Stuck in reboot loop, not able to do safe mode.

Question

Stuck in reboot loop, not able to do safe mode.

So I figured I'd upgrade to El Capitan tonight and yielded nothing but negative results. It downloaded just fine, until it got to the reboot portion. Once the screen went black it just hung there. So I figured I'd let it be and check back on it at a later time. So I checked back 30 minutes later, still black. Another 30 minutes later, still black. Three hours go by and finally thee screen is black and the fans are off so I figured it finished and shut itself down. I press the power button and the screen is very dark and I can make out a message saying "Your computer restarted because of a problem. Press a key or wait a few seconds to continue starting up" Doesn't matter if I press a key or wait, it shows the apple logo for a spit second, progress bar pops up, followed by a bunch of code in the top left that I can't read due to the screen being too dark, then quickly reboots and does it again. After 5 cycles of this the apple is replaced by a circle with a line diaganl through it, and powers itself down. Tried safe mode, shift+control+option, command, option all on power up and boot, and still nothing. I have a Late 2011 MacBook Pro that is essent a brick right now, who can help me get this fixed?

MacBook Pro, OS X El Capitan (10.11)

Posted on Oct 3, 2015 6:37 PM

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Answer 1

sterling r

Community Specialist

Oct 4, 2015 6:37 AM in response to xXEMANN_101Xx

Hello xXEMANN_101Xx,

It sounds like something went south when you updated to El Capitan, and now you cannot successfully boot your computer due to this prohibitory symbol you see after it restarts a few times. Safe Boot is the first thing I would have tried as well, and next I would have to recommend resetting your SMC and your PRAM in that order with these articles:

Resetting the System Management Controller (SMC) on your Mac

and

How to Reset NVRAM on your Mac

Next if the issue is not resolved I would use the Disk Utility to verify and repair the startup disk to help try and fix any issues with the file system:

Resolve startup issues and perform disk maintenance with Disk Utility and fsck

Try Disk Utility

Use these steps to use the Disk Utility app to verify or repair a disk.

If you're using OS X Lion or later, start the computer from Recovery System or Internet Recovery. If you're using an older version of OS X and your computer came with a Mac OS X Install disc, insert the installation disc and restart the computer while holding the C key instead.

When your computer finishes starting up, choose Disk Utility from the Utilities window, or from the Installer menu if you're started from an installation disc.

Click the First Aid tab.

Click the disclosure triangle to the left of the hard drive icon to display the names of your hard disk volumes and partitions.

Select your Startup Disk (usually named "Macintosh HD").

Click Repair. Disk Utility checks and repairs the disk.

If you still cannot get your computer to boot to your desktop then according to the following article, it looks like you will need to use Recovery mode to reinstall the OS and get a fresh copy installed.

About the screens you see when your Mac starts up

Prohibitory symbol

When you see a circle with a slash symbol instead of the Apple logo, it means your Mac couldn't find a valid System Folder to start up from.

...

If this is your personal Mac, try reinstalling OS X by using OS X Recovery.

Thank you for using Apple Support Communities.

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Answer 2

honuhonu

Level 1

9 points

Oct 5, 2015 6:30 AM in response to sterling r

So I had this same problem- on a late 2010 Macbook Pro. Resetting SMC and NVRAM did nothing. Booted to recovery mode- ran first aid, rebooted, and everything was (almost) fine.

My hard disk was completely erased somewhere in this whole saga. So now I have a completely new install of El Capitan- and all my data- and my password manager- are gone.

Now I guess I waste the afternoon figuring out how to re-install from a time machine backup...

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