iMac 21.5" 8GB/1TB Momentarily Stuck at Startup: Apple Logo Becomes Red and Progress Bar Turns Green

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iMac 21.5" 8GB/1TB Momentarily Stuck at Startup: Apple Logo Becomes Red and Progress Bar Turns Green

Hi,

I just bought my iMac 21.5" with Retina 4K Display (3.1QC/8GB/1TB) on December 2015. I haven't had any issues until now. I recently updated to macOS Sierra (Version 10.12).

My computer seems to run fine but I just noticed (no idea how long this has been happening) that during the startup screen there is a moment when the loading appears to get stuck that the Apple logo turns red and the progress bar turns green. This stays like this for about 1-2 seconds and then it reverts back to the original colors and continues loading.

Normal Loading:

Red Logo / Green Bar:

Then after a few seconds the remainder of the progress bar turns a very light blue and fills completely in a flash and then reverts back to the original color and refills normally from the point before it turned light blue.

Very light blue highlighting of remainder of loading bar:

I don't know if this is something I should worry about. Also I live in Venezuela and my only Apple Support would be traveling overseas to get my computer fixed, so currently that is not an option for me.

I wanted to attach a video but the button for attaching a video here seems to be disabled. I really would appreciate any help!!!!

iMac with Retina 5K display, macOS Sierra (10.12)

Posted on Oct 23, 2016 8:15 AM

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Answer 1

chris_g1

Community Specialist

Oct 24, 2016 8:03 AM in response to sotiris7

Hello sotiris7,

Thank you for your question. I understand you iMac seems to function properly, but you have a concern in regard to the booting process. Here are a couple troubleshooting articles that I would recommend going through to resolve any startup issues and rule out any concerns related to hardware failure.

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

Using Apple Diagnostics

Please let us know if you have any additional questions, and thank you for visiting Apple Support Communities.

Cheers.

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Answer 2

Nov 22, 2016 12:06 PM in response to sotiris7

I have had exactly the same thing, with two separate iMacs that had the same setup. The first one was apparently faulty, and went black while I was working in Photoshop Elements. I could not restart it, and it eventually had to be returned after I took it to the genius bar in Boulder, CO. This sudden flash of color was one of the things they saw as an anomaly that might indicate problems with the graphics. I just yesterday got a new iMac with the same setup, and it did exactly the same thing at startup. Since both of them did it the very first time I ran them, and the first one also did it in Boulder, that means it has nothing to do with anything I installed, or connected, or had near the computer in my office. When the new one did it again, I called Apple Help this morning was eventually told that it is purely a cosmetic issue and that Apple is working on it. The person I talked to had to consult at length before she could tell me that, so I assume that she talked to someone with more knowledge of this issue and didn't just make up the answer. She told me that it is purely cosmetic, and should not affect how the computer works with any software I might use.

I would love to hear of anyone's else's experience with this issue, and find out if Apple has a larger problem on their hands with the 21.5 iMacs with the 4 Retina display, or if it is intact just a minor cosmetic issue that we can all forget about.

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