Is there a way to speed up booting?

[Riwam]

Hello.

I have a question for people knowing about the system and its inner facts, what I unfortunately don't know.
I believe my Mac takes longer after upgrading than it took before to boot.
Something like 15 to 20 seconds until the white apple is visible.
After logging, the desktop is there in about 5 seconds more.
I don't remember having checked it when running Mavericks and later Yosemite, so I am not absolutely sure.
However I believe that the boot process was in the past shorter. The white apple came in my opinion sooner.
I have installed through BootCamp Windows 10, if that might play a role(?).

Is there a way in which a user can speed it up without risking to render his system unstable?
Or is that time normal for a MP late 2013 with 64 GB RAM, (I think RAM plays a role)?

Thank you very much in advance for any help, first to know if that time should be considered normal, and, should it be too long, to find a way to speed it up, assuming there is one!

Ed

 

[keysofanxiety]

Hello.

I have a question for people knowing about the system and its inner facts, what I unfortunately don't know.
I believe my Mac takes longer after upgrading than it took before to boot.
Something like 15 to 20 seconds until the white apple is visible.
After logging, the desktop is there in about 5 seconds more.
I don't remember having checked it when running Mavericks and later Yosemite, so I am not absolutely sure.
However I believe that the boot process was in the past shorter. The white apple came in my opinion sooner.
I have installed through BootCamp Windows 10, if that might play a role(?).

Is there a way in which a user can speed it up without risking to render his system unstable?
Or is that time normal for a MP late 2013 with 64 GB RAM, (I think RAM plays a role)?

Thank you very much in advance for any help, first to know if that time should be considered normal, and, should it be too long, to find a way to speed it up, assuming there is one!

Ed

If you have a white screen for some time before you see the Apple logo, resetting the PRAM should resolve the issue.

To do this, press and hold the following keys on startup: Cmd, Alt, P, R. Continue to hold these until you hear the Apple boot chime 3 times, then let go of the keys. Should be much better from there.

 

[Riwam]

If you have a white screen for some time before you see the Apple logo, resetting the PRAM should resolve the issue.

To do this, press and hold the following keys on startup: Cmd, Alt, P, R. Continue to hold these until you hear the Apple boot chime 3 times, then let go of the keys. Should be much better from there.

******
Thank you very much keysofanxiety for your kind answer.
I have no white screen. Actually nothing until the white apple appears.
I will try to repeat 3 times the PRAM resetting.
I have done it but not several times as you suggest.
Thank you very much again.
Ed

 

[Agent2015]

Riwan, what sort of hard drive does your Mac have? Out of curiosity I timed a few boots to see how fast my MacBook Pro (17" Early 2011 16 GB RAM 500 GB SSD) is in comparison. On average it takes about 3.5 seconds to reach the "gray" apple from the chime, another 10 seconds to reach the login screen and another 4 seconds to load the desktop (cluttered desktop to be sure!). Not bad for such an ancient Mac! I don't recall much change in boot times from Yosemite. So yes your Mac should be faster!

 

[SlCKB0Y]

Open System Preferences and go to "Startup Disk". Ensure your OS X drive is selected properly.

 

[Riwam]

Riwan, what sort of hard drive does your Mac have? Out of curiosity I timed a few boots to see how fast my MacBook Pro (17" Early 2011 16 GB RAM 500 GB SSD) is in comparison. On average it takes about 3.5 seconds to reach the "gray" apple from the chime, another 10 seconds to reach the login screen and another 4 seconds to load the desktop (cluttered desktop to be sure!). Not bad for such an ancient Mac! I don't recall much change in boot times from Yosemite. So yes your Mac should be faster!

******
Thank you very much Agent2015
The MacPro late 2013 has a fast SSD specially built for it (not the standad type user replaceable one).
Against thank you very much!
Ed

 

[h9826790]

More RAM will cost longer time to show the Apple logo (same as more external drive / device). Anyway, yes, in my own experience, El Capitan is a bit slower to boot than the previous OS (at least it's true on my cMP with the same SSD).

For info, the SSD in nMP is still user replaceable, if you get the right model (SSUUBX from memory), the speed can go up to around 1500MB/s.

 

[Riwam]

More RAM will cost longer time to show the Apple logo (same as more external drive / device). Anyway, yes, in my own experience, El Capitan is a bit slower to boot than the previous OS (at least it's true on my cMP with the same SSD).

For info, the SSD in nMP is still user replaceable, if you get the right model (SSUUBX from memory), the speed can go up to around 1500MB/s.

