# MacBook Pro Sleep Issues



## SINC (Feb 16, 2001)

I am running Leopard 10.5.1 on a 2.2 Ghz MacBook Pro core 2 duo with 4 G RAM.

I sleep it overnight and it works fine for about three days or so.

Inevitably the morning arrives when I raise the lid and expect to see my desktop, but don't. This morning was one of those days. All I see is a blank screen and the pulsing sleep light burns steadily.

I can touch any key to no avail, it will not wake up. My only out is to hold down the power button and force quit.

Then I wait a minute or so and start it up. This morning that start up took a full four minutes. It takes longer every time this happens and I fear one day it will not start at all. I had an identical problem with my 1.83 Ghz MBP before I traded it in, never in Tiger, but always in Leopard. This machine came with Leopard installed.

I am fully backed up using CCC and Time Machine and I have done an archive and install hoping it would clear up the issue.

My old MBP had issues with becoming very unstable under Leopard when waking from sleep with the cursor flitting about the screen wildly. I always restarted to fix the problem. This new MBP does the very same thing, albeit not nearly so often.

I long for the days of Tiger when I had zero issues.

Anyone have any idea what might be causing this behaviour?


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## MacBookPro (Jun 22, 2006)

I had this issue appear for the first time yesterday morning, after closing the lid the night before.

Had to do the same thing - a hard shutdown. And a long restart process.

But all is well and it has not repeated....

Fingers crossed and backups done daily...


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## monokitty (Jan 26, 2002)

1) Try resetting the SMC and zap PRAM twice on startup.
Link: Resetting MacBook and MacBook Pro System Management Controller (SMC)

2) If possible, swap RAM modules for testing purposes and observe if problem continues.


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## brett (May 27, 2007)

I have the same problem with my MBP on leopard 10.5.1 . Every few days it fails to wake from sleep (I put it to sleep every night) though I haven't paid attention to how long it takes to start up again.

Also, a similar event occurs (screen goes blank, sleep light is on and the MBP is not responsive) occasionally when I try to reboot into windows from my bootcamp partition

I've reset SMC and PRAM and these events still occur


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## fyrefly (Apr 16, 2005)

I've had similar problems with my MacBook (non-Pro), not sure if it's from upgrading to Leopard or not. I often closemy macBook to put it to sleep and the sleep light stays solid and my macbook will neither sleep nor wake and has a black screen. It needs a hard restart. It's frustrating to say the least.


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## dickchow (Jan 4, 2008)

I would suggest you to have the software update done since there was an update for awake from sleep issue.

if you done this and the smc reset and no luck..


then I would suggest you to bring it in to get service


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## Benito (Nov 17, 2007)

I too have had issues with my MBP from day one. When trying to awaken it from sleep the keyboard doesn't work. I am hoping that there will be an update that fixes these issues.


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## heebie (Dec 28, 2007)

I had this when I was on Leopard. I have to say, the only fix was the fix that I was going to use for all my Leopard problems: take a step back to Tiger.

I did that 'cause loads of my apps just didn't work after an update, and I hadn't said goodbye to my brushed metal properly :'(.


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## dickchow (Jan 4, 2008)

the update i mentioned about also fix most of the sleep problem waking up from keyboard...


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## chas_m (Dec 2, 2007)

I've occasionally seen this behaviour and it often seems related to heat-dispersal issues.

Next time it happens, try this: first, listen to hear if the fans are running. Second, feel around the machine to see if any areas feel abnormally warm. Third, hold the power button down to force-shutdown, then remove the battery and unplug the machine. Leave it alone for 20 minutes or so. Replace battery, plug in machine, turn back on.

(if you DID hear the fans running or feel abnormally hot areas, this is indicative that some process is waking the machine up, but since the lid's down there's no place for the heat to go)


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## SINC (Feb 16, 2001)

I can assure you that the fans are not running ever when this happens. My fans are quite loud and I can hear them vividly after about 2M rpm.

The machine is cold as room temp when this occurs.

As for whatever update dickchow is offering, I have done the only update offered and that is from 10.5 to 10.5.1.

Is there one I missed somehow?


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## Vexel (Jan 30, 2005)

It's Leopard. We're going to have to wait for 10.5.2 for some fixes. Tiger had the same sort of issues in the beginning.. and didn't really fix them all and offer stability the way we knew it until 10.4.4 I believe. 

It's what happens when you're cutting edge.


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## SINC (Feb 16, 2001)

Thanks Vex, I guess I will just put up with it and wait it out!


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## wing (Jan 4, 2006)

Mine was doing this a lot I stopped the md task from running and now I never have and issue. And my machine is much faster.


