Grey Screen on start-up Tiger 10.4X Macbook

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FSaad


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Dear Users,

My Macbook was running quite slowly earlier today and I couldn't get it to shutdown properly. When I shut down manually using the on/off button the computer will now not get past the start-up noise and grey screen on start up.

I have tried to restart the Macbook in safe mode but nothing seems to happen except that the fan becomes extremely noisy and so I switched the machine off.

I also tried to reset the NVRAM/PRAM by pressing Command, Option, P, and R. Which restarted but had no change on the grey screen on start-up.

I have had the problem with the grey screen and the spinning wheel previously and it was because of a hard-drive failure. When that happened there was a clicking on the hard-drive when the Macbook tried to start-up.

But there is no clicking from the hard-drive when I start up. Just a grey screen.

Could anyone provide any suggestions on how to fix the problem and what could be causing the error?

I would be greatly appreciative.
 
MacKeeperUser

MacKeeperUser


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FSaad said:
Dear Users,

My Macbook was running quite slowly earlier today and I couldn't get it to shutdown properly. When I shut down manually using the on/off button the computer will now not get past the start-up noise and grey screen on start up.

I have tried to restart the Macbook in safe mode but nothing seems to happen except that the fan becomes extremely noisy and so I switched the machine off.

I also tried to reset the NVRAM/PRAM by pressing Command, Option, P, and R. Which restarted but had no change on the grey screen on start-up.

I have had the problem with the grey screen and the spinning wheel previously and it was because of a hard-drive failure. When that happened there was a clicking on the hard-drive when the Macbook tried to start-up.

But there is no clicking from the hard-drive when I start up. Just a grey screen.

Could anyone provide any suggestions on how to fix the problem and what could be causing the error?

I would be greatly appreciative.
Click to expand...

Mac OS X: Gray screen appears during startup

Symptoms

Instead of seeing the Finder or the login window after startup, your display may only show a persistent gray screen (you may also see an Apple logo, spinning gear, spinning globe, or a folder with a flashing question mark on it). Note: The below steps may not apply if a blue screen appears during start up.

Mac OS X: Gray screen appears during startup
 
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FSaad


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I went to that page first before posting, sadly I had no luck with any of the steps provided.

Is there any other advice people can give regarding my situation of the Grey Screen on start-up?
 
OP
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FSaad


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Grey Screen Solution on start up

I took the laptop to an Apple office and they diagnosed a faulty hard-drive. Sadly this is the second Hitachi SATA hard-drive that has failed in the last three years. The staff at Apple said the Hitachi hard-drives are unreliable. To anyone who reads this post the staff strongly advised to change the hard-drive to a Western Digital or Seagate as they are more reliable than the Hitachi ones.

And if you have a Grey screen that is unresponsive to rebooting the RAM, or not booting into Safe mode. Then sadly your hard-drive has failed and I wish you luck in finding someone to recover any loss data
 
6string

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Your Mac's Specs
Back to my old 2.2GHz C2D MB after selling my MBP and wondering what my next Mac will be :)
FSaad said:
I took the laptop to an Apple office and they diagnosed a faulty hard-drive. Sadly this is the second Hitachi SATA hard-drive that has failed in the last three years. The staff at Apple said the Hitachi hard-drives are unreliable. To anyone who reads this post the staff strongly advised to change the hard-drive to a Western Digital or Seagate as they are more reliable than the Hitachi ones.
Click to expand...

I don't know what you mean by taking it to an "Apple Office".... I think whoever you spoke to didn't quite give you the full story.
Either way, you have had an unlucky run with Hitachi.
My last Hitachi HD (almost 3yrs old) and my current one are both fine. Hitachi many years back were known to be hit and miss, however, now days this is not the case. They are of high quality, up there with any of the leading brands, and in fact, make one of the best 7200RPM HDs on the market.

In saying that, HDs fail, and it's not a case of if, but when. Some are faulty to start with, and some keep on going for many years.
The key is to have at least one reliable backup HD, if not 2 or 3.
If have never had a HD fail, regardless of the brand, and some have numerous failures frequently. Most the leading HD's now come with a 3-5yr manufacturer's warranty, but this still doesn't negate the need for a reliable backup strategy.
 
C

chas_m

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What 6string said, in spades. The staff at the "Apple Office" simply don't know what they are talking about.
 

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