Red Apple on boot up screen and system restarts

[skinford]

Good morning, everyone!

I have a few systems that I just updated to High Sierra from Sierra and I get a Red Apple and a Green progress bar and then the systems restart displaying the same screen half way through continuously restarting.

If I boot into safe mode it at least gets to the desktop but after a restart from there the same Red Apple and reboot. Any ideas? Or fixes?

Thank you everyone!

[bpavlov]

I've never seen that issue. Could you share a picture?

[blackholemac]

That almost sounds like a hardware issue...does the hardware on your Mac come back okay...specifically in the display realm? The pic that @bpavlov requested would add good context.

This likely goes two ways: one being some sort of strange hardware issue in your display or two being some sort of error code system I have never encountered personally.

Quick Google search found me this pic from someone else .... is this similar to what you are seeing?https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/263201/funny-apple-logo-colors-during-startup

This guys issue was a video issue though that Apple support helped him with.

[edickson]

I've seen something similar before, try an SMC reset and/or a PRAM reset

SMC: Hold down shift+ctrl+option and press power for a few seconds, restart normally

PRAM: Hold down Command+Option+R+P, power on and either let the start up chime go 3-4 times or watch the screen flicker (if you have newer Macs without the start up chime), then release and let the machine boot normally.

Good luck!

[larry_barrett]

To dovetail on to @edickson , you may have to disable EFI password to reset SMC and PRAM (and safe mode too).

[balexander667]

a red apple is not a standard return, usually a distortion/discoloration at boot implies hardware failure. Also; can you you boot to recovery?

[skinford]

Thank you, everyone,

The first question looks like this: https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/263201/funny-apple-logo-colors-during-startup
But, it restarts over and over continuously.

I will try the SMC, I did try PRAM, with no fix there.

I will let you all know what happens, fortunately only two iMacs on a single campus and need systems up by the week of the 20th so I have a few days. Thank you to everyone for the help will let the group know what happens.

[skinford]

Good morning, everyone,

Nothing has seemed to work on these two units and they are only a few years old.

I tried both the SMC and PRAM reset. I can try to reimagine and see what happens but not sure that will work either. If it is a GPU issue I will get them to our repair center soon.

If anyone thinks of anything else please let me know.

Have a very great day today!

[balexander667]

did you try booting into recovery? booting to a known good operating system (or internet recovery) is pretty much step 1 in hardware troubleshooting issues like this. just hold Option-⌘-R while you power on the machine.

[tjhall]

Were the Mac's previously imaged and now updated via Apple's updater?
I've seen a similar behaviour and I got it down to the Mac's being built via the old imaging method.
I'm currently flushing out all the ones setup this way (booting via recovery and re-installing the MacOS or via erease/install command) and quite a few of them recevies firmware upgrades.
Once that is done with a fresh MacOS they behave as they should.

[skinford]

@tjhall These were actually originally imaged with an AutoDMG OSX of Sierra a year ago. I updated them to High Sierra via the Install High Sierra.app. These two iMacs were the only ones that took a dive and gave me the Red Apple. Almost think that it may be a GPU issue, but will try a few things before I send them in for repair.

@balexander667 That was the first things that I did it found no issues in Recovery. I even tried re-installing the OS on one of them and it still Red Apple'd on me.

Thank you all for the information.

[Careita1976]

Did you ever figure out what was going on? My computer just started this exact thing, today. Your issue is the only one I could find that was exactly what I am experiencing.

Thanks!

[skinford]

I couldn't find a fix and ended up having to erase and image the system again.  Was a real bummer I hate doing that.

[Careita1976]

Thanks for letting me know.