Dual Quad-core Mac Pro reboots from sleep

HerrDrKarl wrote:

It makes a lot of sense to shut down at night. Boot vs wake from sleep is only about 15 seconds longer for me ... yet my Mac Pro system consumes 36 watts of power in sleep mode (measured via UPS power draw meter), including the few watts drawn by the power brick for my monitor. 36 watts is a lot when multiplied by 10 to 16 hours and then by millions of computers! Like the equivalent of a power plant.

No additional wear and tear on components: the hard disks are shut down during sleep anyway and whether memory and network adapters have power or not does not affect their longevity.

Cheers,
Karl

I don't have a UPS, and I'd be grateful if you could tell us how much power your machine draws under several situations; e.g.,

1. "awake," monitor(s) on, just sitting there waiting for the user to do something
2. monitor(s) black, hard drive(s) spun down, but entire system NOT set to sleep.
3."real" sleep (you've already stated that datapoint - 36 watts - but I list that just for comparison.
4. During a workout (something that "pins the meter" on a few of the processor cores).

Won't solve any of our problems, but it will give us all some food for thought about what to do for now.

Thanks so much,

Does anyone think it's worthwhile to take our malfunctioning machines in to an Apple Store? I know that others have done that and have received brand new machines that reboot from sleep. On the other hand, it seems there are at least some people out there who don't have this problem - right? So there is at least some chance that if we get replacement boxes or new motherboards or logic boards or whatever, that the problem will be solved?

My concern is that, having been an Apple customer for 20 years, I know they are very slow to acknowledge these issues (if they do at all). If I don't do something now, I'm worried that I won't have the option to later. This is probably an irrational fear, but I just want to cover my bases.

I'm actually considering purchasing AppleCare. This would give me the option of an onsite repair, which for me at this point is a lot more appealing than taking my computer in and leaving it to be repaired.

What do you think?

Personally I preferred to give back mine and recover my money until Apple says what is going on and if it has a solution. Then I will buy another one... or not

Unfortunately I have no other computer and can't afford to be without one for even a couple of days, due to my reliance on it for work. That's why I even hesitate to bring it to the Apple Store - because they'll take it in for "repair" (I spoke to one of the "Geniuses" at the store and that's what she told me) and it could be days before I get it back.

One thing I'll say is that I love the machine otherwise. Fast, quiet and solid.

Then I'm sorry, fortunately I can keep doing with my Cube. You have illustrated perfectly the gravity of the problem and why a Mac Pro can't suffer this kind of missteps...

Add mine to the list. My machine is stock with the ATI card.

I tried a variety of fixes and will be calling Apple.

My replacement is due for delivery any time now and if it misbehaves it will be sent packing.

This is their flagship computer... If we consumers act placidly Apple will continue to spoil its products and not us.

Neal Jackson wrote:
My replacement is due for delivery any time now and if it misbehaves it will be sent packing.

I hope you have better luck than I, Neal. As previously posted, I was down a total of 7 days, but received a box that was considerably less tattered than the prior one, and curiously have had fewer page-outs reported by iStat. I am sure there's another explanation for that anomaly, and that I am just trying to convince myself that the exercise was not in vein; although at this juncture I am confident that returning the second unit would be. Hmm, maybe I should have gotten the iMac instead?

Signius:

Thank you very much for suggesting DEEP SLEEP. In my case, this Dashboard widget works just fine. I intend to use Deep Sleep from now on, at least until Apple has a clue about what on earth is going on with this "reboot-from-sleep syndrome".

There's an added advantage about the Deep Sleep widget: It makes the Mac Pro HIBERNATE, instead of just sleep. This means that there's "0" electricity being consumed while the machine hibernates. It will take a little longer upon waking up from hibernation, but who cares? Compared with the rebooting thing we are experiencing now that's a small price to pay.

Thank you again for letting us know about Deep Sleep.

What you mean you are on 2 UPS?
I hope you don't mean you have 2 UPS boxes connected to your computer.

tim

Just to add my voice to the chorus, my new early-2008 Mac Pro does the same thing; reboots when waking from sleep. Zapping the PRAM and disconnecting all cables corrects the problem for only a day or two. I tried the Deep Sleep widget and the machine reboots when coming out of that too.

Message was edited by: David Clark 2

Same problem here. mine is currently at the Apple store. to see if they can fix it. am a strong believer that it´s software related though. Hope Apple fixes it soon

Daisy chain does not work, but if his setup is like mine, the Mac Pro is on one (RS1500VA) and everything else is on 2nd. And some people have smaller/older UPS units that meant they had to buy a more powerful unit (1200VA+).

Same problems here: rebooting instead of waking up. Tried all of the suggested solutions in this thread and the problem still occurs. Unpredictably, the machine does wake up sometimes, cannot figure out why.

Had a problem with a black Cinema display, which also would occur at random instances. Apple replaced the monitor+power brick. At least these work fine, after 2 days of use.

Apple offered to replace the CPU, but that does not seem to solve the problem for some users.

AFIK, deep sleep uses the "safe sleep" option, which to my knowledge is only enabled on the Apple laptops. Using it on a Mac Pro makes it a hack.
I wonder if I should be messing with things I shouldn't be while the issue is still outstandig with Apple...

Message was edited by: Tom Robbrecht