MAC mini won't start up, gray screen only....?

Question

I can't get my mini to startup at all, not even in safe mode. The gray screen shows up and the spinning wheel, but it continues to do that till I get frustrated and turn it off. Apple has a few support articles on this, but they are way too confusing for the average user.....and Applecare is closed as usual....any help would be appreciated!!

Its only 7 months old.....thanks!

Answer 1

I don't think it is physically broken so the 7 months age probably has nothing to do with what's happening. Unless there is some really weird Firewire drive connected or bad RAM, it sounds more like a corrupt OS X system.

What's with Apple support being closed all the time? That's another weird thing. When I worked for Apple, the support line was open from 6am to 9pm, every day except Christmas Day and New Year's Day. Those guys are getting lazy. Well, if you call them after the first 90 days and you don't have AppleCare Protection Plan, it will cost you 50 bucks anyway because it seems to be a software issue. Might be good to just buy the APP. It gives you two more years of free phone support.

If it won't startup in Safe Boot, are you sure it is hitting Safe Boot? Did you get the words "Safe Boot" to appear? maybe it isn't even getting there. If it gets into Safe Boot, it has already run the file system repair utility as part of the Safe Boot startup so it seems you may not be able to solve this without an archive and restore. Did you boot to the original install DVD and run Disk Utility? That should tell you for sure if corrupt files can be fixed. If that says "Appears to be OK", you probably need to do the archive and install. That's an option in the installer from the DVD. You can probably save the Users as it doesn't appear to be a user issue. If it says there is not enough room on the drive for an archive, you can try a custom install and uncheck all the foreign language options and printer drivers. That will reduce how much space is needed for the install. If it still says not enough space, you have little choice except erase and install. :(

Answer 2

Turn it off, wait 15 sec. push the power button to turn on, as soon as you release the power button, hold down Control/Options/P/R, this will reset the P-Ram. Once you here the Mac Chime again you can release these keys, see if your mac Starts up. If not turn it off again, by hold down the power button for 10 to 15 sec. Call Apple Care......1800-My Apple
I Tryed.

Answer 3

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106214