GREY SCREEN IN THE MORNINGS?

[duncangohl]

Since upgrading this week I get a grey screen on opening my laptop each morning.

This has a progress bar just above the dock and lasts for about a minute ?

How do I get rid of it ?

 

[JohnDS]

Does the same thing happen if you boot in safe mode while holding down the shift key?

If not, the problem is an incompatible startup item. You can find your startup items in the Users and Groups preference pane under the tab Log On Items. To remove a Log On item, highlight it and click the minus button at the bottom left of the window. (Simply unchecking the item does not prevent it from starting up -- it simply makes it start in the background).

 

[duncangohl]

Thanks John, never tried anything other than opening each morning. Only happens once a day. How would I know which item to remove from log in ?
Thanks
As you can see I know very little about technical stuff.

 

[JohnDS]

You could post a screen shot of what you have here and we could tell you if any look suspicious.

To create a screen shot, type command-option-4 and the cursor will turn into a cross-hair. Put the cross-hair on the top left of the area you want in the screen shot, hold down the mouse button and drag to the bottom right of the area you want, then release the button. The screen shot should appear as a file on your desktop.

 

[duncangohl]

The only item in that block is; ituneshelper application. Should I get rid of it?

 

[JohnDS]

It doesn't seem likely that that is the problem.

Can you download the free EtreCheck: http://etrecheck.com/#download This is a diagnostic program. Run it and paste the resulting report back here.
[doublepost=1456503424][/doublepost]Also, open Disk Utility (found in /Applications/Utilities) and run First Aid. Let us know the result.

 

[duncangohl]

Thanks. OK let me do that when back.

 

[duncangohl]

First aid complete and clean.
[doublepost=1456556932][/doublepost]When squizzzing Disk Utility, I see 70 GB of movies ? Would this have any bearing on my problem ?
ps I have never had any movies on this laptop since new?

 

[JohnDS]

The categorization of use of disk space by Disk Utility is not reliable, so you probably don't have 70 GB of movies, but you could check the movies folder in your home folder.

Could you please post an EtreCheck report?

 

[duncangohl]

Still not done yet. Reading up on sleep modes etc. I am not a fundi so all this takes time as am very scared to bugger up anything.

 

[nightcap965]

Just for funsies, I tried EtreCheck.

It crashes.

Crashed Thread: 9 Dispatch queue: com.apple.root.default-qos

Exception Type: EXC_CRASH (SIGABRT)
Exception Codes: 0x0000000000000000, 0x0000000000000000
Exception Note: EXC_CORPSE_NOTIFY

Application Specific Information:
*** Terminating app due to uncaught exception 'NSInvalidArgumentException', reason: '*** setObjectForKey: object cannot be nil (key: modificationdate)'
abort() called
terminating with uncaught exception of type NSException

Perhaps there's a better diagnostics program out there?

 

[duncangohl]

Hey !! Don't say that.... just read 2 reports about that. One guy had to remove everything and start again ?
I cannot risk anything as I don't have ability to reload things....have ability but not the knowledge

 

[duncangohl]

Grey screen is memory reloading. ( saw this on a googled question)
Could this message mean something ?

 

[nightcap965]

A few questions that might help shed a little light:

Click the black Apple in the upper left corner of the screen and select "About this Mac"

What's the OS version?
What's the MacBook model?
How much memory?

When you say you upgraded this week, what do you mean? Did you update to a more current OS release, or did you replace hardware (memory, e.g.)?

 

[duncangohl]

El Capitan 10.11.3
Macbook Pro 13" mid 2012
2.5GHZ
4GB 1600MHZ DDR3
upgraded from Snow Leopard to El Capitan

 

[nightcap965]

Are you using FileVault?

This sounds like a FileVault issue. Try turning it off in System Preferences. It may take some time to complete the decryption, but if you start up tomorrow with no problems, you'll have your answer. (You can then turn FileVault back on and let it do its thing.)

