How do you reduce startup time in OS 8.6?
by turning off extentions in extention manager?

[Gregg]

Your answer is the first thing I'd try. Determine which extensions are not needed to do what you're intending to do that session. Establish several extension sets for different sessions and use only those that apply.

Also, there is a utility out there, I think it's called Startup Doubler. Search for it on a shareware site like Twocows or MacHome. I had it once, but it didn't make such a big difference for me. You might have a different experience with it.

[marc]

I have never found anyone who thought that programs like Startup Doubler saved more that a few seconds. Turning off unneeded extensions, as Gregg suggests, can make a real difference (if you know which extensions are unneeded ). For real savings, try not turning the machine off. I have the energy saver set to turn off the display after 20 min. of non-use, and to put the system to sleep after an hour. I have never had problems waking from sleep. At work we never turn of our machines (to allow network backup). The iMacs have been running without being turned off for over a year. Our previous computers were on for 6-8 years. At home, I turn my machine off at night, but that's just my preference.

Another trick you can try is to hold Command-Option while selecting the Memory control panel. A hidden option will now be displayed allowing you to turn off the start-up memory test. Depending on how much memory you have, this can take quite a bit of time off the start-up time. Obviously, the more memory in your machine, the more of a difference you will see.

Also, trim your Fonts folder if you can. The OS has to check and verify each and every font in the folder before it even begins its star-up process. Good luck...

The more fonts you have in your fonts folder the longer the startup time. Since I have Font Reserve, only the necessary system fonts are in the fonts folder, the others are activated through Font Reserve. My startup time is reduced by almost 1 minute.

[jaysones]

If you uncheck the "Mount at startup" option in the File Exchange Control Panel, it will shave off a couple of seconds. THis is only needed if you have a PC formatted hard drive.

[jsbowers]

Also make sure you have a startup disk selected in the Startup Disk control panel. If you open it and there is no volume highlighted, this means that the Mac will go with the default option... only after a lengthy exploration of all disks connected to the computer.

[47Ronin]

For any control panel or extension that has the option of showing an icon at startup, make sure it is set to OFF. It may shave off a second or two in the long run if you don't have to get all the icons to draw themselves on your screen at boot time.

------------------
Glenn
47 Ronin Multimedia
www.47ronin.com

[Burpethead]

if you have a G3 and 64 megs of ram or more, speed startup works great for me. it saves me 30 sec on my iMac!!

[disectamac]

ON A SIDE NOTE-

The following doesn't actually speed up your start up time, yet it prevents you from ever seeing it start up:

if you relatively use your computer at the same times every day use the energy saver control panel to start the computer up by itself around the same time everyday......

This way you'll never see a start up time ever.

I sometimes use my computer as an alarm clock...just set your volume up all the way and drop a sound file in your start up folder (system sound format) to play some really loud music to wake you up in the morning.....for those of you who prefer the convential (traditional) alarm clock sound..you know..that irratating..."EEEHH" "EEHH" "EEEHH" "EEEHH" sound.....you can download this sound as a wav file from several different websites....one of which is www.wavcity.com ... or you can record your own with the sound control panel...just hold your ringing alarm clock to the built in speaker and record away...use it as your startup sound

[This message has been edited by disectamac (edited 01-02-2000).]

[olePigeon]

The best you can do is turn off unneeded extensions.

The other thing you can do is check applictions like Norton, AfterDark, Kaleidoscope, etc., a lot of them have options for turning off their icon at start up. That will speed things up a bit.

Plus, try to keep your 3rd party extensions to a minimum. You may not get all the neat functions as some people have made, but it will definately keep your computer more faster and more responsive.

[slboett]

ANOTHER great reason to buy Conflict Catcher is that you can totally disable all icons during the startup process. It's very weird, but it does cut a little time off of the startup sequence.

Scott

[l008com]

Now if none of these choices has really taken enough tie off and your mac still takes a while to start up (I'm on of the people who never shuts thier mac off), then you should get a progrm calls 'Startup Player'. It is sharware and what it does is load a sound file and loop it while you mac starts up, so that you mac plays a nice song during start up, it's really cool, even though it ads more, not less, time.

[Misha]

In my testing, Speed Startup has taken off anywhere from 10-20 seconds during startup... this is on systems ranging from a PowerBook 1400/183 to a G3/500... it always helps. The question is, does it help enough to justify its cost. That's up to you... there's a 7 day trial so see for yourself if the time it saves is worth $20.
http://www.speedstartup.com/

If you have bucket loads of money, buy lots of RAM and use it as a startup disk. Problem is, it can't be used from a cold start.
Also, there is a RAM Disk on a PCI card for sale somewhere (can't remember where I saw it). It's not cheap.

I've noticed that turning off appletalk will save you about 10 seconds during startup.

You can always turn it back on when you need it.

I'm using a Beige G3 and an Assante combo network card (AUI/UTP).


Adam Skwersky