Slow boot time; Mac Pro

[jdee2wheels]

Hi,

I just bought a used Mac Pro last week. I'm very happy with it so, but I am having a problem with very slow boot times.

The hard drive was reformatted with the install disks, all the updates where installed and everything seemed fine. I installed a few more programs and an extra 2 gigs of ram as well. Somewhere along the way, the boot times went from being extremely fast to very slow. The system gets hung up on a blank white screen right after the "bong" for about 30-45 seconds before the grey apple logo comes up. After that everything goes smoothly.

I pulled out the extra 2 gigs of ram and all the usb cords except for the keyboard and mouse and still get the slow boot times. Also ran the hardware utility from the install disk and everyhting checked out ok.

I'm not sure where to go from here as I'm pretty new to Macs. I guess it's not really a big deal, the computer flys after everything boots up, but it was nice when it booted so fast before.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!

[^squirrel^]

I had a problem where the fans would spin at full RPM for about 6-8 seconds.

After resetting the PRAM it's super quick again.

(apple key + Alt + P + R ) hold down for 3 chimes then allow to boot. (incase you didn't know how to do it)

[jdee2wheels]

Thanks for the tip, I'll try that when I get home and see if that helps.

[jdee2wheels]

Seems to have done the trick. It's not quite as fast as it was after the reformat but it cut a good 25 seconds off the reboot.

there is always a white screen for a few seconds before the apple logo pops up right?

[Sean Dempsey]

Seems to have done the trick. It's not quite as fast as it was after the reformat but it cut a good 25 seconds off the reboot.

there is always a white screen for a few seconds before the apple logo pops up right?

yes, white screen before apple.

[sblasl]

You need to review what applications you have installed that may be loading something when you startup.

System Preferences>>Accounts>>Login Items

Take a look there to see what is listed, something in the list is most likely what is causing your problem.

Applications that add a contextual menu can also be a culprit.

[SDAVE]

Mine is 15 seconds max, and I have a bunch of Applications installed (About 100GB worth).

I'm really surprised by this boot time, and love it.

[DoFoT9]

make sure to run diskutility all the time to repair permissions :) that does wonders for your computer.

[Don Bagles]

I'm familiar with what you speak. And here is my experience.

First of all, my Mac Pro shows the grey screen for about 2 seconds before the Apple logo appears. Total bootup time is about 25 seconds.

I've noticed that while fiddling around with windows, when the computer wasn't sure which partition to start up on, it would sit on the grey screen for a long time before giving me the apple logo.

There have been other things in the past that have messed up bootup times on my G4 towers and stuff. Things that have made the OS 9 smiley computer face with the question mark show up for a few seconds before giving me the OS X apple. It's almost like a curse. Something causes it, and then it gets stuck like that.

However, for the particular problem that you are describing, i'm pretty sure that if you go into system preferences, and into Startup Disk, and make sure the computer knows exactly which drive to start up on, then it won't give you that much time on the blank grey screen.

[jdee2wheels]

However, for the particular problem that you are describing, i'm pretty sure that if you go into system preferences, and into Startup Disk, and make sure the computer knows exactly which drive to start up on, then it won't give you that much time on the blank grey screen.

That did it. White screen only shows up for a blink of an eye now. I started installing bootcamp, changed my mind and deleted the partition so that probably screwed up the startup disk preferences.

Thanks for the help!

[Don Bagles]

That did it. White screen only shows up for a blink of an eye now. I started installing bootcamp, changed my mind and deleted the partition so that probably screwed up the startup disk preferences.

Thanks for the help!

Great! I'm glad that fixed it. Glad to be of service.