Is your Mac stuck on the white startup screen and won’t boot up or turn completely on? Tryin to boot up normally, but your Mac or MacBook won’t turn on or gets stuck on the loading screen, the startup progress bar, or the Apple logo? Wondering what to do when your Mac shows you the “white screen of death?”
You’re not alone!
Recently I too had this problem. My Mac would turn on, I hear the chime and see the white startup screen. But then, it would get stuck on that white screen (after the chime)–no Apple logo, no processing circle, nothing, nada! What’s a girl to do?
If this situation sounds like you or something similar, you are not alone!
This white (or gray) screen means that your macOS or OS X can’t start because of problems with the system’s hardware or software. If your Mac fails to start-up regularly, try these quick tips to troubleshoot your problem(s).
Contents
- 1 Quick Tips
- 2 Fix Your Mac’s White (or Gray) Screen 1. Before You Do Anything Else, Check Your Peripherals!
- 3 2. Try a Safe Boot
- 4 3. Run Disk Utility
- 5 4. Reset PRAM or NVRAM
- 6 5. Using Terminal in Single User Mode or Verbose Mode
- 7 6. Reinstall macOS or Mac OS X
- 8 7. Make a Disk Image Backup
- 9 8. Run Apple Diagnostics or Apple Hardware Test!
- 10 No Time? Check out our Step-by-Step Video Tutorial
- 11 Reader Tips
Quick Tips
Try These Steps to troubleshoot and fix a Mac Stuck on White Screen
- Disconnect all peripherals
- Restart in Safe Mode
- Run Disk Utility
- Reset NVRAM (or PRAM)
- Power up your Mac with the Startup Manager and select your Startup Disk Manually
- Launch Single User or Verbose Mode with Terminal
- Reinstall macOS or OS X
- Run Apple Diagnostics or Apple Hardware Test
Related Articles
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- MacBook Stuck on Apple Logo and Won’t Boot? Here’s a Fix
- Mac Troubleshooting & Help
- Factory Reset on MacOS
- Not Starting After MacOS update?
- Mac OS X: How to install, update & uninstall apps
Fix Your Mac’s White (or Gray) Screen 
1. Before You Do Anything Else, Check Your Peripherals!
1. Before You Do Anything Else, Check Your Peripherals!Often it’s those third-party peripherals that get our Macs into trouble. So before you get drastic and try safe mode or other measures, shut down your Mac and disconnect all wired and wireless (Bluetooth) peripherals except your keyboard, mouse, and anything else necessary to reboot. If you installed any expansion cards, remove those too. If at all possible, use the Apple branded keyboard and mouse that shipped with your Mac.
Now reboot your Mac.
If it boots up now, one of those disconnected peripherals (or a combination of them) is the source problem. Add each peripheral back one at a time to determine which one(s) are the problem. Strictly follow a process of elimination. You might need to shut down your Mac, add one item, and start up again. Ideally, shut down between each addition.
2. Try a Safe Boot
All MacOS and Mac OS X 10.2 and later have a Safe Boot feature that includes disk checking and repair. A Safe Boot rebuilds your mac’s Launch Database on your hard drive. Re-building this Launch Database often resolves your Mac getting stuck on the white screen.
First, start your Mac in Safe Mode. To do this, shut down your Mac. Now Turn on your computer by pressing the power key while holding down the Shift key.
When you see the Apple logo, release the Shift key. After your Mac fully starts, restart your computer normally without holding any keys/buttons during startup. Note that Safe Boot is slower to boot.
One you boot and log in using Safe Mode, the very first thing is emptying your Trash!
After dumping the trash, open a Finder info window on your hard drive (default name is Macintosh HD unless you gave it a different name. Verify that this hard drive has AT LEAST 10 GB of available space.
If your Mac doesn’t have 10 GB free, move some of your largest files to another drive (either internal or external–JUST NOT another folder on your Macintosh HD. Look for video files and image files as these tend to be your largest and are easy to move.
Once you move those files off your hard drive to another location, delete them from your Macintosh HD and empty the trash. Repeat as often as necessary until you have the minimum 10 GB of available space on your Macintosh HD.
Once you reach that 10GB, restart normally.
3. Run Disk Utility
Turn your Mac off by holding down the power button for a few seconds. Turn on your Mac and hold down the Command and R keys until you see the Apple logo.
Then you should see a Mac OS X Utilities or MacOS Utility window. Select Disk Utility, click your MacOS or OS X hard drive and select verify/repair disk.
If Disk Utility reports that the volume isn’t repairable, the drive needs replacement.
Alternatively, if this is the very first time an error has occurred on that drive, you might choose to erase the volume and restore from a backup. Proceed with caution! Once a drive fails, it’s likely to fail again.
Recovery Partition Not Showing Up?
If your Mac fails to boot up into Recovery, there are still a few options. First, try booting up using Internet Recovery by holding down the Command + Option + R keys until you see the Apple Logo. You must have an internet connection to try this option
If Internet Recovery isn’t an option, try bringing up Startup Manager. Press and hold the Option key while booting up your Mac. Once Startup Manager appears, choose how your Mac boots from the on-screen options, including any connected bootable hard drives, Recovery partitions, USB flash drives, network locations, and other boot devices.
Verify & Repair Permissions
If your OS still allows you to run Verify and Repair Permissions, perform that step as well. Unfortunately, starting with El Capitan, Apple removed from Disk Utility verify and repair permissions buttons. Apple claims that all system file permissions are now automatically protected and updated during software updating. However, for El Capitan, you CAN access Repair Permissions using Terminal (not so in macOS.) This article features the detailed steps on how to fix permissions in El Capital.
4. Reset PRAM or NVRAM
Resetting PRAM or NVRAM might just fix your boot failure. PRAM (parameter random-access memory) or NVRAM (non-volatile random-access memory) is a small amount of your computer’s memory that stores certain settings in a location that macOS can access.
These settings include things like your Mac’s speaker volume, screen resolution, startup disk selection, and any recent kernel panic information.
If you experience issues related to these features, resetting PRAM or NVRAM might help.
How to reset NVRAM
- Shut down your Mac
- Find Command (⌘), Option, P, and R on your keyboard
- Turn on your Mac
- Press and hold the Command-Option-P-R keys immediately after you hear the startup sound
- Hold these keys until the computer restarts, and you hear the startup sound for the second time
- Release the keys
If you have a late-2016 MacBook Pro, the steps are slightly different
How to reset NVRAM on late-2016 MacBook Pro models
- Shut down your Mac
- Find Command (⌘), Option, P, and R on your keyboard
- Turn on your Mac
- Press and hold the Command-Option-P-R keys immediately after you turn on your Mac
- Hold these keys down for at least 20 seconds to ensure that your Mac completes the process correctly
- Release the keys
After resetting NVRAM, you might need to reconfigure settings for speaker volume, screen resolution, startup disk selection, and time zone information.
If issues continue on your desktop Mac (not MacBooks), its logic board battery might need replacing. Take your Mac to an Apple Store or Apple Authorized Service Provider to replace the battery on its logic board.
5. Using Terminal in Single User Mode or Verbose Mode
Most times, the steps above will usually fix your problem. However, if it did not work for you, there are a few additional steps that you can take before you decide to Reinstall macOS or Mac OS X on your machine. First, let’s start with Verbose Mode.
See Additional Details with Verbose Mode
When you boot in verbose mode, you see all the information on-screen that macOS normally hides. That detailed information helps you (or a service provider) identify the source of the problem and possibly fix it.
Be aware that when your Mac’s in verbose mode, all you see on-screen is a black background with white text showing you all the details of the startup processes. For those that know and understand UNIX, verbose mode can be quite useful for troubleshooting
To enter Verbose Mode
- press Command+V when your Mac starts up
- Like single user mode, all you see on-screen is a terminal window, and this shows you messages of what’s going on during the startup process
- If you’re using FileVault, release the keys when you see the login window. Then log in to continue
- If you’re using a firmware password, you must turn off the password before you can start up
- If verbose mode doesn’t find anything unusual, it should boot up normally
Go Beyond Verbose Mode With Single User Mode
In this step, you run in Single User Mode using the command fsck, which stands for a file system check. This is a final step before reinstallation–please follow the earlier steps before using Terminal.
Be aware that in Single User Mode, you see commands scroll by on-screen. This is normal. When this stops, run the commands listed below to check the health of your Mac’s startup disk.
Restart your Mac. When you hear the startup tone, press and hold Command+S. Keep holding down these keys until you see a black screen with white letters. This action boots into your mac’s Single User Mode.
The first three steps help you launch into the single user mode on your Mac.
Step – A. Shut down your Mac.
Step – B. Press the power button to start up your Mac.
Step – C. Immediately Hold down Command+S for single-user mode.
Now you have launched your Mac on a Single user mode. The next few steps will help check for file system consistency and remount the boot volume.
Step – D. On the terminal window Type fsck –fy and press return
Step – E. Type mount –uw and press return
Step – F. Type touch /private/var/db/.AppleSetupDone and press return
Step – G. Type exit and press Return
Step – H. Perform a Safe Boot (follow step 1)
An Alternative Terminal Command
Once again, restart your Mac and at the startup tone, press and hold Command-S until you see a black screen with white letters. You’re booting up in mac’s Single User Mode.
Now let’s try another command in Terminal
- In the Terminal windows, type this command: /sbin/fsck -fy and then press return.
- A system of checks runs. When completed you see one of two messages
- “Macintosh HD appears to be okay” OR “File System was modified.”
- If you see the system OK message, enter the command reboot and press return
- Perform a Safe Boot (follow step 1)
- If you received the modified message, execute the command: /sbin/fsck -fy again
- Repeat this file system check until you get the system OK message
- Once you get the OK message, enter the command reboot and press return
- Perform a Safe Boot (follow step 1)
- Repeat this file system check until you get the system OK message
Terminal Commands Explained
For those interested, here’s the breakdown of what these Terminal commands do
- fsck –fy
- Checks the boot volume’s file system and repairs if needed. The -y means yes, go ahead and fix any problems
- mount –uw
- Remount the boot volume, enabling write access
- touch /private/var/db/.AppleSetupDone
- Tells the computer it has completed the setup
- exit
- Continue the boot process
- reboot
- Reboots the computer
- /sbin
- contains executable programs needed to boot the system by the root user
These Seven steps above should help your Mac deal with the White Screen issue. If you are dealing with white screen after installing El Capitan, check out our article that specifically addresses the El Capitan issue.
6. Reinstall macOS or Mac OS X
If nothing above works, you may try this. Connect your Mac to the Internet. Turn your Mac off by holding down the power button for a few seconds.
Turn on your Mac and hold down the Command and R keys until you see the Apple logo. Then you should see a Mac OS X Utilities or macOS Utilities window, and this time select the Reinstall option.
MacOS Internet Recovery
There’s also an option to reinstall MacOS from the Internet rather than your recovery partition. Startup from Internet Recovery by holding down Option-Command (⌘)+R immediately after turning on or restarting your Mac. Release the keys when you see the Apple logo. Internet startup completes when you see the Utilities window. Choose Reinstall MacOS (or OS X) from the utility window and follow the onscreen instructions.
Got an Older Mac?
If you have installation files on CD, DVD, or a USB drive, hold the C key during boot, and your Mac starts up from that removable media. Another option is to boot up with the Startup Manager by holding the Option key. With startup manager, you select the disk (including removable media like CDs and DVDs) you’re going to boot from.
7. Make a Disk Image Backup
If nothing is helping thus far AND you able to see your hard drive when running Disk Utility from your recovery partition or internet recovery mode, consider creating a Disk Image to backup your files, especially if you’ve been neglecting to perform regular backups. A Disk Image makes an exact copy of your original HD.
If your HD is partitioned, you need to create a Disk Image for each partition!
However, be mindful that disk images of a hard drive that’s unreliable, failing, corrupt or has some corrupted files may not be a reliable backup. But if that’s the only option you have to save files, we recommend you try it.
To create a Disk Image, you need an external drive or flash drive that has sufficient space for your Disk Image.
