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Issues with sleep/wake feature after 16GB RAM upgrade in my MacBook Pro. Any thoughts?

Just installed a 16GB RAM upgrade in my MacBook Pro and now it doesn't wake up on it's own when I open the lid. I have to press the power button. It works fine with a smaller RAM upgrade.


I've tried putting in just one of the 8GB modules and the sleep/wake feature works as normal so there isn't a problem with the RAM modules that I've bought (Crucial.com). I've also put in a combination of Apple's original RAM and the new ones to make 10GB (8GB + 2GB), and the sleep/wake feature works on that too. Put both 8GB modules back in and the MacBook doesn't wake up when I open the lid, I have to press the power button to wake it up. The MacBook itself works fine, super fast and the memory is recognised on 'About This Mac', the sleep/wake issue is the only problem I'm having with the 16GB RAM.


Any thoughts on this? Has anybody else had this sleep/wake issue like this when upgrading RAM?

MacBook Pro, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.2)

Posted on Jan 5, 2013 9:15 AM

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18 replies

Jan 5, 2013 9:33 AM in response to philw94

You could try to disable the hibernate mode then delete the sleepimage file. That will make the system wake faster as once hibernat mode is disabled and the sleepimage file deleted everything stays in RAM during sleep mode. With them active RAM gets written to the HDD and the system can go into Deep Sleep which what I think it is now doing. Seems there is a problem with all newer Mac's once it enters the deep sleep state.


to see what you system is set to now open terminal and type in.


pmset -g | grep hibernatemode


If it retruns a hibernatemode 3 then it is set to go into deep sleep.


to turn that off you enter


sudo pmset -a hibernatemode 0 (that is a Zero)


Then to delete the sleep image file, which will be the size of the amount of RAM installed in the system. So your is 16GBs in size. Type in.


sudo rm /private/var/vm/sleepimage


With all the sudo commands you will be prompted for your admin password. Just enter it, it will not show on screen as you enter it, then hit the enter key.

Jan 5, 2013 12:26 PM in response to Shootist007

I've followed the steps and it has changed something but not remedied the issue. Now when I close the lid it appears to go to sleep (light flashes on the front) but then when I open the lid I still have to press the power button but it goes through the sequence it does from a fresh start up (Apple logo on white screen, then to the log on screen).


How would I revert back to the old hibernate mode? Type in the same command but change it to a 3 instead of 0? Is there a 1 and 2 mode?

Feb 14, 2013 12:52 PM in response to philw94

Ive had the same issues with Crucial 16 gig upgrade on my machine.


It's Lion 10.7.5 (11G63) MacBookPro8,3


To solve the sleep issue I used this terminal command.


sudo pmset -a hibernatemode 1


If you close the clamshell you will see the sleep LED will go out eventually.


Upon opening you will see a grey screen with rice sized dots at the bottom of the screen.


This will change to your log in.


Type in your password and everything is still there.


It seems the 16g RAM needs to be powered down completely and all data swapped to drive to successfully wake.


Worth the trouble I think but I wish the Crucial Support guys would confirm this. I thought I'd broken my laptop.

Feb 14, 2013 1:25 PM in response to robertfromnewmills

Yep, that is exactly what mine was doing. I use software like Adobe After Effects and Final Cut Pro, often working with HD footage so I was looking to make my life easier. I've downgraded to 12GB RAM and the problem has gone. Obviously if the problem doesn't occur with Corsair then it's something I might look into - that extra 4GB of RAM was handy at times; things in AE were rendering in almost real time on 16GB!

Feb 14, 2013 6:30 PM in response to robertfromnewmills

I upgraded my early 2011 MBP to 16 gigs with Crucial. My machine would not sleep properly, because when I tried to wake it, it would wake from its hibernate image file. This is the issue I've seen here in this list.

I tried all the suggestions I saw on these groups. Nothing helped. I contacted Crucial, who suggested that if their RAM was defective, they'd replace it per their warranty process. I needed some proof it was their RAM causing the problem.

I put the original 8 gigs RAM back in the machine (2 4 gig sticks), and it behaved normally. I then put one stick of Crucial RAM in, all by itself. The machine behaved normally. I put the other stick of Crucial RAM back in, and took the first one out. The machine would not properly sleep and wake from sleep. This proved that one stick was causing the problem, and the other was not.

Defective RAM!

I then requested and received an RMA from Crucial to send the defective RAM back. They paid shipping. I got new sticks of RAM about a week later. These new sticks of RAM work properly. No sleep issues.

I'm surprised and disappointed to say that this is not the first time I've received defective RAM from Crucial. I've purchased from them for years, and had GREAT service and received high quality products. The past couple years my experience has been different.

I'm still pretty steamed about this, as I spent a great deal of time trying to diagnose the problem and fix it. I don't really have that kind of time to waste. My expectation was that their RAM was high quality, and unlikely to be at fault.

Perhaps this is just a bad batch of RAM. I get that. I can forgive them once. But this has happened twice in the past three years. I'll look elsewhere for my next memory purchase.

Keep in mind that their customer ratings are generally very high. My experience is probably isolated.

Feb 18, 2013 12:41 PM in response to broz

I had a similar thought so I tried the RAM one module at a time. They both worked fine, worked great with one of the original Apple RAM modules too. I still can't understand why it wasn't working. I got an RMA number and sent one of the 8GB modules back and they sent me a 4GB module to make my total RAM 12GB - I've yet to install the new module though so I can't say if that works properly or not yet.

Issues with sleep/wake feature after 16GB RAM upgrade in my MacBook Pro. Any thoughts?

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