Something wrong with mac

By rdfreak, 27 May, 2013

Forum
macOS and Mac Apps
Hi all, I'm not as familiar with my Mac as I am windows so bare with me and if you have a suggestion re the following, please fire them here. I've got a macbook air (bought last year if that helps) I hadn't used it for a while so when I went into iTunes last weekend, it asked me if I wanted to update, so I went to do this. I clicked on restart when it prompted me and so I did this and left it. After a while I went back to it to see what was happening; nothing; it was off, so I turned it on and left it thinking that perhaps it needed to still do something but failed to turn back on. When I got back, the screen was dim but not off (I have light perception) Since I'd left it for sometime, I attempted to press command F5 as VO wasn't working; nothing happened. I turned it off again via the power button and back on; familiar chimes sounded, screen lit up but no voice; I left it for a while and tried command f5 again; nothing; I went to bed and left it switched on just in case; got up much later, still nothing. The next day I had sighted eyes tell me all that was on the screen was the apple logo and My Dad told me he thinks it's trying to load but can't. I'm obviously worried I did something or even somehow remove the OS. I'll take it to an Apple store next weekend but just thought I'd write here first to see if anyone can shed any light. Thanks in advance. :)

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Comments

By Siobhan on Monday, May 27, 2013 - 11:57

Hi. That sounds like what Windows used to do to me when it decided not to work anymore lol. Seriously I don't think you did anything wrong. Apple's stuff is meant to not just, die, like that. I hope you get it fixed, I'm sorry I can't help more.

By jrjolley (not verified) on Monday, May 27, 2013 - 12:49

Hi, I had that when I bought my macbook air 2010 version. The SD drive popped and didn't work. If you are under guaranty, take it to the store at once if possible. Otherwise, it'll cost a few dollars to sort. I can assure you that nothing you did caused it. The other obvious thing to try is to restore the OS, assuming it is Lion or Mountain Lion by: 1. Turning off the mac forcefully by holding down the power button. 2. Pressing the power button again. 3. Hold down Command And R together while the machine is booting and give it a minute or so. 4. Press Command F5 and VO should come on for you to follow along with. Basically, the recovery partition on your SD contains a subset of the OS, just enough for it to get internet connectivity and download a fresh lion installer. I assume this will wipe everything off of your machine though, but if you're already backing up to dropbox/google drive/other cloud storage you'll be alright. If you do have a time machine back up, you could try the restore off of that. Hope this helps

By Katie P on Monday, May 27, 2013 - 15:27

The exact sane update brought about the same result on my 3 month old air. Time to see the good people at Apple. FYI, The image on my screan, according to my mom is a folder with a QuestionMark on it.

By synthesizer101 on Monday, May 27, 2013 - 16:21

This means it can't find its boot-up drive. The apple logo, however, could mean a number of things. You might try booting to a bootable backup (I like Carbon Copy Cloner to make those) and then trying repairing disk permissions with disc utility; malfunctioning ones could prevent booting.

By rdfreak on Tuesday, May 28, 2013 - 00:53

Thanks for your responses all. James, I will definitely try following your instructions and if i can't do that, I shall take it to the apple store. It's strange that it also happened with someone else for that particular update!

By chris R on Tuesday, May 28, 2013 - 09:31

You might want to try resetting the SMC (system management controller) as well, as this can fix miscellaneous problems, however your problem does sound like an issue with the hard drive. To reset the SMC, hold down control-option-shift and the power button when the macbook is on. You could try booting into recovery mode as previously mentioned, and verifying and repairing the hard disk, then reinstalling the operating system. This could help.

By Katie P on Saturday, June 15, 2013 - 17:52

My HardDrive actually had to be replaced. Since I just got the mac in February, and had Apple Care, it was replaced free of charge. I got it back a day after dropping it off. At the Apple Store I went to, it was necessary to make an appointment in order to get it looked at. I hope this information is helpful, and the best of luck getting your Mac back up and running as quickly as you can. Katie