I’ve owned and used a Mac for about 6 years, and yesterday was the first time something really unexpected happened. There have been no failure of any kind, no windows like problems at all. It’s been like living in computer heaven, well, until yesterday.
When I hit the power button, I just received a white screen. Nothing happened, OSX didn’t boot at all. I tried several times, nothing happened, except for the white screen.
Since I was sort of in a hurry, I just had to do a quick search on Google, and found out that what I experienced had an interesting and sort of disturbing name: White Screen of Death. I also discovered that it could be fairly serious damages to my iMac.
It could be everything from just hitting a few keys while booting, to having to change the harddrive, the Ram and so on. I was actually sort of petrified just by the thought of what I had to go through when I got home.
A few minutes later I was walking to visit a few of my friends, and since I just couldn’t get this white screen out of my head, I thought I’d send out a tweet. Just a few minutes later I received a possible and fairly easy solution (thanks Jeremiah Smith). He told me I should reset my memory by doing the following.
Resetting PRAM and NVRAM
1. Shut down the computer (by holding the power button).
2. Turn on the computer. Wait until I hear the boot sound.
3. Press and hold the Command-Option-P-R keys (simultenously).
4. Hold the keys down until the computer restarts and you hear the startup sound for the second time.
5. Release the keys.
I did this, and it looked like it worked. Maybe it was because the computer actually restarted and I didn’t see a white screen at first. But then, seconds later, I was back to the white screen.
Now, I was more than frustrated. I started believing that I had to do some major upgrading on my iMac, and that it would not only be expensive, but take a lot of time (time I didn’t have). Luckily, I have several computers and Google. I did another search, and found another easy solution to the problem.
I read that I should try to reset the System Management Controller (SMC). I still don’t know what the SMC is, but I didn’t care. What I did was the following.
Reset the System Management Controller
1. Shut down the computer (well, it was already off)
2. Unplugged all cables from the computer, including the power cord and any display cables.
3. Waited at least fifteen seconds. I waited several minutes.
4. Plugged the power cord back in, making sure the power button was not being pressed at the time.
5. Reconnected my keyboard and mouse to the computer.
6. Pressed the power button to start up your computer.
… and then, guess what happened next?
Everything was back to normal. It was like I never had a problem in the first place. I’m not sure if resetting the memory had any impact or not, or if I could just have unplugged all the cables and removed the power cord?
My frustration is finally over. I’m back on track, and hopefully it’s the last time I’ve seen the White Screen of Death.
July 28, 2011 at 10:17 am
I got the same problem that you did … When I did the second option at fist, nothing happened at all, altough,The first one was a lot helpfull, thaks bro
August 1, 2011 at 5:50 am
unplugged and reconnected ,phew! it worked
thank you very much
August 15, 2011 at 7:55 pm
hi i had to get another keyboard and wa told tat logitech nk300 was compatiable but have no idea were comand key is now..plz help//ty
kim
September 1, 2011 at 5:23 pm
i was downloading max os 10.7 and i went on my xbox to kill the time , then when i went bakc to my imac it was switched off , i turned it back on and a grey curcle with a line going through it popped upp , and it wont work , ive tried options , command r+p and that didnt work and it seemed to wokr until it went back to that screen and now i dont know what to do ? any tips ?
September 2, 2011 at 5:26 pm
Thanks for saving the day. Your steps solved our problem. Thanks for sharing.
September 11, 2011 at 8:01 pm
I got the white screen of Death this morning on my Imac. The instructions worked like a charm. Thank you very much.
October 16, 2011 at 7:39 pm
Dear Jens,
Thanks so much! Solution 2 – Resetting the SMC – worked the first time I tried it. Whew!!
November 11, 2011 at 8:54 pm
I am new to iMac and got the white screen – Thanks, it worked
December 3, 2011 at 2:49 pm
Your method is not really exactly correct for resetting the SMC, although with accidental delays, you could have gotten it done by your details. For your elucidation, read from Apple how to really reset the SMC for an Intel iMac:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1543
1. Shut down the computer.
2. Unplug the computer’s power cord.
3. Wait fifteen seconds.
4. Attach the computer’s power cord.
5. Wait five seconds, then press the power button to turn on the computer.
Disconnecting the keyboard and mouse are not part of the needed steps, but they did cause you to accidentally wait the required five seconds after plugging in power.
December 3, 2011 at 4:25 pm
Hey Lance,
Thanks a lot for the help.
Jens
December 12, 2011 at 10:28 am
The next thing I would have done is to buy a new one
) Which makes me think: isn’t it a superficial decision? Every time something wrecks, I go and buy myself a new one – especially if it’s older than 3 years. Should I try to fix things, like you did?
Martin invites you to read.. I was dissapointed that Kindle Fire does not include a SD slot
December 12, 2011 at 7:06 pm
Oh my god thank you! The second part totally worked for me.
December 30, 2011 at 5:38 am
Totally worked. Thank you!!!
January 7, 2012 at 7:50 am
We are on vacation, currently in Mexico. My daughter’s MacBook pro got this “white screen of death”. Used first option, worked just great. Thanks for just awesome tip.
November 15, 2009 at 7:09 pm
[...] remember the story like it happened yesterday. Every time people ask me the question, why they should use Twitter , [...]
July 4, 2009 at 6:23 pm
I want to sell my imac on Ebay and doing so i must delete all personal documents and restore the username to original settings. But, at the same time i want to keep the Microsoft word, etc..
June 24, 2009 at 12:47 pm
my pleasure, jens!