Sleep, no pulsing light, won't wake.

17" half dome, G4 Imac. This machine is rarely turned off, but is put to sleep via the Apple menu when not required. This has behaved perfectly until recently, but now after a period when the system was expected to be asleep I sometimes find it apparently hung, without the usual pulsing light, and not responsive to key press or mouse clicks, but with the fan running. From this state the only recourse is to shut down by holding the power button for 3 seconds and then restarting in the usual way. There seem to be no harmful after effects
I suspect this may occur when sleep is invoked by an energy saver time out, rather than a direct command. An experiment setting time out to 1 or 2 minutes shows a partial version of this effect: the time out provokes apparent sleep but with fans running and no flashing light, but system will still wake. Possibly the failure to wake is sensitive to the amount of time the system remains in the improper sleep state, since the tests involved only a few minutes in that state.
Another possibility is that the whole issue was provoked by recent software updates. The software is generally kept up to date, but I cannot be sure how long the underlying problem was present before the symptoms first appeared.
Any suggestions will be welcome. In the short term the obvious answer is not to allow energy saver to time out, but I would rather know what is going on, and maybe this will help uncover some deeper bug or problem.
Regards, Bill.

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Sleep - no pulsing light with lid open.

I have been aware of this little teaser for some time - possibly from when SL was installed. The MBP does not appear to be going to sleep with the settings on Energy Saver. The screen dims correctly and the light comes on at the correct time - but it does not pulse. The wake from this state is instantaneous when the trackpad or any key is touched/pressed. I recall that with Leopard I had to press the space bar which was followed by that funny noise as it woke up - HD kicking in?. The noise no longer occurs. I presume that the above is not normal? It is as though the MBP is not "properly" asleep, just resting, for want of better terminology.
If I shut the lid, sleep is also instantaneous and the light pulses. The same is true when sleep is selected from the menu.
I have also noticed that with the lid open and the light on that there is sometimes heat to the left of the trackpad - but not always.
I hate to say this but, having gone through a rapid battery failure (posted somewhere in that long thread under Power and Batteries), whether this had something to do with that rapid battery failure? In the past, I rarely shut the lid, just walked away. (A new battery has been fitted).
It can be taken that throughout all of the above that the power was plugged in.
Any ideas would be much appreciated.
Thanks
TY

Hi again TYDYsails,
These problem are almost always caused by third party hardware or software that polls the computer at regular intervals, interrupting the normal "timed" sleep process. They can sometimes be an absolute $%^& to resolve.
Common culprits can include:
Hardware attached to the USB or FW ports , or less usually, a router or other device attached to an ethernet port.
Software that regularly scans things. I have seen many different things implicated here at different times. Usually the problem eventually gets sorted out with an update of the software, so be aware of anything that you are using of this type that might not be the "latest".
Virus checkers, hardware monitors that regularly "poll" the HD or other components, "Button press" software associated with scanners or all in one printers, adds on like "Growl" that provide alerts of one kind or another, programs or widgets that provide regular "updates" using the net ( TV program guides are a good example) and so forth.
A good way of narrowing down the field a bit (once you have disconnected any hardware that might be involved - even USB hubs with nothing else connected have been known to cause the problem in the past) is to take a look at the log files.
Fire up "Console" from your utilities folder and choose the "System" log in the left hand pane. Type in "sleep" in the search field and look for entries that roughly correspond with the time when the computer was meant to be dozing off. Now repeat the process by type in "wake" instead.
You should find something that is either preventing sleep or causing an immediate "wake" after sleep has occurred.
Another useful check can be to take a look at Activity monitor before and after the "non-sleep". You may notice an unexpected process running in the background that is simply continuing to run through the period concerned, simply preventing the set "sleep" interval from ever being reached.
Another possible cause can be network related. If you have your computer acting as a file server for other computers , then the normal "timed" sleep from energy saver won't occur as long as they remain connected. (Using the "sleep" command from the menu, or closing the lid will let it sleep in these situations, but timed sleep will not occur).
Finally you need to think about other sorts of "network" related activity. Active Bluetooth devices nearby can sometimes be a cause.
THis wouldn't have caused battery failure as such, but it would have reduced battery charge life substantially if you were often using your computer on battery and relying on the computer to go to sleep on the basis of times set in Energy saver. It could also have increased the risks / frequency of "sudden shutdowns" and the like, if the battery was already "going bad", by more rapidly lowering the amount of power available to meet transient power demands.
Cheers
Rod

Laptop sleeping while working and won't wake.

