Start up problems

[BigMa]

Please help a new-bee! 🙂

Mac mini (late 2012, loaded) was performing flawlessly for about five weeks in a row until yesterday when after powering the beast on, the display (HP ZR30w) started to show Apple logo on light grey background with flying wheel as a cursor for at least 15 minutes after which period of time I restarted my Mac. Repeated the same procedure a few times by pressing and holding the power switch: same result every time. 🙁

After an hour of pure frustration a power outage happened: for about 10 minutes the house had no power at all. Guess what happened afterwards? My Mac started and continues working perfectly! 😀

Could somebody please explain what malfunctioned and why? How was the issue resolved? 😕

 

[Omnius]

sounds like you/it reseted the power supply and resolved the issue.

 

[BigMa]

Still do not understand what malfunctioned...
What was the cause? 🙁

Please chime in! 🙂

 

[1934hotrod]

Pure guess but maybe the hard drive failed to start, machine saw the drive firmware wise but it was not spinning. Could also have been posting and found something it did not like, was attempting to fit it. Or it could be the boot block scrambled and the ram was not recognizing it, memory bits corrupt not set.


The point being there is no real way of knowing exactly, however with that being said let me point this out. Unplugging a computer and that is what the power outage did for you. Allows all and any residual power to drain, then re powering from a cold start can fix or unscramble temporary problems.

I would only be concerned if this event becomes a norm. These machines run on scripts, instructions and they get wacked or out of order now and then, a cold start gets things back in order.

Cheers,
Greg