Very slow shutdown

Hi there. My Mac Pro tower (Quad-core, 2.8 GHz, 12 GB RAM, OS 10.6.7) has become very slow at shutting down or restarting. It used to take under 30 seconds, but now it lasts 3-5 minutes, with just the blank blue screens while it does its internal duties. A couple of weeks ago, I recall a fairly substantial software update (either the OS or Logic?), but around the same time, I upgraded my RAM, from 4 to 12. It doesn't appear to have any other issues, just this shut-down thing. Ideas?

Hi Sammy,

3-5 minutes does sound a little high... though ironically adding more ram does increase startup and shut down times as the OS spends extra time checking the ram.

A good test would be to remove the extra 8 GB and then try booting up and shutting down a couple of times to see if there's a difference.

Cheers
R

Maybe your Mac needs a bit of TLC. Try Onyx. It is a great maintenance application

(http://www.apple.com/downloads/)

You can check my tips on using the application here:

http://www.macprovideo.com/hub/mac-osx/9-mac-troubleshooting-tips-call-mac-guy

This will get rid of some cache files and repair the permissions, which may help with the starting and shutting down of your Mac, and the general performance of the unit.

Check Step 8. Also Try Step 3 (resetting your PRAM).

Well it looks like OnyX may have fixed things. I installed and ran it a couple of hours ago, and have had no issues with shutting down or restarting. Fantastic tip! Thanks!

Great. Glad it did the trick. Onyx really works wonders.