Safe boot: what is this ?

hi friends,
I had a number of updates to do yesterday, so had my 13" macBook Pro running to download them and that worked all well. At the end of the updates it restarted but ever since I have the Grey Screen of Death.
Tried booting is safe mode, which seems to work as there is a bar coming under the Apple logo, but once the bar is filled after about 2 minutes the grey spinning cogwheel comes up indefinitely, leaving the screen grey. tried resetting the two abrrevaition (DVRAP or so and something else), but did not make a difference starting it up that way as it just keeps showing the spinning wheel on the grey screen.
Before I continue and reinstall from the Install DVD, would it be that the bar that is being filled in safe boot is a sign that in itself it is working? Did I give it not long enough or how long should a safe boot take?
Also, at what time time to push the SHIFT button at startup? Is it OK to hold the SHIFT button from the moment I push the power button or should I push it later?
Gratfeul for your help, thanx

Related apple articles:
Starting up in Safe Mode
Gray screen appears during startup

Similar Messages

When Safe Booting, what *doesn't* load?

Does anyone know what doesn't get loaded in the OS (besides Extensions) when booting in Safe Mode? I'm troubleshooting something right now and need to know. (I'll go into what I'm troubleshooting later, perhaps, but at the moment that info would actually be off topic to this entry.)

The official Apple word is here.

TS2570 Still cant access my computer, followed instructions to perform a safe boot and last line of script it shows: BootCacheControl: Unable to open /Var/db/BootCache.playlist:2 No such file or directory. Any idea?

Brand new Mac Book Pro
Purchased in Mexico's Department store Liverpool on June 20th 2012
Purchased Memory upgade to 8Gb, on june 27th, at Apple Store Memorial City, Houston
Upgraded memory from 4Gb to 8Gb on June 28th.
Tried to write on my external HD (previously written on a windows based PC) with no success.
Upon reccomendation from a Mac assistant, copied all my external HD contents into my Mac Hard drive.
Then formatted my external HD and copied back all my information to it.
deleted all the information from my MacBook Pro HD.
Attempted to repeat the same operation with another external HD, but got a message saying there was not enough epace on the computer HD (even though I have a 750Gb Hard Drive.
Looked in the trash bin and there it was, all the information previously deleted..
Could not empty the trash bin, although I got a message asking me to safely delete all the information from the trash bin,
Could not get enough space released, after several attpempts the trash bin was finally emptied.
All happy getting acquainted with my new MacBook Pro. Two days later, got a gray screen and not able to start the computer.
Looking in to Mac support I found article http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2570 and followed instructions to perform a safe boot:
"Perform a Safe Boot
Simply performing the Safe Boot may resolve this issue.
Shut down your Mac. If necessary, hold your Mac's power button for several seconds to force it to power down.
Start your Mac, then immediately hold the Shift key. This performs a Safe Boot. Advanced tip: If you want to
see the status of a Safe Boot as it progresses, you can hold Shift-Command-V during start up (instead of just Shift).
Note: A Safe Boot takes longer than a typical start up because it includes a disk check and other operations.
The following is the script that appears on the screen upon safe boot. and halt after the last line.
AppleACPICPU:Processor Id=6 LocalAplicId=255 Disabled
AppleACPICPU:Processor Id=7 LocalAplicId=255 Disabled
AppleACPICPU:Processor Id=8 LocalAplicId=255 Disabled
calling mpo_policy_init for TMSafetyNet
Security policy loaded: Safety net for Time Machine (TMSafetyNet)
calling mpo_policy_init for Sandbox
Security policy loaded: Seatbelt sandbox policy (Sandbox)
calling mpo_policy_init for Quarantine
Security policy loaded: Quarantine Policy (Quarantine)
Copyright (c) 1982, 1986, 1989, 1991, 1993
        The Regents of the University of California. All Rights Reserved.
MAC Framework Succesfully initializad
using 16384 buffer headers and 10240 cluster IO buffer headers
IOAPIC: Version 0x20 Vextors 64:87
ACPI: System State [SO S3 S4 S5] (S3)
PFM64 (36cpu) 0xf10000000, 0xf0000000
Aplconsole relocated to 0xf1000000
PCI configuration changed (bridge=16 device=4 cardbus=0)
[ PCI configuration end, bridges 12 devices 16 ]
Firewire (OHCI) Lucent ID 5901 built-in now active, GUID 3c0754fffe9b2aa2; max speed s800.
Pthread support ABORTS when sync kernel primitives misused
com.apple.AppleFSCompressionTypeZlib kmod start
com.apple.AppleFSCompressionTypeDataless kmod start
com.apple.AppleFSCompressionTypeZlib load succeeded
com.apple.AppleFSCompressionTypeDateless load succeeded
AppleIntelCPUPowerManagementClient: ready
BTCOEXIST off
wl0: Broadcom BCM4331 802.11 Wireless controller
5.100.98.75
AppleUSBMultitouchDriver::checkStatus - received Status Packet, Payload 2: device was reinitializad
rooting via boot-uuid from /chosen: 6E918706-FC0D-37460-A3A0-6268A51DF93B
Waiting on <dict ID="0"><key><string ID="1">IOResources</string><key>IOResourceMatch</key><string ID="2">boot-uuid-media</string></dict>
Got boot device = IOService:/AppleACPIPlatformExpert/PCI0@0/AppleAPIPCI/SATA@1F,2/AppleIntelPchSe riesAHCI/PRT0@0/AOAHCIDevice@0/AppleAHCIDiskDriver/IOAHCIBlock
storageevice /IoBlockStorageDriver/TOSHIBA MK7559GSXF Media/IOGUIDPartit
BSD root: disk0s2, major 14, minor 2
Kernel is LP64
com.apple.launchd 1   com.apple.launchd 1   *** launchd[1] has started up. ***
com.apple.launchd 1   com.apple.launchd 1   *** Verbose boot, will log to /dev/console. ***
Running fsck on the boot volume...
** /dev/rdisk0s2 (NO WRITE)
** Root file system
   Executing FSCK_HFS (version diskdev_cmds-540.1~25).
BootCacheControl: UNable to open /Var/db/BootCache.playlist:2 No such file or directory
launchctl:Dubious permissions on file (skipping): /Library/LaunchDaemons
launchctl:Dubious permissions on file (skipping): /System/Library/LaunchDaemons
Any help or suggestions on what to do next would be welcomed.
I am in the middle of the Atlantick, stuck with a brand new, non working Apple MacBook Pro.
Best regards
Sergio Ramos

Reinstalling MacOS does NOT fix the problem for me. I'm still searching a solution !
Bernard

Safe boot vs new admin user account

If a kernel systems problem presents itself when logging under a new user account identity but NOT when booting up in safe mode - what does this mean?
Does this count out a hardware problem?

