Grey login screen etc.

[Zak99]

Hi

On a Macbook Pro with OS X 10.7.5

Two days ago on startup I get a grey (linen looking) login screen, never seen it before. Lets me login, but looks a bit weird after I login.

Other notable things at the same time were
Dropbox needed password reentering
Wireless Printer failed connection
Firefox lost its previous windows and defaulted to Trovi and Bing

What have I got going on here please?

rgds

Zak

 

[honestone]

We need to know the following:

1. What exact MacBook Pro model?

2. Are you making backups to an external device?

3. Have you ever done any disk cleanup/maintenance/repairs to the internal drive?

4. Do you do have the latest versions of your third party software that are compatible with OS 10.7.5?

5. Probably not an issue, but how much free space is on the internal drive?

6. Are you using either MacKeeper or CleanMyMac? If you do, get rid of them immediately, as they cause way more harm than good.

There is a possibility that this is related to Permissions. The version of Disk Utility can Repair Permissions, both at the Volume and Partition levels. But even if that fixes the issue, disk cleanup/maintenance/repairs, and backing up are still tasks which need to be done.

 

[Zak99]

Thank you for helping, I'm stumped.

1. What exact MacBook Pro model?

MacBook Pro
15-inch, Late 2011
Processor 2.4 GHz Intel Core i7
Memory 16 GB 1333 MHz DDR3

2. Are you making backups to an external device?

Yes but lazily not for over 6 months or more

3. Have you ever done any disk cleanup/maintenance/repairs to the internal drive?

Not 100% but maybe, if so a year ago

4. Do you do have the latest versions of your third party software that are compatible with OS 10.7.5?

I believe so, its been fine for recent months

5. Probably not an issue, but how much free space is on the internal drive?

Disc Capacity: 749.81 GB
Available: 282.39 GB

6. Are you using either MacKeeper or CleanMyMac? If you do, get rid of them immediately, as they cause way more harm than good.

A while back MacKeeper had found its way on but I removed it.

 

[Zak99]

Ok did verify and got this

Volume bitmap needs minor repair for orphaned blocks
Checking volume information.
Invalid volume free block count
(It should be 69812462 instead of 68956956)
The volume Macintosh HD was found corrupt and needs to be repaired.
Error: This disk needs to be repaired using the Recovery HD. Restart your computer, holding down the Command key and the R key until you see the Apple logo. When the Mac OS X Utilities window appears, choose Disk Utility.

I suppose this is where I regret not taking a recent backup !!

 

[honestone]

OK, thanks for that information.

You really need to do backups much more frequently. And if you use Time Machine for that, recovery will be a little more of s "struggle" then with another method.

You also need to perform disk cleanup/maintenance/repairs on a regular basis. You start by removing any files/folders you no longer need. That also includes EMails which are no longer necessary. I am unsure about other EMail programs, but I use Outlook, and whenever I delete an EMail it actually does not get deleted. So, as part of my weekly disk cleanup/maintenance/repairs, and backup, processing, I use a Microsoft-supplied method of getting rid of them permanently.

You can also download, install, and run the excellent freeware program called Onyx. It can be used to repair permissions, along with other useful disk cleanup/maintenance/repairs tasks. You'll need, though, to download the version that is specific for OS 10.7.

Finally, if you do not have a robust like TechTool Pro or Disk Warrior, you'll need to use Disk Utility. For it to be effective, though, you'll need to execute it in a "remote" mode. You can do that by booting (or re-booting) your Mac to the (hidden) Recovery HD partition. THis link describes how to boot to it, and what functionality it contains:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201314

The first thing you need to do, though, is to perform a backup.

PS: Oops! Your post above "arrived" at the same time as mine.

 

[Zak99]

Thanks very much, heading out now, but I will tackle this over the weekend. Tks again

 

[Spawn_Dooley]

Hi
On a Macbook Pro with OS X 10.7.5
Two days ago on startup I get a grey (linen looking) login screen, never seen it before. Lets me login, but looks a bit weird after I login.

Hi, if you could upload a screenshot or photograph of these screens that you are referring to, that would help ...

 

[Zak99]

Well some months later !!! ....
life finally quietened down and I got to look at this.

Backed up with Time machine
Repaired errors with disk utilty OK
Still have permission errors in utilty, should I fix those too ?

Still got the odd grey login screen (cant screen capture sorry)

And having out of memory probs

eg
Unable to load "MonoLaserPRT12_2_UW_100-1.dmg": Cannot allocate memory!

Can you help further please kind gents

rgds

 

[honestone]

It won't hurt to Repair Permissions. But the "out of memory" issue is perplexing, given that you have 16 gig of Ram!

Also, don't know what the software that you can't load is.

Additionally, did you boot from the (hidden) Recovery HD partition, and run Disk Utility from there?

And, given that you have a backup, you can do a fresh, clean, "virgin" installation of OS 10.7.x from there (not sure which version of the Recovery HD you have, as that will determine what version of OS 10.7 gets installed). You should first Erase and Format your internal drive (after using Disk Utility to Repair it), then do the fresh OS 10.7.x installation, and then use Migration Assistant to "migrate"/copy the needed stuff from your Time Machine backup. Not sure, though, if there are any problematic "files" on that backup.

 

[Zak99]

Thanks again.

yes theres loads of free memory. To be clear I believe 16gig may strictly speaking be over spec for this model but Crucial Memory listed it as likely to work and I think I asked the question hear too with positive results. The Memory has been working fine for many months before I've had these problems.

The software I was trying to load was reinstalling the printer driver, but I get out of memory failures all over the place, eg browsers, Mail, Word all crash periodically.

Activity monitor always shows loads of free memory.

When I restarted I did Cmd Shift R and it tooks ages to boot, (with a slider), is that from the Recovery HD Partition ?

Scared to do a fresh intsall with only one physical backup just in case that fails, so I'd need to buy another external drive first. Good point about possible problematic files too.

Appreciate any help.

 

[honestone]

Thanks again.

yes theres loads of free memory. To be clear I believe 16gig may strictly speaking be over spec for this model but Crucial Memory listed it as likely to work and I think I asked the question hear too with positive results. The Memory has been working fine for many months before I've had these problems.

The software I was trying to load was reinstalling the printer driver, but I get out of memory failures all over the place, eg browsers, Mail, Word all crash periodically.

Activity monitor always shows loads of free memory.

When I restarted I did Cmd Shift R and it tooks ages to boot, (with a slider), is that from the Recovery HD Partition ?

Scared to do a fresh intsall with only one physical backup just in case that fails, so I'd need to buy another external drive first. Good point about possible problematic files too.

Appreciate any help.

I did not see anything for Command-Shift-R. You are supposed to just hold down the Command and R keys:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201314

Not sure what holding down the Shift key will do. But, it does take some time to boot from that partition, especially if you have a slow (ie, 5400 rpm) internal HDD (and definitely if you don't have an SSD!).

Doing an installation of the OS on your internal drive will not "destroy" your Time Machine backup (I assume that backup is on an external drive already?).

 

[Zak99]

Sorry I made a mistake it was Command - R as you say. Did it again and fixed the permissions. The disk all tests ok now.

However I have noticed that various apps and processes are consuming huge chunks of memory. What could be causing this please?