MacBook Pro stuck on grey start up screen

[EmmaP]

A couple of days ago my MacBook Pro 17" which is running on Leopard (I assume the latest version) had a problem. Safari quit unexpectly - twice. As I don't shut my laptop down often I thought I would do a restart to get it going again. So, I did a restart by hitting the power button. The shutdown process timed out as something wasn't shutting down - not sure what. But I closed all the windows manually & it was on it's way (shut down & then started the reboot).

On the reboot or restart (whatever you call it) it got stuck on the grey screen with the apple sybol & the wheel running. I am not sure how long it got stuck there but my battery was so hot that I was lucky I didn't burn the house down. I disconnected the power & took the battery out until it cooled down. Once it was cooled, I plugged it all back together & tried again with no success. Normally when it gets stuck pulling the battery out & starting again normally fixes the problem (I had the battery replaced as it bulged & was overheating about a year ago). Anyhow, this time no success.

I have tried holding the power button in with the battery out etc (not sure of what this does technically) and have tried starting it up in safe mode. Neither have worked. It is still stuck on that same screen.

I have read that you can do like a command promt on start up to possibly fix the problem - but I am a bit scared of doing this one and would like to use it as a last resort.

Any other suggestions?

 

[clyde2801]

Get thee to an Apple store!

 

[Solemony]

A couple of days ago my MacBook Pro 17" which is running on Leopard (I assume the latest version) had a problem. Safari quit unexpectly - twice. As I don't shut my laptop down often I thought I would do a restart to get it going again. So, I did a restart by hitting the power button. The shutdown process timed out as something wasn't shutting down - not sure what. But I closed all the windows manually & it was on it's way (shut down & then started the reboot).

On the reboot or restart (whatever you call it) it got stuck on the grey screen with the apple sybol & the wheel running. I am not sure how long it got stuck there but my battery was so hot that I was lucky I didn't burn the house down. I disconnected the power & took the battery out until it cooled down. Once it was cooled, I plugged it all back together & tried again with no success. Normally when it gets stuck pulling the battery out & starting again normally fixes the problem (I had the battery replaced as it bulged & was overheating about a year ago). Anyhow, this time no success.

I have tried holding the power button in with the battery out etc (not sure of what this does technically) and have tried starting it up in safe mode. Neither have worked. It is still stuck on that same screen.

I have read that you can do like a command promt on start up to possibly fix the problem - but I am a bit scared of doing this one and would like to use it as a last resort.

Any other suggestions?

.....Well it's time for your MBP to visit the Apple Store to have a check up.....

 

[anirban]

...

I have tried holding the power button in with the battery out etc (not sure of what this does technically) and ...

Doing that drains out all the charge stored in the capacitors on the logic board.

Have you tried to turn on the computer without the battery in, but with AC plugged in? Have you tried doing a PRAM reset?

If you have tried all these and it didn't make any difference, then it may be time to head to an Apple Store.

 

[EmmaP]

Doing that drains out all the charge stored in the capacitors on the logic board.

Have you tried to turn on the computer without the battery in, but with AC plugged in? Have you tried doing a PRAM reset?

If you have tried all these and it didn't make any difference, then it may be time to head to an Apple Store.

Yep, tried all those things too - bugger - looks like I am going to have to head to the big smoke to visit an Apple Store. Thanks everyone for their ideas.

 

[T10HJS]

Same things happened to my new MBP, was playing a game on parallels and it unexpectedly hung so i tried cmd, opt & esc but that didn't work so i held the power button to turn it off.
When booting back up im stuck on the grey screen with apple logo with the wheel spinning but after leaving for an hour im guessing nothings going to happen so i tried PRAM reset as advised on apples website no joy and i also tried the SMC and still nothing so looks like i will be visiting apple tomorrow i will let you all know how it goes.
Back to the MB Black for now.
Got to admit i prefer the keyboard on this to the New MBP

 

[T10HJS]

Ok Some progress i just tried booting from my Lacie Rugged Drive and would you believe it back up and running, so now what do i do? i'm guessing i need to do some type of recovery on my HDD?

 

[T10HJS]

ok so i have gone into Disk Utility and Verified the disk and also Repaired the disk bit on both it said there were no issues and it appears to be ok.
so im about to try boot from the HDD.
Wish me Luck

UPDATE 5 Mins Later
Well im sad to say that this didnt work so im going to Restore my disk using my Carbon Copied verson on my Lacie HDD

 

[T10HJS]

I Give Up.... just wiped the HDD and i am reinstalling MAC OSX doesn't matter to me as i always migrate my new applications over to my MB Black so i have a fresh copy and will migrate it back onto the pro when shes up and running.

 

[morethanblood]

its the logic board. happened to me around thanksgiving. got it back about a week and a half later new logic board, new raam (which they put it when i brought it to the apple store) and they had to put in a new harddrive which sucked cause i had just finished cracking photoshop

 

[T10HJS]

Up and running fine now, not sure what was the problem but after wiping the HDD it suddenly came back to life.

I have just Jynx'd my luck it would appear as i was copieing some large files onto my mini mac from my G5 while also doing some video rendering using Elgato Turbo and that hung so i tried to force quit elgato turbo as it said it was not responding it didnt appear to do anything i tried canceling the transfers but they had hung i also tried restarting finder but nothing happened i tried cmd-alt-esc nothing happened, so what else is there that i can do other than hold down the power button?
now it wont boot and is stuck on grey screen?

UPDATE 15Minutes later i just sat there in frustration while typing this post as there was data that i didnt have backed up on there, and it the grey screen cleared and shes back on.... Strange my dock has been reset to factory standard? oh well at least i didnt loose any of my files.

 

[kazim]

I have the same problem with my new Macbook Pro 17" 2011

A couple of days ago my MacBook Pro 17" which is running on Leopard (I assume the latest version) had a problem. Safari quit unexpectly - twice. As I don't shut my laptop down often I thought I would do a restart to get it going again. So, I did a restart by hitting the power button. The shutdown process timed out as something wasn't shutting down - not sure what. But I closed all the windows manually & it was on it's way (shut down & then started the reboot).

On the reboot or restart (whatever you call it) it got stuck on the grey screen with the apple sybol & the wheel running. I am not sure how long it got stuck there but my battery was so hot that I was lucky I didn't burn the house down. I disconnected the power & took the battery out until it cooled down. Once it was cooled, I plugged it all back together & tried again with no success. Normally when it gets stuck pulling the battery out & starting again normally fixes the problem (I had the battery replaced as it bulged & was overheating about a year ago). Anyhow, this time no success.

I have tried holding the power button in with the battery out etc (not sure of what this does technically) and have tried starting it up in safe mode. Neither have worked. It is still stuck on that same screen.

I have read that you can do like a command promt on start up to possibly fix the problem - but I am a bit scared of doing this one and would like to use it as a last resort.

Any other suggestions?

I have the same problem with my new Macbook Pro 17" 2011

 

[yusukeaoki]

If no apple logo or if it just stuck there, its a hard drive problem