Does OS X need to warm up?

[mark88]

Everytime I reboot, either with my 2ghz Macbook w/2GB ram or my iMac C2D 2.16ghz with 2GB ram, it seems to boot in reasonable time, all menu items load etc etc but when I launch an app such as safari the system hangs for a minute or so, spinning wheel appears, I can't do expose or click dock icons etc....

Is this normal? very annoying

 

[IJ Reilly]

This is not at all normal. Does it happen whenever you launch an application, or only some of the time?

 

[Copland]

Yeah, my machine is slightly sluggish for around 5 seconds after everything is loaded, but after that it's up to speed.

 

[kolax]

When you start the computer up from fresh, even after logging in it'll take a wee while before everything is loaded and ready to go.

Depends how many things you have selected to load during startup - I have Mail, Address Book, MSN Messenger, iCal and Temperature Monitor.

Takes 10-15 seconds to fully be ready after I log in.

 

[Cromulent]

Do you have any network drives set to automount on startup? That can add a few seconds delay as you describe it.

 

[Taylor C]

Hmm, I've never experienced this. I'd definitely check out automounting network drives as the poster above me suggested, and you might also want to check what you've got starting when you login.

 

[IJ Reilly]

Yeah, my machine is slightly sluggish for around 5 seconds after everything is loaded, but after that it's up to speed.

The OP is reporting that his Mac hangs "for a minute or so" after rebooting. That is certainly not normal.

 

[72930]

Have you installed any hardware (RAM etc) ?

Try an Archive and Install (boot from your install disk)

 

[MacDonaldsd]

A few seconds is normal, a minute is not.

 

[IJ Reilly]

Try an Archive and Install (boot from your install disk)

You said that just to annoy me, right?

The old advice still holds: attempting a reinstall, especially when the issue is mysterious, is like playing Russian Roulette with most of the chambers full. If the problem is hardware-related, which is it very often, then you could end up with an unbootable Mac. Usually, this is not an improvement.

 

[live4ever]

One thing you could do is try holding down the "shift" key before pressing the login button - this will disable all the 3rd party login items - OS X should start up faster if it doesn't it's probably a system issue.

 

[aaronw1986]

Mine hangs or about 30 seconds I say. Stuff starts to open, but bounces in the dock for a long time.

 

[iBunny]

From boot up, my computer is sluggish for about 10 seconds. I think its still loading everything into cache / virtal memory etc.

 

[Eidorian]

You're bottlenecked by the hard drive on boot.

 

[DannySmurf]

Mine hangs or about 30 seconds I say. Stuff starts to open, but bounces in the dock for a long time.

Sounds like you've probably got a login item that's tying up most of the computer's attention for 30 seconds after login. I've got one of those too (something I choose to have). I can start opening stuff as soon as I login, but it usually takes 30-45 seconds before anything starts showing up on the screen.