Mac mini 2011 OSX Not starting up apple logo spinning. Tried a few things no joy :'(

[rema]

Sorry tried searching forums and generally online can find anything. Using my phone so it quiet difficult typing and searching.

Mac mini no SuperDrive running Mac OSX

So my computer has been working fine but I did notice last few days there was no start up chime. Then today my mac went to sleep and refused to wake up. My display stayed black. I turned mac off and now it won't start up.

I get apple logo grey screen part of the apple logo is blue and spinner. Does this for a while then screen turns black then plain grey stays like this.

I replaced ram with original
Unplugged everything not essential

I've tried holding shift
Tried holding option

Tried cmd-r get the cloble status bar goes to the end but the black screen and plain grey

Tried resenting ram cmd-p-r doesn't resent restart mac or have any effect

Tried booting from time machine back up select the harddrive I've tried so many key combinations at this point I'm confused but when I click the hard drive it does nothing screen goes grey.

Any help would me much appreciated. I don't have apple care or the os on a pendrive. Don't have access to another mac. Screen is LG if that helps.

When I leave the mac on grey screen mac gets really noisey and heats up.

Please help

 

[Morod]

I can't help you, but I think I can offer a clue to your problem.
The chime is a hardware verification that everything is well. No chime, I'd say it's a hardware problem.

Sorry I can't be of more help.

 

[rema]

Thanks for your reponse the chime is back after NVRAM reset I wasn't doing it properly I was doing cmd-r-p instead of cmd-opt-r-p. Still not booting same issues also did smc reset and nothing.

 

[driveparty]

Thanks for your reponse the chime is back after NVRAM reset I wasn't doing it properly I was doing cmd-r-p instead of cmd-opt-r-p. Still not booting same issues also did smc reset and nothing.

It's more likely about HDD problem rather than anything else. I'm sorry, but there is no solution, but having it booted with another drive (may be connected to either USB or FW ports) with either Mac OS or Bootcamp Windows installed, or just from any 10.7+ MAC OS X bootable flash drive. The latter can be easily easily made by dumping InstallESD DMG image from within "Install OS X..." app, located by right-clicking in Finder on the "Install OS X ...".app –> Show package contents –> SharedSupport –> InstallESD.dmg, open it with Disk utility and restore to any ~4GB+ flash drive or SD card.
The better option to test internal HDD is to boot from Apple Service Diagnostics (ASD) flash drive, but the only *legal* way to get it, is to ask Apple service to send you DMG image, you should also restore to any proper flash drive. ASD allows one to check most common Mac hardware problems.
There are also some paid apps, offering such a bootable images or DVDs, but it's only worth it, should you have only logical HDD structure corrupted and need to rebuild all the filesystem hierarchy, rather than have HDD replaced.

 

[rema]

Really appreciate the response but I don't really understand.

How do I go about booting from a pendrive? Where would I get the osx from and how do I get it onto my pen drive and then onto my Mac mini?

 

[rema]

I found a tutorial can I do this with someone else's mac? As have no way of currently doing it on my Mac mini?

 

[driveparty]

I found a tutorial can I do this with someone else's mac? As have no way of currently doing it on my Mac mini?

No, you can't do that on your mini in it's current state. You should use the other Mac (preferable), or PC machine in order to create such a bootable pen-drive.
Regarding where you gonna get OS X – i have only pointed options to load your mini, but i can't tell you where to get an OS X. Maybe you can ask for one's recovery flash drive form the person, who's other Mac you'll use to load yours (you can even load it from the internal drive of the other mac, should you connect both thru FW and boot the other Mac in the Target disk mode –*read it here http://support.apple.com/kb/PH10725?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US).
The easiest option is to download the installer from Mac App store, should you have bought it from there, but as long as you asked this question i suppose you haven't.
So the better option for you seems to get another Mac, or just bring yours to the nearest Apple care or any Apple service provider.

ps
I've just realized you haven't told, if you tried recovery mode (Cmd + R) – did you try it? If you've got a mini introduced in July 2011, you also should be able to initiate Internet recovery by pressing Cmd + Opt + R.
Read more about Internet recovery here http://www.cultofmac.com/106669/for...recovery-on-your-2011-or-later-mac-os-x-tips/

 

[rema]

Thanks again for your time and help

I previously tried cmd-r and cmd-opt-r this initiates online recovery with the spinning globe this loads to the end but the screens goes plain grey. I also tried cmd-s.

The mac I tried was running mountain lion and I'm running lion. This mac had it pre-installed as well could not find installer tried downloading installer from app store would not let me download installer for that mac. I then logged into the App Store with my apple id but couldn't either. Only option was to buy mountain lion both accounts.

I did not have a FireWire and was not aware of the target mode from reading your this.

Think my only choice is apple store at this point. Appointment availabllty is pretty horrible.

If I can get hold of a FireWire cable and I can't get a appointment soon I will give that a try.

Thanks again