Trying to upgrade iMac from 10.5.8. Installed snow leopard 10.6.3, now trying to install software update to 10.6.8 so I can download Yosemite. Screen stuck in middle of the restart process, just showing purple star page. Is this normal? It's been about half an hour.
iMac (24-inch Early 2009), iOS 6.1
Clarify some things for us...
If this is the middle of a restart, rather than during an install phase, I can see no harm in a Force option - choose from the list in OS X: Keyboard shortcuts - Apple Support
Sleep, shut down, and log out shortcuts
Use these key combinations after your Mac has started up to sleep, shut down, log out of, or restart your computer.
| Key or key combination | What it does |
| Power button | Tap to power on. Once powered on, tap the power button to wake or sleep your Mac. |
| Hold down the power button for 1.5 seconds | Show the restart / sleep / shut down dialog |
| Hold down the power button for 5 seconds | Force the Mac to power off |
| Control-Power button |
Show the restart / sleep / shut down dialog |
| Command-Control-power button | Force the Mac to restart |
Command-Option-Power button |
Put the computer to sleep |
| Command-Control-Power button | Quit all apps (after giving you a chance to save changes to open documents), then restart the computer |
Command-Option-Control-Power button |
Quit all apps (after giving you a chance to save changes to open documents), then shut down the computer |
| Shift-Control-Power button | Put all displays to sleep |
| Command-Shift-Q | Log Out |
| Command-Shift-Option-Q | Log Out immediately |
I Had the exact same issue last night. My laptop is a MacBook early 2008. I installed the snow leopard last night and then went to up date it through the system updaterwhen it's done downloading it asks if you want to restart it for the changes to take effect I hit restart and it goes to the Apple Aurora screen and just sits there and doesn't turn off I left it on overnight and nothing happened in morning it was still on the aurora screen. I can force shutdown with the button and then when it re-boots it still at 10.6.3
sorry about the hijack
Snow Leopard disk was from Apple has a snow leopard on it
Hi. I ended up on the phone to Apple support for 2 hours. Tried heaps of tests then he gave me a web pathway to download 10.6.8 rather than doing a software update. Once it downloaded, I ran it, it restarted and worked. Then I downloaded Yosemite which took over night to download. I had to do a Google search to get to the download for 10.6.8 but I can't remember exactly what the tech told me to search for. I can email him if that helps. Thanks
He most likely referring to the combo updater here:
Mac OS X 10.6.8 Update Combo v1.1
I would try that as the combo updates sometimes help with installation glitches as they contain a more comprehensive OS/installer.
I can find no reference to 'purple star' at support.apple.com
That used to be the default desktop background for either leopard or Snow leopard (it's been too long for me to remember exactly).
And, since they are stuck in the middle of the installation process, there are no regular key combo options available.
Nope that was't it. I had to type DL **** (numbers) but I can't remember the numbers, into Google and it took me to a download page for 10.6.8
Well, it had to be an Apple download page since that is the only legal way to obtain it.
This works.
Thank you, Heroic web stranger! this worked perfectly!
You're welcome!
I was convinced this was going to fix my problem as I have the exact same issue.
@babowa I followed your instructions to install the Update Combo but it hasn't had any effect. Is there anything else I can do?
Installing or updating Snow Leopard:
http://manuals.info.apple.com/en_US/Snow_Leopard_Installation_Instructions.pdf
The Combo 10.6.8 updater can be downloaded from here:
https://support.apple.com/kb/DL1399?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US
I am successfully running 10.6.8 now, but when I try to run a software update again I get the purple default desktop background on restart.
I have tried installing the 10.6.8 Combo Update but it doesn't seem to have an effect and the issue remains.
I would recommend trying the manual download via Mac OS X 10.6.8 Update.
I had the exact same problem in which I tried to upgrade from a 10.6.3 to 10.6.8 and after downloading the software from the internet I wasn't able to complete the task by "fully" restarting the computer so it could take effect. It instead went directly into the aura purple blank page. I finally, after waiting for a half hour, forced shut the computer to get me the heck out of there!
Now I did try the Mac OS X 10.6.8 Update Combo v1.1 that was recommended by "Babowa" and it did work for me!!! It enabled me to upgrade from 10.6.3 up to 10.6.8, awesome, many, many thanks for the tip and the link!! And my computer is now able to restart as well!
I am now stuck with a different problem though, I now need to acquire a startup disk in order to repair my HDisk. I went through "Disk Utilities", did the verification process, and it indicated that I need to restart my computer with a mac osx "installation disk" and then go through with the repair process. Only problem now is that my startup disk is a "Snow Leopard" 10.6.3 and my computer is now informing me that it "cannot install on this computer". Any thoughts anyone as to how I can remedy this problem? I'm new to this, and really appreciate all the help in this community!
Upgrading from 10.6.3 to 10.6.8 stuck in restart
