Long sleep time

Question

I have just got the new (mid-2011) iMac 21.5", and have observed that it takes a long time to go to sleep - typically 30 seconds after I press the sleep/power button.  This compares with the 3 or 4 seconds it took my previous iMac G5.  This means I have to sit there waiting to be sure it actually does sleep for that long.
Is this normal and should I be concerned?  Why would it take so long, and is there anything simple I can do about it?
Thanks.

Answer 1

I've been having a similar problem putting my new (mid-2011) 27" iMac to sleep over the past few days.  It had been taking about 30 seconds for the system to go to sleep, where previously it had been sleeping within 2-3 seconds.
In my case, the culprit was a setting for the external USB Fax modem I just installed late last week.
In the "Receive Options" menu for the USB Modem, I had set it to "Receive faxes on this computer" (since there was no manual answer setting in the options screen).  Once I unchecked the "Receive faxes on this computer" checkbox, voilà... my system went to sleep as quickly as I had been used to.
Thanks for the suggestion to look in the print queue, Kenneth.  While my answer wasn't a document in the print queue, your suggestion did make me realize that I'd noticed the slow sleep problem after I'd installed the USB modem.