Sleep Issue - New MacBook Pro

Hey –

I've had the identical issues – occasional black screen and coma; occasional high heat (with accompanying depleted battery), but never so hot I couldn't touch the machine. I've gone into the Terminal and changed the sleep mode, installed SmartSleep, and also the Deep Sleep widget. We'll see what happens. I mostly use my machine at home, though it gets transported to Ladies Bible Study. I'm going to call Apple just so my name a MBP serial number are recorded should I run into issues down the line. <Edited by Moderator>

I had big problems with Leopard on my dual G5 at the outset, but never on our G4 iBook. In that case, it definitely seemed to be an architecture issue. The only people I ran into with kernal panics were having them on G5s. Kernal panic became a regular occurrence in my computer's life. After a few updates, the problem was resolved – haven't panicked in quite a while.

I'll report back on whether SmartSleep + change in sleep mode correct the problem for me. I really appreciate this thread and all y'all have done to try to determine the source of the problem. Except for this issue, I really love my new machine. The screen is nice and wide and beautiful. It feels solid – no "creaking" or flexing in the frame. Love the performance. I like the feel of the keyboard, and the backlighting is great. If we can just get the heat/coma issues resolved, we'll have completely satisfactory machines.

Miss Julia (in Tennessee)

I had the exact same problem, i am really worried that i may have damaged something with the heat...it was extremely hot.

I also have had issues of the computer waking up from sleep--this morning in my bag on the way to work, for example. The fan was running when I took it out of the bag. This is clearly not related to any items plugged into the computer (unless it be the power cord) or any bluetooth issues. I could put the computer to sleep using the Apple menu and less than a minute later it awakened. After reading posts to this forum, I installed the Deep Sleep widget (described above) and tested it by putting the computer to sleep and then reawakening it (once). This alone has solved (at least momentarily) the issue. Now the computer goes to sleep when shutting the lid or invoking sleep under the Apple menu. From other posts, I fear the solution is only temporary. I hope not!

Hey, all –

After installing SmartSleep and changing the sleep mode in the terminal to 0, I had no problems for nearly a week. Then last night my MBP went to sleep while open. When I closed it, it woke up but didn't go back to sleep. So I opened it, planning to put it to sleep, but it had slipped into a coma. Rebooted.

I've yet to have my machine wake up during transport, but it mostly lives at home.

I did call Apple on the 18th. They are aware of the problem (duh) and the guy, who was very nice, said they were working on it. I have a case number and they have a record of the issue with my machine should it precipitate any other problems. My pastor's son has one of the new MBPs, too, and hasn't had any problems except trackpad issues (for which a fix has already been released). I haven't had trackpad issues, but my hands are small.

I have not used Deep Sleep to date, but will start using it consistently and see if that controls the problem for now. If it works, I'm content to wait for a fix. If not, I'll be back on the phone. I'm now also keeping a log of my machine's insomnia issues.

Miss Julia in Tennessee

Message was edited by: Julie Falling

That's great that the Apple rep said that they were aware of the issue and were working on it. When I called that same day (11/18), the 2nd tier "product specialist" said they had no record of anyone else reporting sleep-related issues for the new MBP and that mine was just broken.

He also said, "Even if 10,000 people post on the discussion group that they're having the same problem, that doesn't mean there's an actual issue because we sell millions of these things".

Maybe he was on loan from Dell tech support.

Funny thing is, later that day I did a clean OS install to a formatted hard drive and since then the machine has stayed asleep for as long as it should be asleep. Knock wood it'll stay that way.

John

To follow-up on my post from a couple of weeks ago, I also continue to experience wake-from-sleep problems (about twice weekly). Sometimes I open the lid to find a black screen and an unresponsive keyboard, and I have to power down and restart. Other times, as soon as I lift the lid I see the white screen, followed by the chime and the Apple logo...In other words, the MB Pro is booting up even though it appeared to be in a sleep state (with the light on the front pulsing). I have tried the SmartSleep workaround and it didn't help (although I now seem to get the automatic reboot more often instead of the black screeen...I'm not sure how much of an improvement that is!).

