Causes of the Gray Screen Startup Problem
There are several types of Mac startup problems, but the gray screen issue is particularly frustrating because there are many possible causes. Problems with peripherals, RAM issues, or drive problems could be preventing your Mac from starting up properly. For example, when a bad peripheral is plugged into your Mac, it can prevent the Mac from continuing the startup sequence, causing the Mac to stall while it waits for the peripheral to respond to a command. Sometimes, a bad peripheral or its cable causes one of the signaling pins on one of Mac’s ports to get stuck in one condition (set high, set low, or shorted out to ground or positive voltage). Any of these conditions can cause your Mac to freeze during the startup process. Whatever the cause of the gray screen problem, there are several troubleshooting steps to try to get your Mac back to work.
How to Fix the Gray Startup Screen on Mac
Before you try any of these troubleshooting steps, power down your Mac, then remove the Ethernet cable, audio in and out cables, headphones, and other peripherals. Keep your keyboard, mouse, and display connected. If your Mac successfully starts up in Safe Boot mode, restart your Mac again in normal mode and see if it’s able to complete the restart process. If you identified the startup drive as the problem source, repair it using Disk Utility’s First Aid.
