iMac won't wake up from sleep using keyboard or mouse

Unless Apple are upgrading refurbished units I doubt this is the case.

By which I mean I'd presume apple would have provided a fresh installation of Snow Leopard on the unit I bought in November 2010.

Just to be clear I believe this thread has two separate issues,
one where a backlight board is faulty - the screen can be seen very faintly.
And one where the machine just does not appear to awake when in fact, going by the warmth of the top left of the iMac, it never really went to sleep.

And a third that affects relatively few people, but which should be included for completeness. iMacs that have an SSD controlled by a SandForce controller can hang after coming out of idle sleep. Mine was upgraded by Other World Computing, whose SSD does use the SandForce chip set. The good news is that OWC has identified the problem and has a fix; the bad news is that the unit has to be shipped back to have the firmware on the drive's power controller (not the iMac's) updated. I had this done about a month ago, and the machine has been rock-solid since.

I had the same problem with my new iMac - Applecare had me do everything they could think of up to including erasing hard drive and reinsatlling OS - no joy - finally started removing peripherals plugged into usb ports - by trial and error found out that problem seemed to be related to Aquagate powered usb hub that I bought from Monoprice - since removing the hub I have had no further problems - however I want to send kudos to Monoprice - got on chat with them and explained what had happened and they immediately set up an RMA and are shipping me a replacement unit - can't get better service than Monoprice in my opinion - will repost after I try the new unit if there are further problems - peace to all

Tried resetting the SMC and NVPRAM and that would work for a brief period. Interestingly, I was always able to get the backlight to cut on by toggling sleep mode (CTRL-SHIFT-EJECT, followed by RETURN twice). This always worked but was annoying. Took it to the Apple store 2 months ago and asked for the LED backlight board to be replaced. Problem fixed.

received replacement Aquagate powered 7 port usb hub from Monoprice yesterday - plugged into my iMac and then iMac would not wake from sleep - iMac powered down instead of sleeping - problem does not exist without the hub - contacted Monoprice and am returning both units for a refund - FYI - peace to all

Just had the issue again - warm upper right, corner no response from keyboard or network. Approx 9pm I held in the power switch, last few things in the system.log around that timeare:

Mar 22 20:17:18 iMac com.apple.launchd.peruser.504[1191] (com.apple.AirPortBaseStationAgent[1223]): Exited: Killed
Mar 22 20:17:18 iMac loginwindow[1039]: DEAD_PROCESS: 1039 console
Mar 22 20:17:18 iMac UserEventAgent[1215]: CGSShutdownServerConnections: Detaching application from window server
Mar 22 20:17:18 iMac AppleVNCServer[1218]: CGSShutdownServerConnections: Detaching application from window server
Mar 22 20:17:18 iMac UserEventAgent[1215]: CGSDisplayServerShutdown: Detaching display subsystem from window server
Mar 22 20:17:18 iMac com.apple.UserEventAgent-Aqua[1215]: Tue Mar 22 20:17:18 iMac.local UserEventAgent[1215] <Warning>: CGSShutdownServerConnections: Detaching application from window server
Mar 22 20:17:18 iMac loginwindow[1039]: CGSShutdownServerConnections: Detaching application from window server
Mar 22 20:17:18 iMac com.apple.UserEventAgent-Aqua[1215]: Tue Mar 22 20:17:18 iMac.local UserEventAgent[1215] <Warning>: CGSDisplayServerShutdown: Detaching display subsystem from window server
Mar 22 20:17:18 iMac AppleVNCServer[1218]: CGSDisplayServerShutdown: Detaching display subsystem from window server
Mar 22 20:17:18 iMac com.apple.ScreenSharing.server[1218]: Tue Mar 22 20:17:18 iMac.local AppleVNCServer[1218] <Warning>: CGSShutdownServerConnections: Detaching application from window server
Mar 22 20:17:18 iMac UserEventAgent[1215]: XRHotKeyAgent:491 kCGErrorInvalidConnection
Mar 22 20:17:18 iMac AppleVNCServer[1218]: CGSGetNextEventRecord err 1002
Mar 22 20:17:18 iMac com.apple.ScreenSharing.server[1218]: Tue Mar 22 20:17:18 iMac.local AppleVNCServer[1218] <Warning>: CGSDisplayServerShutdown: Detaching display subsystem from window server
Mar 22 20:17:18 iMac com.apple.loginwindow[1039]: Tue Mar 22 20:17:18 iMac.local loginwindow[1039] <Warning>: CGSShutdownServerConnections: Detaching application from window server
Mar 22 20:17:18 iMac loginwindow[1039]: CGSDisplayServerShutdown: Detaching display subsystem from window server
Mar 22 20:17:18 iMac com.apple.loginwindow[1039]: Tue Mar 22 20:17:18 iMac.local loginwindow[1039] <Warning>: CGSDisplayServerShutdown: Detaching display subsystem from window server
Mar 22 20:17:18 iMac /System/Library/CoreServices/loginwindow.app/Contents/MacOS/loginwindow[1775]: Login Window Application Started
Mar 22 20:17:48 iMac com.apple.usbmuxd[1056]: stopping.
Mar 22 20:17:48 iMac com.apple.usbmuxd[1786]: usbmuxd-211 built on Jan 13 2011 at 04:20:21 on Jan 13 2011 at 04:20:21, running 64 bit
Mar 22 21:00:30 localhost com.apple.launchd[1]: * launchd[1] has started up. *
Mar 22 21:00:35 localhost DirectoryService[11]: Improper shutdown detected
Mar 22 21:00:39 localhost blued[17]: Apple Bluetooth daemon started
Mar 22 21:00:51 localhost mDNSResponder[18]: mDNSResponder mDNSResponder-258.14 (Nov 18 2010 14:18:32) starting
Mar 22 21:00:51 localhost configd[14]: Sleep: Drivers Failure - AC - EHC2