Sounds like you have a third party something that loads in any account and is causing the trouble. Safe boot disables all third party goodies (and a fair number of Apple's own as well), while logging into an alternate account would only disable user specific startup applications. So I would guess you installed something that is not user specific (that is, it isn't in the user's own login items, so can't be disabled from there) that is a problem. You can try looking in these two locations and see what, if anything, is there:
/Library/StartupItems
/System/Library/StartupItems
Thus I have a temperature monitoring gizmo in /Library/StartupItems. Another possiblity is to launch Activity Monitor and arrange the processes in alphabetical order, then select all, copy and paste the list into a text document. Do the same in Safe Boot (assuming Activity Monitor will run) and compare the two lists.
If the computer runs normally in Safe Boot I would say there is nothing wrong with the hardware.
Francine
Francine
Schwieder

ITunes hangs unless I safe boot

So I made the mistake of upgrading to iTunes 7.0.2 to use the new iPod shuffle. Now no version of iTunes from 4.x on will run unless I do a safe boot. Of course, then I can't use the MOTU hardware and iTunes runs but doesn't properly play back sound files.
Obviously something was altered that blocks iTunes from running and that doesn't get loaded with a safe boot. If this was OS 9 I would do the old extensions juggle to figure out what. Does anyone know how to sort through the .kext files in a similar way?
Thanks.
-Jay
G5 2x1.8GHz Mac OS X (10.3.9)

And the answer is: QuickTime! QuickTime 7.x fights with the Digidesign driver as I discovered in another thread here. If you use the Digi Core Audio Driver, don't go beyond Quicktime 6.5.2 and you won't have this problem.
Unfortunately that means you can't also use the latest iPod software.
-Jay

Yosemite automatic safe boot

Recently i had so many problems with the installationf of yosemite, finally it finished installing but now every time i turn my mac it enters automatically to safe boot, what can i do?

Boot into Recovery (command+R), and use Disk Utility to verify/repair permissions, and then verify/repair your boot drive.

