S---L---O---W startup time..... advice please.

[anim8or]

Hello all,

Firstly I have searched and read many threads similar to my question but every case is different to my setup or not similar enought to answer my query.

I have a 2007 Mac Pro Quad core 2.66GHz, 7GB RAM, 3 Internal HDDs (two in a RAID config) 2 external Firewire drives, 2 ACDs, bluetooth aluminum apple keyboard and mouse.

Fresh out of the box my boot times were magic, about 15-20 secs and i could start using anything, now my boot times are about 1:15secs!!!!

I am counting from the moment i press the power button to the moment the desktop is up and running ready to use.

I have tried running the maintenance scripts, repaired permissions, etc b ut still no increase in boot time.

Can anyone advise on what i should try to speed things up a little?

Thanks in advance

[EvanLugh]

Sytem Prefs -> Accounts -> login items, remove the uneeded items and see what it does.

[anim8or]

i only have a couple of login items, such as ituneshelper....

I am on my MBP just now so i cant tell you exactly which ones i have, how do i know if any are needed at startup? I dont want to selete them as startup items and not get them back.....

[Infrared]

Take a look at the system logs to see what's happening
during bootup.

[chas0001]

start up in verbose mode (cmd-V) and see if you can see where its hanging. Mine used to pause for a while loading the Ethernet drivers.

[anim8or]

Take a look at the system logs to see what's happening
during bootup.

How do i do that...? What should i look for?

start up in verbose mode (cmd-V) and see if you can see where its hanging. Mine used to pause for a while loading the Ethernet drivers.

How did you solve the problem with the ethernet drivers?

[chas0001]

How do i do that...? What should i look for?



How did you solve the problem with the ethernet drivers?

I had to do an archive install and it resolved the problem. Not ideal.

[Infrared]

How do i do that...? What should i look for?

Console.app. There's a list of logs down the left-hand side.
"system.log" is a good one to look at. You'll need to be in
the admin account to view it. Log entries have a timestamp
to the left. Look for timestamps that match the time when
your system was booting.

[richard.mac]

in addition to the above recommendations i would repair permissions and use the automation feature in Onyx (http://www.titanium.free.fr/pgs2/english/onyx_leopard.html) and then restart a few times to reload the system kexts.

[anim8or]

in addition to the above recommendations i would repair permissions and use the automation feature in Onyx (http://www.titanium.free.fr/pgs2/english/onyx_leopard.html) and then restart a few times to reload the system kexts.

Thanks rich but i do this regularly already. Any other advice?

[merl1n]

in addition to the above recommendations i would repair permissions and use the automation feature in Onyx (http://www.titanium.free.fr/pgs2/english/onyx_leopard.html) and then restart a few times to reload the system kexts.

In addition (or alternative), I would:

1. Reset the PRAM (at boot, hold down cmd-opt-p-r keys until the third "bong" and then let go of the keys).

2. Boot in "safe mode" which does many things like clearing caches, running file system checks and making necessary repairs (fsck in unix), etc. To do this, reboot and when you hear the bong, immediately hold down the shift key until you see the "spinning gear" on the grey screen. At that point let go of the shift key. This boot will take some time as it is doing many things, but eventually you will have the login screen with "Safe boot enabled" message in red letters. You can then reboot normally.

See if this helps.

[EvanLugh]

Try XSlimmer to slim down and unnecessary usage and see if it reduces anything. There's also something else beginning with F you can to but I've forgotten. :o

[anim8or]

I'll give these a try and let you guys know, thanks again.

[EvanLugh]

There's also a tool called Maintenance 3.8. Run batch scripts and it should work wonders for you. Good luck.

[Lumpydog]

In addition (or alternative), I would:

1. Reset the PRAM (at boot, hold down cmd-opt-p-r keys until the third "bong" and then let go of the keys).

2. Boot in "safe mode" which does many things like clearing caches, running file system checks and making necessary repairs (fsck in unix), etc. To do this, reboot and when you hear the bong, immediately hold down the shift key until you see the "spinning gear" on the grey screen. At that point let go of the shift key. This boot will take some time as it is doing many things, but eventually you will have the login screen with "Safe boot enabled" message in red letters. You can then reboot normally.

See if this helps.

This is what I would do first - I've had reboot issues and this always resolves them.

[EvanLugh]

In addition (or alternative), I would:

1. Reset the PRAM (at boot, hold down cmd-opt-p-r keys until the third "bong" and then let go of the keys).

2. Boot in "safe mode" which does many things like clearing caches, running file system checks and making necessary repairs (fsck in unix), etc. To do this, reboot and when you hear the bong, immediately hold down the shift key until you see the "spinning gear" on the grey screen. At that point let go of the shift key. This boot will take some time as it is doing many things, but eventually you will have the login screen with "Safe boot enabled" message in red letters. You can then reboot normally.

See if this helps.

Try XSlimmer to slim down and unnecessary usage and see if it reduces anything. There's also something else beginning with F you can to but I've forgotten. :o

That's what I meant. :o

[freezerburrn]

In addition (or alternative), I would:

1. Reset the PRAM (at boot, hold down cmd-opt-p-r keys until the third "bong" and then let go of the keys).

2. Boot in "safe mode" which does many things like clearing caches, running file system checks and making necessary repairs (fsck in unix), etc. To do this, reboot and when you hear the bong, immediately hold down the shift key until you see the "spinning gear" on the grey screen. At that point let go of the shift key. This boot will take some time as it is doing many things, but eventually you will have the login screen with "Safe boot enabled" message in red letters. You can then reboot normally.

See if this helps.

After reading this thread I thought I'd give resetting the PRAM a try to see what would happen. In my case it actually made my boot time about 20 seconds longer for some strange reason and now I can't seem to find a remedy.

When I reboot or power on my Mac Pro now, there is a grey blank screen for about 20 seconds. Then, the grey screen with the Apple logo appears along with the spinning loading meter at the bottom and my computer proceeds to boot from there.

Does anyone know what happened with my Mac Pro here? It used to go immediately to the grey screen with the Apple logo before resetting my PRAM.

[bld44]

How many sticks of ram do you have in it? I noticed that my machine took much longer to boot up once I upped my ram.

[zap2]

How many sticks of ram do you have in it? I noticed that my machine took much longer to boot up once I upped my ram.


Yup, more RAM, the more time the computer needs to spend "approving" the RAM to be used.

7Gbs, thats a lot of RAM. Pull some out, see if its fast. If it is, then at least you know its the RAM, and not something else.

[freezerburrn]

After reading this thread I thought I'd give resetting the PRAM a try to see what would happen. In my case it actually made my boot time about 20 seconds longer for some strange reason and now I can't seem to find a remedy.

When I reboot or power on my Mac Pro now, there is a grey blank screen for about 20 seconds. Then, the grey screen with the Apple logo appears along with the spinning loading meter at the bottom and my computer proceeds to boot from there.

Does anyone know what happened with my Mac Pro here? It used to go immediately to the grey screen with the Apple logo before resetting my PRAM.

Well, I can't seem to figure out what's going on here. I'm going to take out my battery overnight and see if that does anything.

[freezerburrn]

Well, I can't seem to figure out what's going on here. I'm going to take out my battery overnight and see if that does anything.

Okay so taking out the battery did absolutely nothing just as I thought. However, reselecting my main drive in System Preferences/Startup Disk did the trick. Now I have no blank grey screen lag.

[cecilworsley]

try to reset the PRAM google it will be on apple website and see how that works.:apple:

[richard.mac]

try to reset the PRAM google it will be on apple website and see how that works.:apple:

sorry to be the forum police but this was suggested in post #11.