Macbook Pro Slow to Boot

[HSimm]

Hi Everyone,

I was a Windows Poweruser for many years, with the advent of Vista I have given Microsoft the heave-ho and have become a Mac convert. I purchased a Macbook Pro 17" 2 weeks ago and was not happy with the 1:20 boot times I was getting from the 4gb RAM and 500gb 7200rpm hd, so I upgraded to 8Gigs of RAM (Mushkin PerfectMatch 8GB), and installed a 256GB Crucial M225 2.5" Serial-ATA Solid-State Drive. I expected to see a marked improvement, but my Mac boot time is still panifully slow at 1:06 secs.

I've seen videos and have read reports of the Macbook Pro booting in the range of 20secs or so, so I'm sure there's something else I should be looking at, but being new to the Mac I'm not quite sure where to look. I have found the posts today regarding Redundant System Fonts and will try that asap, but I'm sure there's still more that can be done to optimise this sluggish performance. I will welcome all tips & suggestions anyone has to improve things, right now my Mac is running like a lead sled. Thx!

HSimm

[sonic9t9]

So you were a windows "poweruser" and you are whining about 1:06 bootup...........LOL you gained almost 20 seconds what were you thinking was going to happen??? Maybe you should spray some NOS in it to speed it up!!

It takes my PC laptop 3-7 minutes to bootup Maybe you should go back to PC to remind yourself

[indianavtx]

Well, since the last poster provided absolutely zero help to you other than busting your chops, let's try this...

Go to System Preferences, select Accounts, select your account and then go to Login Items. Take a look around at what all is starting up at login. Disable anything you don't absolutely need and then restart and see how your time is.

It may or may not help, but it definitely beats useless blather such as "whining" and "go back to PC and remind yourself."

Good luck.

[chscag]

It takes my PC laptop 3-7 minutes to bootup Maybe you should go back to PC to remind yourself

How about cutting the man some slack and responding with a bit of civility? He just purchased a top of the line MacBook Pro which probably cost him around $2500 or more. It's not too much to ask for a faster boot time after spending that kind of money.

To HSimm:

First, welcome to these forums. Trying to reduce a boot time of 1 min 20 seconds is not going to be easy. Keep in mind that the 8 GB of memory and the GPU + its dedicated memory undergoes a quick test during the POST.

Measure your boot time from the time you hear the POST chime to the time you see the log in dialog.

Also take a look at the following Mac Fixit article: Link

Regards.

[vansmith]

So you were a windows "poweruser" and you are whining about 1:06 bootup...........LOL you gained almost 20 seconds what were you thinking was going to happen??? Maybe you should spray some NOS in it to speed it up!!

It takes my PC laptop 3-7 minutes to bootup Maybe you should go back to PC to remind yourself

Did you seriously have to say that? There isn't a productive point (or word for that matter) in those posts.

What have you installed so far? It is very possible that services and other processes are being loaded during the boot which could slow down your machines boot time. The RAM probably didn't help with the boot time much but the SSD should have increased the boot time considerably from what I've read.

Also, are you running Leopard (10.5) or Snow Leopard (10.6)? If you're unsure (both look very similar), go to  > About This Mac. What does it say under "Mac OS X"?

[sonic9t9]

My help was he should be happy with his boot up time. I have never read a set amount of time you should expect the boot up time to be. a minute boot up time is awesome for my POV. So he should be happy with what he has.... Why should I tell him how to speed up what I view to be already a VERY fast boot up time. I'm sure if you mac people don't like my bluntness but that's me... You guys are a bit sensitive about stickcing to the subject MUST ANSWER MUST ANSWER. Jesus it's the internet and a message forum. My opinion is that his boot up time is AWESOME. Just because he spent a lot of money doesn't mean it should boot up in 10 seconds flat sorry.

Did you seriously have to say that? There isn't a productive point (or word for that matter) in those posts.

What have you installed so far? It is very possible that services and other processes are being loaded during the boot which could slow down your machines boot time. The RAM probably didn't help with the boot time much but the SSD should have increased the boot time considerably from what I've read.

Also, are you running Leopard (10.5) or Snow Leopard (10.6)? If you're unsure (both look very similar), go to  > About This Mac. What does it say under "Mac OS X"?

a 20 second improvement out of 1:20 is a heck of improvement for the amount of money he spent.

[deathcloud]

I remember when I installed a new hard drive that my boot time was like 45 seconds. Then I installed leopard and it actually cut it down to 20 seconds and below. However I remember someone saying that you can reset the PRAM or something. It resets something and makes it faster. I can't remember who posted how to do it but I will try to use the search and find it.

Found it. Hope this helps

I've found that when changing drives, the PRAM needs a reset to restore the boot time.

