iMac stutters on Apple boot chime..?!

[Chicane-UK Veteran]

So i've only had my iMac for two weeks. In the last few days it's suddenly taken to 'stuttering' at the Mac bootup chime noise. It'll do one full chime noise and then after about half a second, it does another half of the chime noise again. So if I was to write what was happening, it'd be "Boonnnnnnngggg... nnnnggg" - if that makes sense? :)

Listening to the computer, it sounds like it's the harddrive causing it to happen as the drive is spinning up the entire time the chime occurs.

Stupid little problem but it's bugging the hell out of me - it does it every time I turn it on, or reboot it - why would this be?! And does anyone else suffer from this?

[Chicane-UK Veteran]

Hm - think its something to do with my external USB harddrive.

[Cara Veteran]

So i've only had my iMac for two weeks. In the last few days it's suddenly taken to 'stuttering' at the Mac bootup chime noise. It'll do one full chime noise and then after about half a second, it does another half of the chime noise again. So if I was to write what was happening, it'd be "Boonnnnnnngggg... nnnnggg" - if that makes sense? :)

Listening to the computer, it sounds like it's the harddrive causing it to happen as the drive is spinning up the entire time the chime occurs.

Stupid little problem but it's bugging the hell out of me - it does it every time I turn it on, or reboot it - why would this be?! And does anyone else suffer from this?

Good afternoon,

This typically is the sign of another device, given it's an iMac some Firewire or USB, causing the system to hesitate during it's initialization. Have you tried disconnecting all external devices (aside from your mouse and keyboard) and starting the machine? I would bet that will solve your problem.

[MasterC]

Don't get mad at your iMac just because it has a speech impediment! :p

[+StevoFC MVC]

Cara is solving problems too fast here to have any sort of discussion. :laugh:

But anyways, how often do you turn off the iMac completely?

I never do. I just let it sleep occasionally...

[Cormier6083]

Youtube a video!

[Verdelite]

Cara is solving problems too fast here to have any sort of discussion. :laugh:

But anyways, how often do you turn off the iMac completely?

I never do. I just let it sleep occasionally...

Slave labor, never allowing it to shutdown and just letting it sleep sometimes... shame on you.

[giga Veteran]

Sleep is awesome. I think I've only turned off the macbook twice in the 2 years I've had it.

[MasterC]

Sleep is awesome. I think I've only turned off the macbook twice in the 2 years I've had it.

Do you not update then? Unless you're not counting restarts as turning off :p

[giga Veteran]

Not counting restarts. Talking about actually shutting down:

[MasterC]

Not counting restarts. Talking about actually shutting down:

Doesn't restarting turn of the computer and turn it back on again?

[Cara Veteran]

Wait a minute, you're telling me I can actually turn my Macs' off? ;) I've never had a reason to do that! ;)

[giga Veteran]

Doesn't restarting turn of the computer and turn it back on again?

...yes? :s I'm talking about the context of actually shutting down for the purpose of "turning off and leaving" the computer.

[CPressland]

My MacBook has the same issue with oldschool USB 2.0 drives, the newer WD Passport drives dont have any issue, it's because of the time it takes for the drive to spool up I think.

And no, restarting dosnt count as a shutdown because saying "I've not turned off my MacBook in 2 years" is far more impressive then saying "I've not turned off my MacBook in 11 days", i'm with Giga, I havnt turned off my MacBook since I got it 8 months ago

[MasterC]

...yes? :s I'm talking about the context of actually shutting down for the purpose of "turning off and leaving" the computer.

Well then technically you've turned your Mac off more than twice, except that it turns back on again :p

[Cara Veteran]

Well, if we're talking Uptimes here, I have an XServe that hasn't been shut down since 2006, does that count? ;)

[Chicane-UK Veteran]

I do sleep my Mac lots, but I also reboot it lots as I switch from OSX to Windows when I want to play some games. It's not a big problem - it's just obvious that it isn't meant to do it.

I'll look into detaching my USB external HDD tonight as a test and seeing what happens. Not sure what to do as a 'fix' though as obviously I need the drive hooked up! :)

[Cara Veteran]

I do sleep my Mac lots, but I also reboot it lots as I switch from OSX to Windows when I want to play some games. It's not a big problem - it's just obvious that it isn't meant to do it.

I'll look into detaching my USB external HDD tonight as a test and seeing what happens. Not sure what to do as a 'fix' though as obviously I need the drive hooked up! :)

Let me know if that fixes it, if so you might want to check with the vendor and see if they have an updated firmware/driver combo package for the device as it would tell me that the problem is not with your Mac but indeed the external device.

I have a VERY old iomega external HD and don't have that problem. :)

[se7en.hu]

I think its cause you keep shutting down your poor mac :(

You do realise that slows it down heaps... The longer you can keep it running the faster it will be.

[Chicane-UK Veteran]

Let me know if that fixes it

Thanks Cara! :)

You do realise that slows it down heaps... The longer you can keep it running the faster it will be.

If I could play games at native speeds in OSX, I wouldn't need to keep shutting down! :(

[se7en.hu]

Oh, fair enough. That sucks for you man :(

[DrewJW]

If rebooting is causing a system slow down, how would you tweak the performance back into it?

[CPressland]

If rebooting is causing a system slow down, how would you tweak the performance back into it?

It's not so much rebooting it, it's leaving it turned off, OS X runs maintenance scripts on itself. A Daily, Weekly and Monthly to be accurate, you can run these scripts your self in an application called Onyx which more or less restores all performance lost.

Remember when you "close" an application on OS X you're really just hiding it, so rebooting the OS can also make applications appear to load slower, when in fact, they're not.

[Cara Veteran]

It's not so much rebooting it, it's leaving it turned off, OS X runs maintenance scripts on itself. A Daily, Weekly and Monthly to be accurate, you can run these scripts your self in an application called Onyx which more or less restores all performance lost.

Remember when you "close" an application on OS X you're really just hiding it, so rebooting the OS can also make applications appear to load slower, when in fact, they're not.

Close, but not exactly. Leaving a Mac running is not really that different than leaving any other PC running.

Unless something has changed that I'm not aware of, leaving a Mac running 24/7 365 prevents the maintenance scrips from running as they are triggered during the boot process unless fired manually so the occasional reboot is actually good for your systems over all health, however it shouldn't provide a measurable performance increase/decrease either way.

[MasterC]

Close, but not exactly. Leaving a Mac running is not really that different than leaving any other PC running.

Unless something has changed that I'm not aware of, leaving a Mac running 24/7 365 prevents the maintenance scrips from running as they are triggered during the boot process unless fired manually so the occasional reboot is actually good for your systems over all health, however it shouldn't provide a measurable performance increase/decrease either way.

I thought the maintenance scripts ran through cron at sometime in the morning. I need to check my console to find out, but I was under the impression that they did.