Mac mini loses mouse and keyboard after sleep.

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Level 2

370 points

Mac mini loses mouse and keyboard after sleep.

Hi Everyone:

I recently bought my Mom one of the new Mac mini (I'm a PowerBook user myself), and she's running into some puzzling problems which, while minor, are sufficiently annoying as to confuse poor old Mom.

The system egnrally runs fine after you turn it on, until it goes to sleep. After some undefined period in sleep mode, the Mac mini appears to "lose" the USB keyboard and mouse which is plugged into it. If you press a mouse button or a keyboard key a few minutes within the system going to sleep, the system will wake up and both will work. If you wait a longer period of time (say, 20 minutes or longer, although I haven't sat and timed it at all), pressing any key or mouse button does nothing, and you have to wake it from sleep by using the power button. Once awake, the keyboard and mouse do nothing. The only way to get them back is to unplug both of them (the mouse is chained through the keyboard as the other Mac mini USB slot is used by Mom's UPS), and plug them back in so the Mac mini can re-detect them on the bus, after which everything is happy again until the system has been asleep for too long.

Has anyone experienced this? Both the mouse and keyboard are genuine IBM (as in: made by International Business Machines), although are several years old (I bought them when I worked for IBM, and IIRC they were amongst the first models of USB keyboards and mice that IBM offered, if not the first).

In the interm, I've lent Mom my Apple Bluetooth mouse and keyboard, which has (as you would expect) worked flawlessly. This problem may "solve" itself -- I'm hoping to take Mom out later this week to buy her own Apple Bluetooth mouse and keyboard at the Apple Store.

The other problem, however, isn't as easy (or necessarily as cheap) to fix. Again after the system has been asleep for some time, it often (but not always) changing the resolution of the monitor when it wakes up. I have the mini set to use a reasonable 1024*768, but sometimes when it awakes it will suddenly be set to 800*600 or 832*624. Sure, you can change it back, but that's major surgury for Mom (and I'm moving cross-country next week, and won't be able to just "drop by" to fix system problems). The monitor is an Ambra SVGA model (Ambra was a brand-name of inexpensive PCs that IBM sold some years ago), and never had any such problems on her last (Intel-based) system the mini is replacing.

The whole purpose of the Mac mini is to "bring your own" Keyboard, Mouse, and Monitor -- but in our case the keyboard and mouse don't work at all after sleep, and the monitors resolution gets dynamically changed after sleep. Has anyone else encountered this situations, or any solutions? TIA!

Brad BARCLAY

Posted on Aug 16, 2005 7:05 PM

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Answer 1

Aug 16, 2005 7:29 PM in response to Yaztromo

I've seen quite a few posts in this regard with non-Apple mice and keyboard.

I can say however that I had MS Natural Elite Keyboard and a Microsoft Optical Mouse and never had this sleep issue with them ever being lost/disconnected.

I've never seen a sleep resolution switching problem except on a VGA adapter to DVI connection to an old tube monitor. -- I know this is annoying the c@ap out of you, but its a good thing for troubleshooting.. when DVI TVs or CRT Monitors go out of range and you can't set it back you simply turn off the monitor and start up the Mac leaving the monitor off. During startup it doesn't detect a display and goes to its factory default setting of 800x600. When the Mac is finished loading you turn on the monitor and you are back in business.

DVI on LCDs, I have three different LCDs, have never thrown this yet on my mac.

For worrying about fixing Mom's mac, setup her remote VNC software (Apple Remote Desktop Client) and use the free Chicken of the VNC admin program. I have used the latest full Apple Remote Desktop product and am unimpressed with its graphic handling coding. I get exact screenscrapes with Chicken on the Mac and for the PCs I throw in the free UltraVNC and you can play in both worlds.--once done you can fix Mom's mac from anywhere in the world and even give her lessons on how to use it from remote locations.

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Answer 2

Yaztromo Author

Level 2

370 points

Aug 16, 2005 8:30 PM in response to Jan Johannsen

Hey Jan:

I've seen quite a few posts in this regard with non-Apple mice and keyboard.

Well, the mouse and keyboard are quite old -- it could be that they're having a problem dealing with identifying themselves on the USB bus during sleep, or aren't identifying themselves fast enough at wake time. I'll just have to replace them I guess.

I've never seen a sleep resolution switching problem except on a VGA adapter to DVI connection to an old tube monitor.

Well, this is a pretty vanilla CRT monitor circa about 1999, so yeah -- it could once again be an age issue, and the fact that there is a DVI -> VGA adapter involved in the middle.

For worrying about fixing Mom's Mac, setup her remote VNC software (Apple Remote Desktop Client) and use the free Chicken of the VNC admin program.

I am quite familiar with VNC. As much admin as possible will be done by SSH, but I will have VNC in place before I leave. The big problem is going to be the fact that I'm going to be several timezones (and over 4000 km) away, so I won't necessarily be available at a moments notice to help her with this sort of thing.

The CRT issue we might just have to deal with by having her always run it at 800*600 (I don't think she'd really notice the difference, and as her eyes aren't what they once used to be, the slight size increase may be more confortable for her in the long run) until such time they she can afford to buy a nicer display (I did my duty as a son buying her the Mac mini and an iSight camera -- she has to take care of the rest 😉 ).

Yaz.

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