Slow Start Up and Shut Down

Hello! I know I'm a new poster, however I've been lurking around this forum for months and I recently purchased my first macbook. There is one issue that just began yesterday and I searched the forum for some answers, but can't seem to find them. I came up with one thread with someone posting about the same issue, but there were no responses. I hope I didn't miss something in my search, but if I did then I apologize for starting a new thread with my question.

Yesterday my macbook start shutting down and booting up slowly. It used to work so quickly, and now it's taking much longer. The only thing I did was install a printer before it happened. Then when the problem began I uninstalled the printer with the uninstaller that it came with. I thought maybe that was the issue, but uninstalling it didn't seem to make a difference.

I checked in the preferences to make sure it is starting up with the hard drive and it is. I'm not sure what else to do. It's not a huge issue, but it is a difference and the fact that it's only about a month old worries me. I do have to add that even though it's slower than it was just 24 hours ago, it's faster than my Dell PC ever was LOL!

Thanks for any help or suggestions you have to offer!

Everything else seems to be running just fine. I did try and update a few things with the software update and it froze on me about 30 mins ago. But I forced it to quit and restart and it was fine. Still having the slow start up and shut down issue though. The updates weren't anything major for the operating system though. I think the only one it got through was one for support for some digital cameras.

ETA: Sorry I didn't see the image until I submitted the reply. I don't have anything set to start up when I log in.

How would I do that? Is that when you put in the CD the macbook came with and start it up again? Will that erase any data I have? I'm sorry I'm so full of questions. I really appreciate the help.

Thank you for your help and suggestions. Luckily when I turned my computer on today it told me there was a problem with a file called lexsleeperx. I didn't know what that was so i found it on the hard drive and googled the file to see what it was. It's a file that is put on your computer when you install a Lexmark printer (which was when my issues started). You don't need it so people recommended removing it because it can cause problems. I removed it and restarted my computer and things are now working quickly again. It was a nice quick fix. I wanted to post my solution just in case anyone else is having that issue and they try and search the forum for a solution.

Well I had installed the printer and then I uninstalled it when the problem started. Then when I still had a problem that's when I made the first post. Then I went into the accounts and under my name like your image showed and there was only an itunes help thing which I didn't have checked because I don't want that starting when I turn on my computer. So it wasn't listed there.

Then yesterday I reinstalled the printer since i didn't think that was the issue since after uninstalling it, I was still having problems. Then this morning I turned it on and then I get the error message. I went in through the hard drive to the library and then to start up items and there it was. I moved it to the trash. Then when I went to empty the trash it seems that the one from the first install was still in there. So I now had 2 of them in the trash. I emptied it and restarted and now it's perfect. So I guess when I uninstalled the printer it only moved that file to trash and didn't get rid of it completely so that could have been the problem.

I'm glad to know that a lot of printers do this so that way I know where to look when I install a printer to make sure there isn't anything in there. I wonder if those kinds of files helped to make my PC start up so slow over the years. It literally takes minutes for my old laptop to start up and shut down. The difference is amazing. I'm quite happy with my macbook so far.