White Screen of Death. Macbook Pro. Please help!!

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Level 1

8 points

White Screen of Death. Macbook Pro. Please help!!

Hi there! I desperately need your help.

So I was using my mac, everything normal until one day it freezes and I´m force to shut it down.

Unfortunately when I tried to turn it back on, it just got stuck in the famously known white screen of death. Most of the times, is just the white screen without logo or image folder or anything.

I know my computer is alive because sometimes (not often) the apple logo appears and I´m able to try reinstall OS X (but then it crashes again), but most of the times is just the white screen.I have tried most of the inputs and they do not do the trick (Cmmd + R, Shift, etc. Most of them don´t work and don´t do anything, except for the zapping PRAM input which is Cmmd+Option+R+P, however after the reset, it still just shows the white screen most of the times.)

Is there a way to fix this problem?

Thank you so much.

MacBook Pro (13-inch Mid 2009), OS X El Capitan (10.11)

Posted on Feb 5, 2016 12:17 PM

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Answer 1

my ginger

Level 5

4,904 points

Feb 5, 2016 12:54 PM in response to JCLanz

if you can get to single user. Command S at startup You can use the command fsck -fy then click enter. If come back this Mac or (your user name) was modified run command again until it come back OK. You cannot get to recovery,Command R? or safe mode,Shift key down? If you get something else while running single user post it. Do you have a backup to time machine or anything?

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Answer 2

Drew Reece

Level 6

10,660 points

Feb 5, 2016 12:59 PM in response to JCLanz

I think that screen is grey not white, the startup screen is generally grey 🙂.

I realise you have tried recovery mode, but lets confirm you were doing it correctly…

Recovery mode, hold cmd+R at startup, keep holding for a few minutes in case your HD is being very slow.

If that fails try internet recovery mode - hold cmd+R+alt at startup. It can take many minutes to boot like this & it also requires an internet connection. it's best to use an ethernet connection if you can - wifi can be unstable & fiddly.

A final option is to try Apple hardware test…

Using Apple Hardware Test - Apple Support

Hold D at startup & wait for the old style icon. You may also need to use the original OS disks to run Apple hardware test (AHT isn't installed by newer OS's), see if you can find the original Grey install disk with the description for running the test.

Other possibilities …

Use other bootable OS disks. Do you have any backups or spare disks?

You can create a USB bootable disk if you can find the original install disks or get into recovery mode.

Use another Mac to read/ repair the disk if it will mount. You need to use 'target disk mode' with appropriate cables.

Share files between two computers with target disk mode - Apple Support

Verbose mode may give some info, but is cryptic to decipher, have a camera ready to capture any output.

How to start up your Mac in single-user or verbose mode - Apple Support

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Answer 3

JCLanz Author

Level 1

8 points

Feb 5, 2016 1:01 PM in response to my ginger

Unfortunately I can´t get the recovery, or the single user. Both inputs do not do the trick 😟

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Answer 4

Drew Reece

Level 6

10,660 points

Feb 5, 2016 1:11 PM in response to JCLanz

The lack of recovery & single user mode suggest a disk that is not working to me or possibly the early hardware checks are not completing - does it chime?

Try T at startup - does the Firewire icon start floating across the screen? The power button will shutdown safely in that mode.

I think your model is too early to support internet recovery mode…

OS X: About OS X Recovery - Apple Support

Sorry I was wrong earlier.

Do you have any other Macs available, bootable backups or install disks?

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Answer 5

my ginger

Level 5

4,904 points

Feb 5, 2016 1:13 PM in response to JCLanz

Did you say that you did a pram reset? And while doing it got the chime sound? Try it again and let it chime three times. Also to cover everything do a SMC reset. https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201295 Also what happens if at startup you hold down the option key. you should see the startup volume and the recovery volume. Do you have access to an external keyboard? You could try some of these commands using that.

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Answer 6

JCLanz Author

Level 1

8 points

Feb 5, 2016 1:52 PM in response to Drew Reece

none of the inputs did the trick 😢

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Answer 7

JCLanz Author

Level 1

8 points

Feb 5, 2016 2:14 PM in response to Drew Reece

It does chime. And with the T startup I didn´t get anything 😟

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Answer 8

JCLanz Author

Level 1

8 points

Feb 5, 2016 2:17 PM in response to my ginger

How can I do a SMC reset with my computer at the startup?

Thanks everyone!

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Answer 9

my ginger

Level 5

4,904 points

Feb 5, 2016 2:31 PM in response to JCLanz

Does it chime when doing a pram reset. https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204063 It almost sounds as if your keyboard in malfunctioning. I had a mac laptop with a bad hard drive and still could run single user. It gave me a volume error .

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Answer 10

JCLanz Author

Level 1

8 points

Feb 5, 2016 2:27 PM in response to my ginger

It does chime. However is still the same. I know my keyboard works because it actually does the reset and I am able to hear the chime. But after that it just get stuck on the same grey screen.

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Answer 11

Drew Reece

Level 6

10,660 points

Feb 5, 2016 2:28 PM in response to JCLanz

See Apple's help…

Resetting the System Management Controller (SMC) on your Mac - Apple Support

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Answer 12

my ginger

Level 5

4,904 points

Feb 5, 2016 2:33 PM in response to JCLanz

If your computer is on hold down the power button until it shuts off then follow the instructions for the computer you have, as to batteries than can or cannot be removed. https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201295

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Answer 13

JCLanz Author

Level 1

8 points

Feb 5, 2016 2:34 PM in response to Drew Reece

I did the SMC reset. Unfourtunalty it didn´t worked either 😟

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Answer 14

Feb 5, 2016 2:40 PM in response to JCLanz

I hope you can fix

and I hope I never pass

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Answer 15

my ginger

Level 5

4,904 points

Feb 5, 2016 2:41 PM in response to JCLanz

Single user mode starts from startup Command S. if you get nothing you may have a hardware problem. You should see a black screen with white script on it.Even if the hard drive is bad single use would still run. You would just get a hard drive error before it ran the full script.

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