"Safe Boot"?

Question

Level 1

70 points

"Safe Boot"?

At least once a day, usually when it hasn't been used in a while, my iMac running 10.7.4 starts up in safe boot. It takes a long time to get to the log-in screen where in the upper right in big red friendy letters it says "Safe Boot". When this happens, I can't run any Java on the web, and my USB ports don't seem to be recognized. I don;'t rteally know if anything else is affected because I usually end up rebooting.

I can immediately restart my iMac and things are fine.

I've run permissions repair but nothing comes up as out of kilter.

Any ideas?

PS I should add, I'm nowhere near the Shift key on boot. I'm in the kitchen grabbing coffee or soemthing.

iMac, Mac OS X (10.7.4), 2.7 GHz Intel Core i5, 4GB RAM

Posted on Sep 4, 2012 4:45 AM

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Answer 1

mende1

Level 10

93,538 points

Sep 4, 2012 5:02 AM in response to Carl Salonen

Press Command and R keys on boot, open Disk Utility and repair disk. Do a PRAM reset if it doesn't help > http://support.apple.com/kb/PH11243

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Answer 2

WZZZ

Level 6

13,226 points

Sep 4, 2012 5:25 AM in response to Carl Salonen

Open Terminal in Utilities and copy/paste

sudo nvram boot-args=""

Hit return. You will be prompted for your admin password, which won't appear as you type it in, then hit return again.

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Answer 3

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,547 points

Sep 4, 2012 7:16 AM in response to Carl Salonen

This happens when a wireless keyboard is turned off or in power-saving mode at startup. Wake up the keyboard before booting.

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Answer 4

Paul_31

Level 6

14,160 points

Sep 4, 2012 8:01 AM in response to Linc Davis

Hi Linc

Interestingly, I've also seen some report that not turning on any of the Bluetooth devices - keyboard/mouse/trackpad - until after the boot up is complete, or at least waiting until the Mac gets to the Apple logo before turning on also solves tthe 'safe boot at startup' problem.

Paul

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Answer 5

Carl Salonen Author

Level 1

70 points

Sep 4, 2012 3:44 PM in response to Carl Salonen

Thanks guys.

Mende, I'm hesitant to do a disk repair on a boot drive, but I'm running verify disk now. If it comes up with warning flags, I'll take your advice. I don't think it's the PRAM since that would affect it on every start up.

Wzzz, same deal. The boot RAM command would be affected on all start ups.

I think Linc and Paul are onto something. Usually I'll power the system up then turn on the keyboard and mouse. On a reboot, they'd already be on so that would explain a lot.

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Answer 6

Carl Salonen Author

Level 1

70 points

Sep 5, 2012 3:48 AM in response to Paul_31

Paul, you seem to have hit on the solution. I tested a couple of ways to boot up, and it appears that not turning on the keyboard and mouse until the gray Apple logo appears was the only way to avoid a Safe Boot. Thanks.

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Answer 7

Paul_31

Level 6

14,160 points

Sep 5, 2012 6:37 AM in response to Carl Salonen

That's great. Hopefully there will a 'proper' fix in some future OS update.

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