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hoakley October 1, 2020 Macs, Technology

Diagnosing an abnormal startup: what that screen means

You pressed the Power button to start your Mac up. After a little while, instead of showing the normal login window, something else appears instead. Do you recognise it, understand what it means, and know what to do next? Here’s a short guide.

đŸš« (in grey) – the Prohibited symbol

There’s something wrong with the startup system on your startup disk. Shut your Mac down by pressing and holding the Power button, then try again. If you don’t have another startup disk you can use, try again with Command-R held to enter Recovery mode, use Disk Utility there to check and repair your startup disk, and see if that solves the problem. If not, you’ll need to re-install macOS, again in Recovery mode.

? a question mark on a Folder icon

This has essentially the same meaning as the Prohibited symbol above, and the same solutions.

A grey, blank screen

This can indicate a problem with starting up from your startup disk (see the Prohibited symbol above), or could represent a hardware fault. Try starting up in Recovery mode; if that doesn’t work, hold the D key during startup instead and see if you can enter Diagnostics.

A completely black, dead screen, with no sign of life

This is most probably a hardware failure. Check that mains/AC power is getting to the Mac. If it is and there’s still no sign of life, this is likely to require a service technician.

ïŁż (white Apple logo) and/or white progress bar

This is, of course, perfectly normal before displaying the login window. If it’s much slower, or appears to be stuck, it may indicate that an earlier installation or update is still completing, or sometimes that repairs are being made to the startup disk. If you can, give it up to an hour to see if it’s going to progress. If it appears to be stuck, you can try forcing a shutdown by holding the Power button, and starting up again. If it still just gets stuck, start up in Recovery mode, check and repair the startup disk and re-install macOS.

If you have peripherals connected to your Mac, consider disconnecting them, leaving just your mouse/trackpad, keyboard, display, and network connection. It’s always helpful to keep your mouse/trackpad and keyboard connected to USB ports instead of relying on Bluetooth when your Mac is having problems starting up, so that it responds reliably to keyboard controls in particular.

⚠ (warning triangle in grey) on a grey globe

This means that your Mac has been unable to start up in Remote Recovery mode, and may be because it hasn’t been able to establish the required Internet connection. Check that your router is fully connected, and if possible connect an Ethernet cable between your Mac and that router, to avoid having to use Wi-Fi. If you’re certain that its Internet connection is sound, and nothing is blocking its access, then the only way ahead is to try starting up in normal Recovery mode, or from a bootable external disk.

🔒 a padlock in grey

The firmware password is required to continue starting up.

Prompt for a 4 or 6 digit PIN code

This Mac has been locked remotely by Find My Mac. Enter the PIN code to unlock it.

Thunderbolt, USB or FireWire symbol

This Mac is in Thunderbolt, USB or FireWire Targest disk mode. Start the connected Mac up to access it.

A message that it restarted because of a problem

If you’re invited to click on a button to see the report and send that to Apple, do so. This is almost certainly going to be a Panic Log, which I’ve detailed here.

Your Mac restarts repeatedly

If your Mac never gets as far as the login window, this is most probably a kernel panic during startup causing a boot loop. Shut it down and read this article.

If this occurs later, it may be fixed by starting up in Safe mode, with the Shift key held, where you can work out what needs to be removed, updated or fixed.

Your Mac starts up in Windows

Welcome to Boot Camp!

Apple’s guide is here.

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Posted in Macs, Technology and tagged Apple, failure, kernel panic, login, Mac, macOS, recovery mode, startup. Bookmark the permalink.

12Comments

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  1. 1
    EcleX on October 1, 2020 at 6:41 am

    Many thanks. At least with older Macs, there were also diagnostic sounds for the startup chime. Are they also available with newer Macs and macOS?

    LikeLiked by 1 person

    • 2
      hoakley on October 1, 2020 at 9:18 am

      Thank you.
      There’s an article here about those sounds, which haven’t been supported by Macs made since 2016.
      So the answer is no, they aren’t.
      Howard.

      LikeLike

  2. 3
    Duncan on October 1, 2020 at 2:15 pm

    I know this isn’t one of the default startup modes but I’d like to add the verbose startup screen (holding down ‘command-v’) as an option that people should be aware of. (Actually, whenever I set up a new Mac I always enable that as my default.)

    Of course all the other key-combos available on startup is a topic in itself, which I assume you’ve already written about at one time or another.