We've stopped using the system as multi-user - i.e we logout now rather than switch users 😟

I've had the same issue ever since I've installed the App store update. Before that update my imac was working fine. What's the point of installing new features if they break the old ones. I've been waiting about 2 months now for apple to fix. Extremely frustrating having to hard reboot my computer...not good for the computer either. Apple will ya please fix this? Hard to rave about my imac if I can't even wake from sleep mode.

I have the same issue as well! Very very frustrating. It's a brand new computer and the simpilest feature isn't right! I agree that this started after I updated to the App Store. WAKE UP APPLE AND FIX THIS!

Everyone- please try turning off "Wake for network access".
I'm not certain yet, but so far since I've done this it has not had the issue. It's been a little over 2 weeks now. Not holding my breath, but worth a shot...

This also happened to my Mac Mini at work... which is even worse because if I leave an unsaved document open, I lose it. Happens much less at work. Maybe 2-3 times total over the last 6+ months.

I have the exact same issue. My iMac randomly will not wake from sleep. Completely unacceptable. At least Microsoft has patch Tuesday - when is this issue going to be addressed?

w/ Brand New Quad Core 27" iMac

Hi all,

I had this problem for several weeks and was able to manage using the "Use the Power Button to put the computer to sleep" method to work with the computer.

iMac 21.5", OS 10.6.6

I ran disk utilities from the Install disk, Reset the SMC, and finally reset the PRAM. Since I have done those three things about a month ago, my computer has worked as expected. Each and every time, my computer wakes from sleep without any problems.

I have wireless mouse and wired keyboard. My computer is set to Wake for network access. My display is set to sleep in 1 hour however, I never put the computer to sleep and never turn it off. I have not had the computer serviced for this problem.

I hope this helps someone.

I am having the same issues with my new 27" iMac (w/BT keyboard, mouse, and Trackpad). It does one of the following two things:

1. Simply won't wake up, regardless of type of input (even wired keyboard). If it's in this state, it also will not wakeup using a scheduled "start or wake" schedule. It must be rebooted using the power button.

2. It will wake, but will fail to light the LED screen. I can control the Mac using the BT keyboard (volume controls, stop/start music, etc.) but the screen will not illuminate. It must be rebooted using the power button.

I've already had two calls with Apple. They've already had me reset PRAM and the SMC. They say the next step is to reinstall the OS. From many in this thread, it sounds like there's some backlighting circuitry that may be a problem.

I'm calling Apple again tomorrow. This expensive, new computer is essentially useless because I repeatedly lose the state of my applications when forced to restart. I'm mad about this. It sounds like a widespread problem, and there's no clear information about causes. I do see this in the system log:


4/9/11 7:57:01 PM configd[15] Wake: Drivers Failure - AC - EHC2
com.apple.message.domain: com.apple.powermanagement.wake
com.apple.message.signature: Drivers Failure
com.apple.message.result: Failure

Is the software failing? Or is the driver failing because the hardware is unresponsive?

Please have them replace the LED backlight board. I had the exact same symptoms as you, and since the repair (3 months ago) the problem has not reoccured.

It's a hardware issue. Not software.

Hi imode; I'm not too sure about the backlight board being the problem. The last time my iMac experienced the wake-up issue was back in January. I did nothing other than retimed the screen saver, energy saver and unchecked the Wake for network access. I'm not saying the problem won't return, its just that replacing the backlight board might be a little much. I believe somewhere on this thread, someone mentioned the problem did occur after replacing the backlight board.