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aiqw9182

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Apr 22, 2010
1,089
0
My iMac has been acting strangely for quite some time now and I'd really like to know how to fix the problem. When I first bought the machine whenever I were to put it to sleep with Leopard it would wake instantly with no hang-ups at all. The second I installed Snow Leopard, the machine has been taking 5-10 seconds before I can actually type in my password after waking up. I can hear the hard drive spinning up and down while the beach ball appears on screen rendering it virtually useless for 5-10 seconds before it allows me to type in the password and press enter. I've tried everything I could find while scouring Google. I clean installed Snow Leopard after wiping the drive, I reset the SMC and PRAM multiple times and I've repaired the disc using my Snow Leopard disc. Nothing worked. The hard drive is the default 1TB Seagate Barracuda that came with the machine. Any suggestions are appreciated. I'd rather not replace the hard drive as it will void the warranty.
 
Have you tried rebooting and not opening ANY apps and sleeping and waking it? Also, try booting into safe mode and test it
 
Have you tried rebooting and not opening ANY apps and sleeping and waking it? Also, try booting into safe mode and test it
I don't think the apps are the problem as I would've noticed it after I downloaded said application that might be causing it. Just tried safe mode and the problem still occurred.
 
I don't think the apps are the problem as I would've noticed it after I downloaded said application that might be causing it. Just tried safe mode and the problem still occurred.

Weird. It isn't that fast for me neither (I have early 2009 iMac too). Good thing is that you have Leopard disks as well so you can install it if you want ;)
 
Weird. It isn't that fast for me neither (I have early 2009 iMac too). Good thing is that you have Leopard disks as well so you can install it if you want ;)
Is yours similar to mine in which you can hear the hard drive when you wake it up and you can't enter any text? Snow Leopard has been rock solid for me, this is the only problem I've encountered.
 
Is yours similar to mine in which you can hear the hard drive when you wake it up and you can't enter any text? Snow Leopard has been rock solid for me, this is the only problem I've encountered.

I can't hear the hard drive but it takes few seconds before the login windows pops up and I usually get a spinning beachball as well.
 
I can't hear the hard drive but it takes few seconds before the login windows pops up and I usually get a spinning beachball as well.

Hmm, so perhaps this is a problem specific to early 2009 iMacs?
 
Hmm, so perhaps this is a problem specific to early 2009 iMacs?

Could be. What are your iMac's specs? Maybe it's only for certain models (with e.g. certain GPU). Doesn't annoy me that much anyway as it's still 10000 times faster than booting.
 
Could be. What are your iMac's specs? Maybe it's only for certain models (with e.g. certain GPU). Doesn't annoy me that much anyway as it's still 10000 times faster than booting.

My machine is the 3.06GHz model with a 4850.
 
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