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problem with macbook pro retina on startup. help

Posted on 10/29/14 at 6:03 pm
Posted by kadahoola
Member since Aug 2014
18 posts
Posted on 10/29/14 at 6:03 pm
Bought the laptop about 1.5 years ago. I 95% of the time just close it to sleep when not in use. Rarely shutdown or updated.

The other week I finally tried to restart it and when it loaded up it was just a black screen that said no bootable device found. I had to startup holding the command key and load up using time machine. This has happened twice now. I am now just putting it to sleep and have been avoiding any updates or restarts. Wondering if anyone can point me in the right direction to fix this problem.
Posted by efrad
Member since Nov 2007
18684 posts
Posted on 10/29/14 at 6:17 pm to
If it pops up and says no bootable device found on a black screen, it sounds like it's trying to boot to Windows but is failing to do so. Have you ever installed Windows on the MacBook Pro?

Next time it happens, try booting up holding the option key. It will show you a list of bootable partitions, and you should be able to select the main system partition.
Posted by TigerGman
Center of the Universe
Member since Sep 2006
11602 posts
Posted on 10/29/14 at 8:28 pm to
quote:

says no bootable device found on a black screen,


Yeah that seems real odd. No flashing folder on a gray screen?
Posted by kadahoola
Member since Aug 2014
18 posts
Posted on 10/29/14 at 9:20 pm to
So its a black screen that says no bootable devices found.

when i start it up holding option, I get 2 icons. I can load up the normal ios, or i can load up time machine

If I load up ios, it goes back to the black screen and says no bootable device found

if I load up time machine, it works but loads up to that saved state.
Posted by efrad
Member since Nov 2007
18684 posts
Posted on 10/29/14 at 9:56 pm to
Have you ever installed Windows on the MacBook Pro? Because the black screen/no bootable devices found only shows up when you attempt to boot in BIOS emulation mode, which is for Windows. The two icons, what are the names written below them?

Also, iOS is for Apple phones. Macs don't run iOS. They run OS X.
Posted by TigerGman
Center of the Universe
Member since Sep 2006
11602 posts
Posted on 10/30/14 at 7:52 am to
Try Safe Mode. Power down. Power up and hold shift key down until the Apple logo appears.
Posted by efrad
Member since Nov 2007
18684 posts
Posted on 10/30/14 at 8:18 am to
quote:

Try Safe Mode. Power down. Power up and hold shift key down until the Apple logo appears.



That's not going to do anything. Safe mode just disables non-critical items (non-Apple kernel extensions, user installed fonts, startup items, etc.). It's used for troubleshooting issues that may occur within OS X. In this case, OS X isn't even starting to begin with.
Posted by catholictigerfan
Member since Oct 2009
57020 posts
Posted on 10/30/14 at 8:27 am to
when you launch into time machine go to disk utility and verify the disk. Likely you will see errors on the disk. Try to repair it, if that doesn't work your hard drive probably has a critical error you need to go to the apple store if it is under warrantee, if not under warrantee fix it yourself, unless you want to spend a little more money and let them fix it.

Also do you have a OS X disk?
Posted by TigerGman
Center of the Universe
Member since Sep 2006
11602 posts
Posted on 10/30/14 at 8:31 am to
quote:

In this case, OS X isn't even starting to begin with.



I don't necessarily agree with that. It could be all sorts of things. You don't know it isn't booting into OSX, all we know is that he can;t see it. I found this--

He certainly got nothing to lose but about 30 seconds of his time.


quote:

I had the same issue with my 2008 iMac and Apple support walked me through the fix yesterday...

1. Shut the computer down by holding the power button for 10 seconds
2. Restart the computer and press shift at the same time until you see the progress bar start moving
3. Once you reach the point where your screen goes dark and you see the cursor, type the first letter of the username for your computer, then hit Enter, then type your password, then hit Enter.
4. After a moment, you should see the spinning beach ball
5. Your screen should then move on to something along the lines of "Completing OSX Installation" (I can't remember the exact wording). Let it finish. After that it should go to your normal desktop and the issue should be fixed. (If your screen goes pitch black during this process, hit the space bar. I thought it wasn't working, but the screen was just sleeping).

Apparently it's an issue with an automatic update that never quite got past the login screen.

LINK
Posted by efrad
Member since Nov 2007
18684 posts
Posted on 10/30/14 at 8:37 am to
The link you are referencing is when that person DID start the OS X bootstrapping process but got kicked to a black screen during the OS X bootup. The OP is not even getting to the OS X bootstrapping process, it isn't even recognizing a volume to boot from in the first place. It isn't even getting the point where the safe mode and normal mode are even things that exist.
Posted by TigerGman
Center of the Universe
Member since Sep 2006
11602 posts
Posted on 10/30/14 at 8:43 am to
quote:

It isn't even getting the point where the safe mode and normal mode are even things that exist.



He's got nothing to lose by trying it. It's Mac trouble shooting 101.

ETA: I do think you're right though. That looks like a windows boot error message and the OP never answered if he has WIndows install on there, did he?
This post was edited on 10/30/14 at 8:50 am
Posted by efrad
Member since Nov 2007
18684 posts
Posted on 10/30/14 at 2:24 pm to
quote:

ETA: I do think you're right though. That looks like a windows boot error message and the OP never answered if he has WIndows install on there, did he?


It's not actually a Windows boot error message either. Macs use EFI firmware, and when there's no EFI-bootable volume they come up with the flashing question mark folder like you mentioned earlier. But the EFI firmware also includes a BIOS-boot compatibility option, which is used to boot non-EFI versions of Windows (pre-Win8). When you attempt to use this option and the partition isn't there or is damaged, only then will you receive the error the OP is getting, and it's basically the firmware telling you that Windows is missing. This usually only really happens when you set your system to boot to Windows by default and then delete the Windows partition.

The mystery to me though is how he would get that error message when selecting the Mac partition. That makes no sense to me.
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