How-To Create a Disk Image From Disk Utility
- Boot to the Recovery HD by holding Command (⌘)+R or on boot OR to manually start up from macOS Recovery over the Internet, hold down Option-Command-R or Shift-Option-Command-R
- Choose Disk Utility, select your system partition from the sidebar, then select File > New Image > Image from YOUR HD’S NAME
- Enter a name for your Disk Image and select to save to your external drive or flash drive
- From the Format Menu, choose Read/write. This option allows you to add files to the disk image after it’s created OR choose Read-Only for faster disk image creation (this type of disk image can’t be written to)
- If you want to encrypt the Disk Image, select that option–this adds a lot of time into creating a Disk Image
- Click Save, then click Done
We don’t recommend restoring this Disk Image to your Mac after erasing and reformatting your HD using Disk Utility and the Edit > Restore function. Rather, it’s best to restore your files and folders manually. So if you didn’t back up your Mac, creating a Disk Image might just save all your precious data!
Of course, moving forward try to create a backup regularly, using Time Machine is a great option which requires little action or remembering!
See the content of Your Disk Image
- Double-click the disk image on your desktop or in a Finder window
- Then double-click the opened disk image to see its contents
- Manually move and copy contents to your new HD
8. Run Apple Diagnostics or Apple Hardware Test!
- Disconnect all external devices except keyboard, mouse, display, Ethernet connection (if applicable.) If you don’t disconnect all devices, you might see an error message when running the test
- Make sure that your Mac is on a hard, flat, stable, well-ventilated work surface
- Shut down your Mac
- Turn on your Mac and immediately press and hold the D key. Maintain this hold until you see the Apple Diagnostics or Apple Hardware Test’s icon on-screen, then release
- Or hold down Option-D at startup to startup from the Apple Hardware Test over the Internet
- Select your language and click the right arrow or return key
- To test, tap the Test button, press T, or press Return
- Select “Perform extended testing” to run a more thorough test. The extended test takes longer to complete
- When the test finishes, your test results appear in the lower-right
- To quit Apple Hardware Test, click Restart or Shut Down at the bottom of the window
Some older Macs with startup disk’s that don’t contain AHT automatically startup the Apple Hardware Test over the Internet.
If you’re using OS X Lion 10.7 or earlier and can’t get AHT to start, locate the OS X installation disc named “Applications Install Disc 2.” Insert the disc in your internal CD/DVD drive or external SuperDrive before following the steps above.
If using a MacBook Air (Late 2010), plug the MacBook Air Software Reinstall thumb drive into your USB port before following the steps above.
No Time? Check out our Step-by-Step Video Tutorial
Follow along with the video or use the video and article to deep dive into your Mac’s startup issues.
Reader Tips 
- A reader of AppleToolBox unplugged the power cord from the MacBook and turned on the blank screen and let just the battery run down completely. After plugging it back into the power source, within 1 hour, the MacBook came on by itself..now white screen. Problem solved!
- I used Target Disk Mode to boot from another Mac’s drive using Startup Manager. Connect both Macs via FireWire or Thunderbolt, so that your problem Mac appears as an external hard disk on the working normally Mac. In addition to troubleshooting, Target Disk Mode also quickly transfers important files fast–so you don’t lose anything of value
- As a last-ditch effort, try disconnecting the hard drive. For some reason, when your Mac’s hard drive (or solid state drive) dies, selecting a boot disk is virtually impossible! That’s often why you get stuck on that Mac white screen of death. If you’re up for it, try removing the hard drive cable that connects the HD to the motherboard. I found that after disconnecting this cable, I could then access the select disk screen and then change my Mac’s boot order so I could boot from a bootable USB installer for macOS (or OS X)
- John covered his older MacBook with a blanket for 30 minutes to let it heat up. He thought the problem was the MacBook’s GPU. So let it heat up and switch to the Integrated Graphics. After 30 minutes or so, he turned it off and then back on. And it worked!
- One Apple Discussions user reports that after trying all of the solutions here using my Apple-branded Mac keyboard, I attached a Windows keyboard. After finding the windows key equivalents for the Mac keyboards, I pushed CONTROL+U U, and the recovery screen appeared.
- What worked for me was holding the Option + N keys when restarting. That starts up from a NetBoot server using the default boot image. Strangely after that, the login screen was no longer pixelated and worked just fine. So try booting up using Option+N.
- Unplug your MacBook’s the power cord, leave your MacBook ON, and let the battery run down completely. Then, plug it back in on the power source and let the computer naturally start-up when the power is sufficient. Worked for me!
- Try connecting your mac to another mac to check on its status by using Target Disk mode. Target Disk Mode lets you share files between two Mac computers with FireWire, Thunderbolt 2, USB-C, or Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) ports. It’s worth a try using target disk mode to connect a working computer to the computer that isn’t working, but you need to get files from it. Just connect your two computers with a FireWire, Thunderbolt, or USB-C cable. Shut down or power off the computer that’s giving you trouble, connect the two computers with the cable, fully boot up the second Mac, AND then start up the problem Mac up while holding down the T key. If you’re successful, the problem Mac appears as a disk icon on the desktop of the other computer. Double-click the disk to open it and browse the files on that machine. If that worked, try transferring files by dragging them to or from the disk. When done, eject the disk by dragging its icon to the Trash. Shut down both computers and disconnect the cable.
Obsessed with tech since the early arrival of A/UX on Apple, Sudz (SK) is responsible for the editorial direction of AppleToolBox. He is based out of Los Angeles, CA.
Sudz specializes in covering all things macOS, having reviewed dozens of OS X and macOS developments over the years.
In a former life, Sudz worked helping Fortune 100 companies with their technology and business transformation aspirations.
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After this last update, my computer is stuck on white screen with a circle through it. I can’t perform any test, I was able too at one point, but it would not fix itself.. it gave me an error message every time, now it stops at the white screen as mentioned above. I’ve tried safe mode, it won’t start up in safe mode
Hi Stacy,
When you see this icon (a circle with a slash through it,) it means that your Mac cannot recognize the operating system on the startup drive.
Try booting up in Recovery Mode using Command + R keys and try reinstalling macOS.
If that doesn’t work, press Option-⌘-R to update to the latest macOS that is compatible with your Mac.
I had the same issue. That’s how I fixed it
I have tried all options still I don’t even get one solution for my MacBook pro.
I bought after I sold my window desktop and the remaining money I borrow from my friends when someone tells me Apple product is better than others.
But now I am losing half of my life on suffering that product.now I don’t even want to see Apple product while I am dreaming.it is a bs product I have ever met.
Updated my operating system bc I was prompted to and now I have a grey screen that will do nothing. How do I fix this issue? Thanks in advance: -)
Hi Samantha,
Please try Recovery Mode (Press Command+R) at startup. See if it recognizes your Mac. If so, try reinstalling macOS.
If that doesn’t help, let us know
My MacBook Pro fell down and now it’s displaying white screen (sometimes with blinking folder) and I have try online recovery but I can’t reinstall my mac ox cos its not showing any storage or hard-drive to reinstall the mac os on. Pls I need ur help
HI Oluwa,
It sounds like your hard drive was physically damaged. Try restarting holding down the “D” key to initiated Apple’s Mac Diagnostics.
We suggest you replace the drive, even if you get it showing again. If possible, copy that old drive’s data and then move it to the new drive once installed.
We recommend replacing as once a hard drive is damaged, it’s likely to fail again even if your Mac temporarily opens it.
Liz
Hello,
I have a 2011 iMac.
One day it just would not boot, it kept looping. Fast Forward. I have done every step in this article.
When I try to install from my external hard drive the apple logo is there and it shows it is loading and then the screen just goes white and the computer loops again.
When I put Sierra on the Ext Hard drive I did use the format of mac os extended instead of AFPS.
Do you think this is the issue?
I will reconfigure and download/ format as apfs, but I am at a complete loss.
I have a 2013 MacBook that I am using to put the OS system on the ext hard drive.
My 2013 has Mojave, but I don’t think my 2011 is compatible with that OS, so I put Sierra on there.
As I am typing it is just sitting here with a huge white screen.
Hi Zaneta,
Are you able to run Disk Utility to check the drive on your 2011 iMac? If possible, you can connect your 2011 iMac to your 2013 MacBook using target disk mode and then run Disk Utility through your MacBook.
The other advantage of target disk mode is you may be able to recover some of your iMac’s files.
I suspect that the hard drive in your 2011 iMac may be corrupt and need replacing. It recently happened to me–the good news is that I was able to get a new SSD drive for around $150 USD–and now my iMac runs so much faster!
You could try using AFPS on that drive–but if it’s corrupt, it likely won’t work or will work but then fail again very soon.
It’s important to check the health of the drive before doing anything else on it. If it passes, then yes, give APFS a go and see if that works–if so, it should improve your iMac’s speed and efficiency!
My Daughter’s MacBook Pro would not start this morning.
It is very cold to the touch.
It has a full battery charge according to the green light.
I have attached my MacBook charger cord to it and the light is green.
There is no response to pushing the power button.
No screens, no keyboard lights, nada, zip, nie!
Any ideas beyond taking it to the Mac store?
Hi Jacques,
Try resetting the SMC (System Management Controls.)
If the battery is nonremovable:
Shut Down the Mac
After your Mac shuts down, press Shift-Control-Option on the left side of the built-in keyboard, then press the power button at the same time
Hold these keys and the power button for 10 seconds
For MacBook Pros with Touch ID, the Touch ID button is also the power button
Release all keys
Press the power button again to turn on your Mac
If the battery is removable:
Shut down
Remove the battery
Reinstall the battery
Press the power button again to turn on your Mac
For Mac notebook computers with the T2 chip
Shut Down
After your Mac shuts down, press and hold its power button for 10 seconds
Release the power button, then wait a few seconds
Press the power button again to turn on your Mac
If that doesn’t resolve the issue, follow these steps:
Shut Down
After your Mac shuts down, press and hold the right Shift key, the left Option key, and the left Control key for 7 seconds
Keep holding those keys while you press and hold the power button for another 7 seconds
Release all three keys and the power button, then wait a few more seconds
Press the power button again to turn on your Mac
If resetting the SMC didn’t help, set up an appointment at the Apple Store for them to run diagnostics.
Hope the SMC works!
Liz
Usefull information.
when power supply ON the mac is not getting ON…why
Hi,
I’ve gone through the entire article and tried everything but nothing seems to be working.
I have MacBook Pro in early 2011. I am not able to find my boot USB device which is already plugged in when I’m trying the recovery mode (holding alt upon restart), when I try to go to the terminal (cmd S) it shows me error building a user type and it goes to the login page.
Please help
HI Ali,
Sorry to hear about your problems with your MacBook Pro!
First, try holding down the Option key when you start up your Mac–see if that boot drive appears as an option.
If nothing shows up, let’s reset your NVRAM (PRAM):
Shut down the MacBook
Power on the Mac, then immediately press and hold these 4 keys: option, command, p, and r
Hold down all the keys until you hear the startup sound twice, then release them
Plug in the bootable USB stick, restart the MacBook and hold the option key again
If still nothing helps, have you tried internet recovery mode using Option+⌘+R to install the latest compatible macOS or OS X version on your Mac?
You can also try Shift+Option+⌘+R to install the macOS that came with your MacBook Pro, or the nearest version that is still available.
Finally, if you have a friend or co-worker with a Mac, ask them to create another bootable installer for you–or do it yourself on another Mac.
Follow the steps in this Apple whitepaper on how to create a bootable installer for macOS–it’s important to use Terminal to create it rather than dropping and dragging the install files.
If nothing helps, please let us know what macOS or OS X version your MacBook runs so we can further troubleshoot, if possible.
Liz
I bought a MacBook off of eBay that came without a hard drive so I installed an SSD, and when I turn it on I hear a chime and the screen goes white with no apple logo.
When I attempt to press cmd+r nothing happens and when I hold down option it only shows me my mouse cursor.
The model is a Macbook pro mid-2009 13.3 unibody
HI Dylan,
Try using internet recovery mode instead using option+⌘+R .
Startup your Mac and immediately hold down the option+⌘+R keys
Release the keys when the Apple logo or a spinning globe appears on-screen
Open Disk Utility and erase the new drive (again)
Select either macOS Extended (Journaled) or APFS as your format (APFS is for macOS High Sierra and Mojave–if you use Boot Camp, stick with macOS Extended)
Then install macOS
Restart
Hope that works for you!
Liz
i’ve gone through your entire document and the computer reboots and goes white, then reboots, then goes white. nothing above in this article worked, can you help?
Mike, What macOS are you on?
