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Macbook Pro (late 2011; OS X 10.8.2) fails to boot (verbose mode shows "FIPS USER SPACE POST SUCCESS" last)

Hello,

My Macbook Pro (late 2011, running OS X 10.8.2) fails to boot. When in verbose mode it hangs after the entry "FIPS USER SPACE POST" appears.

It first happened a week ago. I used a new router, had bought a new HP mouse and an Epson Printer the week before. No system updates were installed in the days before. When it first happened, I had just downloaded a game (Empire Total War) from the App Store. I also put in new RAM, but only after the problem first occured.

Zapping the PRAM didn't do anything. Single user mode did not boot either. In verbose mode, it froze after the aforementioned entry appeared. Disk utility did not fix it either.

I then restored from my time machine disk. The system ran fine until exactly a week after the first instance, when it did the exact same thing again. So I did a fresh OS install and then transferred the data from the backup.

Now (one day later), it's happening for the third time.

From what I understand, FIPS is some security/encryption standard integrated into mountain lion, but I do not use the file vault tool nor would I know of any other encryption stuff running.

That's the story so far, I would be very glad about any help/suggestions.

Thanks,

Ivo

MacBook Pro (15-inch Late 2011), OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.2)

Posted on Oct 23, 2012 2:56 AM

20 replies

Feb 27, 2013 9:35 AM in response to prakash7m

Did you install any new "low-level" Software? I mean, no high-level stuff like "Pages", more like system-tools / virus-software. Maybe "VirusBarrier Express"?

jami0821

Level 1

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Feb 27, 2013 8:35 PM in response to prakash7m

My solution was to remove all of the apps I'd installed over the last few months. Ran a disc check. Restarted, and voilà! Started up normally.

It's not a hardware issue or anything wrong with FIPS regardless of what's been said on this thread (or in my case, by an Apple genius).

Sep 26, 2013 7:15 AM in response to Ivo Nicola

Same thing occurring to me. My MacBook Pro 13" Late 2011 with Mountain Lion (10.8.5) sometimes hangs for 20~30 minutes at boot, in verbose i can see that this occurs just after the "FIPS USER Space POST: Success!" message.

I dont use any anti-virus, firewalls or "clean my mac" kind of apps.

One week ago i traced the problem to a very strange situation, the hang usually occurs when i use the NetBeans 7.3 app in the session just before the reboot. Cant explain why it happens, but since i stopped using NetBeans the problem seems to have gone away.

MarkieMA

Level 1

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Oct 25, 2013 8:12 AM in response to Ivo Nicola

This started happening to me each time I tried to boot my Mac.

I have a MacBook Pro OS Mountain Lion v10.8.4

It's not "stuck" on reboot, but just extremely slow. It would take between 3 minutes to 50 minutes to boot (I booted through Verbose mode). I had tried Verifying/Repairing disk, but it was always "ok", never any errors/fixes needed.

How I Fixed it:

1. I removed 2 Applications with AppCleaner that were recently added to my Mac prior to this problem.

They were Sequel Pro and Monosnap.

2. I had an app (xCode) that it's update was only partially installed, it had been paused. I completed installing the update.

3. I then updated my OS from 10.8.4 to 10.8.5

4. Restarted, and the problem was gone.

I hope this helps someone else, as I was freaking out everytime it happened to me. I do believe its a problem with an application slowing down the boot, in my case, I believe it was Sequel Pro.

- Markie

ObjSal

Level 1

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Jul 6, 2015 3:24 PM in response to Ivo Nicola

Well, this is sad, two years later and I have this issue on Yosemite :/

startup progress bar goes up to 45% and then it shuts down.

You would imagine that this issue would be fixed by now on OS X.

Macbook Pro (late 2011; OS X 10.8.2) fails to boot (verbose mode shows "FIPS USER SPACE POST SUCCESS" last)