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MacBook Pro - boot times

B

bam bam

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Sep 27, 2007
16
0
Chicago area
My wife has a 13" MBP 2.66Ghz, Core 2 Duo, 4GB Ram (bought in April 2010). Running OS X 10.6.6

She uses it 95% of the time for web surfing, email. I loaded on Office for Mac, Clean My Mac, and Windows 7 (via Boot Camp) within the first 1-2 months of purchase. Battery life is great, everything works fine. BUT she has been noting for the past 2 months are so that it seems to be taking longer to boot up.

It takes about 55-60 seconds to boot up today.

What is normal?

What can I do to speed up the boot time?
 
You could remove some Login Items from System Preferences > Accounts >> her account >>> Login Items.

Or you or she could just close the lid and let the MBP sleep, unless she needs to boot into Windows daily, for which maybe Virtual Box (free) or another VM application like VMWare Fusion or Parallels Desktop might more than suffice.
 
Try the following, see if it is faster after each step:

  • make sure your Mac HD is selected under system preferences / startup disk
  • reset PRAM
  • reset SMC
 
I'm in the same boat. I use mine for internet, homework, and I don't download programs.

My startup time is the same, it never use to do this either. now during startup and shutdown i get the little loading symbol, that never was there either.

purchased in Feb '10 2.53ghz MBP.

Tried all of the following listed above and none of it helped.
 
What % in bootcamp?

bam bam said:
My wife has a 13" MBP....She uses it 95% of the time for web surfing, email. I loaded on Office for Mac, Clean My Mac, and Windows 7 (via Boot Camp)
Click to expand...

QUESTION. When you BootCamped, what % did you give to each side? Thanks
 
Politis said:
QUESTION. When you BootCamped, what % did you give to each side? Thanks
Click to expand...

I can't recall exactly offhand but I'm guessing the Windows side is 30-50GB.

The Mac side shows 285GB capacity with ~265GB of free space.

We really don't use a lot of document/photos/songs/etc on this machine - it is basically only used for web browsing.
 
bam bam said:
Thanks.

How do I reset PRAM and SMC?
Click to expand...

Here you go:

SMC RESET

• Shut down the computer.

• Plug in the MagSafe power adapter to a power source, connecting it to the Mac if its not already connected.

• *On the built-in keyboard, press the (left side) Shift-Control-Option keys and the power button at the same time.

• Release all the keys and the power button at the same time.

• Press the power button to turn on the computer. *

PRAM RESET

• *Shut down the computer.

• *Locate the following keys on the keyboard: Command, Option, P, and R. You will need to hold these keys down simultaneously in step

• *Turn on the computer.

• *Press and hold the Command-Option-P-R keys. You must press this key combination before the gray screen appears.

• *Hold the keys down until the computer restarts and you hear the startup sound for the second time.

• Release the keys.
 
bam bam said:
My wife has a 13" MBP 2.66Ghz, Core 2 Duo, 4GB Ram (bought in April 2010). Running OS X 10.6.6

She uses it 95% of the time for web surfing, email. I loaded on Office for Mac, Clean My Mac, and Windows 7 (via Boot Camp) within the first 1-2 months of purchase. Battery life is great, everything works fine. BUT she has been noting for the past 2 months are so that it seems to be taking longer to boot up.

It takes about 55-60 seconds to boot up today.

What is normal?

What can I do to speed up the boot time?
Click to expand...

Try fixing disk permissions. That usually works to speed up boot times. Open Disk Utility, select 'Macintosh HD' or whatever you've called your hard disk, and hit the button at the bottom of the window that says 'Repair Disk Permissions'. When it's done, run it another couple of times (it will find more permissions to repair), and then try rebooting. Hope this helps.
 
Thanks for all the help. Here's what I've done so far:

- Streamlined the Login items at start-up (the only one listed was iTunes Helper which I un-ticked)
- Repaired Permissions after rebooting from the original CD boot disk

The good news: It worked.....sort of...

But I found something I wasn't expecting: Boot times varied dramatically depending on if the MBP was plugged into the wall or not.

When I booted up (not a restart, but a full start up) and the MBP was plugged in the start time was 25-30 seconds. Just like a new machine!!

But the boot time is still 55-60 seconds when it is running on battery power. I find that puzzling because I've always been impressed with the battery strength (8+ hrs) and never had a power issue.

Does anyone else think that is strange or have an idea why this is occurring??:confused:

Here is the battery/power data I copied from my laptop:
Battery Information:

Model Information:
Serial Number:9G0150AUJD3MA
Manufacturer:DP
Device name:bq20z451
Pack Lot Code:0000
PCB Lot Code:0000
Firmware Version:0201
Hardware Revision:0002
Cell Revision:0158
Charge Information:
Charge remaining (mAh):4258
Fully charged:No
Charging:Yes
Full charge capacity (mAh):5522
Health Information:
Cycle count:107
Condition:Normal
Battery Installed:Yes
Amperage (mA):1664
Voltage (mV):12278

System Power Settings:

AC Power:
System Sleep Timer (Minutes):10
Disk Sleep Timer (Minutes):10
Display Sleep Timer (Minutes):10
Wake On AC Change:No
Wake On Clamshell Open:Yes
Wake On LAN:Yes
Current Power Source:Yes
Display Sleep Uses Dim:Yes
Battery Power:
System Sleep Timer (Minutes):10
Disk Sleep Timer (Minutes):10
Display Sleep Timer (Minutes):5
Wake On AC Change:No
Wake On Clamshell Open:Yes
Display Sleep Uses Dim:Yes
Reduce Brightness:Yes
 
bam bam said:
Thanks for all the help. Here's what I've done so far:

- Streamlined the Login items at start-up (the only one listed was iTunes Helper which I un-ticked)
Click to expand...

"Un-ticking" only un-hides it ;)

You need to select iTunes helper by clicking it (one click the whole line, not just the check box), then click on the "-" button at the bottom of the items list, which removes/deletes it from the list, leaving you with an empty list of nothing :)

Also, probably won't help, but good to do once in a while anyway, open up Safari and clean it out--> empty the cache, cookies and databases.


Are you running an anti-virus on the windows side? Download "Microsoft Security Essentials" if not (it's free and one of the best).
 
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