Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Macbook pro takes two and a half hours to start

S

stafh

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jan 16, 2008
9
0
My macbook pro froze up one day, and since then it has taken 2,5 hours to start it up. I press the start button, the led in the front lights up, fans turn on, optical disc starts spinning a little, and nothing else happens. It just sits there for two hours and about 27 minutes with no activity and a black screen, and then it magically boots up just like normal.

I've tried resetting the SMC and the NVRAM and the PRAM and all that with no success. I've even formated the harddrive and re-installed OS X. I also ran the apple hardware test, which said that everything was fine. I tried switching RAM with a friend of mines MBP, that did not help either.

Any idea what's causing this?
 
How fast did it start up from the DVD when you reinstalled the OS?

It could be the HD is dying.
 
stafh said:
Any idea what's causing this?
Click to expand...

Maybe time machine has taken you back to the stoneage. :)

Sorry, I know that humour is no use at a time of utter frustration like this. Take it to a genius bar and demand some answers. This is beyond unacceptable. (It just works - yeah, after two and half hours.)
 
bartelby said:
How fast did it start up from the DVD when you reinstalled the OS?

It could be the HD is dying.
Click to expand...

Same as always... black screen for 2.5 hours, and then a normal boot.

Actually, the other day it broke even more. After the customary 2.5 hours, the apple would show up and the wheel would spin for a few seconds, and then it would shut off without warning. I ran the disc utility from the DVD and it said that the HD had some errors. After i erased and formated the drive, the disc utility said that the drive was functional, and after i installed OS X the computer would boot up normally again (apart from the 2.5 hours).

a456 said:
Maybe time machine has taken you back to the stoneage. :)

Sorry, I know that humour is no use at a time of utter frustration like this. Take it to a genius bar and demand some answers. This is beyond unacceptable. (It just works - yeah, after two and half hours.)
Click to expand...

Unfortunately the warranty ran out about a year ago :/
 
stafh said:
I thought the SMC was the equivalent of the PMU on a macbook pro... I reset it by unplugging the battery and powerchord and holding the power button for five seconds (http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1411?viewlocale=en_US)
Click to expand...
D'oh! You are right. In that case, since resetting the PRAM, NVRAM, and SMC didn't help, you've probably either got an intermittent connection failure somewhere on your logic board, or a dying hard drive, like someone earlier mentioned. I'd check your hard drive's S.M.A.R.T. status from Disk Utility, if possible - if it says "Failing" then you definitely need to replace that drive.
 
have you all gone into SYSTEM PREFERENCES and make sure that your Mac partition is the boot partition?

try repairing HD permissions?

This does not sounds like hardware to me.
 
I know VMware slows the boot down a bit, but to that degree!

Have you tried Target Boot?

Whatever you try, back up everything, if you haven't already.
 
wrldwzrd89 said:
D'oh! You are right. In that case, since resetting the PRAM, NVRAM, and SMC didn't help, you've probably either got an intermittent connection failure somewhere on your logic board, or a dying hard drive, like someone earlier mentioned. I'd check your hard drive's S.M.A.R.T. status from Disk Utility, if possible - if it says "Failing" then you definitely need to replace that drive.
Click to expand...
Nothing wrong with the S.M.A.R.T. status.

Freelancer said:
Did you run the Apple Hardware Test that comes on the dvd shipped with you Macbook Pro?
Click to expand...
Yep, no errors were found.

karmachrome said:
If my iPod is connected at boot, it does the same thing.
Click to expand...
No ipod is connected... nothing else either for that matter.

kgeier82 said:
have you all gone into SYSTEM PREFERENCES and make sure that your Mac partition is the boot partition?

try repairing HD permissions?

This does not sounds like hardware to me.
Click to expand...
I only have one partition so i don't think that's the problem.

Tried reparing HD permissions... one error was found and repaired, it made no difference.



:confused::confused::confused::confused::confused:
 
Resetting SMC and PRAM I know the commands for. But what does holding the power button for 10 seconds until it beeps do (with it plugged in)?

When I had issues with my MacBook Pro, the Apple guy told me to do that.
 
alphaod said:
I know VMware slows the boot down a bit, but to that degree!

Have you tried Target Boot?

Whatever you try, back up everything, if you haven't already.
Click to expand...

I think the problem lies before the boot... When the computer has been turned on for 2.5 hours, it boots up just like normal. Before that it's just black (apart from the front led, which lights up).

I did boot it up in target disc mode and retrieved some stuff that i needed before i formated it... as usual, it took 2.5 hours for it to boot up in target disc mode.
 
stafh said:
I think the problem lies before the boot... When the computer has been turned on for 2.5 hours, it boots up just like normal. Before that it's just black (apart from the front led, which lights up).

I did boot it up in target disc mode and retrieved some stuff that i needed before i formated it... as usual, it took 2.5 hours for it to boot up in target disc mode.
Click to expand...

Have you tried to replace your HD and install a fresh copy of OS X. It really does seem like the HD is causing the problem.
 
Freelancer said:
Did you run the Apple Hardware Test that comes on the dvd shipped with you Macbook Pro?
Click to expand...

I agree. Even though it may take you 2.5 hours to load it, it may give an indication of what is going wrong with your machine. Run the quick test, followed by the extended test. It could be your drive is starting to die.
 
Did you try booting into verbose mode? hold down left shift when starting up. and try if you have a separate hard drive, to copy your hard drive to that, and boot from it when starting up your mac. hold down alt/option key, and select the separate hard drive
 
+1 on the failing HD.

imo a fresh format/install shouldnt pop up with errors in Disk Utility.
 
Tried resetting the startup drive?

System Preferences > Startup Disk

Though normally a bad choice should take that long to resolve, and for the machine to find a good boot volume.

And yes, a bad drive doesn't mean a flagged SMART.
 
I have found "smart" status to be less reliable than a falling drive in my past.

its a good thing to monitor, but by any means is it "dependable."
 
I would say 99% certain it's a failing HDD - it could be a faulty sector that's taking an age to read and stopping the machine starting up properly: The boot process won't continue until the drive has reported it is ready, even if booting from an optical drive.
Try this: Get the machine in a quiet room and power it on. Listen very, very carefully to the machine (put your ear on or very close to the chassis) - if you hear a click, click, click sound then it's the Hard drive
 
I almost don't think it's a failing hard drive.

Have you taken out whatever disc is in the drive? Does it take forever with no optical disc inside?

Boot in verbose mode (command + V held at startup) to see where it hangs at for so long.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back