When using the battery, laptop keeps going to sleep WHILE I am working. Several times, it would not wake and I have had to manually power down. Any ideas?

The problem is caused by a faulty temperature sensor in the track pad. Because of the bad sensor, the computer sees an imaginary spike in the temperature and decides it better go to sleep instead of allowing your computer to fry.
This is a common problem with PowerBooks, one that Apple won't own up to and pay to replace everyone's top case and logic board. After all, that would hurt the bottom line.
To find out if this is the problem, do this:
1. Open the Terminal program and type this: cat /var/log/system.log | grep kernel
If you see a line that says May 7 23:49:45 AlBook kernel[0]: Power Management received emergency overtemp signal. Going to sleep. then you have a problem.
2. Install the application Temperature Monitor from http://www.bresink.de/osx/0TemperatureMonitor/download.html and run it while you work. Open the History Window and you'll see graphs. Right before your computer drops off into its narcoleptic fit, you should see a spike in the trackpad temperature. If you see this, then you have this problem.
3. You can do a temporary fix (find it here: http://makel.org/blog/20/), which disables the thermal control system, but then you risk overheating and eventually causing your PowerBook an early demise. Otherwise, you have to replace the top case and logic board. That'll run you close to USD$1000, maybe more.
This is a fairly common problem (just Google "PowerBook narcolepsy" or "Power Management received emergency overtemp signal. Going to sleep" and it amazes me that Apple is risking the goodwill of its loyal customers by not replacing their crappy engineering for free.
So then you have to decide if you want to waste the money replacing the top cover or buy a new laptop. What I am going to do is buy an external hard drive, move my files to the backup, then buy a new laptop.

Computer gone to sleep....won't wake up

Tonight my husband turned on his computer and was browsing on the Internet when the screens went black (he has another display attached to his powerbook). He touched the power button and says the screen came back. A couple of minutes later, the same thing occurred and screens are black....tried to touch power button and no response. Tried the COMMAND, CONTROL & POWER button, still no response. It appears that it is asleep as the little light on the front is flashing. It is plugged into power and is green, does not appear to be charging. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks for your response. We left the computer in the sleep state. During the night I got up and went past the computer and just touched one of the keys to see what would happen......THIS TIME it woke up. Being half asleep....I just then quit all pgms he had running and shut it down. This morning he did start the computer -- checked a few things Internet-wise -- and shut it down again. Seemed okay....but I shall do the things that you have suggested here and let you know. Do you think the battery is getting old? Or did he do something that could have caused this to occur?

P67A-GD65 (B3) I put it to sleep and now it won't wake up?

I hope that someone will be able to help me. The other night after using my computer I put it in to standby mode. The next day when I tried to wake it up it didn't respond. I tried everything that I could think of and in the end turned off the power supply using the switch on it. It finally booted up but I noticed some odd behavior right away. When I moved the mouse around it would suddenly stop in one place on the screen and the symbol would change from the pointer to the working symbol. It would then suddenly jump and catch u to where I moved it on the pad. I thought that the driver for it may have messed up so I tried to reinstall it but the computer just sat there with the working symbol showing. I used task manager to close the program then thought that maybe it wasn't a mouse problem but maybe a memory one instead. I ran windows memory tester and didn't get any errors then again rebooted the computer. It gave me a long beep and two short ones then just sat there with a black screen. The motherboard ativity LEDs all just stay lit but nothing else happens, it never even gets to the BIOS. I have tried swapping out the power supply as well as the video cards and hard drives. I have also tested these parts in another system. I tried boting up with only 1 stick of memory and swapping that ne with the other as well and still no starting this thing. I do not know what to try now. I don't have an extra motherboard, cpu, or mrmory to try. Does anyone have any ides? Thanks, Mitch

