[badidea]

I hope someone here has an idea what to do!
Since a few days my startup process became very very slow. The actual startup until the desktop picture appears is fast as always but then it still takes about 45secs until the HDs and the menubar show up (HD is working very much in that time)!

I didn't install anything new lately but I think that maybe some prefs got corrupt....??

The standard stuff like UNIX maintenance and repairing permissions didn't help!
Diskwarrior also didn't find any problems!

What should I do next?

[Big Mac]

Does it happen in all users? CharlesS gave some suggestions to another user who was having trouble with the Finder not launching; I would imagine the same tips would apply in your situation.

[themexican]

1. check and see that some program is not being run in your startup items.

2. Rux Xupport (version tracker) and clear the desktop cache.

This often fixes the problem.

3. If not then run Disk Utility and fix permissions and then reboot holding down command-S and type in "fsck -yf" at the prompt. When done reboot by typing "reboot"

[MacGallant]

Do you have a lot of fonts? It maybe a font cache problem.
Here's the Apple Forum Link about the solving the slow startup with the menubar and icons stalling to appear on the desktop.

Clearing the font cache solved the problem for that person.

[badidea]

Thanks guys!
It's my user, I just tested that.
I will check the font cache thing now...

[badidea]

Originally posted by MacGallant:

Clearing the font cache solved the problem for that person.

Not for me!

[Goldfinger]

Yeah, for me loggin in takes aaaaages. Way more than 45 seconds. I have this from the moment I install FCP. With a clean install everything is fine and dandy fast but the moment you install FCP all goes to hell and loggin in takes ages. I'm used to it now but it's annoying still. I'll time it if somebody is interested

[badidea]

Originally posted by Goldfinger:
I'll time it if somebody is interested

Sure, go ahead!
Time the whole startup process though, not just loggin in (for better comparison)! The winner gets a coffee!

[Randman]

Check fonts. If not that, create a new user and see if the startup takes as long for the new user. If not, you might want to back up and do a clean install (or try to hand on till Tiger shows up).

[badidea]

Originally posted by Randman:
Check fonts. If not that, create a new user and see if the startup takes as long for the new user. If not, you might want to back up and do a clean install (or try to hand on till Tiger shows up).

Thanks for trying to help but as I already posted:
- new user does not have the problem
- I don't have many fonts enabled and clearing all caches with cocktail did not help
- the problem is about 5 days old and I didn't change anything in that time (no new fonts, no new menu enchancer, ...)
- I already did all UNIX maintenance more than once (repairing permissions, clearing caches and log files, ...)
- DiskWarrior did not find any problems

-> I think it could be some messed up pref but there are soooooo many that I have no idea what to delete (that's the time when I miss OS 9)

[Goldfinger]

I did 2 reboots: one without automatic login and one with automatic login.
It was a warm reboot, timing starts the moment I hear the chime.

Non autologin:
From black screen to gray screen: 17 sec
From gray screen to log in panel: 38 sec
From login panel to commpletely booted (icons on desktop): 1 min 04 sec
Total time: 1min 59 seconds (aprox)

Autologin:
From black screen to gray screen: 17sec
From gray screen to login proces: 35 sec
From login proces to readyness: 38 seconds
these last 38 seconds were timed until the icons appeared on the desktop, after they appeared the drive was trashing for another good 10-15 seconds so that makes it about 50seconds
Total time: 1min 31 seconds (aprox)

I repeat: login was instantanious before installing FCP.

I'm on a Titanium PowerBook 867 with 1GB RAM and a 60GB 7200rpm Hitachi drive.

[badidea]

Non autologin:
From black screen to gray screen: 25 sec
From gray screen to log in panel: 30 sec
From login panel to commpletely booted (icons on desktop): 1 min 03 sec
Total time: 1min 58 seconds (aprox)

Autologin:
From black screen to gray screen: 30sec
From gray screen to login proces: 30 sec
From login proces to readyness: 1min 05 seconds
Total time: 2min 05 seconds


I'm on a Quicksilver 1.4GHz (upgrade) with 896MB RAM and a 60GB 7200rpm (Hitachi ?) drive.


Sounds pretty similar!