As of today I have been experiencing a strange problem with my MBP. I can't wake my MBP when I open the screen although the machine is running. I also realized that I can't put it to sleep mode when I select it from the menu. Also, strangely, when I close the display to put it in sleep mode, the light stays on, instead of blinking. I already reset the power manager and the parameter RAM. I also have all my software updated. Any help would be appreciated.
I'm actually running OS 10.4.11 - so I don't think the Leopard Graphics update can be blamed - am I just an anomaly or was there also a 10.4 update that may have caused this?
The updates I did around the time this happened were:
2008-03-18 14:37:36 -0700: Installed "Safari" (3.1)
2008-03-18 14:38:24 -0700: Installed "iTunes" (7.6.1)
2008-03-18 14:39:11 -0700: Installed "QuickTime" (7.4.1)
2008-03-18 14:42:56 -0700: Installed "Security Update 2008-002 (Universal)" (1.0)
I think you found it - I can reproduce it 100% by sleeping (shutting the lid) with the power adaptor plugged in and then waking on battery power or the inverse - sleeping while on battery and waking with the power adapter plugged in. Now I seem to be able to work around it, but it is hard to change old habits and remember to plug/unplug at the right time so I still have to reboot about half the time I open the lid. Now perhaps someone from Apple will actually read this months old thread and fix it, so our fancy expensive notebook computers will actually sleep and wakeup like much cheaper Dell PC's do....
I have always been impressed by my mac sleep/wake functionality. It worked great in my old G4 powerbook and initially with my Macbook pro but recently, and I am not sure after which update or if it followed buying Aperture, it now almost never wakes from sleep. I say almost never because it did once this morning. The machine is on because I can hear my reminders, which makes it even more frustrating, but the screen is black. The only way out is a hard reboot. This is obviously not a new problem but it ruins one of the things that makes a mac great. I could stop work close the lid, get in my car, go to my office, open the lid and carry on working. There must be a fix for this - come on Apple sort it out.
Apple is aware of this issue and is trying desperately to fix it. It does help them if you have apple care and call them about the issue. If you push the issue enough on the phone, you will be able to speak with a product specialist which can communicate with the Apple engineers that are trying to find the cause of the problem. Tell them as much as you can about your computer configuration such as programs, peripherals, and what you use it for on a daily basis. They can then use this information to try to re-create the issue and fix it. I have been in contact with a product specialist for about a week now and I am trying my best to help them find the cause of this issue.
So far, we have ruled out safe sleep, iStat pro widget, safari, RSS vitalizer screensaver, system preferences, power management plist files as well as the systemuiserver plist file and systempreferences plist file. We have also ruled out bootcamp and having external peripherals connected which includes the iPhone. Resetting the SMC and the PRAM does not fix the problem either. It also does not matter whether you are using 10.5.0, 10.5.1, or 10.5.2.
I have read most of the discussions on this topic and have tried everything suggested to fix the problem and got no good results. The problem lies within the operating system and will be hard to find, so it may be a while. I suggest waiting for a software update that will fix this but in the mean time, try to figure the problem out yourself and if you seem to have fixed it, then wait a week or so before claiming that you have found a fix. If after a week, your computer is running normally, then post it in the discussion and call apple care too. By letting a product specialist at apple care know what the problem is, they can bring it to the engineers and fix the issue for everybody through software update.
I have tried all the fixes posted, if my MBP sleeps for any significant period of time, the display will not wake up (seems like the machine does wake up). If I´m going to be away from the machine, I turn it off. I´m running 10.5.2, I´ve tried all the suggestions here and they have not worked. I am waiting for the software fix, I have no other problems with the computer. This really seems like a software issue.
