2008 Macbook Pro won't wake up - can't force reboot

Question

Level 1

4 points

2008 Macbook Pro won't wake up - can't force reboot

I have searched the interwebs high and low on this one for a long time and haven't found a solution, I post now in desperation as I need my mac urgently.

Every once in a while my mac will not wake from sleep, the problem has persisted now for over a year and even a trip to the genius bar didn't help.

I've read many a post on macs not waking up, but in all of them a force restart is possible. Not here, in my case the mac will simply not wake up no matter what, until hours or sometimes days later it simply wakes up again like nothing happened. Last time it occurred I took it to the genius bar (a fair hike for me) and sure enough, it woke up first time. They ran all kinds of tests and nothing was wrong.

I've tried all the zapping of prams and resetting of power systems, I've tried every key combination I can think of, whilst some seem to do something - make the light flash or turn off, get the fans chugging, make little 'computer' noises etc, it just never wakes up. It never shows up on the network, it never makes the startup chime or any other system noises, it really is in a state of hibernation.

If I close the lid, the light on the front glows bright, if I open the lid it gets dull. If I force shut down it goes off completely. But hitting the power button brings it back on (to dull). Holding the power button down to force reboot causes the light to flash rapidly but then nothing happens.

Removing the battery, letting the battery drain, or unplugging the magsafe makes no difference.

All I can ever do is wait, and wait, and so far each time it has just eventually come back to life when it was good and ready, usually around two days later.

When it does, the screen I left is usually still there, just how I left it, only its black and white and a little progress bar chugs along for a few seconds and then its all back to normal, even apps I left open are still there running, like it was really just asleep the whole time.

If anyone has any ideas at all I'd be most appreciative.

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.7)

Posted on May 2, 2011 7:01 AM

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Answer 1

ikosx

Level 1

83 points

May 2, 2011 7:33 AM in response to azajohns

Hi John,

I guess your MacBook Pro should have the NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT graphic card , if So there was a exchange program for faulty motherboard with sleep issue , display issue . So if you are lucky , you can insist on this and get it replaced.

http://support.apple.com/kb/ts2377

Good Luck...

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Answer 2

Lexiepex

Level 6

14,102 points

May 2, 2011 7:58 AM in response to azajohns

Well, if You or Genius did all things like PRAM, SMC reset, etcetera, why not read threads about the sleep/wake issue? There you'll see that this is not a uncommon problem.

I solved it by setting the hibernatemode to 0 (zero) via a Terminal command:

sudo pmset -a hibernatemode 0

sudo nvram "use-nvramrc?"=false

Then you can get rid of the sleepimage (pagefile) like this:

sudo rm /var/vm/sleepimage

(sleepimage is as great as your built-in memory (in my case 8GB)).

There is even a little program in the Appstore to do this (and more) for you:

Smartsleep.

Try this.

Lexxie

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Answer 3

azajohns Author

Level 1

4 points

May 2, 2011 2:30 PM in response to Lexiepex

Ah that sounds promising! I'll be giving those a go when it comes back to life. Yes the sleep/wake issue is certainly not rare, what I couldn't find was somebody who was unable to force reboot the machine. Which is still my biggest problem at the moment. Any suggestions there?

And yes the genius did mention that my mac qualifies for the repair but when he ran the test it was all fine. He said to bring it back if it does it again so I think that time has come. 2 hour trip to my nearest apple store, hope it stays broken this time :)

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Answer 4

Jun 2, 2011 8:51 AM in response to azajohns

I am having the same issue right now with a 2008 MBP. Exactly the same issue as describbed above. I took to the Mac Store and the thing fired up first try.

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Answer 5

hyojin

Level 1

0 points

Jul 14, 2011 5:48 PM in response to azajohns

I am currently having the same exact problem (I have a 2008 MBP too)...except it's been 5 days and my MBP is still stuck in sleep mode. I would LOVE to go to an Apple Store asap, but will not be able to for a while due to scheduling conflicts. Has anyone found a solution to this?

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Answer 6

azajohns Author

Level 1

4 points

Jul 14, 2011 10:12 PM in response to azajohns

Ended up taking it back to a genius and the logic board had died once and for all. They couldn't explain why it had experienced intermittent periods of sleep, guess it was just one of those things. Was going to cost $1000 to fix so I just ended up buying a new one. Every now and again I try to boot up the old one just to see if it will come back to life, so far nothing but you never know, one day it might surprise me 🙂

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Answer 7

Jul 15, 2011 7:47 AM in response to hyojin

Mine problem ended up being the logic board. I sent it in to Apple throught the Apple Store. My computer was out of warrenty. so they charged my $330 (for repair and overnight shipping). It took 4 days and I had my computer back. $330 isn't cheap, but a lot better that what a logic board costs, and also cheap than a brand new computer.

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