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Mac mini 2012 stuck on grey screen

T

Tapidlittle

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 2, 2015
19
2
After downloading Yosemite my Mac mini hanged and after the reboot it's stuck on a grey screen. After a while I see a question mark folder forever.

I have tried many things without any success. I don't have a wired keyboard that might be an issue because it looks like it doesn't respond to any command. I have a wired Microsoft keyboard too that I tried with no success. Do I need a wired Apple keyboard ?

I also tried to disconnect my hard drive so that it might try to boot on another device .... No succes again.

Does the cheap compatible MAC keyboard on Amazon work ??

What else can I try?

Thank you for any inputs.
 
Any wired keyboard should work, no need for a mac one.

The question mark symbol usually means the boot drive is bad.

Have you tried booting into internet recovery mode?
 
oneMadRssn said:
Any wired keyboard should work, no need for a mac one.

The question mark symbol usually means the boot drive is bad.

Have you tried booting into internet recovery mode?
Click to expand...

I don't see any display even if I hold C or D or whatever other key combinations. It's just a grey screen forever. That's why I thougt it was my keyboard.
 
Boot to the internet recovery:
restart while holding Option-Command-R
If you are trying the windows keyboard (wired), then restart while holding the Windows key+alt+r
If you are connected to the internet, you should see a spinning globe, indicating that the mini is trying to connect and boot from Apple's servers.
That internet boot can take several minutes, so just wait it out.
Run Disk Utility (from the Utilities menu) and try a Repair Disk.
If you don't see your hard drive in Disk Utility, then I suspect that your hard drive has failed.
 
DeltaMac said:
Boot to the internet recovery:
restart while holding Option-Command-R
If you are trying the windows keyboard (wired), then restart while holding the Windows key+alt+r
If you are connected to the internet, you should see a spinning globe, indicating that the mini is trying to connect and boot from Apple's servers.
That internet boot can take several minutes, so just wait it out.
Run Disk Utility (from the Utilities menu) and try a Repair Disk.
If you don't see your hard drive in Disk Utility, then I suspect that your hard drive has failed.
Click to expand...

Thanks. But I'm still stuck with that grey screen without any menus. I have tried with my Microsoft keyboard and nothing happened. I have tried also C and D still nothing. :(
 
oneMadRssn said:
Do you hear the startup chime?
Click to expand...

Yes.

Oh. Good news it's starting the recovery mode. I don't know why I tried like 10 times the combination key and now the earth logo is turning. Let's wait! I now have a smile in my face. :)

----------

Will it find the network if it's wireless or I have to go wired. ??

Also I don't have a CD DRIVE on my mini. What do you mean by a repair disk ??

Thanks again.
 
Tapidlittle said:
Yes.

Oh. Good news it's starting the recovery mode. I don't know why I tried like 10 times the combination key and now the earth logo is turning. Let's wait! I now have a smile in my face. :)

----------

Will it find the network if it's wireless or I have to go wired. ??

Also I don't have a CD DRIVE on my mini. What do you mean by a repair disk ??

Thanks again.
Click to expand...

It should find your wifi, and ask for the password if needed.

Regarding repair disk, he meant the command. Here are some instructions: http://osxdaily.com/2012/02/08/repair-boot-disk-mac-os-x-disk-utilit/

If that doesn't fix your issue, then I hope you had your data backed up :)
 
Try rebooting and this time holding Option before the chime. I think on a Windows keyboard, it's the Alt button. I think this should bring up the boot menu which should show available boot drives if any, recovery mode, and a dropdown list to configure the wifi. Set up the wifi first, then select the recovery mode to boot into.
 
oneMadRssn said:
Try rebooting and this time holding Option before the chime. I think on a Windows keyboard, it's the Alt button. I think this should bring up the boot menu which should show available boot drives if any, recovery mode, and a dropdown list to configure the wifi. Set up the wifi first, then select the recovery mode to boot into.
Click to expand...

This part worked. I have set up my wifi and the only option I have is to do a internet recovery. Now I have the spinning globe with a 24:00 timer. It didn't increase yet after 10 minutes.

I will wait.
 
Tapidlittle said:
This part worked. I have set up my wifi and the only option I have is to do a internet recovery. Now I have the spinning globe with a 24:00 timer. It didn't increase yet after 10 minutes.

I will wait.
Click to expand...

I hope that you are doing this on a wired ethernet, and not wireless.
 
philipma1957 said:
listen to this man above. wifi recovery in the spring is a cr @ p shoot.

this is what cat 5/6 cable is for.

does your router allow an eth cat 5/6 cable connection? if it does uses it.
Click to expand...

You guys were right. With a hard wire connection it took 5 minutes to show the wizard. Unfortunately it doesn't see my hard drive when I try to install the OS. Does that means my hard drive is dead ? It's an SSD 120gb.
 
Tapidlittle said:
You guys were right. With a hard wire connection it took 5 minutes to show the wizard. Unfortunately it doesn't see my hard drive when I try to install the OS. Does that means my hard drive is dead ? It's an SSD 120gb.
Click to expand...

Don't go to install the OS, go to disk utility. See the directions in the link I posted earlier.
 
