Grey Screen of Frustration... Suggestions?

[sancheas]

Hello,

I have been browsing the forums looking for solutions and couldnt find a post that addressed this particular issue.

In the midst of working on my thesis, my computer got the spinny wheel and froze. I have a MacBook, the black one from around 2006.

When i tried to reboot, I got the grey screen and it will not boot past that. I have put my CD in and tried to boot from that - no luck.

I have tried every combination of key strokes - no luck.

The other posts didnt address this; however, my capslock button will not light up.

Additionally there is nothing on the screen - no bar, no apple logo.

One time last year my hard drive failed - it popped up a question mark on the screen. This has made me to believe that it may be an issue with the logic board? As terrible and costly as this would be, it wouldn't be as bad as having to retype all of my thesis and losing my documentation.

Is there anything I am missing? Unfortunately, my warranty expired last month. Additionally, the only thing I have installed as of lately was iWork.

Any help would be great, and if your suggestion helps I promise to paypal you some monies for a few beers!

Thanks,

AS

 

[techound1]

Never fear, you're thesis is most-likely still just fine. Your issue does not sound hard drive contents related.

Do you get the boot chime?
Have you tried an external monitor?

 

[sancheas]

Oh wow thanks that was very relieving!

Yes I do hear a bootchime (prior to the grey screen).

What do you mean an external monitor, like a different screen? -Just plugged in a monitor & nothing

 

[sml238]

do you have another hard drive external or an internal one you could try to boot with?

 

[DewGuy1999]

You could try this:

Intel-based Macs: Using Apple Hardware Test

You could try this:

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

Assuming your hard drive is okay and you need access your thesis before resolving this start up issue, you may be able to connect your MacBook to another Mac via Firewire cable and then start up your MacBook in Firewire Target Disk Mode:

How to use and troubleshoot FireWire target disk mode

 

[sancheas]

Thanks everyone for the responses!

SML- I do have an external HD; however, I do not have a backup on that.

I did try the posted links, and the hardware config showed me the Folder with a question mark on it.... I think thats a wrap for my harddrive?

Can anyone suggest good data recovery software for my other mac so maybe I can try to salvage some?

 

[techound1]

Thanks everyone for the responses!

SML- I do have an external HD; however, I do not have a backup on that.

I did try the posted links, and the hardware config showed me the Folder with a question mark on it.... I think thats a wrap for my harddrive?

Can anyone suggest good data recovery software for my other mac so maybe I can try to salvage some?

I really don't think the HD itself has pooed the bed (the blinking question mark means it can't find it, not that it's necessarily bad). Pull the HD from the MB and plug it into the spare external HD enclosure. Then try to see it from your other mac.

 

[DewGuy1999]

Thanks everyone for the responses!

SML- I do have an external HD; however, I do not have a backup on that.

I did try the posted links, and the hardware config showed me the Folder with a question mark on it.... I think thats a wrap for my harddrive?

Can anyone suggest good data recovery software for my other mac so maybe I can try to salvage some?

I don't think that there is any kind of software that will help recover a failed hard drive. DiskWarrior will work for corruption, etc., but if the drive has gone south I think the only thing that would work would be a data recovery service like Drive Savers, which I understand can be very expensive. If your hard drive has gone south, it may be covered for replacement by Apple under this program:

MacBook Repair Extension Program for Hard Drive Issues

Good Luck!

 

[sancheas]

I was able to pull the hard drive and connect it to another machine.

It was not recognizable and said "invalid btree node"

 

[4JNA]

do you feel lucky...

pretty common with a failing drive. thought THIS might be of some use for this self-help approach. read the whole thread.

if you don't have DW or don't want to deal with external drives, i would recommend the pro help route. anything you do from here will only make recovery of your data more difficult. really. recovery is what i do daily.

best of luck.