Thanks for your reply. I have now tried everything listed on the site including trying to install a new system from the internet. At no time has the apple logo shown up, only a grey screen. So the question is what part of the hardware or software is keeping the apple logo from showing up. This Macbook air is a 2010 unit with a SSD so the question is, is there any way of recovering the data from the SSD storage unit? Is it Apple store genius time?
Mike, you are best taking it to Apple genius or a local mac store so that they can recover data and also replace the SSD, if required. Good Luck and let us know what you find out.
My wife has a MacBook Air Laptop with Snow Leopard OS. It has worked fine since purchase in 2010. Now it fails to start up. When powering up the chime sounds and the screen is all gray with NO apple logo. I tried the safe boot, disk utility, NVRAM Reset, with NO luck only a gray screen.
Any ideas or suggestions as far as where to go from here.
Hi Mike, sorry to hear this.Try booting up from your Recovery partition. (Boot holding Cmd + r keys). If you are able to boot up into recovery, you may be able to restore from a Time machine backup. There is a chance that the HDD on the MacBook is giving up. You may have to replace the HDD since it’s an older Mac. We have seen users who have faced Gray screen and boot-up issues and ended up replacing their HDD ( Hoping that is not the case here.)
Here are some other tips from Apple that might be applicable to Snow Leopard boot-up issues. https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT203176
Do you have a bootable copy of SL OS on an external drive that can be used to boot up the system?
HI I’m having trouble with my iMac 2011 every time I try to boot up normal it won’t it would turn on and get stuck on loading screen with have bar load up and I did save boot and it does it fine but I tried to reboot normally and it won’t so I erase HD drive and reinstall and nothing.
I have Sierra and I tried fixing drive and it fixed it normally but still no normal reboot I tried step 1 to 4 and the only one that semi-works is when I only do a safe boot and it does it normally but I try to boot up normally and it won’t please help !!!!!
Hi Javier,
Have you tried using Internet Recovery by pressing Command+Option+R keys (all at once) at startup? Then use Disk Utility to check your drive’s integrity and repair it, if possible.
You could also try erasing and installing macOS again, as you say you already erased the HD.
If these don’t work or if problems continue even after they work, it’s likely your hard drive is really failing and you need to replace the drive. Replacement costs are much lower than in the past, so explore this option before dismissing it outright.
Since your iMac is long out of warranty, explore local repair options if you don’t feel comfortable making the replacement yourself for a better overall price.
Finally, if you are really determined not to replace the drive, you could purchase utilities like Disk Warrior. We’ve used this product successfully in the past–but frankly, I recommend replacement over these type of products since 1) the cost for a new drive is fairly reasonable and 2) your drive now has a history of failing
Good luck!
I have the white screen on my 2005 imac on start up, but there is no keyboard or mouse hooked up to work with. What can I do?
Hi – I appreciate all you have done to help us when our Macs let us down (or maybe we don’t take good enough care of them). I have used your site and videos on a few occasions. Thank you.
I have one suggestion. Maybe provide a timeframe for some of the diagnostics. I understand that if the procedure is dependent on an internet connection, it may be very difficult to estimate. However, I have had to go into Single User Mode. I don’t know if the scrolling should take 30 seconds, 30 minutes, 30 hours. So far, it has been scrolling for about 40 minutes. Not sure if that is normal.
Anyway, your work is very much appreciated.
Cheers
Paul
Hi , I follow all ur suggestion , nothing works … I’m very frustrated .
I did disk utility , and all and the screen just white with Apple logo after that and then black meaning dead .
Help !
Hi Yuli,
We’re very sorry to learn that your Mac is not responding and just shows the white screen with the Apple Logo. It must feel very scary and frustrating. If you’ve tried all the tips outlined in this article, it’s time to have the Mac professionally inspected and diagnosed. Find an authorized Apple repair center in your area and have them take a look at your Mac.
We’re sorry the tips did not work on your Mac.
SK
I have tried everything on this page and none of them have worked i wondered if i might need to replace the hard drive or the system board to get it to work because mine is a macbook from early 2011 with a removable battery not with retina display my friend owned this before me and i have been trying to figure this out for months but i want to know what i need before i buy something thanks
Galen, Thanks for stopping by. Wish we had a better answer for you. Its hard to say in this case. Your best bet is to take it to a repair shop and have them look at it for you. That way you will get some assessment based on your specific MacBook.
I just tried the “cover it with a blanket and let it heat up” procedure. The last thing I tried, going down your list.
Fingers crossed, it stays fixed!
Thank Liz, It was a lot of work and a steep learning curve, but I really need to give credit where due – online articles like these are invaluable, I want to praise the entire support team at Apple. Every single one of them were patient, knowledgeable (or called for senior advisors) helpful, and especially pleasant and kind. I cannot thank them enough!
This article (and multiple chats with Apple techs) helped me save my Mac last weekend. I had the same hanging white screen. It was complicated by the fact that, against better judgement, I hadn’t been backing up for about two years! UGH. I dug out my old troublesome backup drive, and although it is wonky I was still able to create an image through Disk Utility, then do an erase/restore. The image is a DMG file, though, so Migration Assistant will not recognize it. You will have to manually replace files. (Note, it will not allow the root files to be replaced, but your user file is the main one you want to drag over.) I have a lot of housekeeping to do to get things back in order, but I am just happy to have the Mac working again.
I brought it in to the Apple Store yesterday for a thorough diagnostic and happy to report all systems are good. When I told the genius I was working with that while in Verbose I saw a weird message about “too many corpses”, he immediately knew what was wrong. Apparently High Sierra has been causing this catastrophic software issue, but they haven’t been able to figure out exactly why yet. They suspect there is a 3rd party conflict. The issue is very new, but so far the only fix is the erase/restore.
I wanted to share the importance of using the Disk Utility for the backup image for cases like mine. It will work, even if the desktop is inaccessible.
(I’d love to share the screenshot of the Verbose message, please contact me.)
HI Theresa!
Wow, what an adventure and story! Yes, please send the “too many corpses” message–we’ve never actually seen it ourselves–email to [email protected] with the subject heading too many corpses. Anyway, we are so happy that our article helped, along with Apple Support. Major victory to get your Mac back in order after the white screen WITH NO BACKUP–kudos!!! Congrats to your hard work and persistence (that is most often the key to success–persistence and patience–the two Ps!)
Sadly, we’ve heard a lot of horror stories about High Sierra from some of our readers, particularly those with older machines. Of course, lots of people love it too–especially newer MacBook users.
Thank you for sharing your recent weekend story with us. We super appreciate hearing from folks–what worked, what didn’t, lessons learned, etc.
And if you do get an opportunity, send us that “too many corpses” message our way.
Congrats on Mac Success!!!
Liz
Thanks so much, had to go with the internet recovery mode but all ended up working fine.
Is it possible that there might be a problem with logic board.
Hi Ted,
Yes, that is a possibility. A blank, white or gray screen can indicate an issue with the Mac’s logic board. To acurrately diagnose this problem, you need to take it into an Apple Store or to an Apple service technician.
SK
I was getting the same white/grey screen on my mid 2012 mac pro after the last system update (10.12.6) immediately after the restart. However none of the keyboard commands would work not even safe mode, sometimes if I unplugged and left the computer a while it would boot up normally, sometimes not. It was happening before startup began reading from the hard drive (no chatter from the internal drive) but immediately after the startup chime.
I knew it must be hardware, or a corrupt PRAM, and I was beginning suspect the internal board battery. However I then tried unplugging all connected devices (USB, firewire etc.), again with no joy.
Finally I think I have managed to narrow the fault down to the monitor (who would have believed!) I’m running an LG ultra HD 27UD58-B via display port, it appears that if the monitor is on or on standby the startup freezes. If I turn off the monitor, the mac boots up normally. I think it might be some kind of conflict with audio, as the display can control the system volume, in any case the system doesn’t know what to do with it when booting.
The last 3 start ups have been successful without issue – relieved to say the least!
But its a bit annoying, I have to wait until I hear the hard drive reading before switching on the display. If I leave the display off too long and only turn it on after the desktop has loaded, the monitor switches to the default resolution (1920×1080), rather than at the full ultra HD the display is capable of – this is resolved by going to the monitors settings and disabling and then re-enabling the display port 1.2 option.
Any ideas to resolve the boot conflict with the display?
HI James,
Very sorry to hear you’re having this strange (and frustrating!) issue with your external display and your Mac. One thought is to try and reset the SMC (System Management Controller) if you haven’t already tried this.
reset the smc on mac pro
Go to Apple menu and Shut Down
After your Mac shuts down, unplug the power cord
Wait 15 seconds.
Plug the power cord back in
Wait 5 more seconds, then press the power button again to turn on your Mac
It could also be a problem with your refresh rate–try lowering and see if this makes a difference.
If these don’t do the trick, let’s take a look at your Mac’s video card. Find out the model for your Mac Pro’s video card and check if there is any update for the video card and other relevant information. YOu may also want to consider upgrading your older video card to a newer one, with better and more stable support for Ultra-HD.
There’s also some third-party software out there, like SwitchResX that might help.
Keep us posted, I’m sure you’re not the only one facing this issue with macOS Sierra 10.12.6
SK
If that doesn’t do anything or if you already tried this step, it’s best to contact the support department at LG and see if there are any updates to your display’s firmware, driver, and other assistance for using this monitor with a 2012 Mac Pro.
I’m using a windows keyboard to fix my mac. I tried all solutions but it still does work. I need help asap. Please help
Hi Justin,
Are you able to boot up into Safe Mode using the SHIFT key? Bear in mind these key differences:
Mac key Windows key
Control Ctrl
Option Alt
Command Windows
(four leaf clover)
If your Mac doesn’t have a keyboard to start up in safe mode or if you can’t use the Shift key
Or Try starting up the your to start up in safe mode using the command line
Access the command line by opening Terminal remotely, or logging into the computer using SSH.
Use the following Terminal command:
sudo nvram boot-args=”-x”
If you want to start in verbose mode as well, use this instead:
sudo nvram boot-args=”-x -v”
After using safe mode, use this Terminal command to return to a normal startup:
sudo nvram boot-args=””
If none of these options help, it’s time to take your Mac in for a Apple certified technician to diagnose.
Hope it doesn’t come down to that!
SK
Hey,
I was trying to install Jupyter notebook packages, I tried several times and the installation failed showing the error that “some of the files are not not accessible”. This mac was previously owned by one of my friend, I tried changing the permission setting during after which I shutdown my mac. I have been trying to restart using all the above mentioned ways but still the screen gets stuck with the apple logo and a spinning bar.
– Upon starting it in safe mode, I waited for hours, the system never rebooted.
– Disk utility option does not appear upon trying the instruction above.
– As it doesn’t show recovery partition, I tried internet recovery and nothing worked.
– Resetting PRAM or NVRAM didn’t help as well
– Using terminal in single user mode, upon executing fsck -fy ,it says the volume appear to be OK
– executing ‘mount -uw’ command it shows:
root_device on /(hfs, local, read-only, journaled)
devfs on /dev (devfs, locak, nobrowse)
I executed touch /private/var/db/.AppleSetupDone
it says ‘Read only file system’
– Internet re -installation was again a failure, It again gets stuck in white screen without showing any option.
I’m very new to mac
Can please somebody explain me what’s happening and how can i get it fixed?
Hi Rajanikanth,
Sorry to hear about your Mac troubles. That must feel very frustrating! Do you know the model and year of that MacBook? Depending on the year, it may have come with installation disks (on CDs or DVDs) that also contain Utilities to help repair hard drives and other problems.
If these are not part of your system or unavailable, if you have access to another Mac and both Macs have FireWire or Thunderbolt ports, you can connect them so that one of them appears as an external hard disk on the other in target disk mode. Use the other Mac to copy your problem Mac’s data to another drive. Unfortunately, target disk mode only works with Thunderbolt or FireWire and NOT USB, Ethernet, WiFi, or Bluetooth. Learn more about Target Disk Mode in this Apple whitepaper.
Finally, if none of these works or is possible OR if you MB boots only in Safe Mode but not in normal mode, it’s likely that third party items are installed in the Macbook and causing problems. You’ll need help identifying those items. For this, a report from Etrecheck often helps you or a tech identify the problems.
Learn more about Etrecheck in this article.
Also, once you get your MacBook back in action, make sure you’re following good practice when installing Jupyter on a Mac.