With swapping parts in & out & around, along with the original wake problem, recommend removing the PSU power cord, removing the battery for awhile, & clearing CMOS. If clearing CMOS gets it back to working, check the System Information for the UEFI version. With a non OC'd & stable system, it may then help to update to the newest version.

When i try to wake my macbook after sleep the keypad lights up but the screen stays black. I have to switch off and restart. How do I fix this?

After my Macbook goes into sleep mode it sometimes won't wake. The keypad lights up but the screen stays black. This problem has only occured after updating to OSX 10.7.2.
All I can do is switch off and restart. Then any programs I have not 'quit' all open.

OK, I have a fix.
After spending about an hour online with Apple Care without success, I did a reinstall of the Lion OS. It fixed the problem. I was concerned that I would lose data or settings, but the reinstall was seemless and everything was the way it was before the reinstall except that the "black screen on wake" problem was fixed.
I started the reinstall before I went to bed and it was waiting for me the next morning.
Here is a link to the page on how to do the reinstall:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4718?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US
Hope this helps.

I have a lazy Powerbook that often won't wake up from sleep!

I have read many posts about sleep issues and Powerbooks, but I have not seen one that matches my issue. Maybe someone can shed some light on what's going on.
I recently purchased a refurb PB G4 1.67 (about two-three months ago.) This week, I started to have a sleep problem. Specifically, it sleeps ok, but sometimes won't wake up. When this happens, it appears to be dead. There is no response from the keyboard (no light on Caps Lock or Num Lock, and no key triggers wake. Also, it should wake just from opening the lid, but it sometimes won't. When this happens, I have to do a hard restart, and then the computer works again.
I have noticed that this is more common when not plugged in, but it sometimes happens when I have the AC charger plugged in, also.
Sometimes, there are no problems, and the computer wakes normally.
I reset the PMU, but it did not resolve the issue.
Any ideas? Does this PB need to be brought into an Apple repair center, or is this a simple issue that can be resolved through tweaking a setting in the energy preference pane or something? It's only a minor annoyance, but I fear it's the sign of some impending catastrophic failure of some sort (which probably won't happen until the day after my warranty expires!)

This information seemed to keep working.
If you are still having problems, then please post back with your results.
For us and every machine patched has been fixed.
If you have the developer tools CD, then CHUD is an optional install.CHUD tools enables a system preference pane to disallow napping. However just ticking this box means every reboot, the problem will comeback.
The patch is a startup item which unchecked the processor nap feature at startup.
Once installed, this seems to resolves the issues. Power Manager can be set how you like, at least that is what we have observed.
Symptoms :
Machine will completely freeze....
Clock Stops....
ADB Keyboard May Power Down...
USB Ports May Power Down...
Is this a power book only issue or is this issue simply more pronounced on the power books?
Any one else having these kind of issues?
Power Book 15" Mac OS X (10.4.6) Developer Tools (CHUD Tools Option) and Patch Installed

10.9.2 sleep issue won't wake up.

When 10.9.2 on my iMac 27 mid 2011 goes to sleep naturally overnite it won't wake. I have to do a reboot with the back button. Is anyone else having this issue?

Hello JInterisano
For issues with waking from sleep, check out the article below to troubleshoot the issue as well as using the additional steps at the bottom.
OS X: When your Mac doesn't sleep or wake
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS5357
Regards,
-Norm G.

