Mac Mini gray screen only

[elliot]

I have a Mac Mini (18 months old) which when turned on produces the gray screen with spinning wheel only. Nothing else happens. The desktop doesn't come up. I checked my connections and tried several times. Nothing. It started when I woke it up from sleep and clicked on my browser which wouldn't open. I turned the computer off then restarted only to get this gray screen.

Anyone know what's happening?

 

[NightLord]

Have you tried booting from the install CD, and choosing startup disk and selecting your mini's boot drive?

 

[elliot]

Have you tried booting from the install CD, and choosing startup disk and selecting your mini's boot drive?

No I haven't. Will this erase everything?

 

[NightLord]

No, all it will do is tell the mac to boot from your main OS X drive

 

[elliot]

Do I have to hold down the C key or something as it's coming on? All I got was the same gray screen/spinning wheel.

 

[NightLord]

Yeah, as soon as it bongs, and don't let go. If it happens while booting from CD as well, I'd say your open firmware is having trouble. Try asking in the hardware forum.

 

[elliot]

Yeah, as soon as it bongs, and don't let go. If it happens while booting from CD as well, I'd say your open firmware is having trouble. Try asking in the hardware forum.

Ok I get the installer pop up and I have the menu but I'm not sure what I'm doing with it. I can't find "boot drive". Instructions don't quite match what I'm seeing. (Also disk won't eject)

 

[elliot]

I tried typing in mac-boot after holding down command and 's' keys. I got a 'cannot find command'.

Also tried holding down X key. Nothing.

 

[IJ Reilly]

While you are booted on the install CD, find and run Disk Utility in the menu. Have it check and repair the startup drive.

 

[elliot]

While you are booted on the install CD, find and run Disk Utility in the menu. Have it check and repair the startup drive.

All I could find to repair were the Permissions and disk which I did. I didn't see a "startup drive" drive to repair. The message I got was;

1 HFS volume repaired
1 volume could not be repaired

There was a comment that some minor repair was needed. Anyway, didn't work.

 

[elliot]

Yeah, as soon as it bongs, and don't let go. If it happens while booting from CD as well, I'd say your open firmware is having trouble. Try asking in the hardware forum.

Yeah I think this may be the case.

 

[IJ Reilly]

All I could find to repair were the Permissions and disk which I did. I didn't see a "startup drive" drive to repair. The message I got was;

1 HFS volume repaired
1 volume could not be repaired

There was a comment that some minor repair was needed. Anyway, didn't work.

You're confusing me here. It sounds like you did find the volume, and did run the verify and repair. You won't literally see "startup drive" -- you'll see the name of the hard drive (usually "Macintosh HD" unless you've changed it). This is what you need to select in Disk Utility, and run verify and repair.

 

[elliot]

You're confusing me here. It sounds like you did find the volume, and did run the verify and repair. You won't literally see "startup drive" -- you'll see the name of the hard drive (usually "Macintosh HD" unless you've changed it). This is what you need to select in Disk Utility, and run verify and repair.

Yes that's what I clicked on as well, the HD. Any other suggestions before I call Steve Jobs?

 

[rbg0110]

I've had this exact problem -- Core Duo mini -- and it ultimately resulted in a hard drive replacement per applecare. Sorry for your loss. They will transport data over however.

 

[harixvirex]

Mac Mini Gray Screen - A solution which works at last

Folks,

Atlast having tried a lot of options but invain..... Here is one thing which worked after


1) Tried booting from CD and "C" key holding - NO GO!!
2) Tried to perform a Network boot - NO GO!!
3) Tried to perform a Target Disk mode to reset MBR record using the Firewire cable and "T" key - NO GO!!
4) Tried to zapp PRAM by Apple+Optio+P+R ~ NO GO!!
5) Tried to reset only NVRAM by Apple+Optio+O+F ~ NO GO!!


At last....2 commands one after the other help me



1) Boot into Open Firmware using Apple+Optio+O+F
2) Type "reset-nvram"
3) Type "reset-all"

without the quotes....

Then i got a and the machine started booting into Leopard / Tiger.....


Was sucessful with 3 mac mini machine......

HTH...

Hari S