Is it possible that a firmware update made startup slow?

Question

I have a 2011 MBP w/ 8 gigs of RAM and a 128 gig solid state drive. I was just notified that updates were available. I briefly glanced at the details of the update and remember seeing updates for iTunes, Mac Firmware, Java and Quicktime. I installed them and my computer automatically restarted. At the grey screen there was a progress bar. Everything seemed to install and update well.

It seems though, that the after the updates my computer seems to take about 2-3 times longer to boot up than it did before. It was super snappy before. It would restart in about 10 seconds ( probably a result of the SSD ). The grey screen with the spinning loader alone seems to take about 15-20 seconds now, whereas before it took about 5-7 seconds.

Could the firmware updates have caused the slow-down? Is anyone else experiencing the same thing?

Answer 1

I would try a PRAM reset first. Restart your machine and hold down cmd+alt+P+R you will hear the chime that you normally do at startup keep holding those keys until you see the machine turn off and then let them go. I have seem many occasions where firmware updates will affect the boot process and a PRAM reset does the trick.

If that doesn't work then the only other thing I can suggest is to run Disk Utility.app and then with your Macintosh HD Volume selected run Repair Permissions. I had a Java update once that left my permissions all over the place and was causing a lot of small issues with my machine.