 

[duncangohl]

Never heard of File Vault ? Where do I find it to turn off?

Read up a bit quickly. Why would I have another user marked as guest on the list? There is only me ?

 

[nightcap965]

Click on the black Apple in the upper left.
Select System Preferences.
From the System Preferences top line, select Security & Privacy

You may need to click the lock in the bottom left of the window and enter your password to make changes, then click the "Turn off FileVault" button.
[doublepost=1456583237][/doublepost]FileVault is a Good Thing, but encryption has improved between Snow Leopard and El Capitan.

 

[duncangohl]

Turned off Find my Mac for good measure then went to security and see File Vault is off already ?

 

[nightcap965]

Hmmmmm...

Before doing anything else, you should have a complete backup of your system to an external drive (Carbon Copy Cloner is a good program for this).

Have you tried starting up in Safe Mode?

1. Start or restart your Mac.
2. Immediately after you hear the startup sound, press and hold the Shift key.
3. Release the Shift key when you see the Apple logo appear on the screen.

After the Apple logo appears, it might take longer than usual to reach the login screen or your desktop. This is because your Mac performs a directory check of your startup disk as part of safe mode.

If this issue doesn't occur when your Mac is started in safe mode, try restarting again without holding down any keys. If the issue appears to be resolved when you start up normally, it was probably caused by a cache or a directory issue with your startup disk that safe mode fixed.

 

[duncangohl]

Thanks. I will try that only tomorrow after opening in the morning.

 

[duncangohl]

Just cleared 13,000 cache items ! Holding thumbs for the morning...

 

[duncangohl]

Ho Ho Ho ! Opened perfectly this morning. Full colour desktop, instant and maybe things are a little faster ( Maybe)
So what I can remember after a day of buggering around...........
Switched off find my Mac
Noticed file Vault is off ( might it have been on before I switched off FmM?)
Cleared over 13,000 items in the 2 caches--- ~ and /.
Restarted

What else can I check to confirm all OK and ensure smooth running?

And a thank you to all who helped, including Mr Google.

 

[pedrom]

Ho Ho Ho ! Opened perfectly this morning. Full colour desktop, instant and maybe things are a little faster ( Maybe)
So what I can remember after a day of buggering around...........
Switched off find my Mac
Noticed file Vault is off ( might it have been on before I switched off FmM?)
Cleared over 13,000 items in the 2 caches--- ~ and /.
Restarted

What else can I check to confirm all OK and ensure smooth running?

And a thank you to all who helped, including Mr Google.

Hi.

FileVault is the most important component on OS X, and you should use it. It encrypts and protects your computer. If someone steals it, you can lock it with a firmware password and there's nothing they can do, not even reinstalling OS X would make your computer usable. Only you have the key.

The "guest" user account is also fundamental for various reasons. Let's say that you have a few issues running OS X. If you switch to your guest account, with no 3rd party software, you can quickly tell if your problem is software or hardware issue. The "guest" account is also important for when you let someone use your computer without the risk of them seeing your data. But the fest function?

If someone steals your machine, they won't know your password for your session. So they will log in to your "free" guest account. That's what you want, because iCloud allows you to detect your computer at all times through their website, and lock it down. It just has to connect to the net once, and it will stay locked. This, together with filevault, brings all the pain in the world to thieves, and piece of mind to you.

If you allow me to say some things, I would like to give you advice on some areas. I don't believe that you are talking full advantage of the machine that you have. You have a Mac, use it like a mac. What does this all mean?

Well, the only trade-off when you activate FileVault, is a unnoticeable hit in disk performance (irrelevant if you made the right choice to have a SSD) and a few more seconds when you boot your mac. However, you don't have to turn off your Mac at all. Why do it? Just close the lid and relax, and only reboot on system updates. If you have a SSD, you lose no more than 2% of battery every night.

 

[duncangohl]

Thanks for your wise words Pedrom, noted.