Tapidlittle said:
I don't see my hard drive in the disk utility. All options are greyed out. It looks more and more that my hd is dead.
Click to expand...

See attached file.
 

Attachments

  • image.jpg
    image.jpg
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Yea, there's a good chance you're hosed. Like I said, hope everything was backed up.

It might be a loose cable inside - though that seems unlikely unless you bump the computer often. The more likely thing is that the drive died.

I would first try unplugging the drive and plugging it back in. If that doesn't fix it, I would try another drive (either one you already have, a spare from a friend, or buy one you can return from best buy or something). Then take it from there.

Good luck.
 
oneMadRssn said:
Yea, there's a good chance you're hosed. Like I said, hope everything was backed up.

It might be a loose cable inside - though that seems unlikely unless you bump the computer often. The more likely thing is that the drive died.

I would first try unplugging the drive and plugging it back in. If that doesn't fix it, I would try another drive (either one you already have, a spare from a friend, or buy one you can return from best buy or something). Then take it from there.

Good luck.
Click to expand...

Thanks for all your advice. It really helped! I will let you know how it turns.
 
OP wrote above:
[[ Does that means my hard drive is dead ? It's an SSD 120gb. ]]

A pointed weakness that SSD's have (vis-a-vis HDD's), is -- that when they fail, they just go.... "POOF!". As in, "gone without prior warning".

Right now, you are flopping around like a fish out of water.

I realize the advice I'm going to give you next doesn't help you today.
But it WILL help in the future.

When you get the Mini running again, one of the first things you should do is get an external drive (put one together yourself, that's the best way), get CarbonCopyCloner or SuperDuper, and create a bootable cloned backup drive.

If you had had a bootable backup drive, you would not be posting with the problems you're having now. You'd be "back up and running again" in just a matter of three or four minutes. And you could then "go to work" on fixing whatever problems you had.

If you determine that the internal SSD has failed, here's what I'd suggest you do next:

1. Get an EXTERNAL 2.5" USB3 drive enclosure, such as this one:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B003VKTJGW...UTF8&colid=R75PP4I2A0BE&coliid=I3DOKZ31SP7539

2. Get a replacement SSD (or an HDD), and put it into the case.

3. Connect to Mini, boot to internet recovery

4. Initialize the external drive and use internet recovery to put a clean copy of the OS onto it.

5. Boot from the external (hold down the option key continuously until the startup manager appears, select external drive and hit return)

6. When you get to the setup, create a new account for yourself to get fully-up-and-running.

7. Now, go to the Startup disk preference pane and designate the external drive to be your boot drive.

This will get you "running again" for the moment. You will find that booting and running from an external SSD in a USB3 enclosure is all-but-indistinguishable as was booting from the internal drive.

You can now determine what to do next -- such as open the Mini and "swap the drives" if you want...
 
As an Amazon Associate, MacRumors earns a commission from qualifying purchases made through links in this post.
Fishrrman said:
OP wrote above:
[[ Does that means my hard drive is dead ? It's an SSD 120gb. ]]

A pointed weakness that SSD's have (vis-a-vis HDD's), is -- that when they fail, they just go.... "POOF!". As in, "gone without prior warning".

Right now, you are flopping around like a fish out of water.

I realize the advice I'm going to give you next doesn't help you today.
But it WILL help in the future.

When you get the Mini running again, one of the first things you should do is get an external drive (put one together yourself, that's the best way), get CarbonCopyCloner or SuperDuper, and create a bootable cloned backup drive.

If you had had a bootable backup drive, you would not be posting with the problems you're having now. You'd be "back up and running again" in just a matter of three or four minutes. And you could then "go to work" on fixing whatever problems you had.

If you determine that the internal SSD has failed, here's what I'd suggest you do next:

1. Get an EXTERNAL 2.5" USB3 drive enclosure, such as this one:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B003VKTJGW...UTF8&colid=R75PP4I2A0BE&coliid=I3DOKZ31SP7539

2. Get a replacement SSD (or an HDD), and put it into the case.

3. Connect to Mini, boot to internet recovery

4. Initialize the external drive and use internet recovery to put a clean copy of the OS onto it.

5. Boot from the external (hold down the option key continuously until the startup manager appears, select external drive and hit return)

6. When you get to the setup, create a new account for yourself to get fully-up-and-running.

7. Now, go to the Startup disk preference pane and designate the external drive to be your boot drive.

This will get you "running again" for the moment. You will find that booting and running from an external SSD in a USB3 enclosure is all-but-indistinguishable as was booting from the internal drive.

You can now determine what to do next -- such as open the Mini and "swap the drives" if you want...
Click to expand...

I just ordered a new SSD from Amazon. I removed the broken SSD and put it in an other computer and it was not recognized as if it was unplugged so it is really dead!

Regarding the backup, the mini is my second computer and I only use it to learn to program Iphone apps. Eventually I will need a backup solution and I will keep your thoughts in mind.

Thanks again!!
 
As an Amazon Associate, MacRumors earns a commission from qualifying purchases made through links in this post.
My Mini is finally up and running with a new SSD drive. Thanks everyone for your precious help!
 
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