Keep us posted and best of luck,
SK
4. Using Terminal in Single User mode
Saved my iMac Late 2009 i7 2.8ghz.
So my iMac started to boot normally and then suddenly it stucks on apple logo 55% filled bar. I tried everything even I bought a new hdd changed it re install mac os sierra and guess what same problem so I proceed trying ram modules and they are all good and finally I changed the sata cable and again same problem 55% stucked. I gave up I thought it is graphics card, I do not know how I found this page but thank you I do not have words to describe how much I want to thank you.
Samir, Glad we could assist. All the best!
Hi
I have a 15″ 2007 Macbook Pro Core 2 Duo (A1211) running OSX 10.7.5.
The problem started when watching youtube video where the screen started flickering for a few seconds then froze. I rebooted and the same thing happened. On the third reboot, I got the white screen.
I tried rebooting from an external drive via firewire and no luck.
I managed to reboot in Safe Mode without a problem.
I ran through all the procedures above with the exception of Command R to reinstall. This does not work at all. I am guessing that my version of OSX does not have this capability. So am now at a bit of a loss of what to try next. I have an install disk but the MacBook will not boot up off it.
The only option I think I have left is to extract the SSD and put it in an enclosure and install the OS via firewire from my old Mac at work.
Does this sound like a good idea?
Hi Kevin,
Have you tried using Internet Recovery? It may or may not work due to the age of your MacBook–but it’s worth a try! To manually start up from macOS Recovery over the Internet, hold down Option-Command-R or Shift-Option-Command-R at startup. You should see a spinning globe instead of an Apple logo during startup.
If that isn’t an option or doesn’t work, your suggested path seems like a good try since your MacBook won’t boot from the original install disks. You could also try bringing in your MacBook to work and use Target Disk Mode to repair the drive using Disk Utility (or some third-party program to repair and recover drives.) For this to work, both Macs need either Firewire, USB-C, or Thunderbolt ports.
How to set up and use target disk mode (directions from Apple)
To get started, connect your two Mac computers with a FireWire, Thunderbolt, or USB-C cable that supports sufficient data transfer speeds. Then follow these steps:
If the Mac that you’ll use as a disk is off, start it up while holding down the T key and skip to step four. If it’s on, click the Apple () menu and choose System Preferences.
Click Startup Disk and then click Target Disk Mode. If you see a closed lock at the lower left, click it and type your password to make the Target Disk Mode button available.
A message asks “Are you sure you want to restart your computer in target disk mode?” Click Restart.
After the Mac starts up in target disk mode, it appears as a disk icon on the desktop of the other Mac.
To exit target disk mode, press and hold the power button on the Mac you used as a disk. Then disconnect the cable.
Let us know what happens. It’s a good learning point for all of us, writer and readers alike.
Best of luck,
SK
Hi
A massive thank you from me. You saved me from bitter tears . Your safe reboot advice resurrected my very old mac that my kitten had dropped on the floor. I wouldn’t have been able to buy a new one right away. Extremely grateful to you.
Elisa,
What crazy things cats are–but we love them no matter what! Glad these tips kept Kitty in your good graces and not in the dog house. And thanks for letting us know these tips helped!
SK
I have a macbook pro early 2011, I am working late at the office, I put it down for some snacks, when I came back I thought it went to sleep. But when I pressed the power button, no display, no backlight and no chime. To solve the problem, what I did was turn on my macbook, cover it with a blanket for 30 minutes. The idea was to let it heat up. The problem is the GPU. Let it heat up so it automatically switch to the Integrated Graphics. After 30 minutes or so, turn it off. Then after a few seconds. Turn it back on. Voila. It worked for me.
Hope this comment help you guys.
HI John,
That’s an awesome tip! Never think of wanting more heat, since usually our computer are pretty hot already. But in this case, it makes sense. Thank you for sharing your recent experience–and boy are we glad it worked! What a nightmare, especially at late night work.
Kudos,
Liz
Thanks for the tip. In my case it was an SD CARD inside of card reader (MacBook Air 2012). After installing Windows via BootCamp I thought it’s now OK to put an SD card back… but as it turned out it just brought a white screen after chimes sound.
Great!
Option (3) Resetting PRAM/NVRAM worked for me. You saved my macbook pro mid 2011.
You guys are geniuses.
Thank you
yo thanks I know im a genius
Hey maybe you can help me. I have a late 2011 MacBook Pro that keeps white screening after the apple logo. It would also crash from time to time. I thought it was a hard drive issue so I replaced the hard drive with a new SSD and installed Mavericks on it. My crashing problems continued so I replaced the hard drive cable. My problems still continued even after reinstalling Mavericks. Then I swapped out my ram chips for the original ones that I upgraded a few years ago. And even after attempting to follow this list my problem still persists. I am unable to load any of the on-board diagnostics or load disc utility. Sometimes when my laptop crashes it goes to a blue screen with vertical stripes. And when I was able to get my Mac to boot sometimes the screen would “glitch out” and split with the left edge of the screen ending up about a third of the way over and the right edge of the screen moving to the left third of the screen. Is there something that I’m missing? Is my logic board bad? I would appreciate any help.
Hi Nick,
OH MY. That’s so troubling and super upsetting. I’m sorry your Mac is being such a pain.
With everything you describe, if possible are you able to connect it to another Mac or MacBook in target disk mode? And the run diagnostics from there?
It sounds like your problem could be the logic board but also something else…because of that I recommend you get it inspected by a tech in person, especially if target disk mode isn’t an option or doesn’t help.
Good luck and keep us posted!
Liz
Oct 10 – 2017
system: 2011 Mac Mini – had High Sierra up and running then went to install update
– locked out on white screen every time
– used command R , at first thought it wouldn’t get to the Recovery screen but wait a minute then it turns to a different black screen with white apple then goes into recovery options…had to wait and almost went to restart again – but you need to wait for it to go to that recovery screen
– now chose reinstall
– it is installing high sierra now (says 8 minutes)
……………3…….2 come on!!…..hopefully not erasing everything on my disk!!…….it re-started – looks like trying to load …back to white screen with apple logo…now to black with apple logo after 3 mins…. says installing about 45 mins (845am)…………..oh yeah I am on my windows laptop writing this as I watch…. ……stuck on 44 mins for 5 mins now…great……stuck on 43 for 15 mins…..got to the 30 min mark in 30 mins! …….done in 42 mins..restarts….white screen again $%###$^$##%^&&& !!!!! — ..did a hard restart – same white screen….did the NVRAM reset – nothing, as I said was working fine with High Sierra before this last upgrade…moving on to solve, good luck
I have tried all the above. But every time when the macbook restart it only goes up to halfway of the restart and then it just goes to whitescreen.
Kindly give me some tips…
Ahti
Hi Ahtasham,
Sorry to hear about your MacBook. Try to power up in Recovery Mode using the keystrokes Command+R, maintain this until the startup screen appears.
Alternatively, start up using internet Recovery Mode by pressing Command+Option+R at startup. You need an internet connection for this mode.
Once you in recovery mode, use disk utilities and check your drive—repair if necessary. After completion, shut off your MacBook and start up again normally. See if your MacBook works as expected.
Good Luck,
Liz
Hi, I have tried all the above. But every time when the mac restart it only goes up to halfway of the restart and then it just goes to whitescreen. Help!!
Hi SK
Ended up connecting via USB to my external HD but needed to first erase the existing HD completely as there’s not enough space.
After backing up, OS X Capitan was successfully reinstalled as with all other data on the backups.
Thanks so much for your assistance in resolving the issue.
Best
Tony
Tony,
Yippee! Glad to know that you got your Mac upgraded to El Cap and finally, no issues! Thanks for sharing your journey with us. It’s a learning lesson for all of us. Enjoy El Cap! It’s fantastic!
Cheers,
SK
Hi SK
Thanks for your advice.
Since I am using a Mac Air, there’s only USB connection and if I have backed up all my files on an external HD and Airport Time Capsule, would I be able to reinstall the OS Capitan from there?
Many thanks
Hi Tony,
Yes, if you have backed up regularly, there should be no problem reinstalling El Cap and then using Time Machine to restore your backup. Also, I have a MacBook Air and it does have 1 Thunderbolt port (marked by a lightning bolt symbol), check and see if yours has one. And if it does, that means you can use Target Disk Mode. It sounds like you probably won’t need to, but it’s an option especially if you haven’t backed up recently.
Keep us posted. I wish you the best of luck on your reinstallation!
Cheers,
SK
The problem I have was when during upgrading from Capitan to Sierra I did not have enough space on my HD, tried to uninstall Sierra but failed and after restarting I cannot log in anymore plus with a white screen and every time after typing in log in password, a dos message appeared on the left of the screen saying:
Debugger called: panic
Mac OS version:
Not yet set
Kernel version:
Darwin Kernel Version: 16.5.0
I have tried the above options by typing in command + r , then chose reinstall OS, but it won’t let me to go further as my HD did not have enough space. Now, here’s the question, how would I be able to access the HD to delete files but every time when I tried to log in, the same dos wordings appeared.
I am using a Mac Air.
Any help is highly appreciated.
Many thanks
Hi Tony,
We’re sorry you’re having this issue updating to Sierra! If you have access to another Mac and both Macs have FireWire or Thunderbolt ports, you can connect them so that one of them appears as an external hard disk on the other in target disk mode. Use the other Mac to copy your problem Mac’s data to another drive. Unfortunately, target disk mode only works with Thunderbolt or FireWire and NOT USB, Ethernet, WiFi, or Bluetooth.
The other suggestion is to try using Apple’s internet recovery mode. Access this by pressing the Option key plus Command and R. That enters recovery mode (via Apple servers.) After the boot, look at the menu in the upper left.
Open the “startup disk” window, and select as “Disk Boot” your HD and start up again. After clearing out some additional space (at least 12Gb free space), restart your macOS Sierra installation.
Or try the Safe Mode boot again. Restart your Mac and boot into safe mode. Once you’re in safe mode, free up some disk space by deleting or moving any unnecessary files to an external hard drive. Then restart your Mac and try to install macOS Sierra again.
Keep us posted on your progress and results,
SK
I tried every thing, resetting the PRAM, SMC, Safe Mode..etc…nothing worked. Finally, I unplugged the power cord and turned on the the blank screen and let the battery run down completely. I plugged it back in on the power source, and within 1 hours, the computer came on by itself..problem solved. I have seen others with similar experience, so this was not an original idea.
Yipppee! I’m glad your Mac is back in order. Sometimes it those simple things that take us the most time to figure out! I’ll add in that tip. Thank you for sharing, appreciate it.
Be Well,
Liz
Hi Elizabeth,
Appreciate your kind help throughout the way.
Have a great day and weekend.
Best Regards
Coyle
Thank You, Coyle!
Hi Elizabeth,
The apple certified operators helped me clear the blank screen already. They have installed the 10.9.5 OS system and all is working good. Does this mean that all the stuff i had on my desktop and documents before the blank screen, are gone?. i can’t retrieve them? No worries to that, just asking out of curiosity, in case there is any way i can revert to as per before,
Also since it’s like a fresh new mac with an upgraded version, i am thinking, ( not confirmed, since it’s upgraded) to sale it off. Is there anything further which i need to do?
Thanks again!
Best Regards
Coyle
Hi Coyle,
That’s really great news! Retrieving your old files depends on how the Apple Service folks repaired your hard drive. They may have backed up your old system prior to installing OS X 10.9.5. Asking the Apple Service people is your best bet on this question.
When you decide to sell, take a look at a couple of our article for guidance on steps to take before selling (or giving away) your mac.
1. Selling Mac Prep
2. Tips for Buying (or Selling) Mac
The second article was written for people considering buying used Macs–and for selling, these are good practices to keep in mind when preparing to sell.
It’s likely that if the Apple Service provider performed a complete erase and install of OS X 10.9.5, you may not need to do a thing. But it’s always better to check and perform at least some of the steps just to be sure!
Best of luck to you Coyle!!!!
Be Well,
Liz
Hi Elizabeth,
I have backed up my data previously.
i don’t have the disk and have sent it in for repair already, the technician told me that the hard disk has crashed. So they will just do a fresh re-install of everything for me.
Thanks for your help 🙂
Have a great day
Coyle,
Thanks for letting us know! Happy to hear you backed up. Don’t know how old your iMac is but you might want to consider updating to a newer OS version. Chances are your machine is too old for macOS Sierra–but El Capitan or Yosemite probably would be okay–and Apple offers them for free.
