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Startup chime, no boot, white screen of death

Startup chime, no boot, white screen of death

My Air (rEFIt installed) was working flawlessly. The battery and charger are in perfect shape. It's been just one year of light use.

Asked by: Guest | Views: 220
Total answers/comments: 3
mcgyver89 [Entry]

"i have been through this kind of issue a while ago it happened to me when i had a update of my o.s in mac laptop . my screen was stuck at a point with apple logo . try doing few steps and lets see if this works

hold the power key and wait for like 45 sec and let the system be restart if it does not gets restart restart it manual.

try rebooting the laptop in safe mode using shift+restart

see if this will solve the problem for any other steps visit http://fixingblog.com/mac-stuck problem and see if you can find some useful tips . thanks a lot"
mcgyver89 [Entry]

"Hi Guys !

I had the same problem this week, moreless.

I have a macbook pro 13 inches mid 2012, not under guarantee.

The very same problem occured : withe screen after startup chime then nothing. The screen eventually turned black with white text ""a disk error occured press ctrl+alt+del to restart"" which is a windows 7 error message from my bootcamp.

Not a single one of the usual fixes and combinations listed above worked.

This means that the macbook can't boot neither on OSX nor Windows bootcamp.

I suspected a disk failure which is strange because it is a SSD, which is usually more reliable than a normal hard drive.. So I opened my macbook, took the drive apart an put it in an external enclosure to boot in USB. It worked like a charm ! (wtf ?)

So I ran the utility disk to repair any eventual disk problem then remount the SSD inside. This time the MBP could boot but only on recovery mode (screen with question mark folder, then a world globe asking for a wifi to run the recovery mode), the utility disk couldn't find the SSD to boot on normally or to restore a new partition...

I took it apart once again, plugged it in USB then restored fully the SSD from Time Capsule to have a brand new partition. It didn't booted either when mounted inside. The SSD was not recognized inside the computeur while outside it was...

This was %#*@ strange.

My final test was to see if it was the computer or the disk's fault. So I put a other old hard drive in my MBP and I restored from Time Capsule, and it finally worked ! (The windows 7 error message was right obviously =) )

So the problem came from my SSD, which is from Crucial and by chance it is still under guarantee so I can ask for a new one.

I am so happy this is not a problem of the motherboard ! The only issue I have while I wait for my new SSD is to run with an old HD which is sooooo &&^&^$^ slooooow ! ^^

Regards,

Mise à jour (27/10/2015)

UPDATE !

I finally replaced my SSD with a brand new one, the utility disk saw it but yet something went wrong when I tried to format it or to restore from Time Capsule. I was so desperate...

But then, as a last stand, I decided to buy a new SATA cable on iFixit because it was my last thing to do.

Turns out to be the right thing to do ! =)

In fact, my old SATA cable was just a little bit scratched (less than 1/2 mm) underneath and for some reason it was a problem when connecting a SSD but not a big deal for a classic Hard Drive. Note that SSD seems to be more affected by SATA failures.

I replaced the SATA myself thanks to some tuorials on Youtube. It's quite easy provided you have the right tools : Mini screw drivers, spudger and electric duct tape.

The last one is a good way to prevent any future scratches on your brand new SATA cable by adding a protective layer on the cable to reduce the friction between the cable and other abrassive parts such as the unibody. Make sure also to clean properly the dust from the drive compartiment that may scratch the cable in the future.

After mounting the new cable and the new ssd, the TC restauration went just fine and my Macbook is ready to go, faster than ever !

Hope this will helps.

Regards."
mcgyver89 [Entry]

"Thanks zogoibi for millions. I had the same issue like you had, I didn't know what to do until you gave me a very good idea so that I finally fixed my Macbook Air 13. I'd like to share my experience.

I have a late 2010 Macbook Air 13inch, I created 3 partition on a 256 SSD. One is for 10.6.4 (Extended Journaled), one for Data (exFAT) and one for Windows 7. Everything worked fine until I changed Data partition drive letter from F: to D:, it really messed up with the boot loader. I only had a greyish white screen without anything on it when I reboot my Mac.

I've tried all the usual fixes and combinations:

Plugin the USB bootable installation drive and hold down OPTION keyReset the SMCReset the PRAM - get the startup sound backHold down C key when bootSingle modeTarget modeBattery powered, MagSafe powered...

You name it, I tried them all, but nothing works, I just get the chime and the permanent white screen.

And these are what you need:

A Pentalobe P5 screw driver to remove the back cover on MacA T5 Torx screw driver to remove a screw on the SSD driveA bootable USB Mac OS X installation drive

* An external drive, it need minimum 50GB capacity

How to uninstall the SSD on Mac tutorial: MacBook Air 13"" Late 2010 Solid-State Drive Replacement Now let's do it!

Solution 1:

Shut down Mac, unplugged power adapterOpened the back cover on MacDisconnected battery connecter for safetyUninstalled SSD from MacPlugged in USB bootable installation driveConnected battery connecterRebooted Mac without connecting the SSD

It could be booted from the USB drive, and I finally went into Recovery Mode. I could use tools like Disk Utility, Startup Disk and Terminal, ect. But, I discovered one thing right away, I couldn't set my USB drive as a startup drive sincere there is only one option which was network drive (with a question mark).

I installed the SSD back, I rebooted it, I still got the same problem like before, a dead white screen.

Solution 2:

Removed SSD from MacConnected USB installation driveRebooted Mac, it booted from USB drive, goes to Recovery modeConnected an external USB drive (suggest using 40GB+ drive)Installed a new OS X on the external USB drive.Rebooted Mac pressing Option key, launched ""Startup Disk"" tools when in the Recovery Mode, and chose the external drive as a startup disk.Shut down Mac, installed SSD in MacBooted Mac, it loaded the OS-X from the external driveLaunch Disk Utility under OS-X, you would see you have the SSD back.Repartitioned SSD, reinstalled OS-X

Chime, it works! Hope this can help, good luck!"