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OS X grey screen help?!

W

whitetrashanth

macrumors member
Original poster
Oct 14, 2005
93
0
hey,..

turned off quad powermac the other day, and when i turned it on it only reaches a grey screen with apple logo

and restarted/ turned off and on quite few times

nothings happening..

help anyone please?
 
Richard Flynn said:
Have you got an iPod plugged in? Or any external hard drive? Unplug all peripherals and try starting up again.
Click to expand...

cheers im not there now il try it later tonight when i get in...

anymore suggestions before i get back would be appreciated so I can write them down as its the soul internet connection in the flat


thanks alot in advance
 
This is usually bad. I had a co-worker whose G5 did that, and it turned out to be a dead motherboard. Try rebooting from the original CD (hold C while starting up), and see if it gets you anywhere. Obviously not the video card. If you have another machine, or an external SATA drive you can try to see if the HD is working, but I'm pretty sure that it's either the CPU or the motherboard. Also, do you see any coolant leaking? Any rusting inside the case?
 
Lovesong said:
This is usually bad. I had a co-worker whose G5 did that, and it turned out to be a dead motherboard. Try rebooting from the original CD (hold C while starting up), and see if it gets you anywhere. Obviously not the video card. If you have another machine, or an external SATA drive you can try to see if the HD is working, but I'm pretty sure that it's either the CPU or the motherboard. Also, do you see any coolant leaking? Any rusting inside the case?
Click to expand...

hi took out all periferals etc.. checked everything...

i cant open the cd tray because its enclosed, nothing seems to happen when i press either c or apple option key....

it just comes up with that bloody grey screen with a small loading cursor,...

i really dont know what to do,.. i opened it up,..nothing happening there seems perfect to me...its only a year old...

after a couple minutes on the grey screen the machine gets louder and the fans kick in and stay like that nothing happens..


please anyone with any other info would be really really appreciated!!

i really am not to hot on computer termanology either so if possible keep it too a minimum thanks
 
whitetrashanth said:
hi took out all periferals etc.. checked everything...

i cant open the cd tray because its enclosed, nothing seems to happen when i press either c or apple option key....

it just comes up with that bloody grey screen with a small loading cursor,...

i really dont know what to do,.. i opened it up,..nothing happening there seems perfect to me...its only a year old...

after a couple minutes on the grey screen the machine gets louder and the fans kick in and stay like that nothing happens..


please anyone with any other info would be really really appreciated!!

i really am not to hot on computer termanology either so if possible keep it too a minimum thanks
Click to expand...

OK. If the computer is less than a year old (I'm assuming that you don't have Apple Care), call Apple, or better yet, go to your nearest Apple store and talk with a genius. The motherboard is that blue thing that everything is connected to. If a single resistor or diode blew, then your computer will not start because the individual parts cannot communicate with one another. If it's less than a year old, it's still under waranty, and Apple will replace your entire board. From the sounds of it, this is beyond any of our abilities to self-fix. Good luck.
 
Lovesong said:
OK. If the computer is less than a year old (I'm assuming that you don't have Apple Care), call Apple, or better yet, go to your nearest Apple store and talk with a genius. The motherboard is that blue thing that everything is connected to. If a single resistor or diode blew, then your computer will not start because the individual parts cannot communicate with one another. If it's less than a year old, it's still under waranty, and Apple will replace your entire board. From the sounds of it, this is beyond any of our abilities to self-fix. Good luck.
Click to expand...

its just over a year old like by a week but i have 3 year full apple care, my friend rung me to tell me which iswhy i asked on here to see if it was somthing silly,..

now im home i dont know whats going on

il ring/ see them tomorrow

i have full warrenty etc.. extended would they replace anything? should do shouldnt they

this is really worrying me because i have literally thousands of hours of work on there.. luckily i saved lots of my photos on an external hd and alot online too..


think it may have been a power surge if somthings blown??? :(

thanks for your help thus far
 
Any number of things can cause the Mac to become unbootable. The most likely suspect in your case (a gray screen, not a kernel panic) is a problem with the hard drive. You should try to boot the Mac in Single User Mode and run fsck. The steps:

Start with the command (apple) and s keys held down, until you see a black screen with white characters. When the screen stops scrolling, at the command prompt, type:

fsck -f [including the space, return]

If any disk errors are repaired, run it again until none are reported. Then at the prompt, type:

reboot [return]

If errors are reported which cannot be repaired, write them down and let us know.
 
IJ Reilly said:
Any number of things can cause the Mac to become unbootable. The most likely suspect in your case (a gray screen, not a kernel panic) is a problem with the hard drive. You should try to boot the Mac in Single User Mode and run fsck. The steps:

Start with the command (apple) and s keys held down, until you see a black screen with white characters. When the screen stops scrolling, at the command prompt, type:

fsck -f [including the space, return]

If any disk errors are repaired, run it again until none are reported. Then at the prompt, type:

reboot [return]

If errors are reported which cannot be repaired, write them down and let us know.
Click to expand...

thanks just trying that now
 
whitetrashanth said:
thanks just trying that now
Click to expand...

i wrote the above while waiting for it to load up the screen it did load up some

and it stopped scrolling

but i cant type in what you said


its dead nothing else is happening apart from some of the white characters which have already appeared... would it help to say what the last thing it says on the last line>?

il say anyway because its been on that for about 6 minutes now not moved

:

Load of/ sbin / launch failed. errno 85





:S
 
Lovesong said:
Not with applecare it's not. seriously, instead of beating your head against it, just call apple. That $300 you spent last year will seem like the smartest decision. My co-worker's repairs cost $1600...he had applecare... he paid $0. :)
Click to expand...


its true man.. its just im so worried about my work

and the fact it really really couldnt have come at a worse time for me.. iv got sooooo much work to do its unreal...thers so much going on right now

this week espectially,..funeral tomorrow,.. travelling long distances to make things


god the biggest sob story of the year or what?

sorry guys for this, i sound completely useless , i really do appreciate all this by the way...but you can sypathise with me in terms of needing to get work done/ even accessing it...

:(

the mornings a long way away,..for the phone lines to open

im in (UK) its 1 am.. maybe i should just face the facts
 
whitetrashanth said:
its true man.. its just im so worried about my work

and the fact it really really couldnt have come at a worse time for me.. iv got sooooo much work to do its unreal...thers so much going on right now

this week espectially,..funeral tomorrow,.. travelling long distances to make things


god the biggest sob story of the year or what?

sorry guys for this, i sound completely useless , i really do appreciate all this by the way...but you can sypathise with me in terms of needing to get work done/ even accessing it...

:(

the mornings a long way away,..for the phone lines to open

im in (UK) its 1 am.. maybe i should just face the facts
Click to expand...

This stuff always happens at the most inopportune times. When my mate's machine broke, he was writing a science grant. Luckily, his hard drive was fine, and managed to boot on my machine. Good luck to you.
 
IJ Reilly said:
Grim, I think is a better word. ;)

Still, all is not lost -- at least not yet. I'd want to see this Mac booted in Firewire Target Disk mode and connected to another Mac.
Click to expand...

hmm well cheers guys

il letcha know what big A says in the morning..
 
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