Mac Mini stuck at apple screen

[mandalamama]

Hi, longtime Mac user, since iiE. I am really stuck! My mini is a 2012 refurbished, running Lion. it's been great all this time, suddenly, it only goes to the apple screen.

having dealt with years of macs' eccentricities, I zapped the PRAM, I booted from the recovery partition and verified and repaired - it said it's fine, no repairs needed. I unplugged everything, made sure connections were good, replugged only a keyboard and mouse. I started in safe mode - it had a loading bar below the apple, when it finished loading it froze again. by freeze I mean, I walk away and come back hours later and it's still stuck. (macs sometimes just mysteriously fix themselves so I've learned to leave them overnight.) I know how to start in both single-user and verbose mode, but I haven't found info on what to do in those modes. I would at least like to diagnose the problem!

any ideas? I've added no RAM, not modified it in any way. the Mac was a gift, I won't be able to afford repairs, so I have to work this out. the local computer store that does macs *sucks* and they want $100 just to look at it. my daughter needs the computer for school! thanks for any advice you have.

 

[grcar]

My mini is a 2012 refurbished, running Lion. I started in safe mode - it had a loading bar below the apple, when it finished loading it froze again. by freeze I mean, I walk away and come back hours later and it's still stuck. the local computer store that does macs *sucks* and they want $100 just to look at it.

Not sure what you mean by refurbished. While I am a it, why run lion (10.7) on a 2012 model? maybe you mean mountain lion (10.8) which was the original OS for the 2012 models, or maybe you really have a 2011 model, whose original system was 1.7.

$100 is the standard rate for an hour of repair time. Since the machine finishes the boot (are you sure the line goes all the way across?) then it sounds like a software issue. You can make a free appointment at the genius bar in your local apple store and they will do a quick check up and diagnosis for free. Making the appointment is difficult unless you have an apple product under warranty. If not, call apple support, wait for a real person, and ask them to make the appointment. Or go to the store and make the appointment a few days into the future.

Good luck!

 

[aajeevlin]

Maybe do a Apple hardware test, you can more or less find out if this is a hardware issue? Also I second the other person, do you really mean 10.8?

If you don't have any data worth saving, maybe you can simply upgrade to 10.8 or 10.9 and go ahead and do a clean install and update at the same time.

 

[CoastalOR]

OP: Can you boot to Safe Mode (hold the Shift key during start up)? Here is some information about it:
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201262
If you can boot to Safe Mode that might tell us your System OS is not completely corrupted and maybe it is just possible start up file conflict.

Any external back ups or boot up drives available?
Any other Macs available to try Target Disk mode to recover data from the mini?

Assuming there is not a hardware problem then I'm thinking, since you can boot to Recovery, then the final solution might be to reinstall the OS from Recovery.

 

[Fishrrman]

OP:

The "I can't boot!" problem you're having, is a clear example of why EVERYONE should keep at least one fully-bootable external "clone" of the internal drive.

If you had an external bootable cloned drive, chances are you could have used it to be "up and running" within 2-3 minutes of the "I can't boot!" situation that you're in now.

Having said that, you wrote above:
"I know how to start in both single-user and verbose mode, but I haven't found info on what to do in those modes. I would at least like to diagnose the problem!"

You didn't tell us whether or not you have actually TRIED to boot up in either mode.
Have you?
What happens?

 

[mandalamama]

It's a 2011, reconditioned, bought through apple. we don't have a local Apple Store, I'm in the boonies. last I checked it was running 10.7.5. but I did get it running! by choosing to reinstall OSX in repair/recovery mode. I also had disconnected all USB devices, I'm adding them back one at a time to see if one was the culprit.