When you upgrade your installation of OS X, the OS X installer will attempt to detect and remove any incompatible software that may destabilize your system. However, there are times when such software may slip past Apple’s detection routines and affect your system. While often you can use troubleshooting routines after installation to manage such problems, on rare occasion these issues may prevent your Mac from booting altogether, leaving you with no ability to use your machine. Continue reading
Tag Archives: boot
Tackle your Mac booting to a gray screen
Given the efficiency and convenience of sleep mode on Mac systems, it is often a rarity that we end up restarting our Macs. When we do, we expect it to boot to normal operation; however, sometimes a snafu may result in your Mac booting to a gray screen, and no further. Often such behavior happens because of a specific problem, such as a power outage, or the installation of a new software package, but regardless, if it happens there are essentially only a few things that you can do. Continue reading
How to silence your Mac’s startup sound
When you press the power button to start up your Mac, you will be met with a boot chime that lets you know your system is healthy and ready to load OS X. However, this sound can be a bit intrusive, and there may be times when you would prefer to not have it play. Since sleep mode will not make such sounds when waking, you can always use it instead of shutting down your Mac; however, if you need to cold-boot your Mac, then you have a couple of approaches for muting that boot chime. Continue reading
A fix for OS X hanging at startup, even in Safe Mode
When you start up your Mac, OS X will display a progress indicator on a background with an Apple symbol, right before loading the OS X interface. In versions of OS X prior to Yosemite this was a spinning wheel, and in Yosemite it is an iOS-like progress bar. This indicator should only display for a few moments before you see your login screen; however, if something goes wrong during startup then you might see your Mac pause either for a long time or indefinitely at this loading point. Continue reading