Mac Pro turns on, but very slow to boot up

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Mac Pro turns on, but very slow to boot up

I have a Mac Pro with Intel processor, running OSX 10.6.8. I have completed all Apple software updates.

When I turn the computer on, the power button led light comes on, I can hear the fans, but a long pause where there is NO power to the monitor, keyboard or mouse. When I say long pause, I am estimating 2-3 minutes. Finally the gray screen will appear and it will boot up normally.

I have tried zapping PRAM, repairing disks, repairing disk permissions, unplugging everything and plugging it back in, clearing out all of the startup items, emptying trash, disk space is good with over 100 GB of free space and I even booted up using OS disk and resetting the startup disk.

Computer still has an odd pause between power on and booting. Not sure what is causing this, is it logic board or power supply issue? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks in advance!

Mac Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.8)

Posted on May 22, 2012 12:17 PM

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Answer 1

The hatter

Level 9

60,990 points

May 22, 2012 12:34 PM in response to tshaffer23

100GB free out of 300GB is okay, but out of 1TB is very low. Out of 250GB would be "good."

Pull all the hard drives except the boot drive.

Clone the boot drive to a newly erased drive, repair drive and permissions and reapply 10.6.8 combo update.

Pull PCIe cards other than the video card.

Reset SMC.

I have read of a few people with long 2-5 minutes to boot. Can't recall what if anything to resolve.

Open the side door. Any red lights? what is the RAM configuration?

All Mac Pro are Intel question is which model year is yours?

I would run Disk Warrior. And I would clone the system (Carbon Copy Cloner).

Any time you clear PRAM or NVRAM you need to reset the default startup drive so it will look there first for a system. But issues with any drive and unable or trouble mounting can cause problems.

Never use older OS to repair your drive but if you can I would use the clone or another drive to run repairs, and normally holding the Shift key to do Safe Boot.

Hold the Option key, how long until the boot menu manager shows?

Get out your Apple Hardware Test DVD and run that. Instructions on label "d" on startup to invoke.

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Answer 2

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,559 points

May 22, 2012 2:08 PM in response to tshaffer23

Do you get the same delay when booting from the installation disc?

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Answer 3

tshaffer23 Author

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May 22, 2012 2:20 PM in response to The hatter

I will try some of your suggestions later this week when I have more time.

To answer some of your questions though, the hard drive is a total of 640 GB, split into 2 partitions (200GB and 440GB). The 200 GB partition has 100 GB remaining and the 440GB partition has 400GB remaining). The 200GB partition has all of the applications and system files and libraries. So total only 140GB out of 640GB are being used.

When I open the side door there are no red lights blinking or showing.

When I check the RAM it says there's 3GB active. Not sure if there is a way to test the RAM other than pulling them out each stick and testing them.

Thanks for the suggestions!

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Answer 4

tshaffer23 Author

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May 22, 2012 2:22 PM in response to Linc Davis

Linc,

Yes the delay was the same when booting from the install disc. Anytime I restarted, it acted as though it shutdown completely as the monitor went black and the power indicator on the monitor showed it was no longer receiving a signal. The keyboard and mouse would also lose power for a few minutes and then it would eventually all turn back on. Very odd!

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Answer 5

The hatter

Level 9

60,990 points

May 22, 2012 2:25 PM in response to tshaffer23

Things you want to look at

upgrade the RAM to 3 x 2GB or more.

Move any active files to another hard drive - hopefully you are not using your boot drive for anything other than the system and the rest 400GB volume is static and not active or user files which are better off on another drive.

And do boot from another drive and use that to repair yours - on first sign of trouble is when to do a Safe Boot to clear up but it does rebuild drivers and system cache files.

Try booting again from DVD, only before you do, pull all the drives out and see if that helps. Even a dVD still looks at all the internal drives for system.

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Answer 6

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,559 points

May 22, 2012 2:37 PM in response to tshaffer23

It sounds like a hardware problem. Make a "Genius" appointment at an Apple Store to have the machine tested.

Back up all data on the internal drive(s) before you hand over your computer to anyone. If privacy is a concern, erase the data partition(s) with the option to write zeros (do this only if you know how to restore, and you have at least two independent backups.) Don’t erase the Lion recovery partition, if present.

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