Macbook pro - no audio only grey screen on start up

[chrisp]

Title kind of says it all - Got a MacBook Pro, about 3 years old, has seized from time to time, but today, froze when accessing i-tunes, turned off/on/restarted numerous times. Few times I could get in, can't unmute in sound preferences, turned off/on after signing in, screen defaults to grey. Now every time I try to get in, after sign in page, freezes on grey screen. Mouse/trackpadunresponsive
Have tried CTRL + Command + P + R, all to no avail.
Any suggestions?

 

[honestone]

Need to ask the typical questions:

1. What exact Mac OS are you running?

2. What exact MacBook Pro model is it?

3. Have you ever done any disk cleanup/maintenance/repairs, from a software perspective? You actually can do a good amount of disk cleanup on your own, and there are some excellent programs available (both free and commercial) that can help with those tasks.

4. How much free space is on the internal drive, if you can access the drive?

5. This is critical: are you making backups to an external device? If you (hopefully) are, what software do you use for that?

6. How are you making posts here? If you are using another Mac, what model is it?

Once you answer those questions, we can help you better.

 

[chrisp]

Need to ask the typical questions:

1. What exact Mac OS are you running?

2. What exact MacBook Pro model is it?

3. Have you ever done any disk cleanup/maintenance/repairs, from a software perspective? You actually can do a good amount of disk cleanup on your own, and there are some excellent programs available (both free and commercial) that can help with those tasks.

4. How much free space is on the internal drive, if you can access the drive?

5. This is critical: are you making backups to an external device? If you (hopefully) are, what software do you use for that?

6. How are you making posts here? If you are using another Mac, what model is it?

Once you answer those questions, we can help you better.

Hi,
1 MacOS high Sierra 10.13.6
2. retina 15" mid 2014
3 No - any recommendations? I don't run a lot of software that didn't come with the computer - when I could get into my computer, any issues were with iTunes, flickering of header whenever the mouse ran over it. I could access all other programmes, safari, google, youtube but no audio
4 Am currently using 431 of 500GB
5 Don't use I-cloud - I dump important stuff, mainly documents, to USB pens or an external hard drive. Don't have anything important on the internal drive which cannot be replaced.
6 My wife's computer - exact same model as mine

 

[honestone]

First of all, I assume you both have this Mac:

https://everymac.com/systems/apple/...l-graphics-mid-2014-retina-display-specs.html

Secondly, no backups is not good. It is important to backup your machine (and your wife's also) to an external drive.

Third, here are some recommendations for software you can use for disk cleanup/maintenance/repairs:

Onyx - Available from here: https://www.titanium-software.fr/en/onyx.html

Rock Solid, has been around a long, long time, and has had many positive reviews. I use it religiously (along with a commercial program entitled Tech Tool Pro). I would not be without either of them. In fact, I will not upgrade to a new Mac OS until there are compatible versions of both of them for the new OS (along with 4 other critical programs that I have). Note that there are different versions of Onyx available, for each different Mac OS. You would need to get the correct version for the Mac OS you are using.

AppCleaner - Available from here: https://freemacsoft.net/appcleaner/

Another stellar performer! As you can see via that link, it will get rid of most stuff associated with an application that you wish to delete. Like Onyx, note that there are different versions for different versions of the Mac OS. You would need to get the correct version for the Mac OS you are using.

GrandPerspective - Available from here: http://grandperspectiv.sourceforge.net/

Nifty graphical way to see which files are on your drive. Good way to identify large ones that you might not need.

Malwarebytes - Available from here: https://www.malwarebytes.com/mac/

Good to use if you see adware and/or suspect you might have a virus. It also is good to run it every so often, even if nothing is wrong.

ClamXAv - Available from here: https://www.clamxav.com/

More extensive than Malwarebytes in terms of finding viruses. You can use it in demo mode, and it still has just about full functionality.

Then, you should consider using either SuperDuper! or Carbon Copy Cloner to make a bootable backup:

SuperDuper! - https://www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper/SuperDuperDescription.html

Carbon Copy Cloner - https://bombich.com/

You can use either them in "demo/trial" mode, although I believe you can use SuperDuper! in trial mode for more than 30 days. Using either of them makes recovery much, much easier. And you will have way more control over the process.

For commercial products, I use Tech Tool Pro (along with Onyx) on a weekly basis to keep both of my Macs "lean, mean, and clean". While Disk Utility is fine, it is not as extensive as Tech Tool Pro.

But for now, it is important to get your machine back up to speed. As long as you need NOTHING on your Mac, here is what you can do:

1. You need to purchase a Thunderbolt-to-Thunderbolt cable:

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/prod...t8aE3gIVCoZ-Ch1SdwMaEAQYAyABEgJfqvD_BwE&smp=y

2. With both machines turned off, connect the two Mac using that cable.

3. Boot up your wife's machine.

4. After your wife's machine finishes booting up, start up your Mac, but hold down the T key. Your are booting your Mac in Target Disk Mode, which basically means your internal hard drive will appear on the desktop of your wife's Mac, and it can be "operated" on:

Target Disk Mode - https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/target-disk-mode-guide/

5. Launch Disk Utility on your wife's Mac, and let it Erase and Format the internal drive on your machine. This will erase EVERYTHING on that drive.

6. User this link to "obtain" the installation file for High Sierra:

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/macos-high-sierra/id1246284741?mt=12

7. Click on Open, and a screen will appear to start the installation of High Sierra. After you click on Continue, and after you agree to the installation agreement, click on Show All Disks. Select the one for the internal drive on your Mac, and proceed with the installation.

Given that you have no backup, you then have a choice: either go through a new setup procedure (you'll need to establish an account, configure Network/WiFi settings, etc., or you'll the offered the opportunity to "migrate"/copy needed "stuff" from another computer. As long as your wife's machine uses the same Mac OS (and you and her have no "secrets"!), you can get most of that "stuff" (applications, setups, etc.) from her machine. But I have never done that, as I make two backups for each of my Macs each week.

 

[chrisp]

many thanks for all the tips and help

 

[honestone]

many thanks for all the tips and help

You're most welcome.

Sorry my response was so long and detailed, but I wanted to try and explain things as clearly as possible. One other thing I noticed is you stated "Am currently using 431 of 500GB". That's actually quite tight, and it is advisable to have at least 20% of free space on your internal drive. If you proceed with the steps I stated, that issue goes away. But then it would be wise to try and manage the space better. Some suggestions:

1. Do as much disk cleanup on your own.

2. One resource hog is deleted EMails. When you delete an EMail, it is actually not removed from your machine, and thus such files can take up valuable space. Each EMail program typically has a way of having deleted EMails permanently removed. I use Thunderbird as my EMail program, and it is quite easy to do that. In fact, I use just about every time I check my EMail, as I tend to get a lot of useless stuff. What EMail program do you use?

3. Consider purchasing an external drive, so that you can store items there.