MacBook white 2009: can't go beyond white startup screen with grey logo

[madctarroza]

Hi! I'm wondereing if any of you would be able to advise me.
I have a 2009 white macbook which my uncle gave me.
10.6.7 if I rermember correctly, and the standard other specs for that model since I haven't the know-how to better it yet.
Anyway. Here's my problem: before encountering said white screen at startup, I had Photoshop CS6 running on it as well as Firefox, and perehaps a few background apps like Dropbox and Alfred. i had to force quit firefox though, but otherwise there were no further problems.
The thing that makes my problem unique to all the others of the same situation is that I shut my laptop down properly - one by one quitting apps and all that. I'd noticed though that even though I still had 25GB of space left on my hard drive, Finder says that I only had 14. I had encountered that number going down one gb or two, but never 10. I did not investigate further, So after quitting applications at a slow pace, I pressed the button on my laptop (did not click from the dropdown menu from the apple icon) and selected "shut down".

I fell asleep for about one hour, woke up, plugged my laptop in to charge it while it was turned off, then went back to nap fro another thirty minutes, after which I tried turning it on so that I could see the precentage of battery my lapot had already.

That was when I first encountererd the white screen. After sensing something was wrong I shut it doen by holiding down the startup/shutdown button for more than 4-6 seconds. After that I tried to boot it up again, to no avail. This white screen lasted for 30ish minutes. I forcefully shut it down for the second time. After a few minutes I tride booting it up again, and this time lasted for about 10 minutes before I resolved to shutting it down again. I tried booting it up again after about three hours' rest.

I have no idea where this laptop's OS discs are since it was only given to me by my uncle - only the laptop and its adaptor.

What can I do to resolve myoroblem without having to spend money? I'm awfully broke right now.
Thank you in advance for your assistance!

(it usually takes my laptop a few seconds to be done with it, now the longest I was able to withstand it being that way beforer enforcing a forced shut down was more or less 20-30 minutes)

 

[Kaveman]

Try starting up in safe mode, old down shift while restarting. If that doesn't help you may have to do an install in place from the DVDs.

 

[madctarroza]

About to try restarting in safe mode, pray for my baby! Thank you for responding, Kaveman.

 

[madctarroza]

So I have tried holding down shift while restarting and I'm afraid it didn't do me any good.
There appeared on the screen a progress bar (along with the grey logo and the white screen) but when it had been done loading, what happened was the progress bar disappeared,leaving me here with the grey logo/white screen.

Problem is that I don't have anything with me except this laptop and its adaptor, all the packaging's with my uncle along with the discs, although there might be a good chance that they're not there, either.

 

[oldscribe]

Hi,

10.6.7 is Lion, if this is what your running try this.
When you turn on your computer, press and hold the command-R buttons until the Apple icon appears. The Mac OS X Utilities box should appear.
If your operating system is corrupted, you will not be connected to the internet. Look in the upper right hand corner and you will see the wifi signal icon. Click on it and you will be able to reestablish your internet connection. You must be connected to the internet if you have not created a backup of your operating system.
Select the 2nd option on the Utilities menu – Reinstall Mac OS X. It will download and reinstall Lion, much as when Lion was installed from the Mac App Store by your uncle.

 

[Kaveman]

10.7 is Lion, 10.6 is Snow Leopard and not on the App Store, sorry oldscrible.

 

[Kaveman]

You may be able to get replacement DVDs from an Apple Store for the price of the media.

 

[madctarroza]

Update: I'd booted it in Single-user Mode (Command+S).
Checked the startup disk with the method stated here (fsck -fy, but then I had to force-check it (fsck -f) because the volume was journaled and the thing wouldn't let me go further).
After which it uneventfully checked:
- the Journaled HFS Plus Volume
- extents overflow file
- catalog file
- multi-linked files
but then it encountered a problem with the catalog hierarchy, stating that there was an "invalid directory item count (it should be 37 instead of 36).
but it also went on checking these:
- extended attributes file
- volume bitmap
- volume information
- repairing volume
- rechecking volume
then went back to the top with
- the Journaled HFS Plus Volume
- extents overflow file
- catalog file
- multi-linked files
- catalog hierarchy (no other comments this time around)
- extended attributes file
- volume bitmap
- volume information
ending with a "the volume Impala was repaired successfully".
and a "file system was modified".
SO I typed in the command "exit" to boot the laptop but it's still a no-go. I'm about to force shut down it again to see if it will boot up in Safe Mode this time.

 

[madctarroza]

Also thank you for all your help

 

[Kaveman]

It sounds like the HD lost a sector or node, this happens from time to time, mostly it misses a user file or an important system file, when it hits a system file you may need to reinstall the OS.

 

[madctarroza]

I'll look for the DVDs at my uncle's, but if all else fails, I'll go buy the needed media. Can you specify the exact DVDs I would be looking for? I hadn't seen them since my uncle gave this laptop to me about two years ago. Eep. Again, thank you for your help Kaveman

 

[Kaveman]

There are normally 2 DVD's one with the OS the other with iLife and the other Apps. They may be in a little packet with a booklet and Apple Stickers.

 

[oldscribe]

Hi Kaveman,

10.7 is Lion, 10.6 is Snow Leopard and not on the App Store, sorry oldscrible.

Thanks for corecting me, seems like alzimers is kicking eaerly.

 

[madctarroza]

I'm back!
I found only three sets of DVDs and it is evident that the ones I'm looking for aren't here in this set.
I've got a couple for the iMac (10.5.2) and for a yet unidentified device (2007 I think, 10.4.8) and another that's for a MacBook that's 10.4.9. Question is that this laptop was given to me with the Leopard OS, and after doing some research, I've discovered that the 10.4.9 would not be the one I'm looking for.
Is it still safe to insert this disk, while still searching for the original discs, or should I just wait?
I've read somewhere that grey cds are the ones that are device-specific, meaning that they can't be used on devices other than those they came with.
Thanks again in anticipation, for all your help!

 

[madctarroza]

Running a second Apple Hardware Test, first one came out, saying that it couldn't find anything wrong with my hardware ("no trouble found") so...I'm just waiting for the second one to finish now

....and now that it's done it's saying the same thing
so def software problem
only the software disk to this one is missing

 

[Kaveman]

I've read somewhere that grey cds are the ones that are device-specific, meaning that they can't be used on devices other than those they came with.

That is correct. You need a full retail version or the DVDs that came with that model.

 

[madctarroza]

Thanks for helping out, Kaveman!
Guess I have some saving up to do

 

[Kaveman]

You may be able to get replacement DVDs from an Apple Store for the price of the media.

Do you have an Apple Store handy, this may be less than $20

 

[oldscribe]

Hi,

Yes you can order from Apple store for $19.99 here.
http://store.apple.com/us/product/MC573Z/A/mac-os-x-106-snow-leopard