My friend’s Lacie firewire burner wasn’t recognized by his Mac G3. So, he zapped (reset) the PRAM. When the Mac reboots, it takes about four minutes for anything to appear on screen – each and every time!
What can he do to fix this annoying delay?
Does it do the same thing with extensions off?
Has he re-chosen the startup disc and check that all his printer and network settings survived ? Any of these can produce a long delay at startup.
I should have mentioned that there is a quation mark in a file folder in the center of the screen when it boots up. It doesn’t detect the OS for the first, say, 30 seconds.
So, the problem isn’t with the extensions loading or not. It happens before then.
That sounds like it’s trying to decide on a startup disk. Reset that pref.
Yep, OS 9.0 and before did this a bunch. We had this problem on all computers with more than one drive if the PRAM got zapped and the CMOS battery was dying or dead. So a few suggestions.
- Reset the control panel startup disk.
- Buy a new battery.
- Upgrade to OS 9.1. It seemed to fix this little problem. The upgrade is free and downloadable from Apple.
If you get the “disk with question mark,” then just set the Startup Disk to whatever has the OS you’re booting. After the Mac has booted, open up the Control Panels, click “Startup disk,” then choose a new one.
Success!!
Just wanted to thanks everyone for the help. My friend chose a new startup disk in the control panel and everyone works perfectly now.
Thanks.