Macbook Air 13" boot times

[MacUser09]

After I press the power button, from the "bong" sound to the sign in screen is just over 45 secs on my 13"/4GB/256/MBA.

Still the same, even after resetting the PRAM, and leaving it on all night.

Any ideas?

 

[smug]

1. System Preferences
2. Startup Disk
3. Select your HD
4. Restart

 

[OSMac]

Sometimes after updates or installing software, it takes a number of restarts to get up to speed again, thats what I found.

 

[ZenErik]

11 seconds from the chime to fully loaded on my MBP. About 13 if you count from when the power button is pressed, which is probably when you should start the timer. The wheel spins 1 1/2 times at most. To the person that claimed 7 seconds, I call BS on that.

I know I don't have a MBA, but a MBP with a SSD is similar. Just figured I would throw in my numbers.

 

[altecXP]

Clean install with a SandForce SSD, on a Core i5 with 8GB of Ram is about 12 seconds.


And remember a SandForce SSD is about 30% faster then the Toshiba controller in the Air.

 

[oakie]

if your boot time is longer than 15 seconds, boot up with your reinstall drive and use disk utility to repair permissions and the startup disk.

after that, use ctrl + option + left shift + power with the power off and connected to AC power in a charging (orange LED) state. watch the LED turn green when you release the key combo then wait until it goes back to green. then start up your computer normally and your boot and shutdown times should be back to normal.

basically, configuration issues with your startup drive lengthen the boot and shutdown times. the 4-key combo resets the SMC, therefore clearing any errors cached that were generated by issues during bootup.

 

[MacUser09]

if your boot time is longer than 15 seconds, boot up with your reinstall drive and use disk utility to repair permissions and the startup disk.

after that, use ctrl + option + left shift + power with the power off and connected to AC power in a charging (orange LED) state. watch the LED turn green when you release the key combo then wait until it goes back to green. then start up your computer normally and your boot and shutdown times should be back to normal.

basically, configuration issues with your startup drive lengthen the boot and shutdown times. the 4-key combo resets the SMC, therefore clearing any errors cached that were generated by issues during bootup.

Thanks for the suggestions.
I tried all of the above. Still 43 seconds from "bong" to sign in page. It's no big deal, but I just wonder why, if others are reporting only 15 seconds..

 

[holycat]

Thanks for the suggestions.
I tried all of the above. Still 43 seconds from "bong" to sign in page. It's no big deal, but I just wonder why, if others are reporting only 15 seconds..

Hi there,

I have the exact same MBA as yours and had the same problem >30 sec boot time. I understand your frustration. I tried all methods suggested: PRAM, SMC reset, safe boot, rebuidling cache...repair disk permission once....clean reinstall...you name it...but non of them works for me.

I solved it by repairing disk permissions for 5 times CONTINUOUSLY. Try it 5 times and restart it. If it still takes >30 sec to boot, try another 5 times disk permissions repair.

I personally did it this way and my MBA's boot time miraculously changed back to 12 sec!

Hope it helps.



P/S: *Third party software like Spring Cleaning might helps in disk permissions repair, but try the disk utility's disk permission repair first.

 

[orfeas0]

Thanks for the suggestions.
I tried all of the above. Still 43 seconds from "bong" to sign in page. It's no big deal, but I just wonder why, if others are reporting only 15 seconds..

are you booting the MBA alone or is it connected to a monitor or anything else?

 

[MooneyFlyer]

are you booting the MBA alone or is it connected to a monitor or anything else?

When I'm connected to my external monitor and 2 USB hubs, my boot times are 45-60 seconds. When I'm standalone, it boots in ~15 seconds. Clearly it has something to do with the external connections but I haven't taken the time to debug it yet.

 

[MacUser09]

are you booting the MBA alone or is it connected to a monitor or anything else?

I am booting it alone. It is not connected to anything.
So far, I have tried using Onyx to clear all caches.
Verified and repaired all permissions from boot disk/key.
Reset PRAM and SMC
Confirmed start up disk, and leaving it on all night

Will now try holycat's suggestion.

 

[xstex]

I have the 13 inch 2gb model, takes about 13 seconds to boot up, 'instant on' is pretty much instant, as soon as i open it its on, takes about 2 seconds to connect to wifi.

 

[philxor]

The only time I've actually rebooted my MBA since the first day I got it 3 weeks ago is to check the bootup time due to this thread. Mine was around 18 seconds.

The only time I ever rebooted my old MBP was for software updates requiring a reboot.

 

[Lord Appleseed]

My 13" with 4GB Ram takes less than 10 secs....

 

[mrsir2009]

i may be the only one, but 15 seconds is still 15 seconds too long.

i hope we get to a point where there is no such thing as booting and you just have it instant on period. we have that in a way right now, but not exactly.

i've gotten used to not shutting down my laptop. it's cool. i noticed after the latest firmware the thing's even snappier.

Its called sleep Whats the point of shutting it down all the time when you can sleep it? Booting from sleep takes about 3 seconds on my MBP.

 

[holycat]

I am booting it alone. It is not connected to anything.
So far, I have tried using Onyx to clear all caches.
Verified and repaired all permissions from boot disk/key.
Reset PRAM and SMC
Confirmed start up disk, and leaving it on all night

Will now try holycat's suggestion.

Let me know the method works or not.

 

[MacUser09]

Let me know the method works or not.

Went and saw a "Genius".

Turns out that even though Auto Login was switched off, my MBA was in a repeating cycle, where it kept trying to auto login on start up.
Hence the blue screen for over 30 secs.

Remedy: Switched ON Auto Login in System Prefs and restart. Switched OFF Auto Login and restart.

Now boots just under 15 secs.

 

[astrobill]

PRAM reset worked for me on my MacBook Air 2010

Cold boot/start-up time before PRAM reset: ~40s

After PRAM reset: ~12s

One has to take care to perform the PRAM reset correctly. If one lets go of CMD-OPT-P-R before the second "bong" reboot, it doesn't work correctly.

Thanks all!