    LikeLiked by 1 person

    • 4
      hoakley on October 1, 2020 at 3:05 pm

      Thank you.
      Funnily enough, I did think of including verbose mode, as very occasionally it can occur without the user choosing it. However, as you guessed, I already have a full guide to all the startup options. I find that on a modern Mac with a 27 inch display verbose mode is almost useless, though, as the text streams past too quickly and it’s far too small.
      Howard.

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      • 5
        Duncan on October 2, 2020 at 9:33 pm

        I agree that verbose mode now exceeds its own description and scrolls by too fast, but on a few occasions I’ve had a machine stall at startup and at that point I can read the stopped text to get a hint at what might be causing the problem.

        LikeLiked by 1 person

        • 6
          hoakley on October 2, 2020 at 10:25 pm

          Thank you – a good point, but I fear with a T2 chip that might not be too helpful.
          Howard.

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  3. 7
    Diagnosing Abnormal Startup Screens | on October 14, 2020 at 6:01 am

    […] This is such a great article! If you have owned a Mac for any length of time, you may have experienced a startup screen indicating a problem. There are all kinds of hardware or software issues that could be the problem. This article covers just about every possible abnormal startup screen you could see on your Mac. It is really well done, check it out. […]

    LikeLike

  4. 8
    Ric C on December 20, 2020 at 10:34 pm

    I now have a desktop picture used for the login screen, rather than normal Mojave login picture. In addition, I have a full-throated startup chime without requesting either.

    What happened: I updated my wife’s 2018 MacBookAir 8,1 with Security update 2020-007, and Safari 14.0.2. All appeared normal after reboot, although logs show the free MalwareBytes for Mac updated itself unrequested after this reboot. I downloaded Microsoft Office for December. Then, I plugged in my wife’s iPhone 7 and imported 2 years of photos to Photos. That required first downloading the app ‘Mobile Device’ to the MacBook. Then, I updated the phone from ios 13.6 to 14.3. Finally, I updated Intego’s VirusBarrier and NetBarrier suite and rebooted the MacBook. That’s when the chime and the new login screen appeared for the first time. Resetting NVRAM has not reverted these. I am not yet aware of any other unexpected changes.

    Logs indicate that Adobe Reader DC was auto-updating itself just before the Intego installation started. Could they interfere with the system? Or did something earlier cause the change? I have no idea. Silent Knight indicates all is up to date. Maybe it’s a lesson to reboot after every single change.

    LikeLiked by 1 person

    • 9
      hoakley on December 20, 2020 at 11:18 pm

      I’m sorry to hear that.
      I have documented the startup chime controls here. I think the login screen is controlled by a preference setting, but I don’t think I have that documented here.
      I suspect these were accidental side-effects of the Security Update.
      Howard.

      LikeLike

  5. 10
    jimsugg on March 22, 2021 at 7:32 pm

    Aloha Howard – Thanks as always for great information.
    I am now frequently running into a situation on my iMacPro where the Prohibitory symbol shows up after the login screen after a wake from sleep. This also happened today after a power down to reset SMC (using the power disconnection method.) Only way out is to reinstall macOS from Recovery. I am running 10.15.7. This seemed to start after last public Catalina supplemental update. SK shows EFI version > expected. I have also seen this with the latest public beta supplemental update installed.
    I just wondered if you have heard of reports of this, or encountered it.
    I suppose it could be be a hardware issue, but it is beginning to feel more like software (or firmware?) Of course, my AppleCare expired 6 weeks ago.
    Having to reinstall macOS makes booting up a very long process..

    LikeLiked by 1 person

    • 11
      hoakley on March 22, 2021 at 8:05 pm

      I’m sorry to hear that.
      I think you’ve got to run Diagnostics even though it’s unlikely to be a hardware problem. Did the beta SU bring a firmware update too? This looks most likely to be firmware, which sounds to be unmounting your System volume, perhaps? The other workaround for now is to disable system sleep – my iMac Pro has run like that from new to ensure I don’t get wake from sleep problems.
      Howard.

      LikeLike

      • 12
        jimsugg on March 23, 2021 at 5:28 am

        Thanks, Howard.
        Yes – I’ve already disabled sleep mode – that does seem to keep it running. I have a feeling it will have the same issue if I power it down and back up, but I’m not going to try again soon.
        I’m not sure which update brought in the current firmware (EFI 1554.100.64.0.0, iBridge 18.16.14554.5.1,0.) But I think it came in before I installed the public beta Security Update, because the first incident happened before I ever installed the beta. That last release update was 10.15.7 build 19H15. I saw it first after that install, and that is what I am running now, because that’s what you get with the macOS reinstall.
        I’ll run Diagnostics soon…
        I’ll let you know if I find out anything interesting.

        LikeLiked by 1 person

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