Mac Mini hangs on greyscreen #2 ONLY when plugged into ethernet.

[Dylan Procter]

Hi,

I have a mac mini that hangs ONLY if it the ethernet cable is plugged into it. As that is how I access the internet, it's driving me crazy (and the cable isn't exactly accessible).

It hangs on the second grey screen with the apple symbol (grey screen with spinner, brief black screen, grey screen no spinner), no beachball, just the cursor and the apple logo. Tried leaving it sit overnight just to see what would happen and there was no change after 9 hours.

If I unplug the ethernet it boots normally to the user selection/login screen.

Any ideas?

Oh, and I'm on Lion.

 

[Cory Cooper]

Hello and welcome.

Have you tried another Ethernet cable?

Also, try this: Intel-based Macs: Resetting the System Management Controller (SMC)

C

 

[Dylan Procter]

Yep. Tried four different cables, including a brand new 3 foot long cable.

Tried resetting PRam, SMC, did all of the maintanence scripts in Mac Pilot, started the mini as a target drive and hooked it up to my macbook to scan for viruses and use the disk tool to verify the system disk. I also removed everything from my login items.

I've tried everything I can think of. I'm scared to switch to wireless and boot because I can't disable that before booting (like I can pull the ethernet cable) so i don't know if it's an ethernet controller or the connection to the internet that is causing the problem.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance!