Mac flashing grey every time I open it

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Since last night, whenever I turn on my mac and log in, it flashes grey for a few minutes. I'm really panicked. I spent $1700, it's not even two years old and I never take it out of my room, much less take it outside where it can get damaged.

Has anyone else had this problem?
 
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mac.png

It flashes blue and grey and stops after either restarting or waiting a few minutes. This is a screenshot of the video I took.
 

chscag

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What do you mean by "flashing blue and grey". Does the display disappear when it turns blue and grey or can you continue to see the desktop?

The screenshot you took shows a desktop with a bunch of folder icons on it and no dock. Is that the way you have your MBP setup all the time?
 
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By 'blue' I mean what I usually have for a background. It's what comes standard with Macs, I think. I never changed it.

I do have a dock and if doesn't come up while the screen is alternating between the grey in my picture and the normal background. And I can see the desktop at all times.
 

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I would suggest booting the computer in one of two different ways:

1. From the recovery partition (use command + r when rebooting the computer).
2. Boot the computer from an external hard drive with a fresh OS install on it.

If the computer acts normally using one or both of these methods…then there's an issue with the OS installed on the computers storage device (HD or SSD).

If the computer still acts "weird" after trying one or both of these methods…then there's a hardware problem with the computer.

HTH,

- Nick
 
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I would suggest booting the computer in one of two different ways:

1. From the recovery partition (use command + r when rebooting the computer).
2. Boot the computer from an external hard drive with a fresh OS install on it.

If the computer acts normally using one or both of these methods…then there's an issue with the OS installed on the computers storage device (HD or SSD).

If the computer still acts "weird" after trying one or both of these methods…then there's a hardware problem with the computer.

HTH,

- Nick


When should I click command+r? I tried to reinstall OS X earlier today. After I restarted, I waited until it got to the log in page. Was this a mistake?
 

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When should I click command+r? I tried to reinstall OS X earlier today. After I restarted, I waited until it got to the log in page. Was this a mistake?

You don't "click" command + r. It's a two-key combination you hold down on the keyboard as the computer is rebooting,:)

- Nick
 
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Thanks. I'll try it later tonight when I get home. I'm 19, but I'm still a bit of a technology philistine :)
 
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I turned it back on and it went smoothly. Perhaps it was a two-time quirk (although my programs didn't shut off for some reason. Anyway, we'll find out tomorrow and later this week.)

Thanks for all the help. I'll post here again if it causes trouble (hope you don't mind)
 
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Keep an eye on things. The hard drive may be starting to fail. Sometimes they do right out of the box when new! Using the Command R trick can get you to the Disk utility > Repair Disk program.
 
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Alright, I've found it and I clicked "repair disk permissions". It's repairing now. This doesn't hurt, right?
 

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I've hit command R and it doesn't do anything.

Alright, I've found it and I clicked "repair disk permissions". It's repairing now. This doesn't hurt, right?

Are you saying that you got the command + r to work now?

You didn't mention what OS version you're running…and I forgot to mention that for the command + r to work…the computer must be running OS 10.7 or newer.

- Nick
 
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'not even two years old' would indicate Mountain Lion or Mavericks is why I followed suit.
 

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'not even two years old' would indicate Mountain Lion or Mavericks is why I followed suit.

Thanks Harry. Forgot about that detail!:)

- Nick
 
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Repair Disk would have been better perhaps than Repair Permissions. But you do need the Command R trick to do this. Yoy cannotr eapir a drive youa re booted from.
 
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For two weeks it was fine, but now the flashing has started again. Should I do repair disk?
 

chscag

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Yes. Reboot the machine and hold down your Command + r keys until you see the Apple. That will get you into recovery. From there choose "Utilities" and then "Disk Utility". Select your Macintosh HD, and then select verify and repair. Let us know the results.

However, the flashing screen may indicate something other than the hard drive but do the above anyway. And one more thing... did you buy extended Apple Care when you purchased the machine?
 
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Yes, I have AppleCare until September 2015.

Command+R hasn't worked for me at all. I'm able to manually reach it through Finder >>> Applications>>Utilities. Is this the same thing?
 

chscag

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Yes, I have AppleCare until September 2015.

Command+R hasn't worked for me at all. I'm able to manually reach it through Finder >>> Applications>>Utilities. Is this the same thing?

No, it's not the same thing because you can not run a verify and repair on the hard drive while you're booted from it. I don't understand why you can't get into recovery? Are you sure you're holding down the Command and R keys together as soon as you hear the boot noise?

If you can't get into recovery that may mean one of two things: You do not have a recovery partition for some reason, or the drive is corrupted (unlikely). Earlier in this thread you stated that you tried to re-install OS X? Did you in fact re-install?

Anyway, my advice is to give Apple Care a call and make an appointment to take your machine in and have them diagnose it. Since you have Apple Care, you may as well have them look it over and make any repairs as necessary. Make sure before you bring it on in that you back up all your data first. That's very important because they may re-install OS X or even change out your hard drive and that will result in a loss of all your data.

Let us know how it turns out - and don't forget to back up. ;)
 

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