Sorry our tips didn’t work for you but glad you are getting it repaired.
Cheers,
Liz
Nothing is working for my mac!!! I’m so frustrated that I’m about to smash it for good…ugh!!!!
Hi there,
I can’t go pass the white screen page nor boot in recovery mode. But i do know it runs on the 10.6.8, Imac, never upgraded the OS since the time i bought it 7 years ago.
Best Regards
Coyle
Hi Coyle,
Okay, now we are at the root of the problem. OS X 10.6.8 Snow Leopard came with installation and recovery DVDs. The command-R or option-command-R only works for 10.7 or later, when Apple created a recovery partition on the boot drive.
So, if you have those Snow Leopard disks, then you use them to get to disk utility and see what’s going on.
Insert the Mac OS X Install DVD into the DVD drive
Shut down or restart your Mac
Press and hold down the C key immediately, and keep it pressed until your Mac either boots from the DVD or doesn’t
Once it boots up from the DVD, run Disk Utility to repair your disk. Also select Repair Permissions.
If you can’t get the Snow Leopard DVD into your iMac, boot up in safe mode AND THEN inserts the OS X Snow Leopard DVD. Once inserted and read by the system, go to System Preferences >Startup Disk and select the DVD to boot from. Then reboot.
If your Mac doesn’t boot after Step 3
Hold down the Option key while booting to display the built-in Startup Manager
Click the DVD-ROM icon to select it, and then press Return or Enter to boot from it
Hopefully, you have those disks! If not, maybe someone you know has them or buy them at low cost online.
Have you been regularly backing up? Hope so. Really, really hope so!
Cheers,
Liz
Hi again,
It didnt work, but my is an old mac, so I believe it’s something wrong with the hardware. But thanks for your time anyway!
Hi Coyle,
Sorry these tips didn’t work for you. Please let me know what type of mac you are working on and what operating system it’s running. Go to the upper left apple icon and select About this MAC, it should provide you these details.
Once I have some additional info, I might be able to help out with more specificity to your particular system.
🙂
Liz
Hi Elizabeth,
I tried clicking on the reply button but it won’t work and also my last reply to you didnt appear here.
Hope it works this time. Thank you for your kind help 🙂
As for the step 4, i did key in as it is, but after i key in exit and press return, the next line just comes up with logout and stays there, nothing happens. Are there any other remedies available?
Hi Coyle,
Okay, let’s try another command in Terminal. Restart again in single user mode by pressing and holding the Command+S keys while your mac reboots.
In the Terminal windows, type this command: /sbin/fsck -fy and then press return.
A system of checks runs. When completed you see one of two messages:
“Macintosh HD appears to be okay”
OR
“File System was modified”
If you see the system OK message, enter the command reboot and press return
If you received the modified message, perform the command: /sbin/fsck -fy again. Repeat this file system check until you get the system OK message.
If uncomfortable using Terminal, move on to Step 5 and reinstall your operating system. Reinstalling macOS or MAC OS X over the same version or earlier version does not remove your data.
Good Luck with your mac,
Liz
Hi Elizabeth,
Thank you for the kind reply, i have did that and once i key in exit, another line appears saying logout and that’s it. Could you kindly help me out.
Have a great day 🙂
Hi there,
For the fourth step are there Ny spaces? Also I must key in touch?
Hi Coyle,
Yes, use the spaces exactly as they appear in the commands. And you do key in the word touch. Here are those steps again.
Step – D. On the terminal window Type fsck –fy and press return
Step – E. Type mount –uw and press return
Step – F. Type touch /private/var/db/.AppleSetupDone and press return
Step – G. Type exit and press return
If using Terminal makes you nervous, move to step 5 and reinstall macOS or OX X. When you reinstall, you normally do not lose any files. Installing OS X over itself does not delete files. However, make a backup before the reinstall, that way you’re covered if something goes wrong during the reinstall.
Good luck and keep us posted,
Liz
Step one worked for me, thanks!
Step 1 did the trick – many thanks for the excellent advice!
I have tried every recommendation above, but still can’t get passed the white screen. Suggestions? Has my Mac died?
Hi Bryan,
Try connecting your mac to another mac to check on its status.
Target disk mode lets you share files between two Mac computers with FireWire, Thunderbolt 2, USB-C, or Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) ports. This is useful when you need high transfer speeds or if the display on one of your computers isn’t working and you need to get files from it.
To get started, connect your two computers with a FireWire, Thunderbolt, or USB-C cable that supports sufficient data transfer speeds. Then, follow these steps:
If the computer that you’ll use as a disk is off, start it up while holding down the T key and skip to step four. Otherwise, click the Apple () menu and choose System Preferences.
Click Startup Disk and then click Target Disk Mode.
You will see a message asking “Are you sure you want to restart your computer in target disk mode?” Click Restart.
Once the computer starts up in Target Disk Mode, it will appear as a disk icon on the desktop of the other computer. Double-click the disk to open it and browse the files on that computer.
Transfer files by dragging them to or from the disk.
Eject the disk by dragging its icon to the Trash (the Trash icon will change to an Eject icon when you do this).
To exit target disk mode, press and hold the power button on the computer you used as a disk. Then disconnect the cable.
Or try using Recovery Mode: Start up from macOS Recovery
Hold down one of these key combinations immediately after turning on or restarting your Mac. Release the keys when you see the Apple logo.
Command (⌘)-R
Start up from the built-in (local) recovery system on your Mac.
Option-Command-R
Start up from the recovery system over the Internet (macOS Internet Recovery*).
Startup is complete when you see the utilities window
After starting up from macOS Recovery or macOS Internet Recovery, select from these utilities, then click Continue:
Restore From Time Machine Backup: Restore your Mac from an external hard drive or Time Capsule that contains a Time Machine backup of your Mac.
Reinstall macOS*: Download and reinstall macOS on your startup disk.
Get Help Online*: Use Safari to browse the web and find help for your Mac. Links to Apple’s support website are included. Browser plug-ins and extensions are disabled.
Disk Utility: Use Disk Utility to repair or erase your startup disk or other hard disk.
Hope one of these works. Keep us posted.
Cheers,
Liz
Dude you are awesome! I was getting worried I would not be able to restore my computer but troubleshoot number four with the seven steps really worked!!! Thank you!!!!
Only thing which worked
Replace ur chipset free of cost before dec 2016
Ok. Trying to stay calm. Mac asnt starting, had the prohibited sign. eventually got to disk utilities but it couldnt repair. Entered safe mode which ran for a bit then the screen inverted (from black background to white). No prompt ever appeared to enter the fsck commands… then the ‘prohibited’ symbol appeared over the thread of command text. Thats what I was trying to get rid if in the first place. Does ANYONE know what im talking about? Ive exhausted the forums.
Thank you so much.. It worked..
Andre, I did the cmd-s, turn on, then type fsck -fy etc. My MBP late 2011 started up, type my password, but alas. . . the black pointer stopped moving after it’s about 1/3 of the line.
Prior to this I tried booting in Safe mode, then in Recovery mode – nothing helps. The black pointer just stopped moving halfway and left the building.
Any clue what’s causing this ?
Thanks for any help.
Thanks much. My imac was starting with a fuzzy screen and the would to to white blank screen. Resetting PRAM worked for me. well, for a few minutes and then went back to this fine checkered screen with moving matrix kinda thing then freezes. i’ll keep trying the reset.
Hi guys, same problem showed up again (I have actually a 2011 McBookPro, with a permanent white screen of death). This time it seems the only solution is the replacement of the video (or graphics) card, apparently it’s due to the use of unalloyed tin in the soldering of contacts. For a number of products, Apple has actually a free of charge recall program: http://www.apple.com/support/macbookpro-videoissues/
Thanks Andre, I now have a happy wife
In my case the 2009 MacBookPro rebooted normally after repeatedly getting stuck on white screen (no apple logo), but it took several attempts with the CMD+S procedure. It finally worked when the procedure removed 2 files. Resetting the PRAM worked once, but then opening GoogleCrome just recently installed caused a new blank screen on rebooting. What causes this problem? I’m going to upgrade the OSX alltogether now.
Thank you Prakash, the smc reset worked perfectly! Was truly worried about my laptop!
Thank you so much! You have saved me numerous times with the white screen problem! 🙂 Have a great day!
Thank you! The safe mode reboot worked for me. Took a couple of tries but I’m back up and running. Woohoo!
I took the 2011 Macbook Pro to a Apple Repair Shop in Pattaya, Thailañd. Needs a VGA chip, $400. Getting a Asus AIO instead.
Safe Boot saved the day for me (well, not completely). Was upgrading an iMac running 10.7.5 to El Capitan 10.11. Somewhere in the installation process the computer would boot and would get stuck on the gray screen. I booted to Safe Boot by holding down Shift on startup. Eventually a window came up and said “Completing Installation”. It finished and all was well.
Then I came to type this reply. As I was doing that I was running all the updates from the Mac App Store, including the 10.11.5 update. Gray screen again after boot after the update install. Safe Boot solves it again.
Don’t know what the next update will hold. Ugh.
I rebooted, didn’t work on 2011 Macbook pro. Start up holding down command an R keys brought internet recovery which left me with a white screen after 1 hour of attempted recòvery. How can I reinstall OS 10.8.6 if I can’t get on the internet?
hi, i need help my mac book pro has a blank screen and i don’t know what to do i shine a flash ligt on i can see my screen saver and all. my brightness is on full i tried the command option p r but does not work. do you have an alternative way to help me.
thank you thank you thank you running disk utility fixed it thank you again
I had to unplug a usb stick, started up fine after that.
The Control + Options + P + R combination that resets the NVRAM on the mac worked where all other things had failed.
Thanks
After trying all online troubleshooting, I almost gave up and decided to take my laptop to London Drugs. They have a computer service shop, and diagnosed the issue within 5 min. The videocard was broken, and this was a known warrantied issue. late 2011 macbook pro, fixed for free within 4 days! Couldn’t be more happy.
Thank you, thank you, thank you. You saved the day!
My MacBook is so old I’m holding the battery in with duct tape! Had white screen, followed #4 steps A-G. AMEN it worked. THANK YOU!!!
Have a early 2011 MacBook Pro. Going to take it to apple cuz it won’t work. Hope they replace it even though I’m 2 months late.
Thank you so much Andre for that coding!!
Got my computer back to life, now time to back it up!!
Hi Guys my screen on my imac went white. After 10 to 20 min I gave the cable and plug a wiggle and the computer fired up. It’s OK now. Don’t know what the problem was but it had to have something to do with the cable or plug.
Thanks andre.
Seemed like everything was going ok then it keeps repeating “installGTK: GTKinstalled” then several lines of program language then back to the same.
Is it getting better or…..
Even when I type exit it keeps doing that. Any ideas… I’m so behind because of this mess.
And what is weird when I installed El Capitan it went smoothly. This all happened when my computer suddenly froze, but I still was able to make it restart and that is when I got the screen with the apple and the progress bar that goes until the end and then nothing happens. I believe I had downloaded an update.
So even after leaving itfor 24 hours nothing happened and that is how I’m trying your option, nothing else has worked.
Any ideas?
For fsck sake. Thanks for this tip. It worked after three tries. Thought my MBP was a goner !
THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THE POSTING!
MY MAC IS BACK TO NORMAL
#3 worked for me
My mac is showing s white screen , loading but it failed to open I tried all the steps provided it failed , am scared loosing my data and songs gir my clients . What should I do?
my mac 27″ has just suddenly reverted to a white screen with the apple logo – nothing happens, it even turns itself off. really worried about losing my data, any help, thanks
Hello I am having to same issue with my MacBook! Not sure what model, but it’s white 13inches and from 2009. It restart itself yesterday and was loading on the startup screen but only got about 1/3 of the way there before it shut off. I thought it was going to restart on its own, but it did not. Later in the night I turned it on and it only got the 1/3 of the way again and just shuts off on me.I had just finished playing league of legends. Idk if that has anything to do with it, but I want to be able to use it.