What does this log mean? Fresh os install still can only safe boot

*My head is about to explode.*
*Last night, I pulled my old hard drive. put in new one and did fresh install.*
*Ever confident that this would magically fix my computer.*
*I can still only boot in safe mode.*
*I ran AHT. everything passed. I have reseted every thing and reset logic board. yes only one push of the magic button*
*below is a system log from before I put in new drive.*
*however, after new drive and fresh install and still can't boot I check sytem log and still get same message:*
*Cannot use ATS Persistent Store - switching to old FODB cache code*
*Is this my underlying problem?*
*What does it mean?*
*When I try to boot up normally, I get to grey screen , spinning wheel, then wheel turns pixelly and fuzzy with random colors juist where the wheel is and the grey screen with apple logo fuzzy then black.*
*Any words of wisdom will save my sanity.*
Feb 11 16:10:32 sherrydesktop shutdown: reboot by louislevy:
Feb 11 16:10:32 sherrydesktop SystemStarter748: authentication service (757) did not complete successfully
Feb 11 16:10:33 sherrydesktop SystemStarter748: The following StartupItems failed to properly start:
Feb 11 16:10:33 sherrydesktop SystemStarter748: /System/Library/StartupItems/AuthServer
Feb 11 16:10:33 sherrydesktop SystemStarter748: - execution of Startup script failed
Feb 11 16:14:42 localhost kernel[0]: standard timeslicing quantum is 10000 us
Feb 11 16:14:41 localhost memberd72: memberd starting up
Feb 11 16:14:43 localhost kernel[0]: vmpagebootstrap: 1141505 free pages
Feb 11 16:14:41 localhost mDNSResponder-108.6 (Jul 19 2007 11: 33:32)65: starting
Feb 11 16:14:43 localhost kernel[0]: migtable_maxdispl = 70
Feb 11 16:14:42 localhost lookupd76: lookupd (version 369.5) starting - Mon Feb 11 16:14:42 2008
Feb 11 16:14:43 localhost kernel[0]: Copyright (c) 1982, 1986, 1989, 1991, 1993
Feb 11 16:14:43 localhost kernel[0]: The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved.
Feb 11 16:14:43 localhost kernel[0]: using 8192 buffer headers and 4096 cluster IO buffer headers
Feb 11 16:14:43 localhost kernel[0]: DART enabled
Feb 11 16:14:43 localhost kernel[0]: FireWire (OHCI) Apple ID 42 built-in now active, GUID 001124ff fe382290; max speed s800.
Feb 11 16:14:43 localhost kernel[0]: Security auditing service present
Feb 11 16:14:43 localhost kernel[0]: BSM auditing present
Feb 11 16:14:43 localhost kernel[0]: disabled
Feb 11 16:14:43 localhost kernel[0]: rooting via boot-uuid from /chosen: 334016DB-E0CA-3E86-8A4D-47576141AB26
Feb 11 16:14:43 localhost kernel[0]: Waiting on <dict ID="0"><key>IOProviderClass</key><string ID="1">IOResources</string><key>IOResourceMatch</key><string ID="2">boot-uuid-media</string></dict>
Feb 11 16:14:43 localhost kernel[0]: Got boot device = IOService:/MacRISC4PE/ht@0,f2000000/AppleMacRiscHT/pci@7/IOPCI2PCIBridge/k2-sat a-root@C/AppleK2SATARoot/k2-sata@0/AppleK2SATA/ATADeviceNub@0/IOATABlockStorageD river/IOATABlockStorageDevice/IOBlockStorageDriver/WDC WD2500JD-41HBC0 Media/IOApplePartitionScheme/Untitled@3
Feb 11 16:14:43 localhost kernel[0]: BSD root: disk0s3, major 14, minor 2
Feb 11 16:14:43 localhost kernel[0]: Jettisoning kernel linker.
Feb 11 16:14:43 localhost kernel[0]: Resetting IOCatalogue.
Feb 11 16:14:43 localhost kernel[0]: Matching service count = 0
Feb 11 16:14:43 localhost kernel[0]: Matching service count = 6
Feb 11 16:14:43 localhost kernel[0]: Matching service count = 6
Feb 11 16:14:43 localhost kernel[0]: Matching service count = 6
Feb 11 16:14:43 localhost kernel[0]: Matching service count = 6
Feb 11 16:14:43 localhost kernel[0]: Matching service count = 6
Feb 11 16:14:43 localhost kernel[0]: IOPlatformControl::registerDriver Control Driver AppleSlewClock did not supply target-value, using default
Feb 11 16:14:43 localhost kernel[0]: IPv6 packet filtering initialized, default to accept, logging disabled
Feb 11 16:14:44 localhost diskarbitrationd71: disk0s3 hfs 334016DB-E0CA-3E86-8A4D-47576141AB26 Macintosh HD desktop /
Feb 11 16:14:44 localhost DirectoryService81: Launched version 2.1 (v353.6)
Feb 11 16:14:45 localhost kernel[0]: UniNEnet: Ethernet address 00:11:24:38:22:90
Feb 11 16:14:45 localhost launchd: Server 0 in bootstrap 1103 uid 0: "/usr/sbin/lookupd"76: exited abnormally: Hangup
Feb 11 16:14:45 localhost lookupd90: lookupd (version 369.5) starting - Mon Feb 11 16:14:45 2008
Feb 11 16:14:48 localhost mDNSResponder: Adding browse domain local.
Feb 11 16:14:48 localhost kernel[0]: UniNEnet::monitorLinkStatus - Link is up at 1000 Mbps - Full Duplex
Feb 11 16:14:48 localhost configd69: AppleTalk startup
Feb 11 16:14:48 sherrydesktop configd69: setting hostname to "sherrydesktop.local"
Feb 11 16:14:51 sherrydesktop kernel[0]: ATY,ChockStone_A: vram a0000000:10000000
Feb 11 16:14:51 sherrydesktop kernel[0]: ATY,ChockStone_B: vram a0000000:10000000
Feb 11 16:14:51 sherrydesktop configd69: executing /System/Library/SystemConfiguration/Kicker.bundle/Contents/Resources/enable-net work
Feb 11 16:14:51 sherrydesktop configd69: posting notification com.apple.system.config.network_change
Feb 11 16:14:51 sherrydesktop lookupd95: lookupd (version 369.5) starting - Mon Feb 11 16:14:51 2008
Feb 11 16:14:53 sherrydesktop configd69: target=enable-network: disabled
Feb 11 16:14:54 sherrydesktop configd69: AppleTalk startup complete
Feb 11 16:20:47 localhost kernel[0]: standard timeslicing quantum is 10000 us
Feb 11 16:20:44 localhost memberd57: memberd starting up
Feb 11 16:20:47 localhost kernel[0]: vmpagebootstrap: 1138664 free pages
Feb 11 16:20:44 localhost mDNSResponder-108.6 (Jul 19 2007 11: 33:32)50: starting
Feb 11 16:20:47 localhost kernel[0]: migtable_maxdispl = 70
Feb 11 16:20:46 localhost lookupd64: lookupd (version 369.5) starting - Mon Feb 11 16:20:46 2008
Feb 11 16:20:47 localhost kernel[0]: Copyright (c) 1982, 1986, 1989, 1991, 1993
Feb 11 16:20:47 localhost kernel[0]: The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved.
Feb 11 16:20:47 localhost kernel[0]: using 8192 buffer headers and 4096 cluster IO buffer headers
Feb 11 16:20:47 localhost kernel[0]: DART enabled
Feb 11 16:20:47 localhost kernel[0]: FireWire (OHCI) Apple ID 42 built-in now active, GUID 001124ff fe382290; max speed s800.
Feb 11 16:20:47 localhost kernel[0]: Security auditing service present
Feb 11 16:20:47 localhost kernel[0]: BSM auditing present
Feb 11 16:20:47 localhost kernel[0]: disabled
Feb 11 16:20:47 localhost kernel[0]: rooting via boot-uuid from /chosen: 334016DB-E0CA-3E86-8A4D-47576141AB26
Feb 11 16:20:47 localhost kernel[0]: Waiting on <dict ID="0"><key>IOProviderClass</key><string ID="1">IOResources</string><key>IOResourceMatch</key><string ID="2">boot-uuid-media</string></dict>
Feb 11 16:20:47 localhost kernel[0]: Got boot device = IOService:/MacRISC4PE/ht@0,f2000000/AppleMacRiscHT/pci@7/IOPCI2PCIBridge/k2-sat a-root@C/AppleK2SATARoot/k2-sata@0/AppleK2SATA/ATADeviceNub@0/IOATABlockStorageD river/IOATABlockStorageDevice/IOBlockStorageDriver/WDC WD2500JD-41HBC0 Media/IOApplePartitionScheme/Untitled@3
Feb 11 16:20:47 localhost kernel[0]: BSD root: disk0s3, major 14, minor 2
Feb 11 16:20:47 localhost kernel[0]: HFS: Removed 3 orphaned unlinked files
Feb 11 16:20:47 localhost kernel[0]: Jettisoning kernel linker.
Feb 11 16:20:47 localhost kernel[0]: Resetting IOCatalogue.
Feb 11 16:20:47 localhost kernel[0]: Matching service count = 0
Feb 11 16:20:47 localhost kernel[0]: IOPlatformControl::registerDriver Control Driver AppleSlewClock did not supply target-value, using default
Feb 11 16:20:47 localhost kernel[0]: IPv6 packet filtering initialized, default to accept, logging disabled
Feb 11 16:20:48 localhost diskarbitrationd56: disk0s3 hfs 334016DB-E0CA-3E86-8A4D-47576141AB26 Macintosh HD desktop /
Feb 11 16:20:49 localhost DirectoryService65: Launched version 2.1 (v353.6)
Feb 11 16:20:50 localhost kernel[0]: UniNEnet: Ethernet address 00:11:24:38:22:90
Feb 11 16:20:52 localhost mDNSResponder: mDNSPlatformSendUDP sendto failed to send packet on InterfaceID 01808800 lo0/4 to 224.0.0.251:5353 skt 9 error -1 errno 65 (No route to host) 306010061
Feb 11 16:20:52 localhost mDNSResponder: mDNSPlatformSendUDP sendto failed to send packet on InterfaceID 01808800 lo0/4 to 224.0.0.251:5353 skt 9 error -1 errno 65 (No route to host) 306010061
Feb 11 16:20:53 localhost mDNSResponder: mDNSPlatformSendUDP sendto failed to send packet on InterfaceID 01808800 lo0/4 to 224.0.0.251:5353 skt 9 error -1 errno 65 (No route to host) 306010311
Feb 11 16:20:53 localhost kernel[0]: UniNEnet::monitorLinkStatus - Link is up at 1000 Mbps - Full Duplex
Feb 11 16:20:53 localhost configd54: AppleTalk startup
Feb 11 16:20:53 sherrydesktop configd54: setting hostname to "sherrydesktop.local"
Feb 11 16:20:55 sherrydesktop kernel[0]: ATY,ChockStone_A: vram a0000000:10000000
Feb 11 16:20:55 sherrydesktop configd54: executing /System/Library/SystemConfiguration/Kicker.bundle/Contents/Resources/enable-net work
Feb 11 16:20:55 sherrydesktop kernel[0]: ATY,ChockStone_B: vram a0000000:10000000
Feb 11 16:20:55 sherrydesktop configd54: posting notification com.apple.system.config.network_change
Feb 11 16:20:55 sherrydesktop lookupd75: lookupd (version 369.5) starting - Mon Feb 11 16:20:55 2008
Feb 11 16:20:58 sherrydesktop mDNSResponder: Adding browse domain local.
Feb 11 16:20:59 sherrydesktop /System/Library/CoreServices/loginwindow.app/Contents/MacOS/loginwindow: Login Window Application Started
Feb 11 16:21:00 sherrydesktop configd54: AppleTalk startup complete
Feb 11 16:21:00 sherrydesktop configd54: target=enable-network: disabled
Feb 11 16:21:04 sherrydesktop loginwindow113: Login Window Started Security Agent
Feb 11 16:21:17 sherrydesktop /System/Library/Frameworks/ApplicationServices.framework/Frameworks/ATS.framewo rk/Support/ATSServer: (-3230) Cannot use ATS Persistent Store - switching to old FODB cache code

