Q: Dual Quad-core Mac Pro reboots from sleep

telephone call, baby crying, food burning, physiological necessities, boss instruction, non-computer work on desktop, visits, overlook etc...

Presuming that drive bays 1 and 2 are on one sata channel and bays 3 and 4 are on a 2nd sata channel, has anyone tried moving their startup drive to bay 3 or 4 and see if it still reboots from sleep? I'm curious if it's a problematic sata channel.

The Gibbon wrote:
Presuming that drive bays 1 and 2 are on one sata channel and bays 3 and 4 are on a 2nd sata channel, has anyone tried moving their startup drive to bay 3 or 4 and see if it still reboots from sleep? I'm curious if it's a problematic sata channel.

I have an interesting report "from the front" that may be at least related to what you suggest. Here's my setup:
- Drive 1: Time Machine back-up
- Drive 2 & 3: RAID 0 with my normal OS X system
- Drive 4: fresh install of OS X

I had been having the reboot from sleep issue, but two days ago I did the SMC reset using the button inside the machine. After that I had several successful wakes without reboot. Note that all of these successful wakes happened when I was booted to my normal system, the RAID on drive 2&3.

This morning I started up from the OS X install on Drive 4. It rebooted on my first sleep/wake attempt. I believe I had noticed something like this in the past - that the reboots always started when booted to Drive 4.

However, it seems like once the problem starts it goes systemwide, because if I restart to the system on Drives 2&3, it will also reboot.

Of course the other possibility is that the reboots have nothing to do with any of this, and that the SMC reset benefit has simply "worn off" as it seems to in every case mentioned here. In fact that is probably the most likely explanation.

Message was edited by: sw_i_t_t_e_rs

NOTE: I was incorrect about the drive bay configuration in my first post, but have updated it so it's now accurate.

As a side question, I'm wondering if it's a bad idea to have a RAID 0 installed in bays 2 & 3 since they're on separate channels? Would it be better to have the RAID in 1 & 2, or 3 & 4?

Hmm.
interesting.
It should be perfectly fine- it's Software Raid after all; you should be able to do disk 1 and disk 4 IF you want to. Certainly wasn't an issue on the previous gen Mac Pro.
I, too, have 3 disks total in my Mac Pro: System in bay 1, a raid 0 on bay 2 and 3.
And, obviously, have the reboot bug.
I wonder if there could be any relation; i.e users with just one drive having the issue? Maybe the drive not in bay 1? Just guesswork, obviously....

I did notice that when I setup my Mac Pro from scratch, disk utlity didn't really agree with me on what disk1 was versus bay 1 - for some reason they are mixed up (I tried that on 2 systems now).
However, still shouldn't be a problem, and one should be able to mix and match.

What IS interesting, that an article in the Baltimore Sun said a similar thing; that the user changed around the disks in their system which seemed to fix it.... For them. For 2 weeks........

In the end all (good?!!) conjecture, and still needing Apple to fess up...

D

Well, maybe later when I have some time I'll try moving the boot drive into Bay 1 and see what happens. I'll do another SMC and PRAM reset while I'm at it. Certainly can't hurt, but I'm not holding my breath. I'll report back.

Hi sleepless people and machines,
I'm down to original config with hard drive in bay one. (Used a chopstick to push smc button; OWC memory and windows drive in desk drawer; support at OWC said to take my time to determine if their product is to blame; they'll replace whenever if need be). Still waking from sleep fine after three days. I know others have this problem with original configurations but I'm willing to give apple support a little more time since they have to deal with so many machines and variables. That way I'll feel better when I have to find a lawyer.
Lou

As far as i'm aware, it shouldn't matter since it's software raid. I'm curious though if there is a performance hit similar to matching paired memory to proper slots.
In regards to the startup drive, i was curious if the first sata channel (bays 1 and 2) was problematic, and whether putting the startup drive in either bay 3 or 4 (both 3 and 4 for raid) would help.

What's the point of a Mac Pro that only works with one drive in Bay 1 and no third-party RAM or add-ons? What percentage of Mac Pro buyers run with one drive and all Apple components? One of the main reason people buy these machines is because of their expandability. And most people can't afford to pay 2-3x the price for RAM from Apple just because it has their name on it.

