White Screen of Death on iMac after Yosemite update

Author: technuba
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5m 43s Lenght
62 Rating

No solution in this video other than reformat. I did a Yosemite update and didn't really use my iMac for a while after the reboot. I then had this white screen with a black cursor, which i then discovered is known as "the gray screen of death" or "the white screen of death". I all it "white" because my screen appeared white. This video is just chronicling what happened to me, the steps i took, in hopes that maybe some of these steps actually will work for you. They didn't work for me. Ultimately i had to create a usb stick that had an installable version of Yosemite. I thought i had captured most of that process but I didn't. Some of it is on here. This isn't really a solution video, but more of a symptom issue. I called Apple, and provided them the error i had, but since my iMac is from 2011, i'm out of the service period. I think that is a little messed up though, considering it was their update that caused my issue. I've work as an IT Professional for 10+ years, i work on Windows machines, not Macs. But i'm not about to pay someone to fix a simple issue on my iMac. So i got instructions online on how to make the bootable usb, and reformatted my iMac and am starting from scratch. I store all of my personal files on a network NAS drive so all i lost is software (which can be reinstalled). I don't do the "time machine" thing.

Comments

  1. once you hit the white screen put usb stick in and hold command and the power button it should bring you to terminal enter i-sudo and this should give you the chance to download sudo dlls and it will ask if you would like to over right yosemite files Y reboot should be fine
  2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BM6ibkH_PM&feature=youtu.be
  3. This just happened to me. It's a nightmare. My work depends on it. At least you have a mac book.
  4. I had the same problem. The fix for me was to shut down the computer completely. Unplug everything, then hold the power button down for 10 seconds. all worked great after that!
  5. I just did this, and it worked instantly. If you have an iMac when you do the shift command p + R and hit the power button (don't hold the power button just release it, while you continue holding the keys) after 2nd chime release and it will turn on. You may get the apple logo with the little bar at the bottom of the screen loading. Thanks again!
  6. FIX for IMAC, >= yosemite: if you want to end that white screen, press shortly on powerbutton once. Then the login screen will appear!
  7. Just use Disk Maker to make the installation media. Much easier.
  8. You clearly did not allow the computer complete its reset cycle after it updated the os. I had the white screen for a while after mine updated. So I left it alone and it eventually loaded the log in screen. And my iMac is a lot older, it's a 2008 iMac.

    If you don't let a computer restart properly after an update you will have problems. Doesn't matter if it's Mac or a windows based computer.
  9. Same Problem right now
  10. Sometimes computers go wrong - no computer in the history of the world works all the time mainly beach mass products will have faults every so often. Sometimes you do need to take it to Apple, Microsoft, Dell, Sony whoever - only naive people believe hardware or software never fails. Hope you got it sorted mate.
  11. Did you find that re-istalling and reformatting worked? I had the same issue, took it to Apple who run diagnostics, they said there were no hardware issues, re-installed and re-formatted and then the same issue started up again
  12. For this very reason I have an external hard drive that I can boot from. If I start having problems I'll just boot from an alternate drive so that I'm not without a working computer and it is also an advantage for diagnosing the main hard drive. And of course a time machine backup on top of all that.
  13. I hate mac, the first time i got the stupid white screen i took my mac to Apple, they Said i have to buy another hard disck, so i did, now it happened again, wtf!, this time I'll just thought it out of the f'n window
  14. ughhh this just happened to my mac 😢
  15. I am getting the same thing I dont know how to uninstall the OS though from this point all those online options DO NOT work for me as well.
  16. Reinstall Mavericks and bring it to Apple to have them install Yosemite
  17. if you reinstall the osx, you lost the files?
  18. Me too, anything you would recommend?
  19. Same thing happen to me after I finally updated an app that Yosemite kept reminding me to update.  I was taken to the screen where it said Restore, reboot, yada, yada, yada and I reinstalled Yosemite again.  It said it would be 3 hours and since I had to go to bed, I sat my alarm for 3 hours later.  I woke up and saw that I had the white screen again so I just said forget it and went to bed with dreams/nightmares of me hauling my computer up to the Apple store.  When I woke up at the proper time and turned on my imac it was asking for my old password for "FileVault" and miraculously I remembered it and "voila", it came back on and I had all my files.  I don't think I'm going to update my imac again