thank you thank you for taking an interest. this is so frustrating.
i only have apple keyboard, mighty mouse, and 20 inch cinema display connected. this morning took out memory and tried to boot up with individual pairs in the first bank. first the (2)256, the (2) 1g, and then the other (2) 1g modules. everytime I get the weird fuzzy wheel under the logo after a while, black screen flashes, then grey apple logo fuzzy screen then black forever.
I ran tiger updates this morn. still will only boot to safe mode. then tried to run leopard disk to install it
will not boot from leopard disk.
tried safe boot, then doulble click install leopard, restart, then the saga repeats with the pixely red square around the wheel.
these are fresh drives with only what came on instll disk loaded.
thanks again for taking an interest.
i love this system(well at least i did). I want to install leopard on my powerbook too but am terrified to do so right now since it is working and I have work to do. Can't afford to have no computer to do my work on...self employment is great?!
This is making me crazy. I anxiously await your words of wisdom.

Office Mac 11 pptx - not all files opening. When I do Safe Boot mode, the pptx files open correctly. What does this mean? How do I fix? thanks

Some pptx files do not open. I found whne I did Safe Boot Mode they did open correctly. Not sure what to do next?

See "Validate problematic fonts" here:
Mac Basics: Font Book

My macbook pro ended up in safe boot mode randomly twice in a row...how do i fix this permanently??!

And I think this issue is coming from a few different problems I've had with my MacBook Pro on lion...one major thing was probably the fact that I changed from Lion to Mountain Lion...and then changed right back (I think I did back up my stuff first), but somehow it didn't agree with my computer. Also I've been wearing it out a lot by throwing it with the case into my car frequently...maybe a bit much, idk...also though I have a lot of trouble keeping up with the numerous files that build up on my desktop and don't know where to begin. Let's just say my computer has pretty much had it, although for months it's been functioning normally.
...oh yeah and did I mention I had to get a brand new hard drive, with that not really making a difference as to how bad I, um, throw my computer around (it's not as bad as you think but to be candid, blech). I did bang my computer at one point in a rage attack and made sure no one really knew when I took it to get it fixed? TMI...that's what I deserve....so.
I did try this web link the second time in a row this happened which was about an hour or so that I managed to, uh, kind of fix it with the bottom advice on the page:
http://applehelpwriter.com/2012/06/24/mac-keeps-starting-in-safe-mode/
(sorry I couldn't get this to click)
Anyways at the bottom of this help article you will notice the very end of PRAM reset directions where you hear the start up chime two times. That did not happen, but somehow out of nowhere the computer stopped the safe boot mode routine and the progress bar didn't show up as I continued to hold down the given keys. I really don't know where my luck came from there...and I also found an article that fixed my computer the first time and I cringe to say that it came from a person on Apple Discussions complaining about something similar that one of my friends helped me google. Planning to actually bookmark the applehelpwriter article in case I just happen to need it but i'm pretty sure someone will be on here with an answer at some point.
SO....I did get my comp fixed twice now, but I hope that somebody will go back and read the beginning of my question explanation to see if I'm doing something that may be overwhelming my computer. If this safe boot thing happened to me instead of me testing the computer myself AND MORE THANA ONCE yikes...something needs to be done. Take note that the only reason I'm asking the community's advice is that I'm past my computer's contract so if I wanted to I couldn't take my computer to get it fixed and I planned to take one or two more classes in college again to complete my certificate.
Please help, some people must run into this situation at some point, either way if they ask or don't I'm sure they're lucky to get it fixed somewhere.
chels

Only if your home/renters insurance doesn't cover such damage without raising your rates/dropping you. Ask first of them if it is worthwhile the claim once you get an estimate for repair. These repair places are pretty good:
http://www.dttservice.com/
http://www.powerbookresq.com/
http://www.microdocusa.com/
http://www.macspecialist.com/
http://www.techrestore.com/

My 27" imac won't boot in normal mode. The screen stays white. I have upgraded to Yosemite. However, the computer does boot in safe mode. Could this be a virus related issue or possibly a video card issue?

My 27" iMac will not boot in normal mode. The screen stays white. The computer will boot in safe mode. Could this be virus related or is it possibly an issue with my video card. Before this happened, my computer screen was flashing weird things and the computer would unexpectedly power down.

