Hi guys, I hope you can help me with a problem I am having, as described in the title.
When I turn on my eMac, it will take up to 10 minutes to get from the grey boot screen to the desktop. Before, it used to take 30 seconds or less. I haven't changed anything on the computer recently, and it was running without incident, so I am puzzled by the sudden slowdown.
I haven't had a chance yet to take a closer look at the eMac, so I have a couple of questions regarding what to do.
1) Will booting off an external hard drive with Mac OS X help me skip the wait time (I've never booted with an external drive before, as I've never had a need to)? And what key command will enable me to do so?
2) If there is some problem with the hard drive, can I run off an external drive for an extended period of time (~ 3 months)?
3) Could it be a case where it is not actually a problem with the hard drive, but with something like the data cable? I overclocked this eMac after it went out of warranty, and everything looked okay when I changed out the hard drive, CD drive, etc., but I am not sure how the additional heat generated by a bigger hard drive and a DVD burner (if any) would affect things. And based on the symptoms that the eMac exhibits (massive slowdown and pinwheeling to death everytime I run something), what would you guys think it could be?
I will be looking at it tomorrow, so I hope that you guys can give me some advice on how to fix my eMac before I have a go at it. Thanks in advance for the help.
When I turn on my eMac, it will take up to 10 minutes to get from the grey boot screen to the desktop. Before, it used to take 30 seconds or less. I haven't changed anything on the computer recently, and it was running without incident, so I am puzzled by the sudden slowdown.
I haven't had a chance yet to take a closer look at the eMac, so I have a couple of questions regarding what to do.
1) Will booting off an external hard drive with Mac OS X help me skip the wait time (I've never booted with an external drive before, as I've never had a need to)? And what key command will enable me to do so?
2) If there is some problem with the hard drive, can I run off an external drive for an extended period of time (~ 3 months)?
3) Could it be a case where it is not actually a problem with the hard drive, but with something like the data cable? I overclocked this eMac after it went out of warranty, and everything looked okay when I changed out the hard drive, CD drive, etc., but I am not sure how the additional heat generated by a bigger hard drive and a DVD burner (if any) would affect things. And based on the symptoms that the eMac exhibits (massive slowdown and pinwheeling to death everytime I run something), what would you guys think it could be?
I will be looking at it tomorrow, so I hope that you guys can give me some advice on how to fix my eMac before I have a go at it. Thanks in advance for the help.