04-23-2011, 10:13 PM

Will cash reward for help

Ok, so i'm stuck at the grey screen on my 15-inch MacBook Pro (Mid 2010). I bought it used but what probably caused the problem was that my (the only account) was accidentally set to read only in the get info when you click the hard drive (stupid I know).

Anyways, snow leopard will not start up and get past the grey screen, but if I hold ALT I get boot up windows perfectly fine. Can some one help me get past this infernal grey screen.

What I have:
I have the retail version of snow leopard 10.6.3
Another 500g hard drive

What i've tried when booting up:
command-option-P-R
C (booting up from the intall DVD) (it just brings me to the grey screen again)
ALT (then booting up from the DVD) (it just brings me to the grey screen again)
Installing via Ethernet cable from another computer
Taking it to best buy and having geek squad look at it (no apple stores near me)... they couldn't diagnose problem
command-S
(mount -uw /
rm /var/db/.AppleSetupDone
shutdown -h now)


Thanks for your help. I'm not really experienced with apple software so if you make a suggestion a guide would be helpful.

Thank you for reading

EDIT: if anyone can help me fix this I will paypal you $20-$50

Here's what it says when I run it in verbose mode... hopefully this will help

npvhash=4095
PAE enabled
64 bit mode enabled
Darwin Kernel Version 10.6.0 Wed Nov 10 18:13:17 PST 2010; root:xnu-1504.9.26~3/RELEASE_I386
vm_page_bootstrap: 205397 free pages and 55371 wired pages
mig_table_max_displ = 73
AppleACPICPU: ProcessorId=1 LocalApicId=0 Enabled
AppleACPICPU: ProcessorId=2 LocalApicId=1 Enabled
AppleACPICPU: ProcessorId=3 LocalApicId=4 Enabled
AppleACPICPU: ProcessorId=4 LocalApicId=5 Enabled
AppleACPICPU: ProcessorId=5 LocalApicId=0 Disabled
AppleACPICPU: ProcessorId=6 LocalApicId=0 Disabled
AppleACPICPU: ProcessorId=7 LocalApicId=0 Disabled
AppleACPICPU: ProcessorId=8 LocalApicId=0 Disabled
calling mpo_policy_init for Quarantine
Security policy loaded: Quarantine policy (Quarantine)
calling mpo_policy_init for Sandbox
Security policy loaded: Seatbelt sandbox policy (Sandbox)
calling mpo_policy_init for TMSafteyNet
Security policy loaded: Saftey net for Time Machine (TMSafetyNet)
Copyright (c) 1982, 1986, 1989, 1991, 1993
The Regents of the University of California. All rights Reserved.

Mac Framework successfully initialized
using 16384 buffer headers and 4096 cluster IO buffer headers
IOAPIC: Version 0x20 Vectors 64:87
ACPI: System State [S0 S3 S4 S5] (S3)
AppleIntelCPUPowerManagement: Turbo Ratios 0035
AppleIntelCPUPowerManagement: initilization complete
mbitit: done (64 MB memory set for mbuf pool)
rooting via boot-uuid from /chosen: 325CBFD7BCBD-37AB-A8A7-8481DA0BB423
com.apple.AppleFSCompressionTypeZlib load succeeded
AppleIntelCPUPowerMaganamentClient: ready
FireWire (OHCI) Lucent ID 5901 built-in now active, GUID 60334Bfffe8feb2c; max speed s800.
BTOEXIST off
wl0: Broadcom BCM4353 802.11 Wireless Controller
5.10.131.36
Got boot device = IOService:/AppleACPIPlatformExpert/PCI0@0/AppleACPIPCI/SATA@1F,2/AppleIntel5SeriesAHCI/PRT@0/IOAHCIDEVICE@0/AppleAHCIDiskDriver/IOAHCIBlockStorageDevice/IOBlockStorageDriver/Hatachi HTS545050
B9SA02 Media/IOGUIDPartitionScheme
BSD root: disk0s2, major 14, minor 2
jnl: unknown-dev: replay_journal: from:13960192 to: 15480320 (joffset 0x163e000)
USBMSC Identifier (non-unique):000000009833 0x5ac 0x8403 0x9833
jnl: unknown-dev: journal replay done.
com.apple.launchd 1 com.apple.launchd 1 *** launchhd[1] has started up. ***
com.apple.launchd 1 com.apple.launchd 1 *** Verbose boot, will log to /dev/console. ***
Bug: launchctl.c:3557 (23930):17: ioctl(s6,SIOCAIFADOR_IN6, &ifra6) != -1
Running fsck on the boot volume...
Executing fsck_hfs (version diskdev_cmds-491.3-2).
fsck_hfs: Volume is journaled. No checking preformed.
fsck_hfs: Use the -f option to force checking.
launchctl: Dubious ownership on file (skipping): /Library/LaunchDaemons
launchctl: Dubious ownership on file (skipping): / etc/mach_init.d
BCM5701Enet: Ethernet address (will type this out if important to solution)
AirPort_Brcm43224: Ethernet address (will type this out if important to solution)
IO80211Controller::dataLinkLayerAttachComplete():a dding AppleEFINVRAM notification
IO80211Interface::efiNVRAMPublished():
Waiting for DSMOS...
systemShutdown false
AirPort: Link Down on en1. Reason 8 (Disassociated because station leaving).
AppleBCM5701Ethernet 0 0 setFixedSpeed - logic error, speed any?

04-23-2011, 10:23 PM

Welcome to the Mac Forums.

Boot the machine with your install DVD, and instead of going thru the installation, click on the top menu "Utilities", "Disk Utility". Do a verify and repair on the hard drive and then select "Repair Permissions". Let's see if that will get things back to normal.

If that doesn't work, you may be looking at reinstalling Snow Leopard. That will not destroy your Boot Camp Windows partition but does mean lots of work getting things back in order for OS X.

04-23-2011, 10:32 PM

I've tried to boot from the install DVD (and the install DVD from another computer) but it just stops at the grey screen before anything comes up.

After pressing alt it recognizes that its in there but when I click to boot from there once again it brings me to the grey screen... the gear will spin for a minute and stay there. I tried leaving it there for 20 minutes but nothing happened

EDIT: replaced the hard drive same problem?

04-24-2011, 08:31 PM

You can't use a disk from another computer because the install media is specific to the model of Mac you have. You must use your original disk that came with the machine. If that won't work, try removing the hard drive from the machine, close it up, and see if you can boot with the drive removed.

If it won't boot that way, then there may be other hardware problems preventing it from booting.

04-24-2011, 10:17 PM

I think you misunderstood me. I'm using retail version of snow leopard, but tried to boot it from another computers disc drive via Ethernet cable.

I think they sold me a version that was too new though.. i'm going to try and see if they'll let me exchange.