1. This procedure is a diagnostic test. It changes nothing, for better or worse, and therefore will not, in itself, solve the problem. But with the aid of the test results, the solution may take a few minutes, instead of hours or days.
Don't be put off by the complexity of these instructions. The process is much less complicated than the description. You do harder tasks with the computer all the time.
2. If you don't already have a current backup, back up all data before doing anything else. The backup is necessary on general principle, not because of anything in the test procedure. Backup is always a must, and when you're having any kind of trouble with the computer, you may be at higher than usual risk of losing data, whether you follow these instructions or not.
There are ways to back up a computer that isn't fully functional. Ask if you need guidance.
3. Below are instructions to run a UNIX shell script, a type of program. As I wrote above, it changes nothing. It doesn't send or receive any data on the network. All it does is to generate a human-readable report on the state of the computer. That report goes nowhere unless you choose to share it. If you prefer, you can act on it yourself without disclosing the contents to me or anyone else.
You should be wondering whether you can believe me, and whether it's safe to run a program at the behest of a stranger. In general, no, it's not safe and I don't encourage it.
In this case, however, there are a couple of ways for you to decide whether the program is safe without having to trust me. First, you can read it. Unlike an application that you download and click to run, it's transparent, so anyone with the necessary skill can verify what it does.
You may not be able to understand the script yourself. But variations of the script have been posted on this website thousands of times over a period of years. The site is hosted by Apple, which does not allow it to be used to distribute harmful software. Any one of the millions of registered users could have read the script and raised the alarm if it was harmful. Then I would not be here now and you would not be reading this message.
Nevertheless, if you can't satisfy yourself that these instructions are safe, don't follow them. Ask for other options.
4. Here's a summary of what you need to do, if you choose to proceed:
☞ Copy a line of text in this window to the Clipboard.
☞ Paste into the window of another application.
☞ Wait for the test to run. It usually takes a few minutes.
☞ Paste the results, which will have been copied automatically, back into a reply on this page.
The sequence is: copy, paste, wait, paste again. You don't need to copy a second time. Details follow.
5. You may have started the computer in "safe" mode. Preferably, these steps should be taken in “normal” mode, under the conditions in which the problem is reproduced. If the system is now in safe mode and works well enough in normal mode to run the test, restart as usual. If you can only test in safe mode, do that.
6. If you have more than one user, and the one affected by the problem is not an administrator, then please run the test twice: once while logged in as the affected user, and once as an administrator. The results may be different. The user that is created automatically on a new computer when you start it for the first time is an administrator. If you can't log in as an administrator, test as the affected user. Most personal Macs have only one user, and in that case this section doesn’t apply. Don't log in as root.
7. The script is a single long line, all of which must be selected. You can accomplish this easily by triple-clicking anywhere in the line. The whole line will highlight, though you may not see all of it in the browser window, and you can then copy it. If you try to select the line by dragging across the part you can see, you won't get all of it.
Triple-click anywhere in the line of text below on this page to select it:
PATH=/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/usr/libexec;clear;cd;p=(Software Hardware Memory Diagnostics Power FireWire Thunderbolt USB Fonts SerialATA 4 1000 25 5120 KiB/s 1024 85 \\b%% 20480 1 MB/s 25000 ports ' com.clark.\* \*dropbox \*genieo\* \*GoogleDr\* \*k.AutoCAD\* \*k.Maya\* vidinst\* ' DYLD_INSERT_LIBRARIES\ DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH -86 "` route -n get default|awk '/e:/{print $2}' `" 25 N\\/A down up 102400 25600 recvfrom sendto CFBundleIdentifier 25 25 25 1000 MB ' com.adobe.AAM.Updater-1.0 com.adobe.CS4ServiceManager com.adobe.CS5ServiceManager com.adobe.fpsaud com.adobe.SwitchBoard com.apple.AirPortBaseStationAgent com.apple.FolderActions.enabled com.apple.FolderActions.folders com.apple.installer.osmessagetracing com.apple.mrt.uiagent com.apple.ReportCrash.Self com.apple.SafariNotificationAgent com.apple.usbmuxd com.google.keystone.agent com.google.keystone.daemon com.microsoft.office.licensing.helper com.oracle.java.Helper-Tool com.oracle.java.JavaUpdateHelper ' ' 879294308 3627668074 1083382502 1274181950 1855907737 464843899 3694147963 1417519526 1233118628 2456546649 2806998573 2636415542 842973933 3301885676 891055588 998894468 695903914 1443423563 ' 51 5120 files );N5=${#p[@]};p[N5]=` networksetup -listnetworkserviceorder|awk ' NR>1 { sub(/^$[0-9]+$ /,"");n=$0;getline;} $NF=="'${p[26]}')" { sub(/.$/,"",$NF);print n;exit;} ' `;f=('\n%s: %s\n' '\n%s\n\n%s\n' '\nRAM details\n%s\n' %s\ %s '%s\n-\t%s\n' );S0() { echo ' { q=$NF+0;$NF="";u=$(NF-1);$(NF-1)="";gsub(/^ +| +$/,"");if(q>='${p[$1]}') printf("%s (UID %s) is using %s '${p[$2]}'",$0,u,q);} ';};s=(' s/[0-9A-Za-z._]+@[0-9A-Za-z.]