Sometimes Incredibly Fast Startup, Other Times Not So Fast

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20" 2.0GHz Intel Core Duo iMac, 1.5 GHZ PPC Mac Mini, MacBook MB403LL/A
I notice this with both my new iMac and my PPC Mini. Sometimes, on a restart, I'll reach the login prompt at lightning speed. Other times, it will take considerably longer. No real concern, because as I said, both machines exhibit the same behavior, but I'd love to know what might account for it. I have external firewire drives on both, and I'm inclined to think that the detection of those drives or "drive ready" time might be a factor, but that's just a guess.

Mark
 
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20" Intel iMac, 15" Powerbook G4 (sold), 20GB iPod (nearing death)
It may be the drives, I haven't had any fluctuation with my imac nor have I had them with powerbook. Try keeping them unconnected and see what happens with a few restarts.
 
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geekboy2000
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TBoblp said:
It may be the drives, I haven't had any fluctuation with my imac nor have I had them with powerbook. Try keeping them unconnected and see what happens with a few restarts.

Thank you. I'll do that and see what happens. That's probably the only real variable.

Mark
 
U

UncSki1218

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yeah...could be the drives. also just try repairing/verifying permissions with disk utility. and try running daily/weekly/monthly scripts with something like: onyx, cocktail or macjanitor.
 
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Mac Studio, M1 Max, 32 GB RAM, 2 TB SSD
The other thing that may be at play is how quickly your internet connection establishes. I was noting wild variability in how quickly my new Power Mac G5 would come up. Sometimes it was almost instantaneous, sometimes it took quite a while. The Power Mac G5 has two LAN connections labelled "1" and "2". I had provisioned all the details about my connection against connection number "1", but in my newbie ignorance had plugged the DSL modem into connection number "2". SOMEHOW, Mac OS X could work this out and make it go, it is just that it seemed to take a variable amount of time. Once I realized what was going on, and moved the cable to connector "1", everything became very predictable in terms of start up speed.

So, the moral of this story? How fast is your internet connection establishing? Does your ISP have variable connect times? This might be part of the issue you are seeing.
 
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geekboy2000
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20" 2.0GHz Intel Core Duo iMac, 1.5 GHZ PPC Mac Mini, MacBook MB403LL/A
I leave all of my machines (except the laptops) on 24/7. The iMac is connected via the ethernet connection, and the mini via wireless (to the same router/network). The connection is always on, but maybe it's DNS aquisition or something like that. Good point though - thanks!

Mark
 
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onestep

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I don't know if you are running Parallels Desktop, but ever since I installed it, and it does some network setup, it takes what seems like forever to login to my account.

You may try setting up another user account, as a test account, and see if the problem persisits.
 
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geekboy2000
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onestep said:
I don't know if you are running Parallels Desktop, but ever since I installed it, and it does some network setup, it takes what seems like forever to login to my account.

You may try setting up another user account, as a test account, and see if the problem persisits.

Thanks for the follow-up. I'm not running Parallels, but I think I had a firewire enclosure that was a bit flaky, and it had, at one time, been connected to both machines. Now that's out of service, and everything seems fine and consistent.

Mark
 

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