After the last automatic reboot, I followed other suggestions on this thread and reset the SMC and the NVRAM. I don't know if that has helped yet or not (it's only been a day or two), but I'm not overly optimistic.

I had it and returned the 2.4 unibody MBP and instead got a deeply discounted 2.5GHz early 2008 MBP. I have to say that although it lacks the great looking/feeling chassis of the unibody, I'm much happier with it.

Better screen, no sleep problems, more vram and L2 cache, and slightly smaller footprint (makes a difference while using it on the train).

Ironically, the tech I spoke with earlier in the week called me after I made the switch to tell me that he was wrong and that "engineering" identifies the sleep issues on the unibody machines as a valid problem, but that they had no idea what the cause or fix was at this time.

Funny... a couple of years ago I was using a fairly high end motherboard in my PC that had an nvidia chipset. The first one was DOA, and the 2nd one's USB controller went bad. The third one worked, but displayed a high degree of instability.

Since I moved to an Intel X48-based motherboard, it's been the picture of stability, reliability, and increased RAID performance.

Maybe Apple hitched should have kept its wagon hitched to Intel and kept nvidia to the GPU, which is what they do best.

Just speculation, of course.

I am experiencing similar issues so figured I may as well put in my 2 cents on this web-based petition of sorts. I've had my new unibody MBP for about a week now and I've had the "awake in my bag while it should have been asleep" problem twice now. The second time, tonight, I got the black screen so I figured I'd look online for a fix and I found this monster thread. I did a migration (including apps) when I started using it, and I also use all sorts of peripherals which could be contributing to the problem. But nonetheless, for how much $$ I laid out for this state-of-the art unit, I should not be experiencing these problems. I would certainly hope (and expect) that Apple is working on a fix for this.

I'm going to try the popping out of the battery fix that was mentioned as well as using the Deep Sleep widget and also disconnecting my peripherals before putting to sleep and connecting them after waking up. But again, this sure seems like a lot of hassle for something I never had issue with when using my 1Ghz Powerbook G4. Oh for the days of a modern 12" pro unit!

Hopefully these temporary fixes will scoot me along until the real one arrives from Apple... maybe w/ 10.5.6?

Add me to the list. ugh.
Wouldn't wake up today - hard reset, got me stuck at grey apple screen.
had to take out batter to get it to boot. this ***.

Here is an interesting update that doesn't fix any issues, but definitely explains how the machine could wake up in your bag when you swear it was asleep. I've confirmed this multiple times before posting.

Put the machine to sleep with nothing plugged into it. Carefully turn the machine over and ensure it remains asleep, placing it lid down on the table so the battery is nearest you. Now, press moderately below the printed area at the top of the back panel. You won't need to press hard. You should find that the computer immediate awakes as though you have opened the cover or pressed a key.

With my machine, that is indeed the case. The event that triggers the wake event when pressing the back cover as described above is the keyboard:

*Lid Open, Keyboard Pressed*
Nov 25 07:38:01 Grace kernel[0]: USB (OHCI):Port 6 on bus 0x4 has remote wakeup from some device
*Lid Closed, Back cover pressed*
Nov 25 07:34:50 Grace kernel[0]: USB (OHCI):Port 6 on bus 0x4 has remote wakeup from some device

If you imagine putting your computer in your bag with hinge down, you've got a 50% chance of having this pressure point facing out toward your body. With mine, I put it in the bag the same way every time, bottom out, and that pressure point nearly perfectly hits my hip. While walking, I'm essentially pressing the keyboard over and over again, keeping the machine from sleeping.

It is worth noting that my machine exhibits all of the same issues as are listed here: staying awake in my bag and finding it red hot; not waking properly from sleep, etc. Thinking these issues were based on a migration, I reinstalled fresh shortly after getting the machine, but all issues persist. It is certainly possible that some third party software can create issues, of course, which I understand, but my previous first gen MBP had no issues with an identical software setup.

