Won't boot past grey screen

Hello all,
Hoping someone can offer me some help. My macbook won't boot past the grey screen with the apple logo with the spinning disc. I've left it for around an hour and nothing happens.

I've seen a few problems relating to a question mark on the grey screen, but this doesn;t happen with me. I've also tried the control-apple-p-r thing, but that didn;t seem to work either.

All this happened after installing a few auto updates last night.

Anyone offer any help? I'm really hoping i haven;t lost all my pics/music and other documents as i don';t have them backed up.

Thanks in advance for any help.

Alright, I had the same problem and none of those commands worked either for me. There are I believe 2 other commands you could try. Bare with me if they are incorrect. CMD + S (hold while starting up). I can't think of the other one but I have one last suggestion.

I firewired my G4 to my Macbook Pro, turned on both systems. Then restarted the G4 and my MBP came to life and booted past the grey screen. Hopefully this will work for you as well. Please update us.

Press and hold command (applekey) + R + p + ctrl whle booting the macbook wait until it does the apple dong sounds 3 times then realease the keys.

Noxian said:

Press and hold command (applekey) + R + p + ctrl whle booting the macbook wait until it does the apple dong sounds 3 times then realease the keys.

Click to expand...

I believe you only wait for the sound twice, according to Apple Support.

just wondering.

MacJuen said:

Alright, I had the same problem and none of those commands worked either for me. There are I believe 2 other commands you could try. Bare with me if they are incorrect. CMD + S (hold while starting up). I can't think of the other one but I have one last suggestion.

I firewired my G4 to my Macbook Pro, turned on both systems. Then restarted the G4 and my MBP came to life and booted past the grey screen. Hopefully this will work for you as well. Please update us.

Click to expand...

What do i do after that? That just leads me to a window that readsy a big mess then at the bottom "If you wish to boot the system, but stay in single usuer mode:
sh /etc/rc
localhost:/ rott#

what do i do after that?