+\.[0-9A-Za-z]{2,4}/EMAIL/g;/faceb/s/(at\.)[^.]+/\1NAME/g;/\/Shared/!s/(\/Users\/)[^ /]+/\1USER/g;s/[-0-9A-Fa-f]{22,}/UUID/g;' ' s/^ +//;/de: S|[nst]:/p;' ' {sub(/^ +/,"")};/er:/;/y:/&&$2<'${p[10]} ' 1s/://;3,6d;/[my].+:/d;s/^ {4}//;H;${ g;s/\n$//;/s: [^EO]|x([^08]|02[^F]|8[^0])/p;} ' ' 5h;6{ H;g;/P/!p;} ' ' ($1~/^Cy/&&$3>'${p[11]}')||($1~/^Cond/&&$2!~/^N/) ' ' /:$/{ N;/:.+:/d;s/ *://;b0'$'\n'' };/^ *(V.+ [0N]|Man).+ /{ s/ 0x.... //;s/[()]//g;s/(.+: )(.+)/ (\2)/;H;};$b0'$'\n'' d;:0'$'\n'' x;s/\n\n//;/Apple[ ,]|Genesy|Intel|SMSC/d;s/\n.*//;/\)$/p;' ' s/^.*C/C/;H;${ g;/No th|pms/!p;} ' '/= [^GO]/p' '{$1=""};1' ' /Of/!{ s/^.+is |\.//g;p;} ' ' $0&&!/ / { n++;print;} END { if(n<10) print "com.apple.";} ' ' sub(/ :/,"");{ print|"tail -n'${p[12]}'";} ' ' NR==2&&$4<='${p[13]}' { print $4;} ' ' END { $2/=256;if($2>='${p[15]}') print int($2) } ' ' NR!=13{next};{sub(/[+-]$/,"",$NF)};'"`S0 21 22`" 'NR!=2{next}'"`S0 37 17`" ' NR!=5||$8!~/[RW]/{next};{ $(NF-1)=$1;$NF=int($NF/10000000);for(i=1;i<=3;i++){$i="";$(NF-1-i)="";};};'"`S0 19 20`" 's:^:/:p' '/\.kext\/(Contents\/)?Info\.plist$/p' 's/^.{52}(.+) <.+/\1/p' ' /Launch[AD].+\.plist$/ { n++;print;} END { if(n<200) print "/System/";} ' '/\.xpc\/(Contents\/)?Info\.plist$/p' ' NR>1&&!/0x|\.[0-9]+$|com\.apple\.launchctl\.(Aqua|Background|System)$/ { print $3;} ' ' /\.(framew|lproj)|\):/d;/plist:|:.+(Mach|scrip)/s/:[^:]+//p ' '/^root$/p' ' !/\/Contents\/.+\/Contents|Applic|Autom|Frameworks/&&/Lib.+\/Info.plist$/ { n++;print;} END { if(n<1100) print "/System/";} ' '/^\/usr\/lib\/.+dylib$/p' ' /Temp|emac/{next};/(etc|Preferences|Launch[AD].+)\// { sub(".(/private)?","");n++;print;} END { split("'"${p[41]}"'",b);split("'"${p[42]}"'",c);for(i in b) print b[i]".plist\t"c[i];if(n<500) print "Launch";} ' ' /\/(Contents\/.+\/Contents|Frameworks)\/|\.wdgt\/.+\.([bw]|plu)/d;p;' 's/\/(Contents\/)?Info.plist$//;p' ' { gsub("^| |\n","\\|\\|kMDItem'${p[35]}'=");sub("^...."," ") };1 ' p '{print $3"\t"$1}' 's/\'$'\t''.+//p' 's/1/On/p' '/Prox.+: [^0]/p' '$2>'${p[43]}'{$2=$2-1;print}' ' BEGIN { i="'${p[26]}'";M1='${p[16]}';M2='${p[18]}';M3='${p[31]}';M4='${p[32]}';} !/^A/{next};/%/ { getline;if($5<M1) a="user "$2"%, system "$4"%";} /disk0/&&$4>M2 { b=$3" ops/s, "$4" blocks/s";} $2==i { if(c) { d=$3+$4+$5+$6;next;};if($4>M3||$6>M4) c=int($4/1024)" in, "int($6/1024)" out";} END { if(a) print "CPU: "a;if(b) print "I/O: "b;if(c) print "Net: "c" (KiB/s)";if(d) print "Net errors: "d" packets/s";} ' ' /r\[0\] /&&$NF!~/^1(0|72\.(1[6-9]|2[0-9]|3[0-1])|92\.168)\./ { print $NF;exit;} ' ' !/^T/ { printf "(static)";exit;} ' '/apsd|BKAg|OpenD/!s/:.+//p' ' (/k:/&&$3!~/(255\.){3}0/ )||(/v6:/&&$2!~/A/ ) ' ' $1~"lR"&&$2<='${p[25]}';$1~"li"&&$3!~"wpa2";' ' BEGIN { FS=":";p="uniq -c|sed -E '"'s/ +\$[0-9]+\$\$.+\$/\\\2 x\\\1/;s/x1$//'"'";} { n=split($3,a,".");sub(/_2[01].+/,"",$3);print $2" "$3" "a[n]$1|p;b=b$1;} END { close(p);if(b) print("\n\t* Code injection");} ' ' NR!=4{next} {$NF/=10240} '"`S0 27 14`" ' END { if($3~/[0-9]/)print$3;} ' ' BEGIN { L='${p[36]}';} !/^[[:space:]]*(#.*)?$/ { l++;if(l<=L) f=f"\n "$0;} END { F=FILENAME;if(!F) exit;if(!f) f="\n [N/A]";"cksum "F|getline C;split(C, A);C="checksum "A[1];"file -b "F|getline T;if(T!~/^(AS.+ (En.+ )?text(, with v.+)?$|(Bo|PO).+ sh.+ text ex|XM)/) F=F" ("T", "C")";else F=F" ("C")";printf("\nContents of %s\n%s\n",F,f);if(l>L) printf("\n ...and %s more line(s)\n",l-L);} ' ' s/^ ?n...://p;s/^ ?p...:/-'$'\t''/p;' 's/0/Off/p' ' END{print NR} ' ' /id: N|te: Y/{i++} END{print i} ' ' / / { print "'"${p[28]}"'";exit;};1;' '/ en/!s/\.//p' ' NR!=13{next};{sub(/[+-M]$/,"",$NF)};'"`S0 39 40`" ' $10~/$L/&&$9!~"localhost" { sub(/.+:/,"",$9);print $1": "$9;} ' '/^ +r/s/.+"(.+)".+/\1/p' 's/(.+\.wdgt)\/(Contents\/)?Info\.plist$/\1/p' 's/^.+\/(.+)\.wdgt$/\1/p' ' /l: /{ /DVD/d;s/.+: //;b0'$'\n'' };/s: /{ /V/d;s/^ */- /;H;};$b0'$'\n'' d;:0'$'\n'' x;/APPLE [^:]+$/d;p;' ' /^find: /d;p;' "`S0 44 45`" ' BEGIN{FS="= "} /Path/{print $2} ' ' /^ *$/d;s/^ */ /;' ' s/^.+ |\(.+$$//g;p ' '/\.appex\/Contents\/Info\.plist$/p' ' /2/{print "WARN"};/4/{print "CRITICAL"};' );c1=(system_profiler pmset\ -g nvram fdesetup find syslog df vm_stat sar ps sudo\ crontab sudo\ iotop top pkgutil 'PlistBuddy 2>&1 -c "Print' whoami cksum kextstat launchctl sudo\ launchctl crontab 'sudo defaults read' stat lsbom mdfind ' for i in ${p[24]};do ${c1[18]} ${c2[27]} $i;done;' defaults\ read scutil sudo\ dtrace sudo\ profiles sed\ -En awk /S*/*/P*/*/*/C*/*/airport networksetup mdutil sudo\ lsof test osascript\ -e sysctl\ -n pluginkit );c2=(com.apple.loginwindow\ LoginHook '" /L*/P*/loginw*' "'tell app \"System Events\" to get properties of login items'|tr , \\\n" 'L*/Ca*/com.ap*.Saf*/E*/* -d 1 -name In*t -exec '"${c1[14]}"' :CFBundleDisplayName" {} \;|sort|uniq' '~ $TMPDIR.. $ -flags +sappnd,schg,uappnd,uchg -o ! -user $UID -o ! -perm -600 $' '.??* -path .Trash -prune -o -type d -name *.app -print -prune' :${p[35]}\" :Label\" '{/,}L*/{Con,Pref}* -type f ! -size 0 -name *.plist -exec plutil -s {} \;' "-f'%N: %l' Desktop L*/Keyc*" therm sysload boot-args status " -F '\$Time \$(RefProc): \$Message' -k Sender kernel -k Message Req 'bad |Beac|caug|corru|dead[^bl]|FAIL|fail|GPU |hfs: Ru|inval|jnl:|last value [1-9]|n Cause: -|NVDA$|pagin|proc: t|Roamed|rror|ssert|Thrott|tim(ed? ?|ing )o|WARN' -k Message Rne 'Goog|ksadm|Roame|SMC:|suhel| VALI|ver-r|xpma' -o -o -k Sender fseventsd -k Message Req SL -o -k Sender Req launchd -k Message Req de: " '-du -n DEV -n EDEV 1 10' 'acrx -o comm,ruid,%cpu' '-t1 10 1' '-f -pfc /var/db/r*/com.apple.*.{BS,Bas,Es,J,OSXU,Rem,up}*.bom' '{/,}L*/Lo*/Diag* -type f -regex .\*[cght] ! -name .?