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help , my Imac won’t boot ( grey screen with spinning grew wheel)
- Thread starter Xmac007
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Unplug everything from the back. Let your iMac sit for a minute or two.
Plug in ONLY the power cord, just as a test. Your keyboard and mouse should work this time.
Do an NVRAM reset as you try to boot up:
Press and release the power button. Immediately press and hold Option-Command-p-r.
You should hear the boot chime sound. Keep holding the same 4 keys until you hear the boot chime two more times, then release the keys to allow a normal boot.
Assuming you CAN boot to your desktop, be sure to open your System Preferences, then Startup Disk. Select your boot drive. You will need to unlock that pane to set the boot drive.
I suggest that your NEXT step will be a restart of your Mac, which can help assure you that your iMac is now working OK.
Plug in ONLY the power cord, just as a test. Your keyboard and mouse should work this time.
Do an NVRAM reset as you try to boot up:
Press and release the power button. Immediately press and hold Option-Command-p-r.
You should hear the boot chime sound. Keep holding the same 4 keys until you hear the boot chime two more times, then release the keys to allow a normal boot.
Assuming you CAN boot to your desktop, be sure to open your System Preferences, then Startup Disk. Select your boot drive. You will need to unlock that pane to set the boot drive.
I suggest that your NEXT step will be a restart of your Mac, which can help assure you that your iMac is now working OK.
Plug in a USB keyboard and mouse if wireless isn't cutting it. As @DeltaMac suggests NVRAM reset is probably in order.
Also, try booting into Safe Mode (Hold SHIFT key during boot).
If you recently installed something, or added some odd piece of hardware, it might be hanging on loading the drivers (kexts). Safe Mode and PRAM reset will tend to bypass these.
The good news, it doesn't appear to be a dead drive as you would see a folder with a ∅ over it.
Also, try booting into Safe Mode (Hold SHIFT key during boot).
If you recently installed something, or added some odd piece of hardware, it might be hanging on loading the drivers (kexts). Safe Mode and PRAM reset will tend to bypass these.
The good news, it doesn't appear to be a dead drive as you would see a folder with a ∅ over it.
did all that still not working, I contacted apple support they said do CMD and R I ran the utilitie disk first aid but sill won’t work, I reinstalled the whole OS but still not working. the last option is the recovery mode which gives me a code , lastly the last option left for me is to erase everything which is not what I want in my case I have important files. Any help is appreciated thanks