iMac start up issue

[speckytecky]

iMac starts, then has white apple screen with the spinning wheel thing for about 2 minutes, then it goes to black / grey screen with active mouse. What's going on?

[pooley]

Start here = Mac OS X: Gray screen appears during startup - Apple Support

[speckytecky]

Thanks duly given to @pooley for the lone response.

 

Nothing external connected. Wireless mouse and keyboard.

 

Tried a reinstall in school but that didn't want to play because of the flipping proxy setting. Took the Mac home and carried out a disk check - that all said it was ok. Next tried a re-install of OS X. Infuriatingly, it looked like it was going ok, took about 2 hours then restarted and carried on for a further 50 minute session - when I took the dog for a walk. On my return there was the dark grey screen with the live cursor and a live keyboard but sadly no OS!

 

Giving it another go now. Oh, boy, do I hate Macs!!

 

Start here = Mac OS X: Gray screen appears during startup - Apple Support

[pooley]

You could try installing osx to an external drive and see if it boots ok? That way you can eliminate the iMac hdd.

[davidacland]

It really sounds like a hardware failure. As pooled says, I would try booting from an external drive but if that fails then a repair will be needed.

 

Just to make sure, are you installing a compatible version of OS X? Macs will only boot to the OS they originally shipped with, or newer. Anything earlier and you could get the symptoms you are experiencing.

 

Last random though, try resetting the PRAM (hold down cmd + alt + p + r, the Mac will restart and you should wait until you have heard it chime around 4 times.

 

And the last, last random thought, have you upgraded the RAM recently? Grey screens on startup are a common symptom of faulty, incompatible or just unseated RAM.

 

Best of luck.

 

David Acland - Amsys

[speckytecky]

Naive question perhaps but how do I set about installing OS X on an external drive?

 

You could try installing osx to an external drive and see if it boots ok? That way you can eliminate the iMac hdd.

[speckytecky]

Thanks duly given @davidacland apart from the external HD boot up I have now tried all your suggestions - to no avail. Aren't machines running Windows lovely to work with!

 

 

 

It really sounds like a hardware failure. As pooled says, I would try booting from an external drive but if that fails then a repair will be needed.

 

Just to make sure, are you installing a compatible version of OS X? Macs will only boot to the OS they originally shipped with, or newer. Anything earlier and you could get the symptoms you are experiencing.

 

Last random though, try resetting the PRAM (hold down cmd + alt + p + r, the Mac will restart and you should wait until you have heard it chime around 4 times.

 

And the last, last random thought, have you upgraded the RAM recently? Grey screens on startup are a common symptom of faulty, incompatible or just unseated RAM.

 

Best of luck.

 

David Acland - Amsys

[davidacland]

To install OS X on an external drive you boot to the installer on the recovery partition as normal, connect an external drive (formatted as HFS+) and select it as the target disk during the installer.

 

That being said, if everything else has failed it sounds like its physically broken and needs parts replacing.

 

David Acland - Amsys

[mac_shinobi]

Something like this :

 

OS X: Installing OS X on an external volume - Apple Support