*********
Thank you very much for your explanation.
I thought myself that more RAM takes a little more time for the mac.
As to replacing the SSD Apple does not consider it user replaceable.
As long as I have Apple Care coverage I take no risks, and anyway from the beginning I learnt to place large files in external drives.
Again thank you very much for kindly answering my question!
Ed

 

[h9826790]

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202881

It is user accessible (replaceable)

 

[Riwam]

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202881

It is user accessible (replaceable)

+*+*+
If you read it states the 3 sizes of SSD that Apple itself offers with this computer: 256 GB, 512 GB and 1 TB.
As I understand it Apple now let's the owner exchange one of those Apple SSD, what was not allowed when the computer was introduced.
Now, according to that information (new to me) it is actually as you say user accessible.
What happens however if the owner installs a SSD not supplied by Apple, I don't know.
I am aware that they are not built by Apple but their firmware is.
In such a way for instance Trim was at the time automatically enabled, what now is possible with any SSD.
As long as no damage is made to the MacPro computer by an exchsnge of the SSD, no problem, but if something stops working... I feel safer leaving that to my Apple Care coverage.
This is an expensive computer. therefore I prefer to avoid any risk.

 

[ABC5S]

El Capitan, and my MacBook Pro boots within 9 seconds, but I don't have a lot of software nor Utilities installed that may need extra boot time. Unknown if this could possibly be an issue. I have only 8 GB of ram with a 256 GB SSD

 

[Riwam]

El Capitan, and my MacBook Pro boots within 9 seconds, but I don't have a lot of software nor Utilities installed that may need extra boot time. Unknown if this could possibly be an issue. I have only 8 GB of ram with a 256 GB SSD

***
Thank you very much for your kind information ABC5S!
Unfortunately we both have different macs so that a direct comparison is not possible.
I repeat my sincere thanks for your goodwill to help me.
This is what I appreciate in this forum, people like you
Ed

 

[h9826790]

+*+*+
If you read it states the 3 sizes of SSD that Apple itself offers with this computer: 256 GB, 512 GB and 1 TB.
As I understand it Apple now let's the owner exchange one of those Apple SSD, what was not allowed when the computer was introduced.
Now, according to that information (new to me) it is actually as you say user accessible.
What happens however if the owner installs a SSD not supplied by Apple, I don't know.
I am aware that they are not built by Apple but their firmware is.
In such a way for instance Trim was at the time automatically enabled, what now is possible with any SSD.
As long as no damage is made to the MacPro computer by an exchsnge of the SSD, no problem, but if something stops working... I feel safer leaving that to my Apple Care coverage.
This is an expensive computer. therefore I prefer to avoid any risk.

Sure you can stay on the safe side. That's just some "for info" item to you.

That SSUUBX is an Apple parts, which will identify as Apple SSD, have native TRIM without any hack / terminal command. AFAIK, SSUUAX is the original SSD when the nMP introduced. It's speed is about 1000MB/s, but have 1TB version. The SSUUBX is the upgraded version, only up to 500GB, but speed up to 1500MB/s.

Since it's a user replacable parts, as long as you didn't do any physical damage to the connector etc. You are still covered by Apple care. You can even take your nMP with your own SSD in there, they will still serve you.

Anyway, back to the topic. A faster SSD won't further speed up your boot process. A test was done on the cMP with 4x PCIe SSD in RAID 0 (about 6000MB/s). The boot time is basically same as a SSD connect via a SATA 2 port.

The Mac Pro is almost always the slowest Mac to boot, because we always have more RAM, GPUs, HDDs, external devices etc. More hardware to initialise / self test means more time to boot, that's it.

You can run the test by yourself. More RAM will slowdown the boot process. This is more obvious if we compare a cMP with 6G RAM; single GPU; no PCIe card, with another one has 128G RAM, dual GPU, and all PCIe slots are fully loaded. The time from you press the button until the Apple logo appear will be much longer on the stronger computer. It should be the same on the nMP.

 

[Riwam]

Sure you can stay on the safe side. That's just some "for info" item to you.

That SSUUBX is an Apple parts, which will identify as Apple SSD, have native TRIM without any hack / terminal command. AFAIK, SSUUAX is the original SSD when the nMP introduced. It's speed is about 1000MB/s, but have 1TB version. The SSUUBX is the upgraded version, only up to 500GB, but speed up to 1500MB/s.

Since it's a user replacable parts, as long as you didn't do any physical damage to the connector etc. You are still covered by Apple care. You can even take your nMP with your own SSD in there, they will still serve you.

Anyway, back to the topic. A faster SSD won't further speed up your boot process. A test was done on the cMP with 4x PCIe SSD in RAID 0 (about 6000MB/s). The boot time is basically same as a SSD connect via a SATA 2 port.

The Mac Pro is almost always the slowest Mac to boot, because we always have more RAM, GPUs, HDDs, external devices etc. More hardware to initialise / self test means more time to boot, that's it.

You can run the test by yourself. More RAM will slowdown the boot process. This is more obvious if we compare a cMP with 6G RAM; single GPU; no PCIe card, with another one has 128G RAM, dual GPU, and all PCIe slots are fully loaded. The time from you press the button until the Apple logo appear will be much longer on the stronger computer. It should be the same on the nMP.

****
Thank you very much for your information and the fact that a longer boot time must be accepted.
Thanks!
Ed