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White screen of death

M

mac2thefuture

macrumors 65816
Original poster
May 15, 2007
1,106
30
Lancashire, North West, UK
Hello. My MacBook Pro won't fully boot up, it hangs on the chime screen. You'll note from my attached pic that a repair didn't work and it recommends that I format and start over - sounds daunting,is it???
My other concerns are this:
1) I've brought the machine on holiday with me, can I do it away from home?
2) When i upgraded OS X it was done over the cloud, I never got an install disc so, can I reboot up to latest OS again while aboard on holiday??

Sorry about trivial basic questions but hey ho, I not tech savvy.... Thanks for any advice I might receive.
 
stridemat

stridemat

Moderator
Staff member
Apr 2, 2008
11,364
863
UK
mac2thefuture said:
Hello. My MacBook Pro won't fully boot up, it hangs on the chime screen. You'll note from my attached pic that a repair didn't work and it recommends that I format and start over - sounds daunting,is it???
My other concerns are this:
1) I've brought the machine on holiday with me, can I do it away from home?
2) When i upgraded OS X it was done over the cloud, I never got an install disc so, can I reboot up to latest OS again while aboard on holiday??

Sorry about tribal basic questions but hey ho, I not tech savvy.... Thanks for any advice I might receive.
Click to expand...

Do you have a back up of your files since you are away from home?
 
DrakkenWar

DrakkenWar

macrumors 6502
Nov 7, 2010
272
0
San Antonio,Texas
if you are running 10.7 or 10.8...

If there is a viable network connection that you can see and access? Here is what to do, when you reboot your mac, hold down the option key. Eventually a few icons will pop up. One should be your existing OS install, the other should be your recovery partition.

From there? Follow the prompts, type whatever you need and and install away.
 
M

mac2thefuture

macrumors 65816
Original poster
May 15, 2007
1,106
30
Lancashire, North West, UK
Couldn't unmount the disc

Hi, now at home and tried to erase the disc and start over via disk utility but, got a message saying Volume Erase failed with the error: Couldn't unmount the disc.

Is it game over for my HD?
What options do I have to bring this 2009 13" MBP up to date? - perhaps install SSD drive? Is it tricky? I'm in UK, is it expensive?

All advice taken with gratitude....
 
stridemat

stridemat

Moderator
Staff member
Apr 2, 2008
11,364
863
UK
mac2thefuture said:
Hi, now at home and tried to erase the disc and start over via disk utility but, got a message saying Volume Erase failed with the error: Couldn't unmount the disc.

Is it game over for my HD?
What options do I have to bring this 2009 13" MBP up to date? - perhaps install SSD drive? Is it tricky? I'm in UK, is it expensive?

All advice taken with gratitude....
Click to expand...

Are you using Disk Utility when logged into OS X? If you are then this won't work.

You will need to boot up your machine holding the alt button.
 
M

mac2thefuture

macrumors 65816
Original poster
May 15, 2007
1,106
30
Lancashire, North West, UK
When i boot up holding Alt i get two options:

1: Macintosh HD
2: Recovery 10.8

Which do I select?

Also, The disk cant be erased when trying to restore from TimeMachine??

Must be game over??
 
Last edited:
M

mac2thefuture

macrumors 65816
Original poster
May 15, 2007
1,106
30
Lancashire, North West, UK
photo-2.JPG
 
stridemat

stridemat

Moderator
Staff member
Apr 2, 2008
11,364
863
UK
mac2thefuture said:
When i boot up holding Alt i get two options:

1: Macintosh HD
2: Recovery 10.8

Which do I select?

Also, The disk cant be erased when trying to restore from TimeMachine??

Must be game over??
Click to expand...

Select recovery partition, and then under utilities select disk utility.

You should then be able to reformat the partition.
 
Thraun

Thraun

macrumors regular
Dec 18, 2008
159
41
Abbotsford, BC
Most likely a bad HD, sorry. You'll need to get it replaced, any Apple authorized service provider can do it. You can upgrade your HD size at the same time, or go for an SSD, though that would be significantly more expensive.
 
Thraun

Thraun

macrumors regular
Dec 18, 2008
159
41
Abbotsford, BC
Depending on the age of your machine, you may be able to do an Internet Recovery (hold down Command-R on booting up).

If it's pre-Lion you may have to reinstall Snow Leopard from a disc, then download 10.8 from the App Store (using the AppleID you originally purchased it with).
 
Mr Rabbit

Mr Rabbit

macrumors 6502a
May 13, 2013
638
5
'merica
mac2thefuture said:
OK, ive acquired an SSD - can i simply replace it in leu of the original HD?
Can I then install Snow Leopard from CD?
Then 10.8 on line?
Will the SSD be in the correct format?

Thanks
Click to expand...

This all sounds right.

Yes, you can simply replace the hard drive with the SSD. Be sure to move any mounting brackets / pieces from the original drive to the SSD.

Yes, you should be able to boot to the Snow Leopard DVD by either holding C when booting or by holding Option while booting and selecting the DVD.

Once Snow Leopard is installed you may need to run through some big software updates until the App store is available on your Mac, once the App store is installed though you can proceed with re-downloading and installing 10.8.

You may need to reformat the SSD to Max OS Extended Journaled (HFS+), with the volume map set to GUID, using Disk Utility while booted to your Snow Leopard DVD. Aside from that it sounds like you've got the right process in mind.

While waiting for 10.6 to install you might check out this guide and consider creating a 10.8 USB installer to shorten this process in the future.
 
M

mac2thefuture

macrumors 65816
Original poster
May 15, 2007
1,106
30
Lancashire, North West, UK
Installed the SSD - very easy process
Booted up from DVD, took a while, then on the INSTALL MAC OS X screen, the part where it asks which disc to install the software to, no discs were represented.
So, i went to disc utility to format the SSD, i chose erase, then Mac OS Extended Journaled and hit erase - The i got the following:
Disc Erase Failed
Disc erase failed with the error:
POSIX reports: The operation couldn't be completed. Cannot allocate memory.

SIGH.... :( what do i do/doing wrong???

Thanks
 
M

mac2thefuture

macrumors 65816
Original poster
May 15, 2007
1,106
30
Lancashire, North West, UK
OK, new hard drive connecting cable acquired, SSD now formatted and 10.6 installed.
How do i update to 10.8 where i was originally?? Get FCP X on etc....When I select the App store icon, its greyed out and i get a message saying you cant use this version of the app with this version of Mac OS X....??
 
Mr Rabbit

Mr Rabbit

macrumors 6502a
May 13, 2013
638
5
'merica
mac2thefuture said:
OK, new hard drive connecting cable acquired, SSD now formatted and 10.6 installed.
How do i update to 10.8 where i was originally?? Get FCP X on etc....When I select the App store icon, its greyed out and i get a message saying you cant use this version of the app with this version of Mac OS X....??
Click to expand...

The App store icon is greyed out? You may need to run all available software updates (Apple menu > Software Update) in order to enable the App store. Snow Leopard shipped without the App store, it was later enabled through software updates. I believe the 10.6.8 combo update will re-enable it for you. Once the App store is available you should be able to download 10.8, FCP, etc.
 
C

Chaney3000

macrumors newbie
Jun 5, 2013
9
0
Alabama
I'm having the same issue with my MBP. I just installed a new SSHD as well as new HD cable. Now, I've tried to load from the install disc but it just goes back to the white screen. I have held down the C key and also held down the option key to select where to load from. I select the install disc and it goes to the apple logo then back to the white screen. I have a copy of my old os on an external HD but it will not load that at all either.

Can some one lead me in the right direction?
 
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