Do this by turning the machine off, turn it back on and immediately press and hold Command+Option+P+R and continue holding until you hear the system chime 3 times.

That should do the trick.

Good luck with that Hitachi drive, be sure to make regular backups.

[technologist]

Considering you start up, what, once or twice a week, does it really matter if it takes one minute or ten?

[deathcloud]

Considering you start up, what, once or twice a week, does it really matter if it takes one minute or ten?

It actually does matter. I was mad because I had the little 160GB HD 5400RPM and it would boot probably around 30-45 seconds.

Then I get excited by installing a new HD and it ends up taking 45 seconds to boot? Am I supposed to be happy about that? No I wasn't. I would turn my computer on, go do something else, because I don't want to stare at my screen for 45 seconds and also I installed a 500GB 7200rpm so I expected quick boot time but it wasn't working right and I knew something was up. Now I didn't just give up and say OH WELL... I searched through the forums and found some good advice and now I have a 15-20 second boot time and I don't have to leave and come back because it isn't that long of a wait.

I upgraded to 8Gigs of RAM (Mushkin PerfectMatch 8GB), and installed a 256GB Crucial M225 2.5" Serial-ATA Solid-State Drive.

If I spent 729.99 on memory and then 649.99 on a hard drive. Thats 1400+ basically another laptop. If I spent that much. Wow... That thing better boot so fast. And be an incredibly fast machine. I agree with the OP something is wrong. Hopefully you find a way to fix it. Maybe with some research and the tips I gave you it can be fast.

[sonic9t9]

If I spent 729.99 on memory and then 649.99 on a hard drive. Thats 1400+ basically another laptop. If I spent that much. Wow... That thing better boot so fast. And be an incredibly fast machine. I agree with the OP something is wrong. Hopefully you find a way to fix it. Maybe with some research and the tips I gave you it can be fast.

IMO seems kinda stupid to POUR that much cash into a computer that cost darn near that much originally.... I could see spending 1400 on an already 3k computer but ya..... .you get the idea.

[deathcloud]

IMO seems kinda stupid to POUR that much cash into a computer that cost darn near that much originally.... I could see spending 1400 on an already 3k computer but ya..... .you get the idea.

Yea true... maybe we both think alike lol. But this guy could be ballin' and have lots of expendable income. I really hope he figured it out because that would be one fast laptop.

[HSimm]

IMO seems kinda stupid to POUR that much cash into a computer that cost darn near that much originally.... I could see spending 1400 on an already 3k computer but ya..... .you get the idea.

I meant no offence by my post, and really don't see how anyone with an 'open mind' could take issue with it. My questions were honest and to the point, and my facts accurate. I have niether the time or inclination to enter into unrelated banter, or to list the reasons behind the whys of how I equipped my laptop. I will say that I am editing HD video with FCP and am running OS X 10.6 (10.6.1), and that I would install 12GB of Ram if possible, for anyone knowing anything of FCP this should be enough. I would like to say, that if anyone is sensitive here - it appears to be Mr. sonicptp himself. Mr. sonicptp has responded emotionally (multiple times now) to my post, each time choosing to ignore the opportunity to address my plea for assistance, and to offer any constructive input - why is this Mr. sonicptp??? If you are open to suggestions on improving your PC's performance, your 3-7 minute boot times 'are not normal' nor are they 'typical', but rather are signs of a very Sick PC, one that has probably suffered far too many crashes. Your PC may be beyond all help short of re-installing the OS, but if you're interested and haven't tried this yet.. try downloading a copy of the "BootVis" Optimizer and running it a few times. You may find that your boot up times drop dramatically, my old PC boot times held around 40-45 secs, and any deviation from this served as a barometer to developing problems. Good luck to you, my friend.

Thanks to all for your suggestions, time permitting I will test them all. I'm happy to say that since submitting my post in this forum I have found a couple of things that have reduced my 1:06 time to 30 secs flat!! I will leave them for anyone who wishes to try them as I withdraw my membership and leave your forum. Although resolving duplicate fonts in 'Font Book' works for many, I found no duplicate fonts so this technique did not work for me. I did however find remarkable improvement by going into 'System Performance' and pre-selecting a 'Start Up' drive, this one setting surprisingly reduced my boot time from 1:06 secs to 51 secs. The next thing tried was resetting the 'PRAM' [deathcloud,thx!]. Resetting the PRAM dropped my boot time down from 51 secs. to 30 secs. Yet having apps that must run under Windows, I relunctantly installed WinXP Pro on a Boot Camp partition, boot times for the Windows Boot Camp were surprisingly 2 secs faster than OS 10.5 @ 28 secs. Needing a Virtual Machine, I installed VMWare Fusion and configured Fusion to run Boot Camp as my virtual machine, the installation of VMWare Fusion increased my boot times to 35 secs. I then upgraded my OS X.5 to Snow Leopard 10.6 and flushed out the PRAM one more time and have resulted in good solid boot times of 32 secs. I now have a figure that I can live with and one that can be used to quickly gauge system deterioration.

