MacBook Pro starting up in OS X Utilities

Beginning in the last few days, my MacBook Pro has most often (but not always) been starting up in OS X Utilities, which offers choices of restoring from a backup, reinstalling OS X, getting help online, or using disk utility.  I then have to click a restart button to get OS X to load. 
I have OS X 10.8.1 installed, with an external USB drive attached for Time Machine backups.   Startup in utilities has occurred with and without the external drive plugged in.
How can I stop this waste-of-time diversion on startup?

Also, open the System Preferences and click on Startup Disk. Select your main drive and restart. This forces the OS to write which disk is supposed to be the startup drive to the PRAM.

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    This week my Macbook Pro started running super slow, taking ages to open programs and giving me the color wheel alllll the time. I've never had problems like this before! I'm not running many applications or doing anything unusual but it's just running extra slow. Once or twice it has also totally gone to sleep while I was in the middle of using it, and I had to wake it back up. It has also been getting really hot and the battery life seems worse...! This is all new, I'm using my computer just as I always have but it suddenly has issues.
    The only thing it has been doing for a while is sometimes the screen will go blue - this either corrects itself within a few seconds or if I close my Macbook and then reopen it, the screen is back to normal. This is very rare though and I don't know if it's related to the slowness problem.
    What can I do to fix this??
    Mac OS X 10.6.8
    2 GHz Intel Core i7
    4 GB 133 MHz DDR3
    I just ran EtreCheck -
    Hardware Information:
        MacBook Pro (15-inch, Early 2011)
        MacBook Pro - model: MacBookPro8,2
        1 2 GHz Intel Core i7 CPU: 4 cores
        4 GB RAM
    Video Information:
        AMD Radeon HD 6490M - VRAM: 256 MB
        Intel HD Graphics 3000 - VRAM: 384 MB
    System Software:
        Mac OS X 10.6.8 (10K549) - Uptime: 1 day 3:59:13
    Disk Information:
        Hitachi HTS725050A9A362 disk0 : (465.76 GB)
            (null) (disk0s1) <not mounted>: 200 MB
            Macintosh HD (disk0s2) / [Startup]: 465.44 GB (235.1 GB free)
        MATSHITADVD-R   UJ-898 
    USB Information:
        Apple Inc. Apple Internal Keyboard / Trackpad
        Apple Inc. BRCM2070 Hub
            Apple Inc. Bluetooth USB Host Controller
        Apple Inc. FaceTime HD Camera (Built-in)
        Apple Computer, Inc. IR Receiver
    FireWire Information:
    Thunderbolt Information:
        Apple, Inc. MacBook Pro
    Kernel Extensions:
        com.digidesign.iokit.DigiDal    (8.0.3f1)
        com.paceap.kext.pacesupport.snowleopard    (5.7.2)
    Startup Items:
        DigidesignLoader: Path: /Library/StartupItems/DigidesignLoader
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    Launch Daemons:
        [System]    com.adobe.fpsaud.plist 3rd-Party support link
        [System]    com.google.keystone.daemon.plist 3rd-Party support link
        [System]    com.microsoft.office.licensing.helper.plist 3rd-Party support link
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        Unity Web Player: Version: UnityPlayer version 3.5.2f2 - SDK 10.6 3rd-Party support link
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        Silverlight: Version: 5.1.20913.0 - SDK 10.6 3rd-Party support link
        FlashPlayer-10.6: Version: 12.0.0.77 - SDK 10.6 3rd-Party support link
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        Flash Player: Version: 12.0.0.77 - SDK 10.6 3rd-Party support link
        googletalkbrowserplugin: Version: 5.2.4.18058 3rd-Party support link
        SharePointBrowserPlugin: Version: 14.3.9 - SDK 10.6 3rd-Party support link
        AdobePDFViewer: Version: 10.1.1 3rd-Party support link
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        Growl  3rd-Party support link
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    Top Processes by CPU:
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             3%    WindowServer
             3%    EtreCheck
             2%    hidd
             0%    coreservicesd
    Top Processes by Memory:
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        82 MB    WindowServer
        82 MB    Mail
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        1.04 GB    Active RAM
        1.03 GB    Inactive RAM
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    The startup drive is failing, or there is some other internal hardware fault. The "etrecheck" output is irrelevant.
    Back up all data on the drive immediately if you don't already have a current backup. There are ways to back up a computer that isn't fully functional — ask if you need guidance.
    Make a "Genius" appointment at an Apple Store, or go to another authorized service provider.
    If privacy is a concern, erase the data partition(s) with the option to write zeros* (do this only if you have at least two complete, independent backups, and you know how to restore to an empty drive from any of them.) Don’t erase the recovery partition, if present.
    Keeping your confidential data secure during hardware repair
    Apple also recommends that you deauthorize a device in the iTunes Store before having it serviced.
    *An SSD doesn't need to be zeroed.

  • My macbook pro started acting strange after a safari reset. the mouse no longer: animates the dock, activates hot corners or selects pages from the 'top sites' page.

    my macbook pro started acting strange after a safari reset.
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    You don't say which year you have, however...
    ...there are known problems with the mid-2010 models (see http://support.apple.com/kb/TS4088?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US) as well as early and late 15" 2011 models (see https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4766577?tstart=0).
    Apple has taken ownership of the problems with the 2010 model but, unfortunately, the free logic board replacement for that model has probably long expired for you - three years after date of purchase.
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  • Macbook Pro starts up, has a small loading bar, and then shuts off.

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    So, about a week ago my macbook pro started having lots of issues: wifi connectivity, slow performance, sound issues, spotlight wasn't working. After going through the issues with apple support, they decided the best course of action was to erase the hard drive and do a reinstall. Since I have a recent backup this seemed like a good enough option. They were kind enough to send me a copy of the snow leopard disk to do the install since we couldn't get it to complete through the disk utility. Not sure why, since it says we are fully connected, it just never completed.
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    Jeremy.Laurin,
    have you tried agb76’s approach here?

  • My MacBook Pro starts then shuts down on its own 4 seconds later. An idea on what I should do? Thanks!

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  • My MacBook Pro starts and shuts off after loading for sometime

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  • Today out of the blue my wifes Macbook pro started beeping continuisly The only way I could stop it was by shutting it down any advice?

    Today out of the blue my wifes Macbook pro started beeping continuisly The only way I could stop it was by shutting it down any advice?

    http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5860

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