I noticed my webcam light was lit up on our MacBook even though no chatting app was running. I restarted, but light came back on. So I shut down instead. I pressed the power button. That was, like, a 1/2 hour ago. I still have the gray screen with the Apple logo and spinning gear. What should be my next step?
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Cameron
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Why Would Mac Be Stuck In Startup?
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Try a few times.
If still no luck, it it depends which OS you are running.
If Lion, then start up with the Option key help down and choose your Restore partition. Use that to run Disk Utility first aid.
Or, if you are unfamiliar with such things take it to an expert (Genius Bar, local shop, friend who is a Mac expert, etc) and have them help.
It's running Snow Leopard. Unfortunately, the nearest Genius Bar is 400 miles away. I will try it a few times, but I'm not very optimistic. This happened to my Mac Mini a couple of years back, and it's never fully started up since. :-(
Standard procedure:
Start from the Snow Leopard DVD. Use disk Utility to repair permissions. Verify hard drive.
Problems persist? Reset PRAM.
Problems persist? Reinstall OS.
Problems persist? Probably hardware. Visit Genius Bar
Found discs for Mac Mini, iBook G4, even my old HP desktop, but can't find the MacBook discs. Go figure. Rest PRAM to no avail. Closest Genius Bar is 400 miles away :(
Guess I'll have to wait until either the discs are found or I take a trip downstate.
Was it a Snow Leopard Mac? If so, then any Snow Leopard Upgrade disc should work ($30).
Try single user mode.
Hold down command-S while starting up. This will bring up a black screen with white text.
At the prompt type "fsck -fy" and press return. (don't type the quotation marks)
Wait.
If you see the message "File System was Modified" type "fsck -fy" again and press return.
keep doing that until the massage says "No problems were found."
Then type "reboot" and hit return.
Good Luck.