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How to make your MacBook Pro startup faster?

thiagos

thiagos

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Dec 20, 2007
371
0
NYC (Manhattan)
I have the Unibody 17" MacBook Pro with 4GB Ram and a 500GB 7200RPM Seagate Hard Drive. Although the computer is fast, it is not as fast as the Aluminum iMac I used to have. I have zeroed the hard drive and installed everything from scratch but I still get the beach ball from time to time. It does not freeze but it is not as snappy as I would like.

What could I do to make my computer faster?

Programs I have installed: Adium, Adobe CS4 Master Collection, Aperture, Audacity, Cyberduck, Final Cut Pro 2, Firefox, Google Earth, Handbrake, iLife '09, iWork '09, Microsoft Office 2008, Parallels, Periscope, Rosetta Stone, Sling Player, Toast Titanium 10 and VLC.

Thanks in advance
 
Can't you do something like adjust the startup processes for Mac in the System Preferences Pane? I mean, the good thing about Mac is that there are not any startup programs that slow down the loading of the operating system, but there are a lot of program helpers and processes that are supposed to startup by default. I have no clue, but oh well.
 
nyzwerewolf said:
disable spotlight & install "Namely" instead. you will see a big difference :)

edit: this might be a better guide.
Click to expand...

I have disabled Spotlight by going to Spotlight->Privacy and selecting Macintosh HD for preventing Spotlight from searching that location.

The startup is pretty quick but the computer itself lags from time to time. I restart the computer on a daily basis.

Are the iMacs supposed to be faster than the MacBook Pros at the same clock speed?
 
i would assume that anything plugged into the wall will be faster. As compared to an equal laptop. Im just guessing b/c the imac wouldnt have power constraints.
 
Don't shut it down ;)

Seriously though, Macs have had an amazingly reliable sleep mode for years and years; most switchers don't take advantage of it. It's ture that sleep does still use up the battery, but it's only at a rate of a few percent a day. I just put my PowerBook G4 to sleep when I'm done with it, and carrying it around campus all day, it'll lose maybe 1-2 percent of its charge while sleeping. The Intels are not quite as great, but they're only in the range of 5-6 percent a day. Seriously, give it a try; a two-second wake up beats even an unreachable 20-second startup by a factor of 10x :)
 
thiagos said:
I have disabled Spotlight by going to Spotlight->Privacy and selecting Macintosh HD for preventing Spotlight from searching that location.

The startup is pretty quick but the computer itself lags from time to time. I restart the computer on a daily basis.

Are the iMacs supposed to be faster than the MacBook Pros at the same clock speed?
Click to expand...

This thread confuses me. The title asks about how to make boot ups faster, but the actual post says they are speedy and asks how to make things run quicker.

Get more RAM and an SSD.
 
i changed to 7200RPM hard drive and it remained slow.
my moms macbook booted up faster than my mbp.. :S that when it was brand new and mine a few months old and before i had 7k2.
i defragged it, decached it, permission repaired it, launch services rebuild it,...
the only thing i havent done yet is volume optimization which i will do.
so i guess some are just faster than others.
seems i have a slow booter. dont mind, its a great machine.
btw more ram will slow down booting process due to hardware selftest!!
 
Yea man macs are designed to stay running. So when you constantly shut it down it tends to run slower. Ive noticed this myselff. The longer i keep it running the snappier it runs.
 
capriseyhaze said:
Yea man macs are designed to stay running. So when you constantly shut it down it tends to run slower. Ive noticed this myselff. The longer i keep it running the snappier it runs.
Click to expand...

Sorry, but i don't think this is true. I maybe able to believe if the OP shuts down the laptop, few times a day. But if you shut down your laptop once or twice a day, i don't think it will slow down the computer (certainly it is not the case in my experience)

I think the OP is asking about increasing the boot and running speed. SSD will certainly help both booting and running your MBP. Another thing; if your HD is full, or almost full this may slow down your system. Also if you are running the virtual machine in the same time that may slow your system (especially if you assigned a big amount of ram for VM). Finally, have tried running Onyx?
 
u49aa2 said:
Sorry, but i don't think this is true. I maybe able to believe if the OP shuts down the laptop, few times a day. But if you shut down your laptop once or twice a day, i don't think it will slow down the computer (certainly it is not the case in my experience)

I think the OP is asking about increasing the boot and running speed. SSD will certainly help both booting and running your MBP. Another thing; if your HD is full, or almost full this may slow down your system. Also if you are running the virtual machine in the same time that may slow your system (especially if you assigned a big amount of ram for VM). Finally, have tried running Onyx?
Click to expand...

I run Onyx at least once or twice a month. I use about half of my HD space. I only use Parallels on occasions so I don't usually have Parallels running.
I guess I just have to get used to it, the only thing that puzzles me is how the iMac with a 7200RPM and about the same processor speed, same exact softwares installed, same hard drive space and same amount of memory can be so much faster?!?!
 
u49aa2 said:
Sorry, but i don't think this is true. I maybe able to believe if the OP shuts down the laptop, few times a day. But if you shut down your laptop once or twice a day, i don't think it will slow down the computer (certainly it is not the case in my experience)

I think the OP is asking about increasing the boot and running speed. SSD will certainly help both booting and running your MBP. Another thing; if your HD is full, or almost full this may slow down your system. Also if you are running the virtual machine in the same time that may slow your system (especially if you assigned a big amount of ram for VM). Finally, have tried running Onyx?
Click to expand...

When you leave it running, OS X caches closed programs in any extra RAM you are not using, so next time you go to open them, they start a lot faster. Restarting clears all that out.
 
m85476585 said:
When you leave it running, OS X caches closed programs in any extra RAM you are not using, so next time you go to open them, they start a lot faster. Restarting clears all that out.
Click to expand...

Exactly. Thats why its better to keep it running. I bet you dont sbut down your imac that often do you. My imac with a 2.8 ghz in it runs a hell of alot slower then my 17" uni 2.66 simply because i never have it running anymore since im addicted to my mbp. So try and leave your mbp running for a day or to and you will notice a big difference.
 
I just got Onyx yesterday and after repairing permissions etc, it has cut my boot up time by about 5-10 seconds Love it! :cool:
 
I should mention that putting the computer in sleep mode is OK since that preserves the contents of memory. The only time I ever restart my MBP is when it crashes or when I am installing updates.
 
cjacks68 said:
I just got Onyx yesterday and after repairing permissions etc, it has cut my boot up time by about 5-10 seconds Love it! :cool:
Click to expand...

... and waking from sleep takes only a couple of seconds. Not having to relaunch everything you had open speeds things up too.
 
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