5+ Minute boot from shutdown help!

[riko]

Hi,

My friend asked me to look at her Macbook pro as it is taking a long time to boot. First time I switched it on it took over 5 minutes to get to the desktop. I had a quick look and nothing jumped out at me so shutdown left it. Later on in the day I booted it back up and it was at the desktop in about 1.5 minutes. And this seems to be the pattern. If it has been off for a while (not sure how long, a day or more) it takes 5 minutes or more to boot. After that it is quick, 1.5 minutes or so.

I have verified the disk, repaired permissions, cleared the pram etc and it is still the same. It is running a fully updated version of Mavericks.

Any ideas?

Thanks

Graham

 

[snaky69]

What year, what size?

 

[Samuelsan2001]

Has it got an HDD or SSD. If an HDD it is probably the disk slowly dying....

 

[riko]

Hey guys

Thanks for replying

Just turned it on and it was the slow boot again.

It's a mid 2009 13 inch pro. It has a 500gb HD.

 

[Bending Pixels]

First, run the hardware diagnostics (for older MBP's, it's the Applications DVD - insert, reboot and hold down D for diagnostics). Next, check to see how full the disk is, and find out what programs were recently added. Clearing the cache, resetting the SMC and PRAM may also help.

 

[riko]

First, run the hardware diagnostics (for older MBP's, it's the Applications DVD - insert, reboot and hold down D for diagnostics). Next, check to see how full the disk is, and find out what programs were recently added. Clearing the cache, resetting the SMC and PRAM may also help.

I've managed to run the quick hardware test (took a while to do it as she doesn't have the original disks so I had to find a download for AHT before booting to diagnostics would work). It didn't find anything. I'll do the longer test tomorrow (its late here). I have already reset the PRAM but I will give the SMC a go.

It's just so strange, I can't see anything that would make it boot so slowly after being off for a while (although I am no expert at reading the boot logs). She doesn't have any third party kexts installed, just stock apple.

Thanks again for all the help.

Graham

 

[Kissmyne]

Clear User/System Cache and restart.
Are there any apps set to run at startup(System Preferences>Users & Groups> Login Items)?
What are the contents of these directories? ~/Library/LaunchAgents
/Library/LaunchAgents
/Library/LaunchDaemons

FYI if this issue can ONLY be replicated after the computer has been sitting turned off for a while, then your computer probably has a physical problem(most likely a "gracefully" failing HDD)...

 

[snaky69]

(most likely a "gracefully" failing HDD)...

I'd put my money on this from the age of the computer.

 

[brand]

most likely a "gracefully" failing HDD

Such a peculiar word for describing a failing hard drive, I like it.

 

[riko]

Clear User/System Cache and restart.
Are there any apps set to run at startup(System Preferences>Users & Groups> Login Items)?
What are the contents of these directories? ~/Library/LaunchAgents
/Library/LaunchAgents
/Library/LaunchDaemons

FYI if this issue can ONLY be replicated after the computer has been sitting turned off for a while, then your computer probably has a physical problem(most likely a "gracefully" failing HDD)...

I'll try the caches tonight (I think I already did, but tbh I've tried a lot so not sure ).

There is nothing set to launch at startup in the login items other than itunes helper. I'll check the agents and daemons tonight.

Yeah, it only is slow after sitting around for a while. Last night after the initial 5 minute boot I was shutting down and restarting a lot and it was only taking about 1.5 minutes.

I'll see if I can find a spare hard drive to test.

Thanks again for all your help guys.

Graham

 

[riko]

Hi Guys,

Been busy so just returned to this tonight. As expected it took 5 minutes to boot (although I did boot using verbose mode, not sure if it makes a difference). I have attached the console log in case anyone can see any problems.

I checked the folders asked:

~/Library/LaunchAgents - contains com.divx.agent.postinstall.plst and com.google.keystone.agent.plst
/Library/LaunchAgents - contains com.promethean.activhardwareservice.plist, com.promethean.activmgr.plist, com.promethean.flashextension.plist and com.trusteer.rapport.rapportd.plist
/Library/LaunchDaemons - contains com.adobe.fpsaud.plist, com.microsoft.office.licensing.helper.plist and com.trusteer.rooks.rooksd.plist.

Thanks again for all your help.

Graham