hey all. I have run into this issue lately and have tried many, many solutions to this problem, but still nothing.
when I say many, I have attempted to do the following:
i have reset the PRAM & SMC
i have disconnected all peripherals
i have removed the hard drive and done a fresh install on an external HDD (this resulted in something of a positive experience where i ran the initial OSX setup, entered language, etc, and the machine rebooted a couple of times as expected to complete installation. ultimately though, it now goes to gray screen with no user information input) this install was done by booting from the network and downloading OSX Lion from Apple.
when my machine goes past the initial apple logo and then goes to a more subdued gray screen with a mouse pointer on the screen. sometimes this changes to the color wheel, sometimes not. everytime though, the vid card fan kicks into high gear after about 5 minutes of sitting like this. i haven't performed any hardware upgrades since dropping more RAM in it around June 2016.
I'm not sure where to go from here. i had originally thought something on my HDD had become corrupted, but i eliminated that by doing a fresh install over the internet (right?). i thought maybe there was a bad sector or something on the internal HDD, but eliminated that by installing Lion to an external drive and booting from it. this being my first Mac, i am at a loss. am i looking at some other hardware failure? is it a possible firmware issue (and if so, how in the world can i update it if i can't even get to a login screen)?
i am probably going to try a Linux or Win7 install to eliminate OSX file corruption from the mix today.
i am looking for other thoughts/assistance from Mac users with more experience than i.
thanks in advance!
when I say many, I have attempted to do the following:
i have reset the PRAM & SMC
i have disconnected all peripherals
i have removed the hard drive and done a fresh install on an external HDD (this resulted in something of a positive experience where i ran the initial OSX setup, entered language, etc, and the machine rebooted a couple of times as expected to complete installation. ultimately though, it now goes to gray screen with no user information input) this install was done by booting from the network and downloading OSX Lion from Apple.
when my machine goes past the initial apple logo and then goes to a more subdued gray screen with a mouse pointer on the screen. sometimes this changes to the color wheel, sometimes not. everytime though, the vid card fan kicks into high gear after about 5 minutes of sitting like this. i haven't performed any hardware upgrades since dropping more RAM in it around June 2016.
I'm not sure where to go from here. i had originally thought something on my HDD had become corrupted, but i eliminated that by doing a fresh install over the internet (right?). i thought maybe there was a bad sector or something on the internal HDD, but eliminated that by installing Lion to an external drive and booting from it. this being my first Mac, i am at a loss. am i looking at some other hardware failure? is it a possible firmware issue (and if so, how in the world can i update it if i can't even get to a login screen)?
i am probably going to try a Linux or Win7 install to eliminate OSX file corruption from the mix today.
i am looking for other thoughts/assistance from Mac users with more experience than i.
thanks in advance!