Sleep - won't wake up, and now randomly goes off to sleep

Since the recent security update, my 1.67 G4 Powerbook has been experiencing problems with sleep. Sometimes it won't wake from sleep, forcing me to hard reboot or pull all power out, and now it's randomly falling into sleep when it shouldn't.
The issue is progressive - it will sleep, then I wake it, then it goes down again 2-3 minutes later, wake, then seconds, wake, then deep somnambulistic slumber.
I read in Macintouch that there was a fix recently for Intel MacBooks and sleep, but some of us in the PPC world are feeling it's effect.
I've reset the pram several times, and on one occasion the fan spun up very loudly on boot, then quieted down after 5 seconds. Might be nothing.
Another factor is the battery - pull the battery and the system behaves better. I wonder if there's a lowered thermal limit that, when the battery is charging, causes the system to shut to sleep...?
Anyone else having this problem? I'm ready to slip back to 10.4.9 to see if that makes it more stable -- this happens several time a day now.

For other who may be watching this...
The laptop did keep shutting down into sleep, but - following from a tip from another site - I began trying three things: One or all seem to have resolved the issue:
* Repair permissions - often and always. Something does get munged and I'd be interested to see if anyone else has the same files affected:
Permissions differ on ./Library/Widgets, should be drwxr-xr-x , they are drwxrwxr-x
Owner and group corrected on ./Library/Widgets
Permissions corrected on ./Library/Widgets
Group differs on ./usr/bin/fetchmail, should be 0, group is 6
Permissions differ on ./usr/bin/fetchmail, should be -rwxr-xr-x , they are -rwxr-sr-x
Owner and group corrected on ./usr/bin/fetchmail
Permissions corrected on ./usr/bin/fetchmail
Permissions differ on ./usr/lib/php/build/Makefile.global, should be -r--r--r-- , they are -r-xr-xr-x
Owner and group corrected on ./usr/lib/php/build/Makefile.global
Permissions corrected on ./usr/lib/php/build/Makefile.global
Permissions differ on ./usr/lib/php/build/acinclude.m4, should be -r--r--r-- , they are -r-xr-xr-x
Owner and group corrected on ./usr/lib/php/build/acinclude.m4
Permissions corrected on ./usr/lib/php/build/acinclude.m4
Permissions differ on ./usr/lib/php/build/mkdep.awk, should be -r--r--r-- , they are -r-xr-xr-x
Owner and group corrected on ./usr/lib/php/build/mkdep.awk
Permissions corrected on ./usr/lib/php/build/mkdep.awk
Permissions differ on ./usr/lib/php/build/phpize.m4, should be -r--r--r-- , they are -r-xr-xr-x
Owner and group corrected on ./usr/lib/php/build/phpize.m4
Permissions corrected on ./usr/lib/php/build/phpize.m4
Permissions differ on ./usr/lib/php/build/scanmakefilein.awk, should be -r--r--r-- , they are -r-xr-xr-x
Owner and group corrected on ./usr/lib/php/build/scanmakefilein.awk
Permissions corrected on ./usr/lib/php/build/scanmakefilein.awk
Permissions differ on ./usr/lib/system/libmathCommon.A.dylib, should be -r-xr-xr-x , they are -rwxr-xr-x
Owner and group corrected on ./usr/lib/system/libmathCommon.A.dylib
Permissions corrected on ./usr/lib/system/libmathCommon.A.dylib
The privileges have been verified or repaired on the selected volume
Verify/repair finished permissions on disk disk0s3 Macintosh HD
* I stopped zapping the PRAM when it went to sleep or wouldn't stay awake on boot - I just booted from DVD instead and, lo and behold, the thermal errors didn't occur under the DVD. Fixed permissions and a reboot it often worked fine for hours.
* Running it alternatively from either battery or from mains. Initially under the battery, it would sleep at 70-60%, then - after a few days of being shut down instead of slept - it began running down to 0. I'd have to plug the unit in and charge it whilst off, but now -- after a week of this - everythings back to normal.
Ultimately, I'm sure this software. Something is up - and slowly, if you're patient, you can bring your system back without buying a new case or motherboard.

