able to visit the site from a Mac that can't boot past the grey screen?
I have just managed to boot it up - I was trying the boot from disk but it spat it out again then the grey screen turn white and started.
I was just testing to see if it was a fuke! I have restarted, shutdown, and on plugged the power.
I have just updated the system and all still working - I will it cool down now and restart when cold.
Is there any further checks I can do now to rule out anything?
I did notice that the repair shop installed a different version osx
Could that be why I couldn't boot with 10.6 snow leopard?
Leeroypenmut wrote:
I did notice that the repair shop installed a different version osx
Could that be why I couldn't boot with 10.6 snow leopard?
Nice of them to tell you. What OS did they install? (This may mean some of your applications will no longer work.) AFAIK, should still have been able to boot from the Snow disc.
Oh, I see they installed 10.7.5.
Open Font Book in Applications. Select All Fonts and under File in the Menu bar select validate Fonts.
See Font Management for help: (the instructions are geared for Microsoft Office users but the general concepts of validating fonts is the same.)
Kurt Lang, a regular here has written a very useful guide, recently updated, to font managment. Note: the links to sections are not working. Must be scrolled to instead. That said, while fonts can cause issues, it would not be my first choice for culprit for the problem you have been experiencing. And before you start removing anything in /Library/StartupItems, wouldn't be a bad idea to say what's in there first. I have several things there that I wouldn't want to see end up in the Trash.
http://www.jklstudios.com/misc/osxfonts.html
I think your friend should contact this repair shop, so called. Was it Apple?
Single-user but nothing else
