Macbook Pro won't boot past grey screen / Apple logo

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Macbook Pro won't boot past grey screen / Apple logo

Hello all,

I have a mid-2012 13" Macbook Pro OS version 10.9.4 which I believe is OS Mavericks.

The other day I was using my Macbook normally on the internet and all of a sudden every website I went to didn't work and came up with the message that it cannot make a secure connection to the server. Then everything froze up except for the cursor which I could still move but not click on anything. I restarted my laptop but then got the grey screen with the apple logo and the spinning wheel. It would hang up there for ever if I would leave it. Here are the things i've tried so far:

Booting in safe mode; the loading bar slowly loads and then it just hangs up on the grey screen again and makes no progress
Ran disk utility; went to verify disk on the main drive, comes up with "The partition map needs to be repaired because there's a problem with the EFI system partition's file system". I then hit Repair disk and it repairs and tells me that everything is OK. But if I then restart and try to boot nothing happens and it hangs up on the grey screen again. If I go into disk utility again and hit verify disk it comes up with the same error. However lately when I try to repair disk it comes up with the message "Couldn't repair the partition map because a new EFI system partition couldn't be created". It is inconsistent, sometimes it comes up sometimes it doesn't. Now for the first time if I keep hitting repair disk it comes up with "Couldn't find the target disk for this operation". These are both relatively new messages and didn't come up the first 20 or so times I tried this.
Tried booting in Verbose mode; hangs up at the line that says "pci pause : SDXC" and then I am able to write stuff after this line which doesn't seem normal.
Ran Apple hardware test; ran both a normal test and an extended testing. The normal test came up with a 4HDD error which if I'm not mistaken means a hard drive error? When I ran the extended testing it came up with nothing however which was bizarre. The Apple hardware test is also inconsistent, sometimes it comes up with an error and sometimes it comes up with nothing.
Resting the PRAM/NVRAM (holding down option-command-p-r); I wait till the second boot sound and this has actually worked once or twice in about 20 tries. Then when my computer boots back up it seems to work fine for the first little while. The first time it worked fine until I was suspicious and tried restarting it again and it got hung up on the grey screen again. The second time I got the same result as when it originally crashed, freezing until I was forced to restart it.

It seems like it is a hardware problem but it's bizarre that sometimes it turns on and also that several of the tests are inconsistent with their results. If anyone has any insight that would be much appreciated, I need this computer and don't want to resort to paying top dollar at a Mac repair store.

MacBook Pro, OS X Mavericks (10.9.4)

Posted on Mar 2, 2015 10:26 AM

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Answer 1

my ginger

Level 5

4,904 points

Mar 2, 2015 10:37 AM in response to noblea

Hi. Are you able to get to recovery? Do you have a backup of your system? if so, you could try a reinstall of your operating system. This normally will not delete any of you personal files as it just reinstalls the operating system.

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Answer 2

Kappy

Level 10

361,741 points

Mar 2, 2015 10:38 AM in response to noblea

Off hand I'd say your hard drive is failing. But then I'm not sure you really did the right thing to try and repair the drive:

Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions - Yosemite, Mavericks, Mountain Lion or Lion

Boot to the Recovery HD:

Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the menu screen appears. Alternatively, restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD and click on the downward pointing arrow button.

Repair

When the recovery menu appears select Disk Utility and press the Continue button. After Disk Utility loads select the Macintosh HD volume entry from the the left side list. This is the indented entry. Click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If Disk Utility reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit Disk Utility and return to the main menu. Select Restart from the Apple menu.

If the drive fails to appear or cannot be repaired, then you need to put in a new drive.

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Answer 3

noblea Author

Level 1

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Mar 2, 2015 10:54 AM in response to my ginger

Yes I am able to get to recovery. I do not have a backup of anything (this will teach me not to I'm sure) and I tried reinstalling the OS once but it came up with an error. EDIT: when I try and reinstall the OS it makes me login to apple id and then it says that this item is temporarily unavailable and to try again later.

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Answer 4

noblea Author

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Mar 2, 2015 10:59 AM in response to Kappy

Okay, when I went to repair I repaired the first drive that appeared, not the indented Macintosh HD. What is the difference? When I hit verify disk on Macintosh HD it doesn't come up with any errors, only when I hit Verify Disk on the first non indented drive.

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Answer 5

Kappy

Level 10

361,741 points

Mar 2, 2015 10:59 AM in response to noblea

The difference is that the out-dented entry repair only attempts to fix the partition map if it's damaged. The indented entry is the actual disk you boot from. You need to select it, then click on the Repair Disk button (not Verify.)

You will find that Mavericks cannot be downloaded, although you can try re-downloading it via your Purchases page in App Store. But if you cannot do that, then you will have to download and install Yosemite.

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Answer 6

my ginger

Level 5

4,904 points

Mar 2, 2015 11:03 AM in response to noblea

Hi. What is the error? For reinstall you want the indented drive. What happens with a fresh install on a drive with no operating system is you would erase the main drive then use the partition option to set one partition select option and select GUID, then erase, then go back and install operating system. But this would delete the recovery partition also. So you would ether have to have an install disk that came with the Mac. or if it you macbook was newer and did not ship with an install disk you would have to use the internet option.which is Command R. If maverick is the original install I don't think that is available from apple.

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Answer 7

noblea Author

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Mar 3, 2015 9:22 AM in response to Kappy

Okay when I try to repair the indented Macintosh HD disk it doesn't repair any errors or aid in the booting. When I go to reinstall the OS it only gives me the option of reinstalling Mavericks, I don't have the option to choose.

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Answer 8

noblea Author

Level 1

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Mar 3, 2015 9:27 AM in response to my ginger

When I try to reinstall I can only select Macintosh HD disk and it only gives me the option of reinstalling Mavericks. Then it prompts me to put in apple id and pw and then it says this item is temporarily unavailable.I do not have an install disk so I'm doing it from command r but it is only giving me the option of trying to reinstall mavericks which is not the original OS and does not work.

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Answer 9

my ginger

Level 5

4,904 points

Mar 3, 2015 10:05 AM in response to noblea

Your operating system that is installed is Maverick. Maverick is no longer downloadable from the app store. Others have run into this same problem. Apple seams to want everyone who has Maverick to upgrade to Yosemite, but in doing it the way you are trying, does not give that option. If you are able to use another mac computer,you could go to the app store and download yosemite, as it's free. Normally you would download yosemite and it would be in your application folder. But to get it to install on your MBP you now would have to using another mac create a bootable external drive or flash drive . Since your recovery option will not let you reinstall maverick. With the new operating systems being download only. They leave it up to us to create some kind of copy to use for emergencies. I am trying to figure out if by using a bootable flash drive you can go straight to installing yosemite on your MBP. If you have the late 13" MBP,it came with ether 10.8 0r 10.9 I'm thinking it will.

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