iMac late 2012 - It doesn't start when I turn it on

[adrianovski]

Hi,
Today, for the second time, when I turned on my iMac late 2012, the screen went white but the password and user picture didn't come up, and stayed like that.
I had to hold the power button to restart it, and then it worked.
Anyone know what's going on, and whether I should be concerned?
Txs

 

[Kelsmom18]

That happened to my iMac late 2012 when I plugged in a new 3.0 USB hub. It wouldn't boot up - hung at the white screen. I shut down by hitting the start button, unplugged the USB 3.0 hub and restarted. Started up with no problem. Have you added a new peripheral or hub to your machine?

 

[bembol]

I had this problem with certain USB accessories when I had on my old 24" iMac. HUB was one of them.

When it was booting up and stayed on grey screen when I unplugged the HUB and Stick it started up.

I no longer use any of it, even the USB Stick on my new iMac. I even when out and bought a My Passport Studio for Mac to replace it.

 

[justperry]

Hi,
Today, for the second time, when I turned on my iMac late 2012, the screen went white but the password and user picture didn't come up, and stayed like that.
I had to hold the power button to restart it, and then it worked.
Anyone know what's going on, and whether I should be concerned?
Txs

If this happens again, open up console and look for the last entry before your last boot, it will tell you where it hanged, and I am pretty sure it hanged on the USB device, if you let it sit for longer it would most probably skip it but it can take a while.

 

[Serban]

So we can't use any flash drive in 2012 imac? I have a 16 GB usb flash drive...

 

[richard13]

So we can't use any flash drive in 2012 imac? I have a 16 GB usb flash drive...

No, you can use external flash drives. But you should "eject" them when you are through instead of leaving them plugged in.

 

[dandrewk]

That happened with my mid-2010. I bought a new USB 3.0 3tb drive, and suddenly I couldn't reboot without getting the white screen of LONGGGGG boot. I just turned off the mac, unhooked the drive, turned Mac back on, and when it was done starting up I plugged the USB drive back in. Fortunately, as is the case with Macs, I didn't have to reboot often.

It hasn't happened at all with my new 2012 (knock on wood).

 

[adrianovski]

Thanks guys,
It seems to be a pretty common problem.
I do have a Kanex 4-port 3.0 usb hub (apparently the most recommended for Macs) and I recently got a Behringer U-Phono UFO202 audio card, which is another usb, but not 3.0
I believe it's got something to do with the audio card, but don't know whether there's anything I could do to stop it happening other than unplugging it, since I can't eject it.