Very slow to log on iMacs

[Andyhall]

We have 6 iMac machines running Mac OSX 10.6 with multiple users in our Art Dept. Recently they have become very slow to log on to the user accounts set up on the machine - sometimes this takes 10 mins. I have inserted boot dosk and held down C key to boot from it but the process stops.
I was hoping to run some Utils and clean up the machines or even re-install the OS. I have also used Sophos to check for viruses and is clean. Not sure what to do next.

[mr_moonface]

Are they bound to AD? If so try re-binding.

edit: completely remove ad then re-bind

[Andyhall]

No they are not bound to AD. Just stand alone Macs

[mr_moonface]

I'm not sure what you've tried already but Onyx Titanium's Software • Home is a great maintenance utility, have you tried repairing permissions etc from Disk Utility once you're in?

Have you run an update recently that may have caused this, seems strange that all 6 would start slowing down at the same time? Or has it occurred over time? Try re-applying the 10.6.8 combo update? Mac OS X 10.6.8 Update Combo v1.1

[dalsoth]

You can reset permissions etc in disk utility. Another utility that lets you do this and recover from other issues is Applejack AppleJack:Troubleshooting Tool for Macs | Free System Administration software downloads at SourceForge.net

[Andyhall]

I'm not sure what you've tried already but Onyx Titanium's Software • Home is a great maintenance utility, have you tried repairing permissions etc from Disk Utility once you're in?

Have you run an update recently that may have caused this, seems strange that all 6 would start slowing down at the same time? Or has it occurred over time? Try re-applying the 10.6.8 combo update? Mac OS X 10.6.8 Update Combo v1.1

I cannot get into Utility on boot dosk anyway. I will try some of htese suggestions after the holiday. Thanks for tips.

[mr_moonface]

I cannot get into Utility on boot dosk anyway. I will try some of htese suggestions after the holiday. Thanks for tips.

You can also access Disk Utility from the Admin user account to repair permissions. You can also put the Macs into target disk mode (cmd+t at startup) and mount via firewire on a working mac and repair the disk that way.

[HodgeHi]

How much space is available on the drives? Could it be limited space available, causing lots of swapping in and out of files?