Strange Bootup Phenomenon

[LostJohn]

Earlier today, I powered-on my iMac after having it turned off overnight and something strange happened. At the grey boot up screen, it showed a progress bar (the same bar you see when you're upgrading firmware) which lasted for about 10-15 seconds and then continued into boot up.

The computer eventually went to the grey linen login/password screen, and then into OSX. From the get go, the graphics were really sluggish and everything seemed to be jittery and slow in terms of responsiveness. Also, I have mail set to open at startup, which usually works without any problems at all, but it didn't open this time.

I restarted the machine and everything went back to normal. This just seemed very odd to me, as I didn't update anything or perform any type of firmware upgrade. Does anyone have any suggestions on what this might have been? I'm hoping it's not a virus or something...

If it helps, I'm using:
Mid-2011 iMac i5, 16gb ram, OS X 10.7 Lion

 

[Intell]

It sounds like the iMac came out of Safe Sleep/hibernation. I wouldn't worry about it.

 

[GGJstudios]

It sounds like the iMac came out of Safe Sleep/hibernation. I wouldn't worry about it.

I agree. Those are symptoms of waking from sleep. Nothing to worry about.

I'm hoping it's not a virus or something...

It's not. No viruses exist in the wild that can run on Mac OS X, and there never have been any, since it was released 10 years ago. The handful of trojans that exist can be easily avoided with some basic education, common sense and care in what software you install:

Mac Virus/Malware Info​

 

[chrfr]

It sounds like the iMac came out of Safe Sleep/hibernation. I wouldn't worry about it.

iMacs don't do safe sleep. That's just for portables.

Although this tech note lists 10.6, it should apply to 10.7 as well.
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS3148
Odds are that the disk was being repaired on startup.

OP, make sure your iMac isn't part of this disk recall:
http://www.apple.com/support/imac-harddrive/

 

[Intell]

iMacs don't do safe sleep. That's just for portables.

iMac's can and do Safe Sleep, it just isn't turned on by default. In fact, all Intell based Macs can Safe Sleep and most of the older G4s and G5s can as well.

 

[Mal]

I agree. Those are symptoms of waking from sleep. Nothing to worry about.

It's not. No viruses exist in the wild that can run on Mac OS X, and there never have been any, since it was released 10 years ago. The handful of trojans that exist can be easily avoided with some basic education, common sense and care in what software you install:

Mac Virus/Malware Info​

iMacs don't do safe sleep. That's just for portables.

Although this tech note lists 10.6, it should apply to 10.7 as well.
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS3148
Odds are that the disk was being repaired on startup.

OP, make sure your iMac isn't part of this disk recall:
http://www.apple.com/support/imac-harddrive/

iMac's can and do Safe Sleep, it just isn't turned on by default. In fact, all Intell based Macs can Safe Sleep and most of the older G4s and G5s can as well.

Actually, chrfr was mostly right. While you can enable Safe Sleep on an iMac, it's not what caused what the OP saw in this case. Safe Sleep displays the user's desktop, just faded out with the progress bar until it finishes loading. The bar that the OP saw indicates that it was performing a File System Check (as if you had run fsck in the Terminal). I've had that happen on several occasions before, usually because of a shutdown that for various reasons failed to complete properly (either the battery died and Safe Sleep failed to store the memory contents properly, or I had to force the computer to shut off in the middle of a file operation of some type). The document chrfr linked to is a good thing to check, too, btw.

jW

 

[chrfr]

iMac's can and do Safe Sleep, it just isn't turned on by default. In fact, all Intell based Macs can Safe Sleep and most of the older G4s and G5s can as well.

Yeah, I know, but it's not something there's a user interface for. If the OP had enabled it, odds are that he'd have known this. It's of exceedingly low usefulness on a desktop computer.
Further, the OP's comments that the computer did not behave normally after this happened indicates that there's something atypical going on.

 

[davejc]

I have been having the same problem ever since upgrading to Lion. It seems to happen around 30-50% of the time from a cold boot and requires a restart to fix.

I also have a Mid-2011 iMac i5 and I'm not affected by the disk recall.

 

[Diabolus]

Earlier today, I powered-on my iMac after having it turned off overnight and something strange happened. At the grey boot up screen, it showed a progress bar (the same bar you see when you're upgrading firmware) which lasted for about 10-15 seconds and then continued into boot up.

