delayed start for eMac

My eMac Power PC has been slow to start up. I now have to hold the power button for several seconds longer than usual to start it up. When the light comes on it now blinks rapidly a few times before the start up begins. Everything seems to work fine but the slow start up has me concerned. Should I be? Any suggestions or help with this would be greatly appreciated.

If you have the original Apple disks that came with your eMac, use Disk 1 to boot (press and hold the C key) and then run a hardware test from Utilities.
Second - run Console and check the Log for fault reports.
Post back with results, if any.

Sorry to say that I don't seem to have those disks any longer. I ran disk utility and onyx and no reports of any disk problems.

ozbuc said:

Sorry to say that I don't seem to have those disks any longer. I ran disk utility and onyx and no reports of any disk problems.

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DU may not find a problem on a startup volume because it can't unmount it.

If it's worth it to you, I suggest Disk Warrior, but at US$100 or thereabouts, it's an expensive repair exercise.

Some thoughts:
1. What are Spotlight Prefs set to search? If it's going through the whole of the hard disk, it's going to delay startup in terms of waiting for the final desktop.
2. Are there some apps and other hungry items that you can do without?
3. Is there some third-party backup software in operation?
4. Have you checked the RAM? There's third-party test software available.

I may have misstated my problem when I said slow to start up. It starts up fine once the power light comes on. I have to hold in the power button for several seconds to get my Mac to begin to start.

ozbuc said:

I may have misstated my problem when I said slow to start up. It starts up fine once the power light comes on. I have to hold in the power button for several seconds to get my Mac to begin to start.

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Ah, I did wonder about that. There was a post on another forum some weeks ago mentioning a similar problem. From memory, the responses were something along the lines of a faulty power switch in the eMac, the solution being to replace it.