Macbook crash on sleep after disconnection from cinema display

Question

Hello,
I bought a black macbook core 2 duo a few months back as a replacement for a 1.5 GHz 12" powerbook G4, and I'm beginning to wonder if I made a terrible mistake as the Macbook frequently crashes on sleep which has caused a major disruption to the way I use my computer.
My work pattern involves pulling the computer out of its bag and opening it for between a few minutes and a couple of hours, before putting it back to sleep by closing it and shoving it back in its bag again, usually in a hurry, and usually several times each day. If I'm working at my desk, I pull it out of its bag, plug a keyboard, mouse and cinema display into it before waking it in lid-closed mode via the keyboard or mouse. I later sleep it via the power key, before immediately disconnecting the cables and putting it back in its bag.
The powerbook used to cope with this admirably, sometimes for two months at a stretch between restarts, and always with many applications and windows open. I had learned to expect that when I open the lid of my computer everything is there just as I left it, and more importantly that I didn't need to worry about saving everything before closing the lid.
The Macbook frequently crashes on sleep (regardless of whether I close the lid, use the key or menu or leave it until it sleeps itself), and have I narrowed it down to something that usually happens on one of the first few sleeps after I disconnect the cinema display. The macbook's backlight goes out on sleep but the display does not switch off (it can be seen, frozen as it was, if a light is shone on the display) nor the hard disk spin down, and the only response of any sort I can get is I can switch the white LED on and off by opening and closing the lid. This behaviour has always been the same regardless of whether safe sleep is enabled or not, although I have disabled safe sleep as I do not have the time or inclination to sit around waiting for 15 seconds for the disk to stop spinning each time I close the lid.
My question is, is there something wrong with my computer or is this normal for Macbooks where an external display is used? And if it is normal for macbooks is it something that is likely to resolve itself with future MacOs or firmware updates, or is it more fundamental than that?

Answer 1

Hello again,
It is hard to suggest something to do in this case, since intermittent issues are really difficult to diagnose. If I were you, I might try doing an Archive and Install from the install dvd that came with your macbook, as well as verifying the drive using Disk Utility on the install dvd. These are just suggestions and I don't know if they will change anything, but at least Apple may get more info out of knowing these were done to try and resolve the issue. If Archiving and Installing doesn't fix the problem (an OS software problem) and disk utility doesn't report any problems, it most likely warrants a trip to Apple. You definitely shouldn't have to put up with worrying about whether your computer will work or not every time you close the lid.