Snow Leopard slow to start and shutdown

[gavlister]

Anyone having this trouble? My macbook pro now shuts down a lot faster but the mac pro(early 2009 2.66 quad) is a lot slower. The dock disappears straight away but then just takes a long time.

Is there any way to look at what is booting and time it takes etc?

[Mushroom]

What is your build version?

[gavlister]

What is your build version?

10.6.1...........says I have to type 10 characters to post a message :-)

[fangpyre]

Consider a knock-knock joke next time :P

[gierran]

Anyone having this trouble? My macbook pro now shuts down a lot faster but the mac pro(early 2009 2.66 quad) is a lot slower. The dock disappears straight away but then just takes a long time.

Is there any way to look at what is booting and time it takes etc?

Slow startup and shutdown is generally caused by third party software you've installed. You can check what apps are set to launch on startup in System Prefs>Accounts. Perhaps you have some extra menus or a hidden daemon installed that's not letting go on shutdown and forcing leopard to wait 30 secs to timeout and force quit it.

You should consider a clean install on a formatted disk. I always back up my user folder and do a clean install rather than an update. I then manually reinstall all applications and then copy all my documents back. If you back up your user account, you can even transfer your itunes library and other settings from the old Library folder as required.

The shutdown on my MacPro takes about 5 seconds if there are no open apps.

You can use Activity Monitor to determine what applications are running.

[gavlister]

Slow startup and shutdown is generally caused by third party software you've installed. You can check what apps are set to launch on startup in System Prefs>Accounts. Perhaps you have some extra menus or a hidden daemon installed that's not letting go on shutdown and forcing leopard to wait 30 secs to timeout and force quit it.

You should consider a clean install on a formatted disk. I always back up my user folder and do a clean install rather than an update. I then manually reinstall all applications and then copy all my documents back. If you back up your user account, you can even transfer your itunes library and other settings from the old Library folder as required.

The shutdown on my MacPro takes about 5 seconds if there are no open apps.

You can use Activity Monitor to determine what applications are running.

Thanks for the reply Gierran

I have been trying to delete individual items one by one to help this but so far no luck.

You are right tho, it waits for about 30 secs before shutting down so guess it is forcing it! It also takes a long time to start, not just in shutting down.

I am fairly new to macs, is there some kind of log I could access that shows whether processes are having problems?

I guess if all else fails I will just do a clean install. I would rather find the culprit tho so I don't make the same mistake again!

[hakka]

MainMenu App + iDefrag app will definitely help

[michl]

Thanks for the reply Gierran
You are right tho, it waits for about 30 secs before shutting down so guess it is forcing it! It also takes a long time to start, not just in shutting down.

I am fairly new to macs, is there some kind of log I could access that shows whether processes are having problems?

How full is your disk? Because if really full that might be a major cause of slowdown... Generally speaking, it is good to have less than 90% capacity.

Yes iDefrag is good (and now SL compatible, almost) but it cannot help with a full disk. For that, one can use the excellent, free utility OmniDiskSweeper to see where the bloat lies - then make room. Another free tool, Onyx, can help getting read of temp files, empty caches, and other maintenance.

Since you're new to Mac (welcome!) one place to start checking is the System Preferences, Accounts panel, then check the Login Items for daemons and other background processes. Otherwise you can use Apple's Activity Monitor (in the Applications/Utilities folder) to see what processes are running etc.

Such problem might also be related to file permissions. You can check / fix them using Disk Utility. Repairing permissions is actually part of regular maintenance.

Hope this will help...

[gavlister]

MainMenu App + iDefrag app will definitely help

Thanks Hakka

gave these a try with no luck.

[gavlister]

How full is your disk? Because if really full that might be a major cause of slowdown... Generally speaking, it is good to have less than 90% capacity.

Yes iDefrag is good (and now SL compatible, almost) but it cannot help with a full disk. For that, one can use the excellent, free utility OmniDiskSweeper to see where the bloat lies - then make room. Another free tool, Onyx, can help getting read of temp files, empty caches, and other maintenance.

Since you're new to Mac (welcome!) one place to start checking is the System Preferences, Accounts panel, then check the Login Items for daemons and other background processes. Otherwise you can use Apple's Activity Monitor (in the Applications/Utilities folder) to see what processes are running etc.

Such problem might also be related to file permissions. You can check / fix them using Disk Utility. Repairing permissions is actually part of regular maintenance.

Hope this will help...

Thanks Michi

it isn't a problem of running slow, more something hanging in the system. As with gierran, my macbook pro shuts down in around 5 seconds but the mac pro takes a full 30 seconds indicating it has to force quit something. The disk is far from full. I have removed all of the login items and slowly removing others programs. Have also tried repairing permissions. The problem I am finding with the activity monitor is which are normal mac items and which are from added applications so am having to do a search on each item via the internet. I have been using the console to check the logs and seem to have several applications that although I have deleted them (using app zapper) they still are showing up in the log as starting and shutting down. I can't locate these files on the system but they are getting error messages of different sorts on the log.

Well it gives me a bit of fun and am learning more of the ins and outs of mac. It doesn't really cause a problem but guess will eventually do a complete reformat if I can't sort it out soon.

Thanks again for the help everyone