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## SINC (Feb 16, 2001)

wing said:


> Mine was doing this a lot I stopped the md task from running and now I never have and issue. And my machine is much faster.


What is the "md task" and how does one stop it?


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## neufelni (Sep 17, 2007)

I also have this problem occasionally, however, I am almost positive that this also happened to me occasionally with Tiger.


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## wing (Jan 4, 2006)

mdworker sorry, it is the spotlight task

I believe I followed these instructions Garrett’s Stuff » Blog Archive » Disabling spotlight in Mac OSX 10.5 Leopard


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## chas_m (Dec 2, 2007)

wing said:


> mdworker sorry, it is the spotlight task
> 
> I believe I followed these instructions Garrett’s Stuff » Blog Archive » Disabling spotlight in Mac OSX 10.5 Leopard


Whereas if you'd just let it run for a while, it would have finished its work and never bothered you again. Instead, you've now cut out an important service of OS X. Bizarre.

If Spotlight is doing too much indexing on a particular drive, you can tell it not to index that particular drive in the settings. This is a VERY good idea when working with video or audio files all the time, but for most users disabling Spotlight is a bad idea.


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## wing (Jan 4, 2006)

Should it index constantly for a week? Mine NEVER stopped indexing since I upgraded to Leapord I was fed up. I have never used spotlight, I use quicksilver.

Everytime I booted the mdworker would run for 20minutes+ It would take at least 5 minutes to reboot my machine. No thanks, I'd rather run windows than mdworker


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## SINC (Feb 16, 2001)

Update:

This morning the MBP became unstable and could not see the printer.

When I tried to restart, it hung at the Leopard screen with the cog gear spinning for 15 minutes. I finally did a hard shut down with the power button and then started it again. The start up took four full minutes.

I hate Leopard.


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## jamesB (Jan 28, 2007)

Sinc.
I've just read this thread from start to finish, and I feel for you.
I also have a MBP and although I never shut mine down, and like you, let it sleep when not being used actively, I have never had the problem you are experiencing.
One major change that I made back when I installed Leopard was to change the Sleep method from the "new safe sleep" back to the older style "normal sleep".
I had no need for the so called added safety of this new "Hibernate" save everything type of sleep, and did not like the extra time it took to go to sleep and then again the slow startup.
I have no idea at all if my changing this has helped me avoid your problem, but here is the info I used in case you might be interested.

to check which mode is active
pmset -g | grep hibernatemode
==============================
to change mode 0= old style sleep 3= new (save to disk style)
sudo pmset -a hibernatemode 0
==============================
to remove sleep disk image and regain a large chunk of disk space
cd /var/vm
sudo rm sleepimage
==============================

ymmv,
jb.


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## Benito (Nov 17, 2007)

I've been avoiding sleep mode because of my earlier reported problems with it. However, for the past 2 days I have been trying it out again, and for some reason I haven't had the same issues? I have no idea why not though.


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## SINC (Feb 16, 2001)

jamesB said:


> Sinc.
> I've just read this thread from start to finish, and I feel for you.
> I also have a MBP and although I never shut mine down, and like you, let it sleep when not being used actively, I have never had the problem you are experiencing.
> One major change that I made back when I installed Leopard was to change the Sleep method from the "new safe sleep" back to the older style "normal sleep".
> ...


jb, I assume this method you have suggested is all done through "terminal". I have zero experience and am faint of heart to even try, but thanks anyway.

Bottom line in my mind is that Apple has a problem and should get it fixed sooner than later so users like me do not go through what I have been experiencing.

Tonight for the first time in nearly 7 years, my Mac will be shut down. I've had enough.


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## jamesB (Jan 28, 2007)

Sinc,
Sorry for the assumption.
Yes those commands are entered in a Terminal window.
BTW this modification was not my idea, it came from this link.

Macworld | Mac OS X Hints | Set newer portable Macs' sleep mode

these commands are easy to test and even easier to reverse back to the original settings.


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## chas_m (Dec 2, 2007)

Hmmm. This might make a cool Automator action ... will have to think about that.


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## fyrefly (Apr 16, 2005)

Tried the terminal commands and they work like a charm. 

I'm in Hibernate mode 0 now, and my MacBook goes to sleep properly, unlike before.


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## jamesB (Jan 28, 2007)

chas_m said:


> Hmmm. This might make a cool Automator action ... will have to think about that.


Better yet...
*Super Sleeper* change your sleep method.

even Sinc should be brave enough to try this one. 

jb.


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## doole (Jan 6, 2008)

My quad had numerous sleep issues - all of which disappeared about 6 months ago after a firmware upgrade (which came up as part of 'software update'.)


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