Slow boot up in Leopard

1. in home directory/library/cache...put this folder in trash and then reboot and then empty the trash

2. reset the pram, begin to restart and when the screen goes black just before is restart, press apple/option/P/R all together, wait for the machine to bong twice and let go.


That really worked, and gave me back almost Tiger boot speeds. Shutting down is now 5 seconds as opposed to a minute. Brilliant.

You say that you hold down command/option/p/r on the black screen and let it on after it 'bongs twice'. Is the bongs directly one after each other or is there a pause? I've deleted the 'caches' folder (and emptied trash) and reset the pram but there doesn't seem to have made a difference.

Tried the delete caches a while back when the issue first started, It seem to fix it short term. I've found that turning on the login screen helps stop the blue screen, still takes a bit to get going though.
I've also started to notice that once booted the first run of an app, ie mail.app takes about 30-45 seconds to start running once selected from the dock.

Steve

I have been troubleshooting Leopard boot issues in iMac G5 1.8 GHz (pre-iSight) - had no boot after initial Leopard install; reinstall using Archive and Install resulted in issues with vestigial Bluetooth Mighty Mouse- PRAM-zap cured that, but still getting SWOD on boot. Both fsck (forced via -f switch) and Disk Utility (DVD startup) indicate file system is OK, but can't get menubar to appear once Finder is visible. Haven't yet run 10.5.1 update, though this thread suggests resolution of interminable boot isn't fixed by the update -***?
Haven't taken G4 powerBook up to Leopard until 1st powerMac is functional (wife's MacBook seems happy - insufficient PPC QA??) So glad I went for the 5-user pack (not!) }:^(>

Hoping to solve this since it seems once people solve it, they stop posting.

I upgraded from Tiger to Leopard using the upgrade/update option. Not the archive install, not the erase and install. I went from 25s boot time to 70s boot time, and while Tiger was ready to go after it's 25s, Leopard needed another 40s after boot before apps started (much like my win xp can). At 110s I was horrified. I checked this thread, cleaned cache, cleaned up desktop and shaved a good 15s off the total time, but it was still horribly slow and I was considering sticking to Tiger and leaving Leopard in it's box, but...

Solution:
After further reading on forums, I tried this:
I backed up all my stuff.
I did a clean Erase and install.
After reinstalling my apps and files I've got a boot time of 30s (of which 5s is annoying bluescreen with arrow) and after that apps start instantly. This is a 5s increase, and I can certainly live with that.

In short. Don't update your Tiger system, backup your files and do a clean erase and install and it'll work like a dream.

Thanks for the tip. I am planning on doing this once I get my external hard drive and time to do it over christmas break.

did any one try this solution? http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=306857

Well I am glad others are seeing this issue. I just got a Dual Quad Core 3ghz Mac Pro with 4 gig RAM and 2 TB of system and storage HDD.
This machine use to start up by breathing on it when I had 10.4.10 installed, I upgraded to 10.5 and the start up went from 14seconds to 1 minute 6 seconds.....a signifiant change.
I have spoken to Apple Support and tried all the booting from other computers and the firewire boot up thing but no difference. They suggested that I reinstall my OS but zero the drive first, am going nuts.
One thing that I have is a Dual 2.5 PowerPC with 2ghz RAM and this thing starts up with 10.5 in 56 seconds....I wonder if it is an Intel thing. What ever it is I want it fixed and the Mac Pro just does not seem to be performing as well as I would have thought for such a powerful computer.
Any suggestions would be welcome.
Del

what am i suppose to press and hold exactly

Anybody try booting in verbose mode? Hold down command + v after the boot chime, let the machine boot, then reboot. See if it speeds up your boot time. Please let me know if this helps. Cheers.

_*How to speed up your Mac:*_
+Any step below can be done in any order and not all steps need to be preformed.+

1) Open a Finder window. On the left, click "Macintosh HD" (or whatever your hard drive is named). To the right, go into the "Library" folder. Go into the "StartupItems" folder. Any folders in here are a program that loads when the computer starts up. You may delete any or all of these folders. An administrator password will be required. NOTE: So programs may require some of these items to run properly, so I recommend being selective when deleting items.

2) Click the Apple (Top left). Click "System Preferences...". Click "Accounts". Click the "Login Items" tab. Any items in this list are programs that open when you log on to this specific account (the check-mark does not have anything to do if it runs or not). To remove an item from this list, select it and click the "-" button. NOTE: So programs may require some of these items to run properly, so I recommend being selective when removing items.

3) Open a Finder window. On the left, click on the picture of a house with your username beside it. To the right, go into the "Library" folder. Locate the folder called "caches". Drag this entire folder to the trash and empty the trash. Some items may not empty from the trash, do not worry about this.

4) Open a Finder window. On the left, click "Macintosh HD" (or whatever your hard drive is named). To the right, go into the "Library" folder. Locate the folder called "caches". Drag this entire folder to the trash (this will require an administrator password) and empty the trash. Some items may not empty from the trash, do not worry about this.

Have tried mostly every suggestion in this thread, to no avail. Still experiencing horrendous boot times, particularly after upgrading to 10.5.1. In my case, having Parallels on my system may be causing some of this, as there are multiple start-up items required in order for it to properly run. I have also noticed that having a separate boot camp partition appears to contribute to this dilemma. When I revert to a single partition, boot times are much more efficient, although the decrease in seconds is not substantial enough, in my mind, to justify not having the 2nd partition. Bottom line, the issue is still far too prevalent on a regular basis for my tastes.

it actually made it worse for me. do i need to revert anything now or will it be normal on the next reboot? it seems, from reviewing this forum, that it's affecting us who've updated to 10.5.1. silly apple...

Verbose mode is only that boot, it doesn't change any settings. It will startup normally next boot.

Boot up your system again and right afterwards, open Console.app and look at the console logs.
I tried this after installing Leopard and noticed that VMWare Fusion takes 10-14 seconds to load (an estimate as I really don't remember right now and do not wish to reboot at this time), thereby contributing to the longer boot times than say, other users that post "32 second boot times..."

While reviewing your logs, you will also catch an error or two with other startup programs and such....I know I found some. Take a look. See what you find...