Random Black Screen with flashing white file folder with ? mark in it

Question

I keep getting this randomly.  I will have been working on the computer with no problems and then step away from my computer for a short period and come back to the black screen with the flashing white folder with a question mark.  The computer is then unresponsive and I have to shut it down completely and restart.   Below is the Error Report that comes up after restarting computer.  It doesn&#x27;t do it real often, maybe once a week or so.  OS X Yosemite Version 10.10.5   Model Name:                       iMac  Model Identifier:                   iMac14,1  Processor Name:                Intel Core i5  Processor Speed:               2.7 GHz  Number of Processors:       1  Total Number of Cores:       4  L2 Cache (per Core):           256 KB  L3 Cache:                            4 MB  Memory:                              8 GB  Boot ROM Version:             IM141.0118.B11  SMC Version (system):       2.14f24  Serial Number (system):     C02MGKLAF8J2  Hardware UUID:                  1894D31E-7CB2-5539-8955-56F65764AAAAAnonymous UUID:       106C01B5-EA88-ABC2-31F8-C5F28EA1953ETue Oct  6 09:51:32 2015*** Panic Report ***panic(cpu 0 caller 0xffffff80113c127e): "launchd died
State at Last Exception:

"@/SourceCache/xnu/xnu-2782.40.9/bsd/kern/kern_exit.c:363uuid info: 0x7fff63f71000 uuid &#x3D; &lt;b1b370a5-479f-3533-8ad7-97b687d4f989&gt; 0x10846b000 uuid &#x3D; &lt;c0446878-e8d0-3461-a226-91ff1c2b2da6&gt; 0x1084bc000 uuid &#x3D; &lt;4396b358-725e-3ec0-bcbb-e4bf75fe1fb0&gt;RAX: 0x0000000002000001, RBX: 0x0000000000000006, RCX: 0x00000001091920e8, RDX: 0x0000000000000000RSP: 0x00000001091920e8, RBP: 0x0000000109192190, RSI: 0x0000000109191f40, RDI: 0x0000000000000001R8:  0x0000000000000000, R9:  0x00000001084aa9f0, R10: 0x00007fff899a2b02, R11: 0x0000000000000206R12: 0x0000000000000000, R13: 0x00007fff8f9bf7e0, R14: 0x00000001091925d0, R15: 0x0000000109192790RFL: 0x0000000000000206, RIP: 0x00007fff899a095a, CS:  0x0000000000000007, SS:  0x0000000000000023Thread  0xffffff8022c77000  0x00007fff91333dab  0x00007fff91333ec8  0x00007fff9132d3b4  0x00007fff82453a6c  0x0000000108499907  0x00007fff8744dc13  0x00007fff8745088f  0x00007fff8745efe4  0x00007fff91539a9d  0x00007fff915373dd  0x0000000000000000Thread  0xffffff8022c79a78  0x00007fff87450a6a  0x0000000000000000Thread  0xffffff8022c782e0  0x0000000108482c91  0x00007fff8744dc13  0x00007fff87451365  0x00007fff87452ecc  0x00007fff874506b7  0x00007fff8745efe4  0x00007fff91539a9d  0x00007fff915373dd  0x0000000000000000Thread  0xffffff8022c78798  0x00007fff8745e3ad  0x0000000000000000Thread  0xffffff80277792e0  0x00007fff856ccf1a  0x0000000000000001  0x00007fff63f7d475  0x00007fff8f57d7b5  0x00007fff91302648  0x00007fff8f9bf7e0  0x00007fff8f9c1ddf  0x00007fff8744dc13  0x00007fff8744ee5e  0x00007fff8f9c00a7  0x0000000108496393  0x00007fff8744dc13  0x00007fff87451365  0x00007fff87452ecc  0x00007fff87451154  0x00007fff87452ecc  0x00007fff874506b7  0x00007fff8745efe4  0x00007fff91539a9d  0x00007fff915373dd  0x0000000000000000Thread  0xffffff8024e1be28  0x00007fff915373dd  0x0000000000000000Mac OS version: 14F27Kernel version: Darwin Kernel Version 14.5.0: Wed Jul 29 02:26:53 PDT 2015; root:xnu-2782.40.9~1/RELEASE_X86_64Kernel UUID: 58F06365-45C7-3CA7-B80D-173AFD1A03C4System model name: iMac14,1 (Mac-031B6874CF7F642A)

Carolyn Samit · Answer

The question mark means your Mac cannot find a system folder to boot from.Startup your Mac while holding down the Option key. That should launch the Startup Manager window where you can select the startup disk then click Restart.If you don&#x27;t see your startup disk, help here &gt; A flashing question mark appears when you start your Mac

Alicat2014 · Answer

Does the computer try to locate this system folder to boot from while it is already running?  Because this issue occurs while I already have it booted up and running.  Not at start up.