\* ! -name \*ag \( -exec grep -lq "^Thread c" {} \; -exec printf \* \; -o -true $ -execdir stat -f:%Sc:%N -t%F {} \;|sort -t: -k2 |tail -n'${p[38]} '/S*/*/Ca*/*xpc* >&- ||echo No' '-L /{S*/,}L*/StartupItems -type f -exec file {} +' '-L /S*/L*/{C*/Sec*A,Ex}* {/,}L*/{A*d,Ca*/*/Ex,Co{mpon,reM},Ex,In{p,ter},iTu*/*P,Keyb,Mail/B,Pr*P,Qu*T,Scripti,Sec,Servi,Spo,Widg}* -path \\*s/Resources -prune -o -type f -name Info.plist' '/usr/lib -type f -name *.dylib' `awk "${s[31]}"<<<${p[23]}` "/e*/{auto,{cron,fs}tab,hosts,{[lp],sy}*.conf,mach_i*/*,pam.d/*,ssh{,d}_config,*.local} {,/usr/local}/etc/periodic/*/* /L*/P*{,/*}/com.a*.{Bo,sec*.ap}*t {/S*/,/,}L*/Lau*/*t .launchd.conf" list getenv /Library/Preferences/com.apple.alf\ globalstate --proxy '-n get default' -I --dns -getdnsservers\ "${p[N5]}" -getinfo\ "${p[N5]}" -P -m\ / '' -n1 '-R -l1 -n1 -o prt -stats command,uid,prt' '--regexp --only-files --files com.apple.pkg.*|sort|uniq' -kl -l -s\ / '-R -l1 -n1 -o mem -stats command,uid,mem' '+c0 -i4TCP:0-1023' com.apple.dashboard\ layer-gadgets '-d /L*/Mana*/$USER&&echo On' '-app Safari WebKitDNSPrefetchingEnabled' "+c0 -l|awk '{print(\$1,\$3)}'|sort|uniq -c|sort -n|tail -1|awk '{print(\$2,\$3,\$1)}'" -m 'L*/{Con*/*/Data/L*/,}Pref* -type f -size 0c -name *.plist.???????|wc -l' kern.memorystatus_vm_pressure_level );N1=${#c2[@]};for j in {0..9};do c2[N1+j]=SP${p[j]}DataType;done;N2=${#c2[@]};for j in 0 1;do c2[N2+j]="-n ' syscall::'${p[33+j]}':return { @out[execname,uid]=sum(arg0) } tick-10sec { trunc(@out,1);exit(0);} '";done;l=(Restricted\ files Hidden\ apps 'Elapsed time (s)' POST Battery Safari\ extensions Bad\ plists 'High file counts' User Heat System\ load boot\ args FileVault Diagnostic\ reports Log 'Free space (MiB)' 'Swap (MiB)' Activity 'CPU per process' Login\ hook 'I/O per process' Mach\ ports kexts Daemons Agents XPC\ cache Startup\ items Admin\ access Root\ access Bundles dylibs Apps Font\ issues Inserted\ dylibs Firewall Proxies DNS TCP/IP Wi-Fi Profiles Root\ crontab User\ crontab 'Global login items' 'User login items' Spotlight Memory Listeners Widgets Parental\ Controls Prefetching SATA Descriptors App\ extensions Lockfiles Memory\ pressure );N3=${#l[@]};for i in 0 1 2;do l[N3+i]=${p[5+i]};done;N4=${#l[@]};for j in 0 1;do l[N4+j]="Current ${p[29+j]}stream data";done;A0() { id -G|grep -qw 80;v[1]=$?;((v[1]==0))&&sudo true;v[2]=$?;v[3]=`date +%s`;clear >&-;date '+Start time: %T %D%n';};for i in 0 1;do eval ' A'$((1+i))'() { v=` eval "${c1[$1]} ${c2[$2]}"|'${c1[30+i]}' "${s[$3]}" `;[[ "$v" ]];};A'$((3+i))'() { v=` while read i;do [[ "$i" ]]&&eval "${c1[$1]} ${c2[$2]}" \"$i\"|'${c1[30+i]}' "${s[$3]}";done<<<"${v[$4]}" `;[[ "$v" ]];};A'$((5+i))'() { v=` while read i;do '${c1[30+i]}' "${s[$1]}" "$i";done<<<"${v[$2]}" `;[[ "$v" ]];};';done;A7(){ v=$((`date +%s`-v[3]));};B2(){ v[$1]="$v";};for i in 0 1;do eval ' B'$i'() { v=;((v['$((i+1))']==0))||{ v=No;false;};};B'$((3+i))'() { v[$2]=`'${c1[30+i]}' "${s[$3]}"<<<"${v[$1]}"`;} ';done;B5(){ v[$1]="${v[$1]}"$'\n'"${v[$2]}";};B6() { v=` paste -d: <(printf "${v[$1]}") <(printf "${v[$2]}")|awk -F: ' {printf("'"${f[$3]}"'",$1,$2)} ' `;};B7(){ v=`grep -Fv "${v[$1]}"<<<"$v"`;};C0() { [[ "$v" ]]&&sed -E "$s"<<<"$v";};C1() { [[ "$v" ]]&&printf "${f[$1]}" "${l[$2]}" "$v"|sed -E "$s";};C2() { v=`echo $v`;[[ "$v" != 0 ]]&&C1 0 $1;};C3() { v=`sed -E "${s[63]}"<<<"$v"`&&C1 1 $1;};for i in 1 2;do for j in 0 2 3;do eval D$i$j'(){ A'$i' $1 $2 $3; C'$j' $4;};';done;done;{ A0;D20 0 $((N1+1)) 2;D10 0 $N1 1;B0;C2 27;B0&&! B1&&C2 28;D12 15 37 25 8;A1 0 $((N1+2)) 3;C0;D13 0 $((N1+3)) 4 3;D23 0 $((N1+4)) 5 4;D13 0 $((N1+9)) 59 50;for i in 0 1 2;do D13 0 $((N1+5+i)) 6 $((N3+i));done;D13 1 10 7 9;D13 1 11 8 10;D22 2 12 9 11;D12 3 13 10 12;D23 4 19 44 13;D23 5 14 12 14;D22 6 36 13 15;D22 38 52 66 54;D22 7 37 14 16;D23 8 15 38 17;D22 9 16 16 18;B1&&{ D22 35 49 61 51;D22 11 17 17 20;for i in 0 1;do D22 28 $((N2+i)) 45 $((N4+i));done;};D22 12 44 54 45;D22 12 39 15 21;A1 13 40 18;B2 4;B3 4 0 19;A3 14 6 32 0;B4 0 5 11;A1 17 41 20;B7 5;C3 22;B4 4 6 21;A3 14 7 32 6;B4 0 7 11;B3 4 0 22;A3 14 6 32 0;B4 0 8 11;B5 7 8;B1&&{ A2 19 26 23;B7 7;C3 23;};A2 18 26 23;B7 7;C3 24;D13 4 21 24 26;B4 4 12 26;B3 4 13 27;A1 4 22 29;B7 12;B2 14;A4 14 6 52 14;B2 15;B6 14 15 4;B3 0 0 30;C3 29;A1 4 23 27;B7 13;C3 30;B3 4 0 65;A3 14 6 32 0;B4 0 16 11;A1 39 50 64;B7 16;C3 52;D13 24 24 32 31;D13 25 37 32 33;A2 23 18 28;B2 16;A2 16 25 33;B7 16;B3 0 0 34;B2 21;A6 47 21&&C0;B1&&{ D13 21 0 32 19;D13 10 42 32 40;D22 29 35 46 39;};D23 14 1 62 42;D12 34 43 53 44;D12 22 20 32 25;D22 0 $((N1+8)) 51 32;D13 4 8 41 6;D12 26 28 35 34;D13 27 29 36 35;A2 27 32 39&&{ B2 19;A2 33 33 40;B2 20;B6 19 20 3;};C2 36;D23 33 34 42 37;B1&&D23 35 45 55 46;D23 32 31 43 38;D12 36 47 32 48;D13 20 42 32 41;D13 37 2 48 43;D13 4 5 32 1;D13 4 3 60 5;D12 26 48 49 49;B3 4 22 57;A1 26 46 56;B7 22;B3 0 0 58;C3 47;D22 4 4 50 0;D12 4 51 32 53;D23 22 9 37 7;A7;C2 2;} 2>/dev/null|pbcopy;exit 2>&-
Copy the selected text to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C.
8. Launch the built-in Terminal application in any of the following ways:
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
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Click anywhere in the Terminal window and paste by pressing command-V. The text you pasted should vanish immediately. If it doesn't, press the return key.
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Copyright © 2014 by Linc Davis. As the sole author of this work, I reserve all rights to it except as provided in the Use Agreement for the Apple Support Communities website ("ASC"). Readers of ASC may copy it for their own personal use. Neither the whole nor any part may be redistributed.