The computer eventually went to the grey linen login/password screen, and then into OSX. From the get go, the graphics were really sluggish and everything seemed to be jittery and slow in terms of responsiveness. Also, I have mail set to open at startup, which usually works without any problems at all, but it didn't open this time.

I restarted the machine and everything went back to normal. [...]

I have been having the same problem ever since upgrading to Lion. It seems to happen around 30-50% of the time from a cold boot and requires a restart to fix.

I also have a Mid-2011 iMac i5 and I'm not affected by the disk recall.

Hi there,
any development on the subject?

I started having exactly the same issue soon after upgrading my iMac (bought in May 2011) to Mac OS X 10.7 Lion.

And the problem still persists, even after going through the Apple disk recall in mid November (my iMac was found eligible for it) and even if the "experts" at the Apple dealer were sure it was related to the faulty disk issue.

I have also published a video in YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZK0jgk4zTek&context=C2dda0ADOEgsToPDskKuyVO2QfrLsvvgpbCVP6gV

Regards from Italy.

 

[goscuter1]

The bar that the OP saw indicates that it was performing a File System Check (as if you had run fsck in the Terminal).

I feel really stupid saying this, especially as I've only ever been able to safe boot twice in 100 attempts; but this sounds pretty similar to what Apple Support said would happen when safe booting (pressing Shift immediately after turning it on, and holding it down until it boots into Lion - the two times I've been able to do it, that bar fills up slowly, and then once Lion loads it was almost exactly as the OP described - because it's resetting / flushing all the caches right?)

 

[Diabolus]

I feel really stupid saying this [...] but this sounds pretty similar to what Apple Support said would happen when safe booting (pressing Shift immediately after turning it on, and holding it down until it boots into Lion - the two times I've been able to do it, that bar fills up slowly, and then once Lion loads it was almost exactly as the OP described - because it's resetting / flushing all the caches right?)

Nothing to feel stupid about, goscuter1, and thanks for your attempt, but... try again!
I never started my iMac while holding down the Shift key, either knowingly (I'm totally new of Apple computers and know nothing about this "tricks") or unknowingly.

 

[Mal]

I feel really stupid saying this, especially as I've only ever been able to safe boot twice in 100 attempts; but this sounds pretty similar to what Apple Support said would happen when safe booting (pressing Shift immediately after turning it on, and holding it down until it boots into Lion - the two times I've been able to do it, that bar fills up slowly, and then once Lion loads it was almost exactly as the OP described - because it's resetting / flushing all the caches right?)

Oh, no reason to feel stupid. See, the same thing does happen when you Safe Boot, because it does the same thing then too. You weren't wrong about that happening with Safe Boot, it just seemed more likely that the OP wasn't doing that and thus it was happening for another reason.

jW

 

[goscuter1]

Nothing to feel stupid about, goscuter1, and thanks for your attempt, but... try again!
I never started my iMac while holding down the Shift key, either knowingly (I'm totally new of Apple computers and know nothing about this "tricks") or unknowingly.

Aiight I just figure no one can get burned if I'm stupid, but I'm pretty sure I get burned when people don't give me a chance to be as gracious as you - cause I would be. Unless it was really stupid but then they should know that, when they're not sure. It makes sense. I'm Rick Perry and I approve of this message, because I make sense.

Or I would. But then alcohol is legal. Cracks me up every time. Rick Perry is legal. Alcohol makes sense. It's a beautiful world. Just ignore me. I was going to say something, not sure if it was important.

Probably was, I have a habit of doing that. Oh disk layouts. I'm new to Macs as well but then so are Apple Support - boom-tish. But since day 1 I have these install messages that are almost queer on some level, multiple keyboard layouts detected, and being changed - multiples at a time are being detected and changed. it's all very hard to keep up with but I wish they wouldn't bother. I need US keyboard layout. Till the day I or my computer/s die. We never need to change it, ever. Ever. I'm willing to bet my life on it. I wonder if whomever is changing my (multiple - on one machine) keyboards simultaneously hundreds of times back and forth would be willing to do the same. Cause I would like to do that I think. He's Anonymous, of course. Apple don't know. What do they know about new Macbook Airs or Lion. No question mark. I know what they know.

It's unfortunate. Because we know nothing, Apple and I. Someone knows. I guess they win. not sure if you followed all that or if it's even coherent, but a sticky key? crazy unexplained chaos in logs? could be anything.

glad I could help. hah! Perhaps you'd like to compare and contrast with Apple CS? Roughly tied but mine will be funnier. when it's coherent.