Delayed Desktop Load

Question

Delayed Desktop Load

14 Gig Ram, HD only 30% full. OS is 10.6.8

On start up (sometimes) desktop does not appear for about 30 to 45 seconds after progress spinner dissappears and blue background is visible. Icons on desk top and dock do not show up until after this delay. I have run permissions fix, deleted user library caches, and reset power management. These measures seem to correct the issue temporarily. Seems like I need to reinstall the OS. However, I have several apps that will be a major project to reinstall and configure if I erase and install. Is it possible to reinstall snow leopard without erasing ? If I do need to erase would it be possible to reinstall my software on a volume other than where my OS resides to avoid the need to reinstall them in the future if an OS reinstall becomes necessary.

Many thanks.

Mac Pro (Early 2008), Mac OS X (10.6.8), 14 Gig Ram

Posted on Jul 13, 2013 6:09 PM

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Answer 1

Jul 13, 2013 6:16 PM in response to Robert Schmidt3

The "heavy Lifting" in Disk Utility is done by (Repair Disk).

(Repair Permissions) is only useful in the extremely obscure case where Applications will not launch.

It is a Bad idea to put your Applications on a different drive.

What shows in the system log when this delay happens? You can read it out with Console Utility.

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Answer 2

Jul 14, 2013 7:01 PM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

Grant Bennet - Alder, Thanks for your reply. Her is a system log snap shot from today. I do not know what to look for. Perhaps you will see something that will help identify what's going on.

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Answer 3

Jul 14, 2013 7:13 PM in response to Robert Schmidt3

I see:

dropbox

Entourage

AddressBook

...

problems with Sync ing

Problems with saving your AddressBook

Is your version of DropBox completely up-to-date?

Did you repair your disk with Disk Utility (Repair Disk) ?

It looks like everybody and his brother wants your AddressBook, and it may be broke.

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Answer 4

Jul 14, 2013 7:54 PM in response to Robert Schmidt3

I repaired with Repair disk. Report said Mac HD looks Ok. So, let's see if sys log has same noise after another day of use.

Drop box version is up to date.

Syncing and Address book issues- please elaborate on what my action should be. At what point do I reinstall the OS. Can I do an archive and install or do I need to erase? A full reinstall is a major project due to software that needs to be deauthorized, then reinstalled and reconfigured. Unless I can install OS clean on a different HDD and then use migration assistant to bring over stuff. Your thoughts?

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Answer 5

Jul 15, 2013 8:18 AM in response to Robert Schmidt3

Based on a "seat of the pants" approach, I suggest you open the Address Book Utility, make a few trivial changes there, and quit it. This will re-write the Address Book, and ensure that permissions on the various files are to its liking (and it is very, very fussy). Then see if that has any impact.

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Answer 6

Jul 16, 2013 7:05 PM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

Good evening, I followed your suggestion last night. Made some changes in Address Book and closed to save them. Tonight immediately after booting I looked at the sys log. Noted there were no address book notations from today. (I'm the only one to use this Mac today this evening) Then I opened MS Entourage and refreshed the sys log. Now there are Address book notations that look like problems still exist. Do you have further comments/suggestions? Here is tonight's log

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Answer 7

Jul 20, 2013 7:32 PM in response to Robert Schmidt3

Slow desktop load is still not solved. Kappy if you have read this I would value your suggestion to resolve. I am running OSX 10.6.8, 14gig of ram, HD with OS is less than 10% full. I have three users on this Mac but I am generally the only active user because the other two now have their own lap tops. Once the desktop is loaded there do not seem to be any performance issues. Would like to fix because it is annoying. Thanks

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Answer 8

The hatter

Level 9

61,031 points

Jul 21, 2013 6:50 AM in response to Robert Schmidt3

Would all be a lot easier if you would have been using Carbon Copy Cloner and with file integrity checksum.

I would - at least that way you have bootable test copy.

Then I would uninstall VirusBarrier.

Buy an SSD, less than $100 for Samsung 840 120GB and use that for your system.

Setup Assistant makes it easy to do a clean install and then import your old programs etc from the system drive you are using. Lion and ML have made it better.

I assume you were already instructed to create if you don't have one now another system maintenance/ emerergency boot drive from which to run Disk Utility (and others), would never use a DVD - some people use a flash drive for such purpose. All you need is less than 50GB which you can shrink and add on any drive.

After cloning or installing or both, I prefer a small Mac OS only system along iwth a working copy backup, startup from there, repair etc and set the startup disk back to a working system and do a Safe Boot and Restart.

Mac OS X: Starting up in Safe Mode - http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=107393

What is Safe Boot, Safe Mode? (Mac OS X) - http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1564

Isolating issues in Mac OS X

Creating a temporary user to isolate user-specific problems:

Isolating an issue by using another user account

Identifying resource hogs and other tips:

Using Activity Monitor to read System Memory and determine how much RAM is being used

Starting the computer in "safe mode":

Mac OS X: What is Safe Boot, Safe Mode?

To identify potential hardware problems:

Apple Hardware Test

General Mac maintenance:

Tips to keep your Mac in top form

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Answer 9

Jul 21, 2013 2:10 PM in response to The hatter

-Sometimes it takes a suggestion to jog one's trouble shooting thoughts. I do keep two sequential bootable clones. I just booted each. The June clone has drop box. The April clone does not. April loads right up. So I am going to adjust drop box to only load and sync manually when I want it to and will mark this solved if that cures the slow load issue.

-Yes I always run disk utility from a bootable clone and that includes Disk Warrior

-In addition the links to some trouble shooting articles are appreciated. I will read, print and file them for future reference. I also like your suggestion regarding putting my OS and applications on a SSD with all files on a separate drive or drives. I have been looking at the Other World Computing 6G drives which are over provisioned.

-I assume your suggestion to uninstall Virus Barrier was intended to learn if VB is the cause of the slow load. I have been using VB for about 6 years. It seems inocuous and occasionally finds a Windows virus in an email. Do you have negative experience with VB? I use it primarily to keep my email traffic clean.

Thanks Hatter for your help. I will follow up after a few days with drop box turned off.

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Answer 10

The hatter

Level 9

61,031 points

Jul 21, 2013 4:39 PM in response to Robert Schmidt3

I use to use VB as much a gratiuity as anything, it did impact system and not useful for what it did and not with Lion.

Sometimes OS X seems to launch wrong file occassionally.

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