Help! slow login is driving me crazy!

[widgetman]

For some reason, my computer has been logging in very slowly lately and I really would like to stop it from taking so long. So here's the situation: I'm on 10.3.7 and i'm having this problem with the family computer (it affects all users on the computer, not just me) so there are 4 users. I am an admin along with my dad. I'm a developer so there is alot of developer software lying around. The computer is an 800mgz G4. Could this be as simple as a corrupt file somewhere? How can i track down what's wrong?

by the way, i dont have any haxies running (or any other product from unsanity for that matter), i have done some basic system maintanence (including repairing permissions and rotating logs) very recently, and turning off all internet access via the network panel has no effect on the slow login time at all.

can someone please please help me?!

 

[angelneo]

is it just the login or it also affects the boot up?

EDIT: perhaps, you can try creating a new user to check whether it affects that user as well

 

[widgetman]

it seems to only affect the login. boot time is completely normal. All users on the system are affected by this strange slowdown.

 

[Cuckoo]

it seems to only affect the login. boot time is completely normal. All users on the system are affected by this strange slowdown.

When my PB boots, and OSX tries to mount a share over the network, which isn't available (because i changed my network settings or because im not at home and there is no server available), then it takes forever to get it started. Could that be the case?

 

[widgetman]

I actually do have a network set up (with a shared printer on it and stuff) and the host computer usually is asleep but when i wake it up it doesnt seem to affect the login time much. it seems like it's a little faster but still no where near what it used to be...could this entire problem be as simple as a corrupt .DS_Store file in a system location or something similar?

I appreciate all the people who have tried to help with my problem, thank you!

EDIT: For some reason, it seems to login at a normal speed when someone else on the computer is already logged in and i log in via fast-user switching or the login window...hmm...weird.

 

[spiderlegs]

I have a similar problem, but it's the actual system start up

I'm running 10.3.8 on a 1.8 GHz PowerPC G5. First, I'll preface by saying we're on a Windows network, and I am rather new to OSX (my last dealings with a Mac was OS 8.5, which is completely different from "Panther," obviously.

This is a new problem, it started a week or so ago, and no new software has been loaded. It literally takes 25 minutes to start this machine up. We added another user account, but I've since deleted it (following advice) without it solving the problem. Another problem coinciding with this one (meaning they appeared at the same time) is that importing Excel tables crashes Dreamweaver MX 2004. I don't think the two issues are related, but thought I'd comment just in case.

I had read that the LCCDaemon app for Logitech cordless devices hangs up start up, so I removed it (oddly enough, I don't use a cordless device, though I have a Logitech mouse). I have recently taken over this machine from another user, so I am not familiar with its history past the first of the year, but it seems to run slower than I expect a G5 to run. It is utilized as a graphics machine, with the full complement of Adobe, Macromedia, Quark etc, applications.

Hopefully this is enough info to gain a response from someone. I honestly am at a loss for how to correct this problem. Thank you!

 

[Hemingray]

It literally takes 25 minutes to start this machine up.

Excuse me? 25 MINUTES?

Assuming you've tried repairing permissions, doing fsck, and all that... my friend, it's time to do a fresh install of the system! That's CRAZY.

 

[spiderlegs]

Sorry, since I'm new to OSX, I'm not sure what "repairing permissions" entails. I know how to do it in the disk repair tool, but I don't know what all the process involves. ould you please elaborate or hit me with a link that will explain it? I'll look on the Apple site, in the mean time.

Oh, and let me amend the problem by saying it's the log in on mine, too (like the first post) and not the start up. It starts up quickly, but once you log in, it takes 25 minutes. SOrry for the confusion.

 

[Hemingray]

Sorry, since I'm new to OSX, I'm not sure what "repairing permissions" entails. I know how to do it in the disk repair tool, but I don't know what all the process involves. ould you please elaborate or hit me with a link that will explain it? I'll look on the Apple site, in the mean time.

Oh, and let me amend the problem by saying it's the log in on mine, too (like the first post) and not the start up. It starts up quickly, but once you log in, it takes 25 minutes. SOrry for the confusion.

Okay... but still, 25 minutes to do ANYTHING is still insane!

Here's an Apple page on repairing permissions and what it does: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=25751

So, what exactly happens during those 25 minutes after you've hit the "log in" button? A blue screen with a spinning beachball?

 

[spiderlegs]

Exactly. I printed off some instructions from the Apple website; restarted in single user mode and reset my preferences. I also noticed that my Epson Printer USB was looping--the same same set of instructions cycled through over and over and over...

So, I sshutdown, unplugged the USB cable, restarted, and that loop wasn't on there. I'm thinking "yay! maybe I fixed it." Nope, I mean, I fixed something because it now only takes about 15 minutes for it to log in but if I plug my printer back in, will it increase the log in time by recreating that loop?

Thanks for the link. I'm going to read up on it and see what can be done. I've never experienced this kind of problem. Remember back in the old days when you could rebuild the desktop and it fixed 75% of your problems?

By the way, that LCCDaemon keeps putting itself back in my start up items list, evben though I moved it in "safe mode" and followed the instructions on how to remove it. It's acting the same way "spyware" does on a PC. I'm not certain it's the cause of all this--especially after the printer loop thing--but it could be part of a software tandem dedicated to bringing about my G5's downfall...er, or something. I've been battling with this thing all day. I've yet to find any troubleshooting solutions specific to this particular problem in all the forums I've been to.

 

[widgetman]

I recently started up Flash MX 2004 (which I havent done in a while) and it took forever to "initialize the fonts". I believe a corrupt font could really screw a system up, so I am going to persue the problem in that direction. That could be what's messing your system up as well.

25 minutes?!
mine doesnt turn on slowly, it just logs in slowly. really slowly.

 

[spiderlegs]

Fonts are what I am looking at tomorrow. Today, I noticed that Fontbook would freeze whenever I wanted to look at a font. What is the limit for fonts you can have loaded at any one time? Where is the cutoff?

 

[widgetman]

There is no limit to the number of fonts you can have...I think that there is some software that looks for and repairs corrupt fonts. If anyone knows of such software, then please post it here.

 

[widgetman]

Well...repairing all the fonts on my system really sped things up. My login time is waaay faster. There are a number of Font repair programs out there. I recommend searching macupdate (http://www.macupdate.com) for font repairing programs that will do the job.

 

[spiderlegs]

I did that, and it cut off about 10 minutes of my log-in time. Thanks! Buut, it still shouldn't take 10 minutes to log in, so I'm going to try the combo upgrade next and see how that works. Still, from what I'd been used to, that trick was golden!