Mac air goes into sleep won't wake

MacBook Air goes to sleep as normal, but won't wake up now.

A new mini is on the way & I'm researching UPS's. A question that I now have is -
The new mini will have 10.5 which will be nice, but I really want to put my old hard drive straight into the new unit so I can have my old computer back the way I like it. Right now I have my external drive with everything on it plugged into my wifes macbook, & I can access everything except my email. The old emails are there in the folders, but as numbered icons, & I can't find anything. With my business I often have to refer back to old emails, & right now it's really hard to. I have tried to import them into mail, but it says it doesn't recognize them.
If I do this, can I put the new backup discs in & load leopard onto the old hard drive without loosing my old information & setup? We are on a very slow dial-up here, so I've never been able to accept the automatic updates. I look forward your advice.

Macbook Pro Won't Wake From Deep Sleep

I'm having issues from my Macbook Pro waking from a deep sleep after my battery dies. If the battery dies and it goes into sleep, my Macbook Pro won't wake even if it's connected to power. I can remove the battery, hold down the power button, press keys and nothing happens.
I know the obvious thing is to not let the battery die, but I don't always work near outlets.
I've tried resetting the nvram and smc and nothing has worked. I'm probably going to bring it into Apple soon, but I really can't be without my computer for class.

Yes, I've tried that. It doesn't work. I've left the battery in, I've taken it out and left it out for a bit and nothing seems to work. It just turns back on whenever it feels like it.
I just had a sort of similar issue with a restart (no dead battery this time though). After my computer shutdown from a restart, it didn't want to boot back up. After holding down the power button and doing a few other things, I gave up. Then I closed the lid and set it down. It then decided to turn itself on.
I think I'm going to bring it in. I do massive amounts of design and web work on this thing and I can't have it messing up.

Display blank, key board light not working, won't wake up if sleeps.

Hi. I just bought a Toshiba Satellite P850 and after two weeks I had the first big problem.
It starts normally first time but after a shut-down and a few hours later start,the display is blank, any light on.The back light keyboard the same - only the power button and battery/wireless-connection have the light on.
If I shut it down again and then restart (by pressing the power button) nothing happened same screen and no light.
Tried to do this.. remove battery,press pow. button for 30-60 sec,plug charger,and the restart. it works. but after a shut-down and a few hours later restart,I have the same problem. If sleep mode it won't wake up.
Don't know what to do.. it's a brand new Toshiba Satellite. used a few hours a day for two weeks.

It sounds like the computer is going into Sleep mode or Hibernation and not coming out of it. Go to the Control Panel and select Power Options. Whatever your current power setting, select the Advanced settings under it. Check out your Sleep and Hibernation settings. In this case, I would disable them. You might want to enable the Screen Saver and let that kick in if you're away from the computer for any length of time.
In cases of mysterious computer issues, the best policy is to simplify. Reduce the number of attached devices. Keep the number of open applications down to a minimum. See if you can figure which hardware or software is causing this problem. And you should be able to fix it.

My Macbook pro, (late 2010) sometimes will sleep and won't wake up. then the sleep light flashes.What's the problem?

My Macbook pro, (late 2010) sometimes will sleep and won't wake up. then the sleep light flashes.What's the problem

Hi I've been following this thread (along with a different one on the same topic). I've been having the same problem with my ibook. I can add that I have no problem with startup. It's just that the screen "goes to sleep" unexpectedly and may operate normally for a few minutes or a few hours at most. Opening and closing the lid or restarting seems to cause it to awaken but then usually for just a few seconds or minutes. If it is connected to another video display that display continues functioning fine even though the computer screen is blank. In addition the desktop is there and visible faintly or if totally blank can be backlit through the apple logo and can be read. I've had my logic board replaced twice under the extended warranty and assumed it was that but now I'm thinking of the reed switch. Apple refuses to consider any further work under warranty as the last repair was in Jan, 06 and they claim only a 90 parts warranty and the machine is from 03. Any thoughts before I cut the wires? I have reset the pmu, run cocktail and disk utility. Other than the sleep issue the machine works fine. thanks Ronda or anyone else who has any ideas... Dave

