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4 month old Mac Mini M1 - now slow at login

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photophile

photophile

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I purchased a brand new mac mini M1 (8GB RAM/256 GB SSD) at the end of October 2022. After some days, it automatically upgraded the operating system from Monterey to Ventura 13.0. Then, all was working well. The computer always fired up instantaneously after the login. I have an Acer 4K monitor connected to the Mac Mini.

A couple of days a go when I was prompted to upgrade to Venture 13.2.1. This I did without too much thought. Now however, after logging in with my password - the computer hangs for about 15 seconds, with the progress bar showing. Then everything goes blank (black screen) for another 10 seconds - and then the computer is on and ready as normal. Just wondered what these new glitches are - should I be worried?

--
AH
 
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Hold down the following keys: Command, Option (Alt), P and R. Turn on the Mac while keeping those keys pressed. Keep holding the keys down until you hear the Mac restart again. Listen for a second reboot, and then release the keys.
 
EJ Fudd said:
Hold down the following keys: Command, Option (Alt), P and R. Turn on the Mac while keeping those keys pressed. Keep holding the keys down until you hear the Mac restart again. Listen for a second reboot, and then release the keys.
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x2.



This is called resetting the PRAM and usually solves any problems you may have from time to time where you notice the computer acting unusually slow or buggy.
 
Except that M-series chips don’t have a PRAM reset like Intel machines do. For M1’s, the machine automagically resets PRAM at each restart.

try shutting the machine down and restarting it (not simply restarting). Same’s true of the old SMC reset: no can do with an Apple Silicon Mac.

Another thing to try: start in Recovery, run Disk Utility. Low probability of success, but it’s quick and easy.

Next thing to try, again in Recovery, would be reinstall the OS. If that doesn’t work,go back into Recovery and (in Terminal), reset permissions. I don’t recall the exact command; it should be easy to find online, though.

Last choice: call Apple.
 
Abbott Schindler said:
Except that M-series chips don’t have a PRAM reset like Intel machines do. For M1’s, the machine automagically resets PRAM at each restart.

try shutting the machine down and restarting it (not simply restarting). Same’s true of the old SMC reset: no can do with an Apple Silicon Mac.

Another thing to try: start in Recovery, run Disk Utility. Low probability of success, but it’s quick and easy.

Next thing to try, again in Recovery, would be reinstall the OS. If that doesn’t work,go back into Recovery and (in Terminal), reset permissions. I don’t recall the exact command; it should be easy to find online, though.

Last choice: call Apple.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the heads up on this! Fortunately, my M1 has not had any issues like my older units on which I learned this.
 
Unfortunately this doesn't work for me - as my M1 has the Apple Silicon chip :-(
 
Abbott Schindler said:
Except that M-series chips don’t have a PRAM reset like Intel machines do. For M1’s, the machine automagically resets PRAM at each restart.

try shutting the machine down and restarting it (not simply restarting). Same’s true of the old SMC reset: no can do with an Apple Silicon Mac.

Another thing to try: start in Recovery, run Disk Utility. Low probability of success, but it’s quick and easy.

Next thing to try, again in Recovery, would be reinstall the OS. If that doesn’t work,go back into Recovery and (in Terminal), reset permissions. I don’t recall the exact command; it should be easy to find online, though.

Last choice: call Apple.
Click to expand...
Will give above suggestions a try at weekend. I don't have a lot of files stored on the mac (yet!), so happy to do a reinstall of OS if necessary.
 
Try a Safe Boot restart followed by a normal restart. You can find directions for Safe Boot restart on Apple Support site.
 
OP:

Try this. It's easy and won't hurt anything.

Open the Users & Groups pref pane.

Click the lock icon and enter your password.

Now, create a NEW ACCOUNT. Give it administrative privileges. It can have any name you wish, you're creating this for temporary troubleshooting (and can delete it later).

Once the new account is created, LOG OUT of your regular account.

At this point I'd reboot the Mac.

After the reboot, LOG INTO the "temporary" account.

Are things still the same (i.e., slow login?)
Or... are they "back to normal".

If they're back to normal, then it's something in your "regular" account that is gumming things up. You've got to find out what it is.

It's NOT "an OS problem", and reinstalling the OS probably won't make a difference. Rather, it's something "localized" in your account. Could be an extension, a runaway process, etc. You've got some detective work to do.
 
Thank you for the suggestion - I managed to follow the instructions and create the new admin account - but the mac still booted up with the delayed start. Reading around the subject elsewhere, it seems quite a few people are experiencing this issue - so it may be a bug in Ventura 13.2.1. For now, I can live with it as I can put the computer in sleep mode (rather than turning it off) as it wakes up from sleep instantaneously, without any delay. :-|
 
robgendreau said:
I'd also check your login items. It's easy to end up forgetting about something you've added to the list, and some can slow startup.
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Thanks. My login items tray is empty - so nothing there. Still not sure what the cause is - except that it started last weekend when I activated the update to Ventura 13.2.1.
 
photophile said:
Thank you for the suggestion - I managed to follow the instructions and create the new admin account - but the mac still booted up with the delayed start. Reading around the subject elsewhere, it seems quite a few people are experiencing this issue - so it may be a bug in Ventura 13.2.1. For now, I can live with it as I can put the computer in sleep mode (rather than turning it off) as it wakes up from sleep instantaneously, without any delay. :-|
Click to expand...
I'm glad I didn't go from Monterey to Ventura yet! There were no compelling features that seemed important to me.

If you have other links, please post them. Here's one I found, recommending that you can disable Stage Manager, which uses lots of resources. Hopefully you studied Activity Monitor.

https://thesweetbits.com/blog/how-to-fix-slow-mac-after-update/

Wow, Brave Browser cache was the largest on my system, and I don't even run Brave anymore. Google keeps a copy of every damn Chrome download.
 
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CAcreeks said:
photophile said:
Thank you for the suggestion - I managed to follow the instructions and create the new admin account - but the mac still booted up with the delayed start. Reading around the subject elsewhere, it seems quite a few people are experiencing this issue - so it may be a bug in Ventura 13.2.1. For now, I can live with it as I can put the computer in sleep mode (rather than turning it off) as it wakes up from sleep instantaneously, without any delay. :-|
Click to expand...
I'm glad I didn't go from Monterey to Ventura yet! There were no compelling features that seemed important to me.

If you have other links, please post them. Here's one I found, recommending that you can disable Stage Manager, which uses lots of resources. Hopefully you studied Activity Monitor.

https://thesweetbits.com/blog/how-to-fix-slow-mac-after-update/

Wow, Brave Browser cache was the largest on my system, and I don't even run Brave anymore. Google keeps a copy of every damn Chrome download.
Click to expand...
I also thought about using Activity Monitor. . . But based on the OP's description of the issue, Activity Monitor will not be available to see what is occurring.

I think that using Console (Applications/Utilities/Console) will be helpful. Since the problem only appears at startup it will be relatively easy to track-down.

Here are three guides to using Console. I placed Howard Oakley's article at the top because he cuts to the chase. . . But the others have lots more information for those who want to learn more about how to use Console.

Reading Logs: Shutdown and Startup

Console User Guide/Apple Support The info is MacOS specific; this is the Ventura link.

How to View the System Log on a Mac
 
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If your computer is four months old it should be under warranty. Have you called Apple to ask for their advice? That is the first thing I would do.
 
CameraCarl said:
If your computer is four months old it should be under warranty. Have you called Apple to ask for their advice? That is the first thing I would do.
Click to expand...
Yes, call Apple. I think they can also run diagnostics remotely.
 
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