MBP Loooooong Startup

[shouseee]

Hoping for any clues that might solve this without having to reinstall! I posted on Apple Discussions...no replies yet. Here's the problem:


Have a 15" MacBook Pro. 2.2GHz, 4GB RAM OS 10.5.5. Over 40GB of HD space available. Last week it was working fine. Left it powered on all weekend at work and now it takes almost 6 minutes from power button to login screen.   More specifically, at about 25 sec. the grey apple appears and around 1:30 or so the blue screen shows up. From there it hangs for the rest of the time. No HD noises, nothing!


I have booted from a Leopard upgrade disk...disk verified fine and repaired permissions. Reset PRAM. Still no beans. I upgraded RAM a few weeks ago, but like I said, it was working fine up until this week.


What else should I look for? Settings? Caches? Never had this problem on another mac before? 6 minutes is a long time to wait on a current computer. Thanks in advance!

[shouseee]

More info at:
Apple Discussions Thread

[kbeartx]

QUOTE

I have booted from a Leopard upgrade disk...

Didja notice how long that took?

QUOTE

I upgraded RAM a few weeks ago

IMO, it'd be good to rule out the new RAM as a possible culprit by swapping out the new for the old as a test.

One possibility that occurs to me is a failing hard disk - have you run a hardware test to check it?

KB

[krissel]

Turn off autoconnection to the wireless network and any similar setting.  Looks like it is trying to find the network but can't and is then reverting to the FW connection to look there, etc.

Also startup in Safe mode and see if that improves things.

QUOTE

To start up into Safe Mode (to "Safe Boot"), do this:

   1. Be sure the computer is shut down.
   2. Press the power button.
   3. Immediately after you hear the startup tone, press and hold the Shift key.
      Tip: The Shift key should be held as soon as possible after the startup tone but not before.
   4. Release the Shift key when you see the gray Apple and progress indicator (looks like a spinning gear).

[shouseee]

Update! Memory checks out according to a boot into hardware test. Booting from the Leopard disk earlier seemed reasonable considering it was reading from a DVD...didn't time it though. Safe boot didn't seem to make much of a difference in start up time. However, I got a whim to use target disk mode and boot the MBP's HD through my iMac. No beans! Didn't even see the drive. Tried it the other way around and the MBP didn't see the iMac's drive. I don't have any other FW devices at my disposal, but I'm wondering if this isn't a case of a bad FW controller.

If that were the case, my guess is that the FW controller is built in to the motherboard. Here's hoping it's not really a hardware problem! At least it's still under warranty. (It was a refurb unit.) So whaddayathink? Am I misreading things? Should I schedule an appt. with a genius?

[Gregg]

QUOTE

...Just started this week

And you initiated the boot up last week?

Around midnight on Saturday, I hope...

Really, if you're close enough to an Apple Store to have them take a look, why not? Since booting in Safe Mode didn't improve things, don't you think that points to hardware rather than software?

[Paddy]

One thing I noticed in the logs you posted at the Apple forums:

Oct 24 22:07:34 Rick-MBP SecurityAgent113: NSExceptionHandler has recorded the following exception:\nNSRangeException -- *** -NSCFArray objectAtIndex:: index (0) beyond bounds (0)\nStack trace: 0x3719a 0x95e3ce3b 0x9392ef2b 0x9392ef6a 0x94c87bbf 0x94c05548 0x81f56 0x82795 0x6bc81 0x80213 0x73dc1 0x750f6 0x7d8d0 0x7e3cd 0x86d7d 0x940be3a5 0x8608d 0x9408a311 0x93fe7d0f 0x10fc7 0x202a 0x1
Oct 24 22:07:37 Rick-MBP authorizationhost112: MechanismInvoke 0x12e690 retainCount 2

The big gap in the startup is around this point.

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1447051

Note - the poster doesn't note any actual problems with startup. Interesting, nonetheless.

The hardware test disk often doesn't pick things up, in my experience. Take the new RAM out and put the old stuff back in and see if startup time is affected. You will see a slightly longer startup time with more RAM, but 6 minutes is not normal.

Also, as Kris suggests, turn off the autoconnection to the wireless network.

As for the firewire - sounds like you have a bad cable, since NEITHER machine can see the other.

[Gregg]

There's an interesting story today in our newspaper. You know, the kind that uses ink to print words on actual newsprint paper, which you then have to read. It's archaic, I know, but anyway...

A company called DeviceVM is making a quick-boot program called Splashtop for PCs. HP, Dell and Lenovo are making machines designed to boot up for basic functions like e-mail and a web browser in 30 seconds or less. The article does mention that Macs boot faster than other computers.

The story is from the New York Times by Matt Richtel and Ashlee Vance if anyone wants to search for it. I read it in the Journal-Sentinel (jsonline.com).

[shouseee]

Well I visited the Apple Store today with my ailing MBP. The genius that I talked to said he had only been working with Macs 4 months! But he seemed to know what he was doing... He was able to confirm that it takes a long time to start it up.   And that FW was a goner. And voila...I'm getting a new logic board. We shall see how it works in a few days! Thanks for the help and advice!

Oh, and as a side note, the new MacBook they had on display boots in under 25 seconds!