FREE APPLE LOGIC BOARD REPLACEMENT ENDING IN FEB for MacBook Pro’s with the known graphics card issue. It covers MacBook Pro’s
https://www.apple.com/support/macbookpro-videoissues/
Affected Models
MacBook Pro (15-inch Early 2011)
MacBook Pro (15-inch, Late 2011)
MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2012)
MacBook Pro (17-inch Early 2011)
MacBook Pro (17-inch Late 2011)
MacBook Pro (Retina, 15 inch, Early 2013)
For those that continue to have issues after trying every solution offered her and/ or elsewhere it may be that the graphics chip is causing the fail. This was the case with mine. In the end I bit the bullet and took it to a certified Apple service centre who plugged it in ran some tests and told me what I already knew, that the problem was going to be expensive to fix as a new logic board was required. The next bit surprised me!
I was told that the repair would be for free!! I bought mine second hand, late 2011 15inch model and the warranty had long expired so I had to ask again. FREE? Apparently it wasn’t widely publicised at the time the recall was announced. I can’t say if it was or wasn’t, this is what I was told at the repair centre. The other thing I learned was that this offer from Apple ENDS IN FEB 2016.
If you even remotely think or suspect you might have a graphics card issue, assuming you’re able, get it to a certified service centre ASAP as there is a good chance the problem will rear its head again post any temporary fix, as was the case with mine. Hope this helps someone.
Hi John, Thank you so much. We have posted this notice on the front page of the site for all the readers. We really appreciate you sharing this important tip!.
Cheers, AppleToolBox.
would that work for iMacs as well? I can mount my hd and am already lucky I got my data saved but with all the tips not restart the sucker.
Thank you so much! This has never happened to me before so when it did I was like okay what’s going on. I tried the safe boot and it worked immediately! Thank you thank you thank you!!!!
I got stuck like this following an El Capitan update. Resetting the PRAM worked for me and that NEVER works. It’s like the lupus diagnosis in episodes of House.
Thanks very much for your help!
This may work for some of you if you have a policy banner on the machine such as a domain machine, but what you can do is T-Boot into the machine with the WSOD go into Macintosh HD > Library > Security and remove whatever your banner is and reboot. As said before this worked for our older machine that had policy banners and began getting WSOD after upgrading the version of OSX.
I’ve been using my nieces MacBook pro & got the horrible white screen & freaked out after trying almost everything. Finally I tried step 3 & it WORKED!! Definitely suggest you try this. I turned it off, then on again while pressing option, command, P & R keys till apple logo appeared & cant believe it worked. Hope it works for you too.
got white screen and am running my mac pro on an external drive with the down-loaded files from the internet. this is, so far, how i start my mac and did my work. as i tried to fix my mac so it will run the normal way, after i did the cmd-s i got a message that i have incorrect number of thread recods. the number is 4, 22879. it did few checks and repaied the volume but still has the white screen.
I have a MBP 2011. Ive tried all of the solutions (I appreciate all of you who posted these)! I tried all of these multiple times and unfortunately none of them worked. All roads led to the frozen tundra (white screen:(.
Q1: Besides buying a sledge hammer, has anyone found a solution to this problem?
Q2. Where in the H-E-double hockey sticks is apple when there are so many customers facing the same (URGENT) problem?!?
I have stepped into the world of Apple because the problems with Windows OS. Ten years ago I had a lot of problems with my PC, so I bought an Apple. Until now I were very happy, but unfortunately I upgrade my working machine with OS 10.11 to 10.11.1 and my mac did not boot again. Now I have an unuseful computer. My mac did not boot for a month. I am thinking to throw away my mac. Bad move from Apple !!!
Thank you so much! Safe boot worked!!
God bless you for your support.
You saved my day.
Hi all, I have a 2010/11 macbook pro. While it was on and I was using it as normal (surfing the internet, etc), the screen went black (not completely off, it was still lit, but with black color), and wouldnt respond. Physically closing the laptop didn’t result in sleep mode, the apple logo stayed lit, and upon opening it the black screen was still there. I powered down by holding the power button for a few seconds. When I pressed the power button to turn it on, it didn’t make the usual physical ‘disky’ sound (the sound similar to when you insert a dvd into the dvd-drive) which it always makes upon pressing the power button. So I got startup chime, apple logo, then white screen. I tried safe mode and it starts up in safe mode, but still not in normal mode. I tried resetting the pram, nothing. I verified the hard disk and got “seems to be ok.” I ran hardware test (including the extended one) and got “no trouble found.” Kind of stuck for what to do, as I don’t hear a physical sounds that it used to make on start-up, I figured it might be hardware. Any ideas? Thanks!
Hi Serhat Kurt,
Thanks for your valuable information to recover our Macbook….!
Thanks a lot once again.
Regards,
Ravin.
The steps worked thanks a lot
I tried number 1 three times it did not work. I tried number 2 three times it did not work. I tried number 3 three times and on the 3rd try it is up and running. Before I did steps 1-3 I did the command S I did not type the info described above I just typed exit. I hope it continues to work. Thanks.
I just wanted to quick tell my situation.
So When I got to the ‘repair disk’ part, when I tried to repair my Macintosh HD disk it it said it was broken but could not be repaired. So what I found out worked was we had to erase the entire disk, then when I verified it, it was fixed. Awesome!!!
So I restarted the computer and we got this flashing image of a folder with a question mark. Great.
We turned it off and back on with Command + R and and tried to re-install IOS. It said the Mackintosh disk wasn’t Libraried (or something like that)
We went BACK to the Disk Utility and at the top bar we clicked the green button that said something like “Enable Library” I don’t really remember. Doing THIS, PLUS having the disk in Extended IOS (Libraried) format allowed us to reinstall IOS. From there is was easy going.
We did have to erase the hard drive, but our computer is alive!!!
So, in re-cap, what worked for us is:
1. Erase your hard drive disk (For us it was the Macintosh HD) make sure it is in Extended IOS format
2. Click “Enable Libraried” (or something close to that, not sure) on top of the window
3. When in the reinstall IOS window, select the disk you just erased.
4. Once it’s downloading, you got it!
I have the exact same problem, I just found out about it 5 minutes ago. I’m going to try to back it up first though.
Cmd r works for me! Thank you!!
with safeboot nothing happens, I can’t run disk utility holding the keys and nothing, when i reset the pram the macbook pro just reboot’s i tried many many times, even hold it for multiple reboots but nothing, and how to reinstall when I can’t go to disk utility
I have tried every solution on this thread with no luck. I have a 2009 MacBook Pro running mavericks. I am getting white screen, apple sign, spinning circle and a loading bar below that. Nothin loads, and after a few minutes it turns off even with the charger plugged in. Anyone else with the same model and year found a solution?
Last night my computer start acting up so I had to tune off manually, since then my screen stay blue.
I have try #1 and it worked but what do I need to do to get back to my normal screen?
So I decided to leave a comment because this was the web page that helped me the most. So thank you to everyone for sharing your tips. I have a 2011 Macbook pro 13.” I got that white screen of death, and tried all of the above tips in the comments and in the post. I tried them hundreds of times and finally got it to start (with command R, after I did it like 20 times haha). But my laptop kept freezing, and I would have to power off and I probably have gotten that white screen like 4 times since. And thats when I found a new trick. I am not a computer person so if this is bad for it then sorry.
So my trick is, when you get the white screen, leave it, leave your laptop on, take out the charger, and let your laptop die with the white screen on. And you should hear the fans going as you let it die. Once you think it died, start it up without the charger to make sure it is completely out of charge. Then put the charger back in, and start it up like usual. It has worked for me every single time it happened. Hope I helped.
I had the white screen no faults found during test nothing else works consistantly had some blue lines then tried swapped ram HD then Apple service center confirmed my video / graphics card/ mother board is going out yippe! Thanks and good luck to.you all
Fix #3 worked for me
Thanks
Hi there! I did the option 1, then option 2, then option 3, then option 1, 3, 1, and 3 again over and over, and now the green lines/stripd have all disappeared from my iMac. Thanks for this value hints!
Thanku soooo much!! It totally helped!
I can’t thank you enough for taking time to write and publish such useful information. You single-handedly saved me a load of time and money. I followed your guidance with precision and my MacBook Air works again!
Step 1 worked for me instantly. Thanks
If none of the steps worked it could be of a faulty AMD GPU which was the case in my problem. There is a recall on certain Macs on this issue.
https://www.apple.com/support/macbookpro-videoissues/
There is also a go around quick fix on YouTube that I found that worked.
http://youtu.be/xze1WHCFfag
I’m having a same problem right now . Last night , I shut it down without any problems , but this morning , it started to show the white screen with an apple logo.it’s been for at lease 3 hours .. I tried the solution which given above , but it seems didn’t work for me . So any idea or suggestion that can help me out ?
Thank you! Step #1 worked like a charm.
I have the same problem. cant conclude it so i left my mbp for almost a year… tried all this fix but still wont work… any other suggestion? burn it? 🙁
I have a mid 2007 imac. I had upgraded from snow leopard to Yosemite 10 10 2 3 months ago. At first it ran like new. Over the last few weeks it has gotten very slow spinning color wheels were commonplace. No today 4 June, I have nothing whatsoever but the white screen I’ve done the SMC and PRAM resets to no avail. Please help!
Thank you so much! Safe boot worked!!
The apple logo didn’t come up bit a globe of the earth did??? Is that good or bad??
I have tried all options on my iMac & finally got to Disk Utility;repair disk only to have an error msg come up saying: disk utility can’t repair this disk. back up as many of your files as possible, reformat the disk, then restore your back up files. The only problem is I cannot do anything to back up my files. Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.
I have an Imac that gets to the white screen with the apple logo, have tried all the above mentioned strategies with no success. is there anything else that I could try?
Please Help! I have a white screen, the apple logo, and the bar that loads about a third of the way and the pinwheel that just continues to spin. Tried all the fancy safe mode boots and steps above with no results. Any other suggestions would be great!!!
Thank you all.
After endless attempts to reboot to get out of the dreaded white screen I was ready to kick my IMac in the bin…
Then I stumbled across an article from apple ,all Mac’s built or sold between May 2011 and October of 2012 have a faulty video card installed. Apple instigated a replacement program at any service centre free of charge as in my case, when I questioned my authorised repair consultant about it his response was that apple didn’t want to make this public knowledge in fear of getting thousands of Mac’s back for repair all at once and some of the cards would last longer than others depending on use.
To find out when your Mac was built hold down command + V and reboot this should bring up a black screen with white text , about halfway down the page you will see your Mac’s build date if it’s within the above date’s you will get a free replacement card and be back up and running.
Good luck there is hope :-))
I have a large 2010 MBP 17″, working fine with a newer SD drive until today. Tried although steps above with white screen on start up. All manner of apple logo, grey Barry , black screen with white text… Nothing stayed up longer than a few seconds.
THEN, I tried Command+ V and reboot. Took three cosequtive Ttempts, then my computer fired up with my normal screen again.
Keep you all posted as I keep working!
I have a 1 mac A1076 made in 2005 i think its Snow Leopard , was working fine until i tried to update , now its just the white screen with apple i can not get the repair screen , I got to white screen never a black screen , I found i tried this
mount -uw /
rm /var/db/.AppleSetupDone
shutdown -h now
its not working any can help ?
I have tried all the above suggestions. When I run the SMC and PRAM resets, my screen turns to black. Then, safe mode doesn’t seem to work, it hangs halfway during safe booting. I have also tried single mode (Control+S) but still my mac does not book. It’s already been 24 hours and I desperately need to get into my desktop as I have work to submit on very short deadlines. Please help guys !!!
FYI: I live in Ivory Coast( West Africa) and there is not apple store around. Please I need your help and suggestions. Thanks in advance !
i also had the no entry circle and a white screen and tried option 3and it worked great. Coincidentally all these issues started when I updated to snow leopard . I now update regularly and my Apple works great. Thank you forum. Ps I almost took my computer to the Apple service depot where I am sure I would have spent many $$$
Same woes…… White screen, after I attempt to get past admin login. Have tried every solution listed above. Problems began with an error message 36 when I tried to empty the trash. Installed MacKeeper and was talked into letting an ‘Apple certified technician ‘ service my Mac. They did get rid if the error message and have had no more problems there but subsequently have run out of memory for basic tasks. never had earl memory problems before. Then today suddenly, the white screen…….any suggestions or ideas…please??
same experience for me. the McKeeper guy did “optimize” my disk, and the system was slower than ever before. The guy on the remote help gave up and suggested it was a disk problem. Got my disk mounted and could retrieve all data, but still struggling with the booting and white screen. None of the above so far worked. Glad, I got my data secured, but annoying to not get beyond the white screen w apple and progress bar.
