05-12-2011, 02:59 PM

Hi all,

I have tried everything & cant get my Macbook Pro to boot. Its running snow leopard.

When I turn it on I get to the apple screen and the wheel just spins, spins and spins

This is what I have tried:

1) Boot in safe mode - doesn't go past Apple logo with spinning wheel
2) Reset PRAM - doesn't do second chime automatically - doesn't got back apple logo with spinning wheel
3) Try boot from Mac OSX DVD - it thinks about it, ejects DVD and then goes to Apple logo and spinning wheel
4) Boot to hardware test with hardware DVD - DVD ejects but then hardware test does run, finds nothing
5) Reset SMC - does nothing

Nothing is plugged in, it was working fine yesterday, turned it on today & it wont boot

Is there another way I can get to the screen that will allow me to repair disk permission without using the startup disk - as its not liking the disk - have a feeling the DVD superdrive is broken?

Or could I put the startup disk in another mac - connect with firewire and boot holding T - if i then boot the problematic mac holding C - will it boot from the CD in the make in target disk mode?

Any help would be most appreciated

Thanks

Joe

05-12-2011, 04:10 PM

Boot holding down CMD+V

This will list the boot processing verbosely. It should display what the last line and possible error is during boot.

05-12-2011, 04:32 PM

I am running Single user mode at the moment and getting the following after doing the FSCK command

- Running verbose mode and fsck. Nothing strange except two notifications:
"SATA WARNING: Enable auto-activate failed" and "AppleAHCIDiskQueueManager::setPowerState timed out after 100202 ms".

UPDATE

Just running verbosely mode

the last 3 lines say:

SATA WARNING: Enable auto-active failed
Bug: launchctl.c:3557 923930):17: ioctl(s6, SIOCAIFADDR_IN6, &ifra6) != -1
Running dsck on the boot volume...

05-13-2011, 07:33 AM

Can't say for sure but those appear to point to a faulty or failing HD, though the possibility of a problematic SATA controller or cable would also explain the problems booting to the DVD drive as well. I'm thinking the drive might be OK but the communication to the drive is a hardware issue.

There is mention of that error here:

How To Fix Common Mac Startup Problems [MacRx] | Cult of Mac

I'd bring it to an authorized repair shop.

05-13-2011, 06:16 PM

Boot from your system install disc, go into the Menu Bar > Utilities > Disk Utility and run Repair Disk and see what is reported. You may well be in the market for a new hard drive.