After the install upgrade my imac wont load anymore i tried to do a safe mode load and wehn i do at the end of it it tells me that i have a "systemShutdown false" what does this mean

after the install upgrade my imac wont load anymore i tried to do a safe mode load and wehn i do at the end of it it tells me that i have a "systemShutdown false" what does this mean

If 10.7.0 or later...
Bootup holding CMD+r, or the Option/alt key to boot from the Restore partitirion & use Disk Utility from there to Repair the Disk, then Repair Permissions.
If that doesn't help Reinstall the OS.

I accidentaly spilled tea in my mac book air. I did a few steps to get the water out of the track pad, and after 3 days, the computer said safe boot and i couldn't get on. The water didn't even get in the keyboard, so what should i do?

I accidentaly spilled tea in my mac book air. I did a few steps to get the water out of my track pad, but after a few days when i opened the computer, it said safety boot. What should i do?

*** When you post for help, please state which OS X is installed.
If you aren't sure, (you can do this in Safe Mode) click About this Mac from your Apple menu 
Troubleshooting advice can depend on that information.
Message was edited by: Carolyn Samit

What does Safe Boot leave out that is messing things up?

The patient is a 2012 Macbook Pro that replaced a 2009 Macbook but to no real benefit: it's no faster and very frustrating to use. 4 Gb ram, 7200 rpm drive (the old machine swapped so much I added a faster drive to at least speed up that process. Mavericks seems to manage memory better, not as much swapping).
Symptoms:
lot of beachballs, spinners, even at login time as it tries to restore my old work session
slow keyboard entry in URL address window, slow acceptance of return key. Sometimes takes 2-2 attempts to get it to load a page
application switching is terrible, totally unresponsive sometimes, even though I can see that the CPU is idling (I have Activity Monitor in the Dock with the CPU history as the icon: 4 cores and nothing happening, maybe one of them showing any activity).
Even what I would expect to be lightweight processes — System Preferences, Terminal — take ages to load. I suspect some kind of cache corruption or other damage but have no way to verify. That's not the case in Safe Boot. Things are snappy, as I would expect.
I reinstalled Mavericks last night but no difference. I assume that would remove any kernel extensions or add ons that might have been mucking things up.
Just booted in Safe Boot and used the Guest account, things were pretty speedy, much more like what I want. Logged out of it and into my own account, things are better, very quick to load. So it seems Safe Boot leaves some things out I might be well rid of. Trouble is, I don't know what they are. Another diagnostic would be to create an external boot drive and add my home directory to see if I see any difference there. It might be slower since it's external but maybe not as bad.
How can I isolate what might be causing this?

Safe Mode disables third-party kernel extensions and other startup items.
You need to look at what you have set to startup automatically.
The first place to look is in the Users & Groups system prefs, your account, Login Items.
To delete items from the list, select it and click the - button at the bottom of the list. Unchecking the checkbox does nothing.
The other places where software can install startup items is in your user Library/LaunchAgents, LaunchDaemons, or StartupItems. In the first two, the files will be a single plist. In the StartupItems it will be a folder.
It is best to use the program's uninstaller to remove them, but you can do it manually if you want.
Once you remove them, you will have to log out and log back in.
<Edited By Host>

What gets bypassed in Safe Boot?

Does anyone know EXACTLY what gets bypassed in Safe Boot? I'm having trouble with a G5 that will only boot in safe mode. I have tried everything I can think of to resolve my issue, and even have a lengthy post on this forum that went unresolved. I have it narrowed down to something that gets bypassed when doing a safe boot. Any help is greatly appreciated.

Hi there,
In 10.4.x it basically loads "Safe Drivers", (Video is one thing that it could be, disabling Quartz might get around that one), loads only System Fonts, Clears some Caches, Airport is disabled, (this has been a problem a few times with a bad card),and doesn't load 3rd party Login or Startup Items. See...
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1564
If it only does it in Regular Boot, then it could also possibly be some 3rd party add-on, Check System Preferences>Accounts>Login Items window to see if it or something relevant is listed.
Also look in these if they exist, some are invisible...
/private/var/run/StartupItems
/Library/StartupItems
/System/Library/StartupItems
/System/Library/LaunchDaemons
/Library/LaunchDaemons

What a heck is "safe boot"?

Hi guys -- I had to restart my iMac and when it was starting up, the light gray beckground with the gray apple logo was there as usual, however, there was a progress bar below it that hadn't been there before and it took way longer than usual to start up... Once it finished it requested me my password as usual BUT it had a line of red text saying "Safe boot"... I then entered my password as usual, my desktop was there but the volume icon at the top right corner was gone so I restarted it again and all was fine: No "Safe boot" text and the volume icon was there. So what a heck was that all about??

When you boot your Mac while holding the shift key down it loads only a small selection of the various kexts and other process which normally run in the background, together with all fonts other than the handful built into the system. Consequently many of the usual facilities, internet included, don't work. The purpose of this is to enable you to boot the computer when some background process is conflicting or corrupted (usually it's third-party add-ons which do this) so that you can diagnose the problem. It also runs a disk check on start-up, hence the slow start. On the next boot everything is back to normal.

Safe boot: what is this ?

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