Very strange that Apple itself does not comment at all.
I have a 2013 Mac book Pro. It worked perfectly without a hitch until I upgraded to Yosemite. I switched the machine off and when I switched on again, it keeps going to RESET PASSWORD screen with no options that are live. No matter if I try CMD-S or CMD-R, none of the options work. It just goes back to this screen. Can anyone help with a suggestion on how to overcome this problem?
I had this same problem with the RESET PASSWORD screen and I finally just clicked on the top left apple logo and it gave me RESTART as an option, so I clicked on that and at least it got me away from the RESET PASSWORD screen . . . still have trouble with a white screen but I’m done with trying to fix it myself so it goes in to Apple today!
thanku!!! safeboot worked 🙂
I have a Macbook Pro. It turned off and never turn on again. When connecting the power the LED indicator is green. I can hear fan noise for a very short time but it starts and stops and when using power adapter it repeat again and again.
Also there is an LED indicator in right that it turns on and off with fan at the same time.
please help me and let me know what shall i do to fix the problem.
My MacBook Pro mid 2012 will boot on but white screen and when I press command-R it shows the OSX utility’s and I also tried to boot up in safe mode but still Sorry , next I tried shut down and booted up apple logo appears with the loading below but after sometimes it shuts off again, please anyone any Eureka solution ? Help 🙁
Went through all steps to no avail after the white screen, logo & spinning wheel on my 2010 MBP. At one step there was a flash of big blocks but then back to white screen. Took it to a shop that refurbishes Macs & they said the hard drive was shot, so replaced it with a solid state HD-they said Apple put these not-great Toshiba HDs in Macs for about a year & they’ve replaced probably 500 with SSDs in the past 3 years! Now I have a new HD & OS so it’s working great-just always back up…
My iMac has been doing the same thing. It finally rebooted after bding off all night and using the OCRP reset. After using it for about 2 hours it started the reboot sequence again. I think it might be a heat related issue since the top of my Mac is really hot. I did the hardware check and the fans increased and decreased in speed during the test but run extremely slow during operation. Is there a way to adjust the fan speeds manually?
Thank you so much for the help. The first step fixed my problem. I have this page bookmarked!!
Step 1 worked for me. Thank you VERY much…was going a bit crazy for a second.
I did a safe reboot, followed by a restart and all is now good. A message appeared following the restart that there was an issue with the Message app and to select the Quit button, which I did. The Message is the new app that allows access to SMS on all Apple devices.
All is good for now.
Victor
2011 iMac 27″ with the latest Yosemite OS
I get the boot sound and the white screen but no Apple logo.
I was trying to clear up a calibration issue with a new external monitor (otherwise the computer worked fine) and did a PRAM reset. The system has not booted since.
I am working with a Mid-2010 13′ MBP running Yosemite and 8GB RAM.
My question: Did the PRAM reset also reset the speed on my RAM?
I have been running two 4GB 1333MHZ RAM cards for over 3 years that I had to change settings to take because the max recommended is only 1066MHZ.
I have the same problem
I make to the part where I log in but get the beach ball. It won’t do anything. Sometimes I get a circle with one of these / were the apple should be. I have tried many if not all these steps with no success.
Thanks for sharing these steps. I tried Steps 1 & 3 which didn’t work for me, but I was able to get to the Disk Utility using step 3. It shows OSX base system and the main HD and partition are OK, but the Macintosh HD came up Unable to verify completely, then it said volume repair complete but got hung up updating boot support partitions for this volume. Got ERROR, disk utility can’t repair, backup, reformat disk and restore backed up files.
Then I noticed the Permissions Verify button and decided to try that; it has found a HUGE amount of errors and is still “verifying Permissions (estimates over an hour to complete). When it finishes I’ll try to Repair Disk Permissions, but if that fails I’ll try the reformatting.
Now isn’t this interesting. Here we have an ‘apple toolbox’ site with a million questions from very anxious Apple clients – and not one official technical reply from those who ought to be concerned about losing said clients.
I have seen many forums when, for example, hosting game servers for my children and needing advice, in which most queries are given answers either from volunteers or those responsible for the programs people are querying about. Those are youngsters, yet they have shown far more responsibility than Apple itself. On no Apple forums of any kind have I seen ‘technical experts’ attempting to answer anyone’s queries. So I’d really like to know, what the point is of these forums? To distract us like children? Make us think someone gives tuppence for our issues after we’ve bought our little Macs and gone away?
I was a huge Mac fan. I am now lost to it. As a graphic and digital artist, this was my livelihood. But my fairly new iMac has died; nothing above has worked; my time capsule stopped working six months ago and I’ve been too busy to stop and sort that; now the iMac itself, as life’s true irony and a lesson to me. Two lessons, in fact: to sort backup systems as a priority as soon as they go pfutt, and to leave Apple behind, because PCs can now use all the software I need, such as Adobe Creative Suite.
You have let me down, Apple. Help used to be easy to get, that was one of the main reasons I stayed with Apple since the early Mac ll! Goodbye, I’ll take my chances with PC and Nortons to protect it.
my macbook pro!!! I install windows 7 on new partition !!Now mac is stop black screen when restart!! I can’t do nothing!!How can i reinstall OS X and windows 7
Thanks a lot! Had same issue, but OSX reinstall seems to have worked.
William,
Did you lose your files and applications after re installing OSX?
thank you thank you. fixed it with safe boot. have no idea what started it but thank you!!!!
I tried all this and it did not work. When it starts up I get the app and then black screen with cursor. Help
Please help I am having the same problem as everyone else. None of the steps are working . I get the apple gets about a1/4 of the way then shuts Back off. Was working fine this morning. Please help all of my company’s business is on this computer…….
Hi all, I have an old MacBook Air when I turn it on it has the usual start sound followed by a grey screen with a flashing Apple logo that contains a no entry sign (a circle with a diagonal line across) and a question mark within the Apple logo.
Can anyone help?
Regards Aubrey.
i have tried all of the above, and I still cannot get my system to work. Any other suggestions?
I have been forced to buy Windows system to continue my classes, but most of my info is on my MacBook.
My confidence in Apple has been undermined.
i followed 2nd step there was no option for repair but to verify disc..so i verified the disc..but what next ?? its still not working
I have a mbp 2011 and connect it to a 27″ apple display. My laptop was working just fine then I heard a weird buzz and saw my external monitor get weird lines so I disconnected it. Laptop still was displaying properly. I rebooted and ran tech tools to check the hardware and ram. No issues. Restarted fine, reconnected the external monitor. Again problems so I disconnected, shut down and rebooted. I get to the login screen, select user and enter my password. Continues to startup, but the black profess bar gets about halfway then the white screen. Have tried all steps but no luck. I also noticed my user login icons have faint lines going across. Could this be my graphic card? I read 2011 mbp had problems with the graphic cards. Any ideas?
I have the same problem. Did you get any solution?
Did you ever figure it out? You described my exact issue. Horizontal lines. External monitor. Started a few more times not nothing but white screen of death.
I have the same problem. I start up my MacBook Pro and is comes up with a white screen and the grey Apple logo but also has a loading bar underneath and when the loading bar gets to about half way the macbook shuts down. Someone please help.
Hi Robert,
did you find a solution for that, i have exactly the same error
My 09 macbook pro was working fine this morning when I shut it down, when I turned it on again it is white screen. I have tried all the options but no result. I get a folder with question mark. Not today which is my birthday. HELP
Just installed new solid state drive after being told my HD was shot when I kept getting a gray screen at boot (this was per techie at Genius Bar; he ran utilities to check hardware but when it got to the HD the utility check just hung). Did the whole Option+Command+R to connect to internet and install recovery.
Connected without an issue and files downloaded, however once that was done, I got the apple logo, the screen flashed black, then the gray screen returned and nothing has happened since. HELP!
Hey guys, i’m just wondering, if the white screen still persis even uou have tried everything above, what is actually happening to my mac? It says the mac having graphical problem. Do i have to replace my ram?
Pls2 help me…
Number three worked for me. I tried the first two… No go… With the 3rd (re-set PRAM) after figuring out to simultaneously hold the command & r on one side and the option & p on the other :-)… The screen flickered a couple times… I let go turned off computer. Turned it back on and viola! Thank you!!!
Hi,
I solved the problem with the white screen on my iMac like this:
– boot in safe mode (Hold SHIFT key during boot untill the Apple logo shows up)
– go to the user account and turn off all progs which are loaded automatically at startup.
– delete all items in /library/startupitems/
– Reboot (no safe mode, standard boot)
– now Mac OS works as it used to without the white screen !!
It worked for me, I hope it will help others as well..
This worked for me! Thank you so much! Just seeing my computer again in Safe Mode was such a relief.
Thank you
My 2009 MacBook pro has a white screen, no apple logo. Instead it is flashing a picture of a folder with a question mark in it? Anyone know what this means? It is Christmas day – of all days for this to happen! Will I need to take it back to the apple store? I’ve tried all the suggestions above and none are working.
Any luck Allison or info to pass Allison? I just got the same problem. Thanks.
This happened to me. You need to replace the hard drive cable. You can get it on ifixit.com for $50! This worked for me, and I hope it helps!
macbook wont start up past white screen , apple logo and spinning grey wheel , no recover discs available tried all usual command R etc nothing , could it be hardrive defunked ?
Hi All
I tried all the recommendations above several times and none work. I couldn’t even reboot from my OSx DVD or restore from my external Time Machine recovery.
Would be grateful if anyone has a working solution. Thx.
M
I had all the same issues with my mac pro book quad core. After trying for two weeks….one day I was fed up….put the laptop on my desk with a “tap” towards the bottom end of the screen edge…..and….whala! The white screen disappeared! I was putting the laptop down and the bottom hit my desk with a little force thsn normal. I know the last time i did that and went to bed when i tried using it in tge morning….black screek action.
The normal screen came on. Then…it went off again. I tapped it again….and it stayed!!! I guess it isn’t a hardy device. Something is obviously loose. Don’t know what but…I’m going to strictly use it as a desk top now!!!!!
Me too Martin. If someone helps you out please pass on the fix. Thank you
Thx so much I have done it with first step and worked well
I have the white screen of death, no logo, on a 27 inch iMac which I bought in about 2008. It has taken a long time to boot in the past, but has been pretty good for a while. I usually leave it on and only reset when it seems to be slowing down. This time I was getting the button rainbow swirl thing and a note on blocked videos. I have tried three of the options above with nothing going past the white screen. Please advice?
Regards,
Sandy Harper
I’m having exact same issue. can’t get past white screen.
Tried all the above ….disk utility will not even appear so attempt a re- install.
Any on the suggestions,
Desperate for a solution thanks
Michelle
Me too‼️‼️‼️what the heck. It all happened with this last update
After 3 attempts #1 was successful. God bless your brain. Thanks
Spell check changed some words
I haven’t used my MacBook Pro in a while. It turned on fine. I decided to check for software updates. I had 4 which required a Restart. Watched as the software was downloaded, files written, etc. When it restarted, I got the beach ball then the white screen. Step one did not work. Step 2 (utilities disk) would not verify Base disk (greyed out) check other disk and it said it needed to be repaired, then did it couldn’t and u need to back it up.
BUT I CANT GET PAST THE WHITE SCREEN !!!! If anyone has any ideas, HELP oils be GREATLY APPRECIATED.
My deceased husbands photos are in here and I can NOT lose these or his voice which I recorded.
Please advice
Dear Lisa,
Very sorry to hear about your troubles — all around!
The good news is that with this sort of problem, it’s highly unlikely that your precious data is lost. Your tape is still good — just your player is busted.
If you still can’t get your Mac to boot, you can remove the hard drive, put it into an external USB case and access the recordings of your husband on any computer.
Of course, your first order of business then should be to make several backups!
Best of luck!
Djuna
Or you can just press and hold T while starting up, which starts your mac in Target Mode – essentially making it an external harddrive. You then connect the mac via firewire to another mac and transfer all your data.
You can actually even boot your system from the other mac by holding down the Alt key while turning the other mac on and then choosing your computers drive as the startup disk.
