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How long does it take your Mac to boot?

smallnshort247

smallnshort247

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Oct 23, 2010
531
8
I have a 2010 MBP. I just had the logic board replaced today by Apple and I've also installed 8GB of RAM. The thing just doesn't boot up as quickly as before. I've also done a clean install a few weeks ago. It usually boots up within 30 to 50 seconds tops. Now it seems to be taking well over a minute. I'm assuming my Mac just has to adjust to all the changes before I can notice the startup time going back to normal?
 
smallnshort247 said:
I have a 2010 MBP. I just had the logic board replaced today by Apple and I've also installed 8GB of RAM. The thing just doesn't boot up as quickly as before. I've also done a clean install a few weeks ago. It usually boots up within 30 to 50 seconds tops. Now it seems to be taking well over a minute. I'm assuming my Mac just has to adjust to all the changes before I can notice the startup time going back to normal?
Click to expand...

Mine boots up in about ~20 seconds, about the same with either my Momentus XT or using my Mercury Extreme Pro SSD.
 
Was waiting for a thread like this too. I have the Macbook Pro 15" (Late 2008 Unibody) and it boots and shutdowns quite slowly. Boot time is about 30-50 seconds, and sometimes when I shut down, it doesn't immediately shut down - I see the same spinning circle (That you see when you boot up) against a backdrop of a dark blue screen.

Is this normal?
 
I have an 08 mbp non-unibody. I usually do a restart after I run Ony X and it takes around 37s from the bong sound to the dock launching.
 
I'm using a i5 MBP and since upgrading to a SSD, I can restart my computer from the desktop, and be back to the desktop in 27 seconds. Pretty quick if you ask me.
 
2010 MPA 11" takes 30 seconds from pressing the power button to desktop. It was about 15 when I first got it buy a couple of O.S updates and its slowed down.
My old unibody MBP was about 30 or 40 seconds when I first got it. It gradually got slower as OS updates went on.

Sleep is the key. I never power off my MBA or my Mac Pro. I think the Mac Pro has been on solidly for 4 years aside from holidays.
That's quality hardware for you!
 
more RAM means it will take longer to POST (occurs during the black screen after power-on). you should be timing from when the gray screen comes on...or actually the startup dong, but I muted that.

I don't have an MBP, but my Mac Pro (WD Blue boot drive) takes 31 seconds from the gray screen to logon screen, and about 8 seconds from logon to fully-loaded desktop. I have a Windows 7 laptop with an SSD that takes 21 seconds from finishing POST to logon screen.

...but it shouldn't really matter since putting your computer to sleep is much more sensible than shutting it off.

if it's taking forever to POST, though, reset your PRAM.
 
Last edited:
Make sure your internal drive is set as boot device. When I upgraded my hard drive it changed this settin on me and was taking over a minute to boot. When I selected my new sys drive it went back to a ~30 second boot.
 
Guys get this. So I brought out my iPod Touch and recorded how long it takes my MacBook Pro to boot. It took 2:30 mins for it to FINALLY get to the desktop but then I couldn't actually do anything on the desktop until 5:46 minutes. That is crazy! It has never taken that long for my computer to start. Usually it is between 30-50 seconds.

Like I said, Apple just replaced my logic board a few days ago. Here are my specs. 7200RPM Samsung HDD, 8GB Crucial RAM, 2.4Ghz MBP i5 2010

It doesn't make sense.
 
With the standard 5400rpm HDD it was about 40-45sec.

With the 7200rpm HDD it's about 35-40sec.

Both cold starts from off, not re-starts from menu.
 
smallnshort247 said:
Guys get this. So I brought out my iPod Touch and recorded how long it takes my MacBook Pro to boot. It took 2:30 mins for it to FINALLY get to the desktop but then I couldn't actually do anything on the desktop until 5:46 minutes. That is crazy! It has never taken that long for my computer to start. Usually it is between 30-50 seconds.

Like I said, Apple just replaced my logic board a few days ago. Here are my specs. 7200RPM Samsung HDD, 8GB Crucial RAM, 2.4Ghz MBP i5 2010

It doesn't make sense.
Click to expand...

Something isn't right for sure...Have you checked all your settings? Take it back to Apple?
 
smallnshort247 said:
Guys get this. So I brought out my iPod Touch and recorded how long it takes my MacBook Pro to boot. It took 2:30 mins for it to FINALLY get to the desktop but then I couldn't actually do anything on the desktop until 5:46 minutes. That is crazy! It has never taken that long for my computer to start. Usually it is between 30-50 seconds.

Like I said, Apple just replaced my logic board a few days ago. Here are my specs. 7200RPM Samsung HDD, 8GB Crucial RAM, 2.4Ghz MBP i5 2010

It doesn't make sense.
Click to expand...

Have you checked your login items? Have you tested the HDD via the Apple Hardware Test or AJA System Test?
And why do you need to restart that often?
 
simsaladimbamba said:
Have you checked your login items? Have you tested the HDD via the Apple Hardware Test or AJA System Test?
And why do you need to restart that often?
Click to expand...

I haven't checked those things yet. First I'm going to put the stock RAM back in and see if that changes anything. I don't need to restart that often but my Mac has never taken that long to restart and it makes me wonder since I just had it serviced.
 
smallnshort247 said:
Guys get this. So I brought out my iPod Touch and recorded how long it takes my MacBook Pro to boot. It took 2:30 mins for it to FINALLY get to the desktop but then I couldn't actually do anything on the desktop until 5:46 minutes. That is crazy! It has never taken that long for my computer to start. Usually it is between 30-50 seconds.

Like I said, Apple just replaced my logic board a few days ago. Here are my specs. 7200RPM Samsung HDD, 8GB Crucial RAM, 2.4Ghz MBP i5 2010

It doesn't make sense.
Click to expand...

You might also want to check Activity Monitor to see if mdworker is taking up lots of CPU - I noticed when I upgraded to SSD that Spotlight decided to reindex the entire drive, which made the whole system laggy until it was done.
 
Good news. I just took the 8GB of RAM out and put it back in a different order. The bootup time has cut to 46 seconds which sounds about right. I'm assuming it wasn't seated correctly even though the computer recognized all 8GB the whole time. Thanks for the advice guys!

EDIT:

I just restarted it again and it went down to 37 seconds. All is well!
 
Last edited:
rekhyt said:
Was waiting for a thread like this too. I have the Macbook Pro 15" (Late 2008 Unibody) and it boots and shutdowns quite slowly. Boot time is about 30-50 seconds, and sometimes when I shut down, it doesn't immediately shut down - I see the same spinning circle (That you see when you boot up) against a backdrop of a dark blue screen.

Is this normal?
Click to expand...

That is pretty normal, which is good news for you. The average MacBook or MBP starts up within 30-50 seconds. Turn off time can depend on what applications you're running when shutting down. My advice would be to do a clean install when Lion comes out. That will speed up your boot time by a few seconds and overall make your Mac a bit faster. Also, Getting a SSD or 7200RPM HDD will also speed up times.
 
I changed from stock 320GB (5400rpm) to MomenutsXT 500GB (7200rpm + 4gSSD).

Boot went from 45 ish to 25 ish sec
 
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