The fact is, people are seeing these issues whether their memory is Apple, OWC or TransIntnl. Everyone who has tested their memory has found that it's fine, and few people (if any) are seeing any of the other usual problems with bad RAM.

People are also seeing these issues whether they have one, two, three or four drives installed. And, apparently, there doesn't seem to be any association between the problem and what drive bay the start-up drive is in. As I mentioned, my two start up drives are in Bay 4 and Bays 2 & 3 (RAID 0). Bay 1 has my Time Machine back-up drive, and never did have the start-up drive.

Seems this is just how it is until someone figures it out. I've still got my money on a hardware issue, since some people aren't affected. If it's a software problem, why don't all the people with that software have it?

Oh well. For now, I keep it on during the day and use the Deep Sleep widget at night. Keeps my data safe, and since these machines draw less power than any previous professional Mac tower, I doubt there's much (if any) of an economic or environmental impact in doing it this way.

J. McNamara wrote:
So I just called AppleCare phone support. When I described the problem they immediately transferred me to a product specialist. "Steve" told me that Apple is aware of the problem and is working it. While he couldn't tell me when it would be fixed, he suggested my best option was to disable sleep for now, and call back in a few weeks (or watch the forums, software updates, etc. for a solution).

It seems fair enough as otherwise the machine is quite amazing. So it appears the best strategy is to give them a little time to sort it out.

I called yesterday (3/13) to see if there is an update. I heard exactly the same thing from the product specialist– "it's a known problem, sit tight for an update" (no estimate on when, however). So I suggest folks just disable sleep for now rather than doing fruitless troubleshooting. He suggested there was another temporary work-around, but I haven't tried it yet:

1. zap PRAM
2. don't select a startup disk

He claimed this would work-around the problem. I have my doubts based on the reports in this thread, so I'm just waiting for an update.

I wonder why some Product Specialists completely deny the problem, and others freely acknowledge it? Seems strange that there wouldn't be a company-wide policy. Don't they have meetings? Memos?

The upshot of what you suggest is that this is somehow a software problem, because "an update" is obviously referring to a software update and not a hardware issue. I still don't understand how only some machines would be affected, however.

The "don't select startup disk" really confuses me. When I open "Startup Disk" in "Preferences", there is NO WAY to deselect all startup disks. One of them must be selected.

Am I missing a trick here?

The "don't select startup disk" is like saying "apply a hot cloth soaked in aromatic grasses onto the motherboard".
I think it's Apple who has to say something. Their silence simply puts in very uncomfortable situation the Product Specialists.

Message was edited by: Trinity

Well, not really. I know how to do the soaked cloth routine. But I don't know how to "not select the startup disk"

Trinity wrote:
The "don't select startup disk" is like saying "apply a hot cloth soaked in aromatic grasses onto the motherboard".
I think it's Apple who has to say something. Their silence simply puts in very uncomfortable situation the Product Specialists.

Message was edited by: Trinity

My comments have been misinterpreted. I was not suggesting that people not use third-party ram, but whether having having hard drives in "correct bays" might be similar to having paired memory in their proper slots for optimal performance.

As to putting the startup drive in bay 3 or 4, i was only trying to narrow down a possibility that the first sata channel might be defective on some computers not all of them. (production issue). If there is no problem when a boot up drive is in bay 3 or 4 (with no other drive attached in bay 1 or 2) then that might suggest a hardware problem and not a software one, in which case Apple would have to address a repair rather than a software update.

The 2 ways i know of to "not select a startup disk" are:

1. After your computer is booted up, insert your restore dvd. Open system preferences and select the dvd as the startup disk and close system preferences. Eject the dvd. Restart. Voila. No startup disk.

2. Install the operating system onto an external firewire drive. Same procedure as above. Select it as the startup drive. Shut down. Remove drive. No more startup disk selected.

NOTE: from hereon, at bootup the computer will have to search for a bootable drive since no startup drive is selected, so it will take longer to boot every time.