iMac Won't Load!

[JaymieSue]

It freezes on the white screen with the Apple logo.

How do I unfreeze the thing?
I tried holding Cmd+V while starting, as another forum suggested, but the forum also said to type something when the option was available, but there never was a chance for me to type anything before it went to that white Apple logo screen again.

I love my Mac & can barely use this stupid PC to ask this question.

Please help me get my Mac loaded!

 

[Brian Y]

If you can upload a video of the iMac booting in verbose mode (the black and white text you get after holding cmd+v) we can help diagnose it a bit more!

It may also be worth trying safe boot - hold the shift key as soon as you hear the chime. This will help diagnose any driver issues that may be causing it.

One last thing to try: boot into the recovery console (CMD+R) and use Disk Utility to repair the disk, and repair the disk permissions. If you're not comfortable with disk utility, however, I'd probably get Apple to do this though - it's easy to accidentally erase your drive!