Slow startup can be caused by several things:
- The most common cause is that a valid startup disk has not been selected. Use the Startup Disk control panel to select a volume with a valid System Folder.
- If you have large amounts of memory installed in the computer, it will take the computer longer to test the memory at startup before proceeding with the startup process. You can turn off the startup memory tests by holding down the Command and Option keys while opening the Memory control panel.
- If you have installed additional extensions or startup items, this can cause a longer startup process. Avoid installing unneeded items to reduce the startup time.
- Turning on Multiple Users/Macintosh Manager can introduce delays depending on whether the machine is started up locally or over a network, or the user account has been opened before or reconfigured. To decrease startup time, try installing the latest version of the Macintosh Manager Client/Multiple Users software. For more information, consult the Macintosh Manager client documentation.
- If the computer appears to pause for an extended period of time just before the Finder loads, the computer may be trying to automatically connect to a server volume that is not available. For more information about this issue, see technical documents 17697 and 25214 (links below).
If the computer is still taking an extended period to start up after the "Happy Mac" appears, and following the guidelines above, use some of the following basic troubleshooting steps to help resolve the issue.
Troubleshooting steps
- Disconnect any third-party peripheral devices.
- Use the Extensions Manager control panel to select the OS Base or OS All extension set, and restart the computer for the changes to take effect.
- If the above helps, verify your third-party devices and/or third-party software functions normally. Maybe the startup delay is normally given your particular configuration.
- If you are still experiencing long delays in startup, a clean installation of the OS may be in order, as it's possible that a damaged or corrupted file is causing the delays.
For additional information see the following documents:
Document 58042: "
Macintosh: Flashing Question Mark at Startup"
Document 14438: "
Macintosh: Startup Problems Q & A"
Document 17697: "
AppleShare Volumes: Disabling Automatic Log On"
Document 25214: "
Mac OS 9: Brief Delay When Desktop First Appears"