One other constant that may or may not be related, that is worth testing out for the Power Manager's sake, is the screen saver. I have my screen saver set to a hot corner, so I can lock down with a password. Every day or two this hot corner will stop working, as will my screen saver completely, even after it reaches the point where it should kick on during idle. The screen will sleep, but the screen saver will never enable. I find that this might be related in that when this occurs, there is no way to reboot the machine without a hard reboot, as Logout will never complete, even after hours of waiting. This is reproduceable.

A few occasions since I've notice this occurrence I have, at least coincidentally, also had major sleep issues shortly after. Though I haven't had enough time to fully troubleshoot it, I've definitely had a no-dialog-ever-upon-wake, and an awake-in-bag issue while having the screen saver system die.

I have the OHC2-issue and I might have a theory. I think the machine is overheating (perhaps "OHC2" is "Over Heating[something]"). Maybe the heat from the machine travels to an area where a sensor picks it up - all because the heat can't get out of the tight compartment that a bag is. Perhaps the machine then turns on in order for the fans to cool the machine, but because it is in a tight compartment that only makes things worse.

The reason I think this is that whenever I use the computer, close the lid, and immediately put it in my bag, it turns on after a couple of minutes. If I on the other hand close the lid, wait a couple of minutes for it to cool down and then put it in my bag, it stays asleep. Could all of you please try that and see if it is consistent?


Regards,

Jacob

Yet another update...Might as well push this thread back up towards the top of the board anyway. After resetting the SMC and NVRAM, I went about a week without a problem. (However, I kept the machine awake during much of that time while I was off work during the holidays.) This morning, I closed the lid before leaving my house, got to the office and opened it...Bam! Chime and white screen...It was booting. Aiigghh! The light was pulsing right before I opened it, so it appeared to be asleep, but as soon as I raised the lid it must have reset and began the boot sequence.

It seems to me that since I enabled "safe sleep" I no longer get the black screen on wake-up attempts, but get sporadic reboots instead. So, I just changed the mode from "safe sleep" back to "hibernate and sleep", just to see if I start getting the black screen again. It's not that one symptom is much better than the other, but I'm just curious.

Are any of you other folks with sleep/wake problems also seeing automatic reboots when you attempt to wake the MBPro? Most of the posts in this thread refer to the black screen problem, so I'm wondering if others are also (at least occasionally) seeing the reboots.

I haven't had safe sleep enabled for some time, mostly because the time to wake was driving me nuts, and there was little, if ever, occasion that I would benefit from the safety this feature provides, especially when weighed against the annoyance.

That said, I've never had the machine show a boot screen when waking from sleep with any of the issues I'm currently having.

My black screen issues when waking from sleep continue to be related to frequent wake events while the machine is in the bag. It seems to get confused being woken 3-5 times or more with the lid closed in frequently rapid succession. Related to this is often getting two password requests on wake. Today I had two password dialogs, THEN a black screen.

It's going into the Genius Bar today to look at the waking in the bag (see my previous post here). I'd encourage black screen wake folks to try to wake the computer by pressing on this area on the back to see if they're having the same issues as I am. Multiple wakes in the bag is most definitely my problem, and the subseqent software issues are very likely just a symptom of that shortcoming, as it can't react to an event that is contrary to design.

Hey guys, not sure if anyone has checked this but look @ your spotlight function. If spotlight is indexing, it will not sleep!

Hope that helps too 🙂

I am also experiencing this wake/sleep issue. I have had a new (late 2008) Aluminum MacBook since October 15 and just last week started experiencing this issue. I have never used the Migration Assistant and never leave peripherals plugged in when putting the computer to sleep. I called AppleCare and the product specialist told me to take it to an Apple Store. I did so today and all they told me was to wait for the firmware update addressing this issue, which the Genius reassured me Apple was currently working on and getting ready for release, or swap my computer out for another. Since I had not backed anything up, and because there was no guarantee it would help, I chose not to. After reading these replies, I see swapping is not the solution. My hope is that this firmware update comes out VERY soon and that it fixes all problems related to this issue. I just cant believe its taken Apple so long to start working on fixing this issue.