Help - PB Won't Wake from Sleep -- It's Dead

I've had my PowerBook for over a year and have had no problems with it. The machine has been absolutely rock solid. Until now.
Last night I used it as I normally would and then put it to sleep. This morning I cannot wake it -- even the power button has no affect.
In desperation I unplugged the power adapter and removed the battery hoping for a hardware reset. Oddly, the latch light continued to pulse even after both the battery and the AC power were disconnected.
Does anyone have any idea what I can do to bring my PB back to life?
I upgraded to 10.4.3 three weeks ago, and things have been fine. I routinely perform all the recommended maintenance procedures (permissions repair, "periodic" tasks). As I said, this machine has been utterly reliable.
I'm mystified -- and despondent.
Can anyone recommend anything besides a trip to Apple?
Thanks in advance.
--jag
PowerBook G4 15" Aluminum Mac OS X (10.4.3) 768 MB RAM

Greetings Jag --
Unfortunately, I think Jrsy may be right and a trip to the shop may be necessary.
The only thing I could think of is to advise you to follow all of the steps outlined in the following Apple Kbase article on "what to do if your PowerBook G4 won't turn on." http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=50959
I realize that a failure to awake from sleep isn't exactly a failure to turn on, but both problems bring you to the same place for almost the same reasons, so I thought it might be worth following the steps set forth in the article. A PMU reset is one of the steps, preceded by a PRAM reset, and, as you can see, the last step is talking your PB to an AASP.
Good luck and post back no matter how its resolved so we'll all know the solution to this mystery.
-- JDee

Macbook won't wake from sleep

My macbook won't wake from sleep. I have to power down and restart. I have also noticed that when it is asleep, the sleep indicator light doesn't pulse, it just stays on steady. Could this be a bug in mavericks? I have a Seagate external hard drive that I use for my Time Machine backups that it always connected. But ejecting it before the macbook goes to sleep doesn't seem to solve the problem.
Any advice would be appreciated.

You can access System Logs and other information on the computer's status in Console utility; where there are endless lists of all the processes ongoing in the Mac OS X. There are specific log-out and other automatic items the system will post to such logs.
•OS X: When your Mac doesn't sleep or wake
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS5357
Such articles are helpful in so much as they also have additional links.
Perhaps the computer is not going to sleep. The system logs can tell this.
Regarding power management, sleep, and other activities, have you read through the article about the System Management Controller to see if any of the items listed there can help? They'd take time to go through the list. And the end item is a reset of the SMC, after reading through and troubleshooting from the list.
•Intel-based Macs: Resetting the System Management Controller (SMC)
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3964
A good idea is to make a backup of your content in the computer, to an external hard disk drive, so when or if you end up totally erasing the hard disk drive (to include secure erase one-pass overwrite) and reformat GUID, that an all new system could be installed on there, in part of a larger troubleshooting effort.
Actually, if you have an externally enclosed hard disk drive with its own power supply, (not port power) and then use Carbon Copy Cloner (see Bombich software) to make a bootable clone of your entire system to a large enough external drive capable of booting in OS X, then you could get to the bottom of this issue. While keeping a boot copy of what you already have, because you can run the computer from an external clone.
•Mac Backup - Carbon Copy Cloner:
http://bombich.com/
A good source for external drives that can handle clones
is macsales; or a place to look to compare real details.
The problem could be based in software, or in hardware. Troubleshooting against either possibility is how to resolve this problem. Some models of earlier MacBook & other intel-based Macs do not really like Mavericks; or perhaps like it less than an earlier system it may have shipped with. The earliest like Snow Leopard best.
Anyway, there is a solution but it won't be a one-liner.
I've done some 40 hour days, troubleshooting issues.
Worst problem for me was buying one w/Applecare.
Good luck & happy computing!

Sleep, no pulsing light, won't wake.

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