Why is start up so slow suddenly?

V

vonnline

Registered
After a year of using this laptop, it recently has begun to take over seven minutes to start up. I shut down every night. I clean the cache and remove cookies often. I share this laptop with another. He uses explorer and has a lot of programs and work product stored on here. I use safari and have nothing.

Recently I was
 
Hi,
you share that laptop and he work a lot with a lot of softwares .
Maybe you don't hav not much ram install in the laptop and the HD is maybe too full i.e. more than 85 % write on it !
You should make back-ups of files on DVD or external firewire HD.
 
WHat are the specifications of your laptop? What operating system are you using? Please include more information regarding your laptop so that we can pinpoint the problem.

While we are willing to help, please remember that this is a forum for help on Apple Macintosh computers. We would also be happy to give you any information if you are interested on Apple's Macintosh desktops and laptops, as well as their iPods, iPhone, and software.
 
nixgeek said:
WHat are the specifications of your laptop? What operating system are you using? Please include more information regarding your laptop so that we can pinpoint the problem.

While we are willing to help, please remember that this is a forum for help on Apple Macintosh computers. We would also be happy to give you any information if you are interested on Apple's Macintosh desktops and laptops, as well as their iPods, iPhone, and software.
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Thanks for your willingness to help. Sorry I am a dummy. I am using Mac OS X version 10.2.8 and Safari 1.0.3 (v85.8.1). And now I have another question.

I had been having the computer go to sleep whenever there was a pause. It occurred to me that it did not have time then to do it's housekeeping. I eliminated that and keep it awake even during idle periods. It seems much quicker. Does my thinking have any base in reality? Is it just a band-aid?

Do you know of a good place for people like me to learn what is really going on? Or should I just buy an abacus, a tablet and a pencil? lol
(Shhhhhhhh - dumb question . . . . "please remember that this is a forum for help on Apple Macintosh computers." Isn't this an Apple Mac?)
 
vonnline said:
I had been having the computer go to sleep whenever there was a pause. It occurred to me that it did not have time then to do it's housekeeping. I eliminated that and keep it awake even during idle periods. It seems much quicker. Does my thinking have any base in reality?
Click to expand...

Yes, it's possible you've hit upon the problem there.

OS X performs regular maintenence routines. There's one it runs daily, one it runs weekly, and one it runs monthly. It tries to run these in the middle of the night, when you're likely not to be using the machine. Unfortunately, if the computer is shut down, it might not run them. This behavior was presumably designed more for servers and other machines that run 24/7 than for systems that are shut down daily.

You could put the machine to sleep instead of shutting it down. Sleeping will delay the maintenance routines from running, but it will not stop them like shutting down might. For example, if you have the computer asleep for 8 hours, the routine will run 8 hours later than originally scheduled — but as long as you don't shut down, you can be sure that it will run.

Generally OS X performs better when you don't shut down daily anyway. Personally, I tend to restart only about once a month.

You can also use utilities such as OnyX to run these maintenance scripts manually. It's not vital that the "daily" script gets run every single day, so you don't need to worry about it too much. But if you choose to keep shutting down, you should make a point to run them manually every now and then.
 
chevy said:
How full is your HD ?
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Good question. I have no clue. I hunted around to see if I could locate some meter or measure. I found lots of recommended cures for full ones but no way to measure if full or not? Would you now be so kind as to tell me how to locate the fullness of my HD? Thanks!
 
Mikuro said:
Yes, it's possible you've hit upon the problem there.

OS X performs regular maintenence routines. There's one it runs daily, one it runs weekly, and one it runs monthly. It tries to run these in the middle of the night, when you're likely not to be using the machine. Unfortunately, if the computer is shut down, it might not run them. This behavior was presumably designed more for servers and other machines that run 24/7 than for systems that are shut down daily.

You could put the machine to sleep instead of shutting it down. Sleeping will delay the maintenance routines from running, but it will not stop them like shutting down might. For example, if you have the computer asleep for 8 hours, the routine will run 8 hours later than originally scheduled — but as long as you don't shut down, you can be sure that it will run.

Generally OS X performs better when you don't shut down daily anyway. Personally, I tend to restart only about once a month.

You can also use utilities such as OnyX to run these maintenance scripts manually. It's not vital that the "daily" script gets run every single day, so you don't need to worry about it too much. But if you choose to keep shutting down, you should make a point to run them manually every now and then.
Click to expand...



Thank you so much. Thoughts like these were dancing around in my head but I was unable to state them clearly, the way you have. I know just enough to be dangerous!

I thought I was doing the best thing by shutting down nightly.
I have noticed an huge improvement since I do not shut down so often.

Thank you so very much.
 
Hi Vonn, in Finder, select your Hard Drive, and right click (control-click) and "info", that will tell how much is used or not in use.
Mac OS X would need, as said above, at least 15 % of free space to work properly - irregardless of the hard drive size, so 15 % for a 10 GB drive and 15 % for a 10 TB ...
 
Do you leave your iPod connected when you start-up ? This significantly delays the start-up !
 
I couldn't let this day pass without coming over here and saying, "Thank you all!" and "Happy New Year!" I was turned in another direction for the last month. As things quiet down, I intend to get right back into this, no matter how long my understanding takes! Giaguara, I couldn't do as you said but I am advised the machine has ample space available. Thanks for your suggestion. I actually understood it! chevy, no ipod! And Randy, I will be reading that web page asap. Thanks! Best of Everything In 2008!
 
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