I have a 2.4Ghz 15" MBP (OSX 10.5.2) with an attached 23" Apple Cinema Display. On occasion when I wake the MBP from sleep, ONLY the Cinema Display turns on; the MBP display remains black. Because my Cinema Display is set up to extend my desktop (rather than replicate main monitor...) all my menu controls/menu bar and desktop icons are on my laptop (main) screen, which are useless and inaccessible, because the laptop screen does not "wake up." The mouse/trackpad is responsive, since I am able to get the mouse pointer to show up on the external monitor (which is displaying entirely blue background, despite whatever apps I had opened there prior to sleep). Mouse response could mean the OS did not fully crash(?). But the laptop monitor does not wake up no matter what keys or key combos I press. The only way for me to restore use of the laptop monitor is to do a cold-boot (forcing shut-down by holding down the power button, then powering up again).
This problem always happens subsequent to when I remove my USB-charging device, such as iPhone, when the MPB is asleep. I make sure to "unmount" the iPhone from iTunes so that it should remain "safe to disconnect" at any time thereafter. Typically I will put the MBP to sleep (flip down the monitor) for the night, allow the iPhone to charge overnight, then in the morning just unplug the iPhone without waking the Mac. When I unplug the iPhone, I notice that the external monitor momentarily wakes up to the blue screen (can't tell whether the laptop monitor wakes up either since I have it flipped down), and the superdrive & HD make some noise. I don't know why unplugging the iPhone should trigger things to stir-up since I've unmounted it from iTunes before I put the MBP to sleep. But A few seconds later everything goes back to sleep automatically. Fine. However, the next time I flip open the MBP and wake it from sleep, this is when the laptop's monitor stays black, and only the external monitor turns on BUT not restored to pre-sleep operating conditions (i.e. my apps opened in the external monitor do not reappear). This problem seems to occur only when I have removed the iPhone while the MBP was asleep - makes no difference whether the iPhone is plugged in to a USB port directly on the laptop or to a USB port on the back of the Cinema Display. If I keep things plugged in or otherwise not disturb the state of any of the ports while MBP is asleep, it wakes up fine and the monitors turn on.
Hmmmm....
i experience the same symptoms as the last poster.
if i remove any a usb-device(my usb mouse) after putting the machine to sleep (closing the lid), i can hear the superdrive make the "waking-up" noise and the going back to sleep. when upon opening the the lid again, the wake-up noise from the superdrive can be heard, but the screen does not turn on. the num-lock and caps-lock lights turn on/off.
Add me to the list, but this has been an issue for me since intel based mobiles came out. Although now it seems worse, it has ALWAYS happened. used to be a pmu reset fixed it for a month, now that doesn't fix it for even a day. I won't restate to much as I believe it's on par with the issues posted here, but in a nutshell, it is on, but the screen isn't. I am going to try an nvram reset in the firmware but i doubt that will do it... seems to be driver based.
That said, I won't be rolling back as it was happening before the leopard graphics update, and in fact, before leopard (or tiger even).
In contrast to a previous post about being impressed with the mac sleep/wake.. i have ALWAYS found it to be one of the most buggy annoyances on the mac platform, even back on powerpc - it seems they never got it right.
At any rate, hoping for a fix like the rest, it's frustrating.
I'm having the same problem. Having switched from a Toshiba notebook; I was surprised to find out how buggy the sleep/wake feature is on the MBP. Also, working with an external monitor with the lid closed is hit or miss, and anything but intuitive. I'm not going back to Toshiba, but good grief, I paid a lot more for this professional model. And professionals use external monitors (and sleep mode)!
You are the first person I have seen anywhere suggest this. I too noticed that the computer had all the signs of being awake, but I could not "see" what it was doing. Does anyone know what tells the backlight to illuminate? What controls it lighting up?
Same problem... won't wake from sleep on random occasions; I think when its been used with the battery only, the plugged back in again, it's worse and more likely to occur. This should be a simple firmware bug fix software update but where is Apple on this? Nowhere... and I just converted to Mac from PC back in January, spending $5000+ on the highest-spec MBP 15.4" I could assemble. Bad impression, Apple, and makes me think that all that "hype" from the "Mac users" I heard all those years is just that... hype... here we have simple bugs that even PC didn't have, and could be fixed, but I understand, maybe the development of the iPhone 3G or 4G or 12G or whatever uses up all the resources, since that's what the media and the stockholders want...
