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Mac OS X 10.3.6 (#8): Startup time workarounds; Font problems; more

Mac OS X 10.3.6 (#8): Startup time workarounds; Font problems; more

CNET staff
3 min read

Startup time Continuing our coverage of an issue where users experience unusually long startup times after updating to Mac OS X 10.3.6, we've been able to more closely identify the portion of the startup process that is causing the delay, and reveal some new workarounds.

The startup process, for afflicted users, seems to stall right after login. If automatic login is enabled, the stall occurs at the point right after the Mac OS X desktop appears, but before any icons or menubar items appear.

MacFixIt reader Robert Weaver writes:

"I am experiencing much slower startup times after updating my 12" 1Ghz, 768 RAM Powerbook to Mac OS X 10.3.6. The longest delay is after the desktop picture appears, then it slowly ads icons to the main menu one at a time and finally finishes. It used to start in less than 1 minute, now is more than two minutes."

Adam Ismail corroborates:

"There is no delay loading up to the login screen - however once my username and password has been typed in - it takes around about 2 - 2.5 minutes to load compared to about 10 - 15 seconds before the update."

Lous Larouche saw this problem duplicated across an array of more than 100 Macs upgraded to Mac OS X 10.3.6:

"I'm a Computer Technology Teacher in a Canadian High School. We have about 160 Macs running OS 10.3.x. [...] The Macs are eMacs for the most part, iMacs, and iBooks. The point is, I'm running the exact same model on all of them, using tools like ASR, CCC, NetRestore, and Remote Desktop for mass deployment and maintenance.

"After upgrading 2 labs to 10.3.6 using the Remote Desktop's package installer feature with the smallest 10.3.6 upgrade package, all the Macs in those two labs are now plagued by slow startup times. In between the login window, and the desktop appearing you can see the beach ball for up to 2 minutes while you can hear the hard drive rumbling away."

Workarounds Some users have been able to resolve slow login times by disabling automounting of networked volumes:

"I also have found the problem of slow startup since updating to 10.3.6 My computers are networked and attempt to mount the remote volumes automatically when started. After disabling this auto mount function, my startup time returned to normal."

Others users have experienced success cleaning font caches with Font Finagler, though for most, it doesn't seem to provide a significant reduction of startup time:

MacFixIt reader Charles writes "I too am experiencing increased startup time on my iMac G4 15" 800MHz with 1 GB ram. When it gets to the point of showing the startup picture, it really slows down. I will have to do some timing to determine exactly how long it takes, but my experience seems similar to Kent's: 20-30 seconds previously, perhaps 3 minutes now. I ran Font Finagler to clear font caches, but that did not seem to help."

Font problems Continuing coverage of garbled fonts in some applications after the Mac OS X 10.3.6 update, a few readers note that removing certain typefaces eliminate the issue.

MacFixIt reader Phil writes "I also had font problems in Mail which I resolved in Mail by highlighting the offending text, going to Format > Show Fonts in Mail looking to see what the offending font was. In 10.3.6 it was a fractions font (in 10.3.5 it was a cyrillic font). Then going into the font folder and disabling the font."

Matt Bodkin adds "I've resolved this issue several times by removing 'helvetica fractions' from my system entirely."

Screen brightness changes with each startup Lucy Ayoub reports and issue with screen brightness changing at each login -- an issue for which we are seeking confirmation:

"I have a PB 15"/1.25 Ghz/1Gb RAM. After this latest update I notice the following: After sleep mode I need to re-calibrate the LCD display colors again and again! It seems the coloration gets 'lighter.' The PowerBook cannot readjust to the LCD configuration preference. It never happened before with any of the previous updates."

Feedback? Late-breakers@macfixit.com.

Resources

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