I Bid You All Adieu

Regards,

HSimm

[superchargedgp]

Found it. Hope this helps

i jsut did this and it booted up in 29 sec

[deathcloud]

I meant no offence by my post, and really don't see how anyone with an 'open mind' could take issue with it. My questions were honest and to the point, and my facts accurate. I have niether the time or inclination to enter into unrelated banter, or to list the reasons behind the whys of how I equipped my laptop. I will say that I am editing HD video with FCP and am running OS X 10.6 (10.6.1), and that I would install 12GB of Ram if possible, for anyone knowing anything of FCP this should be enough. I would like to say, that if anyone is sensitive here - it appears to be Mr. sonicptp himself. Mr. sonicptp has responded emotionally (multiple times now) to my post, each time choosing to ignore the opportunity to address my plea for assistance, and to offer any constructive input - why is this Mr. sonicptp??? If you are open to suggestions on improving your PC's performance, your 3-7 minute boot times 'are not normal' nor are they 'typical', but rather are signs of a very Sick PC, one that has probably suffered far too many crashes. Your PC may be beyond all help short of re-installing the OS, but if you're interested and haven't tried this yet.. try downloading a copy of the "BootVis" Optimizer and running it a few times. You may find that your boot up times drop dramatically, my old PC boot times held around 40-45 secs, and any deviation from this served as a barometer to developing problems. Good luck to you, my friend.

Thanks to all for your suggestions, time permitting I will test them all. I'm happy to say that since submitting my post in this forum I have found a couple of things that have reduced my 1:06 time to 30 secs flat!! I will leave them for anyone who wishes to try them as I withdraw my membership and leave your forum. Although resolving duplicate fonts in 'Font Book' works for many, I found no duplicate fonts so this technique did not work for me. I did however find remarkable improvement by going into 'System Performance' and pre-selecting a 'Start Up' drive, this one setting surprisingly reduced my boot time from 1:06 secs to 51 secs. The next thing tried was resetting the 'PRAM' [deathcloud,thx!]. Resetting the PRAM dropped my boot time down from 51 secs. to 30 secs. Yet having apps that must run under Windows, I relunctantly installed WinXP Pro on a Boot Camp partition, boot times for the Windows Boot Camp were surprisingly 2 secs faster than OS 10.5 @ 28 secs. Needing a Virtual Machine, I installed VMWare Fusion and configured Fusion to run Boot Camp as my virtual machine, the installation of VMWare Fusion increased my boot times to 35 secs. I then upgraded my OS X.5 to Snow Leopard 10.6 and flushed out the PRAM one more time and have resulted in good solid boot times of 32 secs. I now have a figure that I can live with and one that can be used to quickly gauge system deterioration.

I Bid You All Adieu

Regards,

HSimm

Aw don't leave! This forum is actually helpful and I am sorry if you do continue to leave this forum it was nice helping you! Hope you love your mac still!

[sonic9t9]

"I would like to say, that if anyone is sensitive here - it appears to be Mr. sonicptp himself. Mr. sonicptp has responded emotionally (multiple times now) to my post, each time choosing to ignore the opportunity to address my plea for assistance, and to offer any constructive input - why is this Mr. sonicptp??? If you are open to suggestions on improving your PC's performance, your 3-7 minute boot times 'are not normal' nor are they 'typical', but rather are signs of a very Sick PC, one that has probably suffered far too many crashes. Your PC may be beyond all help short of re-installing the OS, but if you're interested and haven't tried this yet.. try downloading a copy of the "BootVis" Optimizer and running it a few times. You may find that your boot up times drop dramatically, my old PC boot times held around 40-45 secs, and any deviation from this served as a barometer to developing problems. Good luck to you, my friend.
"

LOL How am I the sensitive one I am not the one who jsut replied with a novel... BTW no my computer isn't sick at all. I have a lot of scripts my computer has to go through with group policy and all. It's not FAST @ 1.83 DUEL CORE, but it does have 4 gb of ram and can do packet captures and all sorts of things without problems. My computer never crashes, but great assumption. In fact the only issue I ever have is sometimes coming out of sleep, but that usually has to do with switching from battery to line power and back again. BTW it's sonic9t9 not sonicptp..... It's not a point to point LOL. I am sitting here in city hall laughing @ I responded emotionally. It's a message board dude get over the bluntness!!