# Solved: MacBook Pro hangs after startup



## EchoChamber (Jun 14, 2011)

Hi guys.

I just bought a MacBook Pro for video editing, so I'm not all that well versed in how these things operate. I've worked on PCs all my life.

So I've owned this thing for a matter of weeks and it's already exhibiting problems. Starting last night, every time I boot, I get to my desktop, but the dock does not appear. Also, if I try to start the Dock through the Apple button in the top left, as soon as I hover over "Dock >" the loading cursor appears and takes like a minute to load. I finally get everything to work normally by playing with the power button, the Dock will just pop up after I hold it down for a few seconds, like it was stuck or something.

Even though I eventually got it working, I know that this is not normal behavior, especially after only owning it for a short while. The only possible thing I can think of is that I installed Parallels with Windows XP the last time I had it running. But it doesn't run at startup so it doesn't really make sense.

If anyone has any ideas on how to get this thing to stop booting funny, I would greatly appreciate it.


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## Headrush (Feb 9, 2005)

Are you sure that Dock hiding isn't enabled? (Look in *System Preferences -> Dock*

I would also check you energy saving settings in *System Preferences - > Energy Saver*.
Could be your computer is going to sleep too early for your usage.
Additionally, it does take a second for the HD to spin up and depending on what speed your HD is, seeing the spinning beach ball could be symptomatic of that.


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## EchoChamber (Jun 14, 2011)

Dock hiding is not on. I've been using it with the power adapter so sleep mode doesn't kick in for 15 minutes. My hard drive spins at 7200 rpm so I doubt it's that. I waited 2 minutes for it to bring the dock up itself, and it did not, I had to press the power button a couple times and it just suddenly jumps up.


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## SpringPro (Jul 4, 2011)

EchoChamber,

I just started having the same problem about two days ago. My dock disappears and the "wait a minute" wheel just keeps spinning. I too have Parallels installed on my MacBook Pro. I am wondering if an update from Windows somehow caused the problem.


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## EchoChamber (Jun 14, 2011)

Interesting. It's good to know that there's actually someone else having a similar problem, and with a possible solution. I really hope it's fixable without removing Parallels though.

I still don't understand why having it installed would affect the boot process though.


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## EchoChamber (Jun 14, 2011)

I took a look around and found a fix.

http://kb.parallels.com/111541

Apparently Parallels _is_ the culprit. The above link is Parallels Support. They explain 2 ways to fix it. I did the workaround version and I'm back to normal.

Hopefully this helps you too SpringPro.


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## SpringPro (Jul 4, 2011)

Echochamber,

Thanks for the link. I just finished reinstalling the parallels software. I removed it last night and all was well with the MacBook Pro. I am glad that at least it was not the hard drive.


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