Mac Mini 2011 - Grey Screen in Mountain Lion Installation

[kolstade]

I'm having major difficulties with my Mac Mini 2011.

It started with random grey screens appearing forcing me to restart. I restarted and continued working as normal.

Today, I restarted and it jumped directly into the grey screen again in startup.

1.
I booted into recovery mode
-Tried disk utility - repaired and everything seemed fine
-Rebooted and into grey screen again

2.
-Formated partition
-Started new installation and after downloading and 20min remaining, grey screen appears again

Restarted and computer went directly to grey screen with some text. Please see link:
https://www.box.com/s/yqzizv9g1enob4cdc4yr


I'm stuck.. I believe this should be a clean installation. Why isn't this working?

Can anyone help me please?

 

[harryb2448]

Kernel Panic and usually hardware related.

What did Repair Disk in Disk utility under Recovery have to say about the state of the hard drive? Why download Mountain Lion/Lion again as if the drive was repaired it should have booted? Did you format the drive and wipe it clean?

 

[kolstade]

Repair disk stated everything was working well. It didn't need to repair anything.

In command+r menu, I just chose option to make a clean install and the program started downloading Mountain Lion.

Yes, I formated the partition.

 

[chscag]

From what I could discern looking at the kernel panic screen, it appears the hard drive may be bad. Disk Utility does not check the physical properties of the hard drive. It only checks the file and folder structure for errors. I can't be positive about that without seeing the entire kernel panic log. Can you copy it and post it here?

As Harry pointed out, kernel panics are usually associated with hardware faults.

 

[kolstade]

Thanks for the replies.

How can I retrieve the entire kernel panic log other than the pic i linked?

 

[chscag]

Just give us a complete or better picture of the kernel panic if possible. If that's not possible, take it to an authorized Apple repair service center or Apple store and have them diagnose it for you. Did you buy Apple Care for the Mini?

 

[harryb2448]

When you next have a KP go into Utilities > Console, copy it and pop it on here.

 

[kolstade]

Thanks for the tips.

harryb2448 - I dont have access to console when the computer get stuck with greyscreeen in the startup.

chscag - No Apple Care. I don't know how to get a better picture with more detailed information.

 

[kolstade]

I'm wondering if I should just buy a new SSD to replace the old hd. However, I still don't know if its the old HD that is the problem. Or can it be the ram that suddenly failed?

I ran the hardware diagnostic tool, but the computer freezes there as well.

 

[harryb2448]

By any chance did you make a bootable USB flash drive of Mountain Lion before starting the Installer? If not off to Apple as suggested.