For saving your important data, this is the most useful information on this whole page as far as I am concerned. My July 2011, 27inch iMac 7600, has refused to maintain Time Machine backups. After five or six backups, I would get a window saying that the Time Machine backup had failed. I could only get it to work again by reformatting the external HD and starting all over. Each time, continual backup failed. Hence, I wasn’t able to back up my files on a regular basis. So, it was brilliant to be able to get my data off the iMac when it become un-bootable. It would have cost me up to £80 to have a Mac repair centre retrieve my data, but using Target Mode with FireWire was dead easy. The most important thing in this case is to actually find a Mac with a FireWire port. Fortunately, I still have my 7 year old MacPro with a FireWire port. So don’t get rid of those old Macs!
Thank you Jonas Rose Høeg for that brilliant suggestion.
Having the same problems as the original two posts. It’s been happening increasingly over the past couple of months, and various methods mentioned above have temporarily solved it. But yesterday no methods would work and it just wouldn’t boot; just the white screen, sometimes an apple logo first then white, sometimes just white. I then booted in target disk mode from a friend’s computer. Both drives were mounted and checked out fine in Disk Utility. After unmounting and restarting, it booted fine. Now some resets get me back to the white screen, sometimes I’m able to boot normally; very hit or miss at this point. Any other info or solutions? WTF Apple?
I have an Imac that gets to the white screen with the apple logo, have tried all the above mentioned strategies with no success. is there anything else that I could try? I do not recall what ios version the comp currently has.
@Alan
I have re-installed OS X as #4 without losing any kind of data.
But it is recommended yes, that you back up the important stuff – just in case.
Though I’m back now in the situation with the white screen, which really is annoying me, since I got exams coming up…
So anybody who knows how i can solve this? I ran an EtreCheck also, and it only showed “failed” at Daemons. Which i also had the first time, where the problem got fixed…
I am now thinking it may be the RAM as it says there’s inserted 4 gb, but only about 200 mb avaiable on the EtreCheck.
I have a Macbook Pro w/ white screen problem. Shut it down earlier today and on turning it back on few hours later got the white screen. Tried steps 1, 2 , and 3 above w/out help.
I do have a Mac OS X startup “disc” on a USB drive.
My question – if I reinstall Mac OS X will I lose all my other programs, data, photos, etc or does it just reinstall the OS w/ out reformatting/ erasing my other data?
I tried…it….the mag safe power adapter even turned green while I holded..the left shift-control-option ….and pressed on the power button. ..it the adapter again turned on to green. ..within a minute I left the power button…I waited for 5 mins…but I still did not turn..on..please help me…
It still show a blank white screen when turned on….please help me..out..
Tried everything. Every time I boot it it has a white screen and it won’t go any further than that. Have s 08 MacBook pro
My Screen dint turn on one day. But the external monitor worked fine. I tried PRAM reset, restarting in safe mode. Both did not work. Then i tried SMC reset a couple of time (with a interval of 5 minutes), then the issue got resolved. I got the same problem again for two three times in a span of 20 days and i used the same solution. Now it works fine for about one month now.
SMC Reset:
Mac portables with non-user-removable batteries (MacBook Air and some late 2009 MacBook Pro models):
Shut down your Mac.
Connect the MagSafe power adapter to your Mac and to a power outlet.
On the built-in keyboard (this will not work from an external keyboard), simultaneously press and hold the left shift, control, and option keys while you press the power button. Release all keys at the same time. You will see a colour change of red to green from the power plug.
Wait for five minutes.
Press the power button to start your Mac.
Prakash,
Your solution worked for me. Thank you.
Here is what I did:
On the built-in keyboard , I simultaneously press and held the left shift, control, and option keys while I pressed the power button. Release all keys at the same time. You will see a colour change from orange to green from the power plug.
Wait for five minutes.
I pressed the power button to start your Mac and it worked.
John M.
So mate , after I press all the buttons , will green go back to orange or will just stay green
Thank you soooo much Prakesh. I had tried everything else and nothing worked. This did!
Stradegy number one worked for me! Thanks so much!
thanks – ctrl +R worked a treat
fix #1 – safe start worked for me. thanks!!
thank you very much, the first step was effective. I was so scared!!
now I breath again!
Man. That is great to hear. I just came across this problem yesterday and still no luck
Exactly the same problem, have followed all the steps exactly as you did prior to reading this and was looking for the next step, even brought a bootable USB device with OSX on. Did you find a solution to this or is it really going to require a replacement of Logic Board? have even tried booting in 2-3 other MAC’s and have replaced the hard drive multiple times trying it with 10+. Please get back to me if you found the solution to this everlasting White screen.
Thanks, Jason
I’ve been through all of the basic remedial tests – resetting the Parameter RAM, resetting the PMU. The laptop boots to the Logo screen, but then hangs at a white screen prior to the login window.
I tried safe boot, and after the initial white screen I get a different (brighter) white screen with a pointer (‘Yay, success’… I thought) which then switches to a low-res blue stripy screen (‘boo, failure’) where it hangs.
Option-booting is showing up both the main partition and the recovery partition, but selecting either from there won’t get me past a white screen.
Command-R booting to access the recovery partition gets me to a…. you guessed it… white screen. I always said it was a stupid idea to follow the idiocy of Microsoft in using a recovery partition rather than physical media for emergency boots. And because it can see a partition there it doesn’t want to let me go online and try to recover from the remote servers… Apple now employ IDIOTS!
Suspecting a damaged hard drive I grabbed a copy of Ubuntu via another Mac and set up a bootable USB pen drive as a ‘LiveCD’, but the Mac doesn’t seem to want to boot beyond the initial GRUB loader (black screen this time, although it does turn on the keyboard backlights). The USB stick will boot another Mac, so it’s just this machine at fault.
In a last ditch attempt to get something to work I Command-S booted into single user mode and ran fsck. The initial run found some errors which it repaired, as a second run verified by reporting the drive seemed to be OK. Rebooted… same old same old white screen of tediousness.
The fact that I’m getting some life in terms of the logo screen kind of says that the CPU/logic board is OK, and the screen displaying any of this stuff in a decent res tells me the video card is OK. The only other thing I could think might have failed is the RAM. I’ll try removing and reseating it in the off-chance it’s come loose, but is this a common symptom of a RAM failure?
Any other feedback or ideas would be greatly appreciated.
Follow up… tried to run the built-in hardware test, but once again hit a white screen before getting to it. Left the machine running Memtest86 overnight for about 10 hours but it threw up no errors with the RAM. It’s not guaranteed that one or more of the memory modules isn’t damaged or malfunctioning somewhere, but I’d have expected to see at least one error flagged up after that amount of time. Oh well, time to try pulling the hard drive and hooking it up to another Mac to see if it’s faulty, otherwise it looks like it could be something much more terminal with components on the logic board.
Any luck.?.? I have the same problem. I pulled the drive and hooked it up to another Mac, booted just fine. It’s gotta be hardware related.
I too am having this problem on my mid-2011 iMac 27″. Let us know if you were able to find a fix!
Hey guys i finnaly brought my macbook pro back to life : Startup on single-user mode (cmd-s the turn on) the terminal will show up then type : fsck -fy , press return, type mount -uw, press return, type touch /private/var/db/ .AppleSetupDone, press return, type exit, press return. Hope it works just as it id to me! cheers!
Andre – THANK YOU. My computer went crazy two months ago and NOTHING was working, until I saw this. I just used your solution and it brought it back to life! I can’t thank you enough for posting this!
Andre, thanks. This did it for me.
Thank you Andre. For me the commands where supposed to be /sbin fsck -fy and /sbin mount -uw / which removed 2 files it said shouldn’t be there. The third command gave an error so I suspect this did nothing but
ITS ALIVE
I did these steps and then it says Read-only file system. Is that normal? I typed exit and return and it says logout and then does nothing. I tried to hard reboot and I still get the white screen with the apple logo and spinning progress bar! Ugggh! Please help!
NOTHING was working for me now my computer is on!!! Made sure to copy the exact spacing for it to work….thank you so much!!
Andre, I typed in exactly what you said to type in but it’s just still on the same page .. Do I like have to shut down the computer after typing in the required text or just wait for it to load up?
Hooray Andre! I and so happy I stumbled across his solution before my Mac sat for 2 months, because I would have had to have bought a new one. It did seem to be a problem involving an extra file in the directory, perhaps associated with a recent SharePoint file I had left open. Thank you!
What does “the terminal will show up” mean? I don’t see anywhere I can type.
It worked for me…!! But My curiosity raised the next question as to why this happened? I mean what did I do which casused this problem? I am using m,y mac for very personal and important research purpose and I dont want this to happen in future. Any suggestion? my mac is 2008 macbook *white one”
any suggestions?
Andre, tried all of your examples…. Still nothing … Still a white screen
Thanks Andre, This seems to have worked for me, I’ve had the strangest Mac evening Ever, Both of my Macbook Pro’s appeared to develop the same issue, they wouldn’t boot past the Grey progress bar, i was unable to boot in recovery mode on both computers too, I also appear to have an issue where both of my LaCie Firewire drives are no longer recognised
It worked for me! I tried everything for hours. Thank you. Don’t give up. I contacted a friend from Apple and he told me he is 100% needs to be taken in , no hope for it. It is very slow but at least it gives me time to make sure my back ups work and finish my work I was on a strict deadline, thankful this thanksgiving day !!
You’re a lifesaver!
My portable hard drive died about a month before this so I knew when my computer wouldn’t start that I would loose a lot of data I couldn’t replace, from uni work, family photos, work and so on.
Not the greatest feeling in the world 🙁
I tried a lot of trouble shooting but it was this comment that got everything up and working again so thank you very much.
I have no idea why it crashed to begin with but I’m backing up everything that I would miss straight away.
Cheers
Hi thanks Andre! You Saved my MacBook from a hefty kick!
Woohoo….thanks bro!!! Tried heaps of other ways.
I’m back! ….for how much longer I don’t know?. There has to be a reason for the problem initially.
Cheers 🙂
I have the same or very similar symptomps, but it turned out to be a hardware problem. My MBP (early 2011) symptomps:
When turned on I have grey screen for few seconds, then apple logo grey screen with progressing bar under the logo as loading system, then when the bar reaches about 50% it stops for few seconds and the laptop restarts. I did reset PRAM, SCM, did the commands from Andre using CMD-S, but none of it helped. I went to Apple store and the hardware test failed on video system. Good news: Repair is free, because it is internal hardware failure. Otherwise I would have to pay about $350 for replacing the motherboard.
Bad news: I have to wait about 7 days to get it back repaired from Apple Repair Center. It is actually not that bad.
Thanks for the tips even though didn’t work for me, but was worth to try it first.
Thanks!
Can you plz let me know how to start on single user mode from turning it on?
Andre you are a lifesaver! Thankyou so much
Thank you Andre! This worked for me! Great tip!! I followed your instructions on the Command S screen and my computer is back!!
thank you mine just came on
im having the same problem with me 2012 iMac,let me know if there’s a soloutin 🙂
Hi all,
Had the same frustrating issue with my MBP Early 2011 this morning. Was working OK the night before and today, when booting I get the pixelated grey login screen. I tried everything on the internet: PRAM reset, SMC reset, Trying to log in Single User Mode didn’t work for me, neither verbosе mode (CMD+S and CMD+V whilst booting). What worked for me was holding alt/option + N which is a start up from a NetBoot server using the default boot image. Strangely after it the login screen was no longer pixelated and worked just fine.
So if anyone else is having this issue try the Alt/Option + N on start up
Thank God it worked for me option N
Running the same script over & over repairing volume, rechecking volume, checking, checking, checking…
Bless your soul Oleg. I tried all the troubleshooting I could read up on. At some point I was starting to lose hope and then I came across your comment. It is so I was sceptical, but I friend it anyway and IT WORKED. THANK YOU:)
Did you get the mac fixed? I have exactly the same problem now with my mac.
Thank you so much for CMD+S it saved my computer!
Hi Patrick what did u exactly do to fix this problem? I did CMND+S and this black screen came up with all the white text. What do I do next?
Me too booted into command – s. It ran stuffs in command line didn’t know what to to except to type exit at the end and viola my MacBook Pro is up and running. Can someone explain what happened here
I’ve been trying to restart my computer for hours…. What is the best solution for this problem????
Thank you thank you thank you! The safe boot worked the first time!
I had the exact same problem on my MacBook pro late 2011… This one solved it for me, at least i thing so! But why did I have to do this?
Thank you 😀