Mid-2009 MacBook Pro not waking up

I just don't like WD drives - over the years that I used them, I seemed to have nothing but trouble with them (both internal and external). So I'm a little prejudiced against WD. If I were you, I'd try a different internal drive to see if that solves as least some of the issues.

You could also try running the Apple Hardware Test (probably on the disc(s) that came with your computer? See http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1509) and see if it reports any errors.

Sorry that my first reaction is a failing HD - and for my general dislike for WD drives - but I would start with the AHT and if no errors, replacing the internal drive.

Clinton

Nothing I can think of without this discs - that's where you'll find AHT - although you could just take it into your local Apple Store or an AASP for a free diagnostic check and estimate. That won't cost you a thing...

Clinton

R Rishi wrote:

I can have my parents send the 10.6 discs to me but if you have another idea that doesn't require those,

Your system discs are troubleshooting discs. You should never leave home without them. Have your parents send them to you. When received, make bootable copies of those discs and return the originals back to your parents while you keep the copies. This way, you will always have them with you while you are "away from home" for any reason.

Take the computer to an Apple store or an AASP. Whichever is more convenient for you. The repair staff will run diagnostic tests to confirm what is wrong. Diagnostic testing is free.

I feel your pain. I have had the same ongoing issue for more than 2 years with my mid 2009 13' MBP. All the same symptoms you report. I also had a diagnostics test at an Apple store which showed up nothing. And of course did the AHT which equally showed nothing. I have replace my HDD with an SSD and also replaced my optical drive with an internal caddy and 2nd SSD. This hasn't changed anything. Still all the same issues.

My MBP also gets very hot when not running much. I am visually impaired so I use the zoom feature a lot and did wonder if that was causing it to overheat, but I suspect this is not the case.

I don't really want to buy a new machine as I like the flexibility to upgrade this, and apart from the sleep issues the machine runs very well and very fast.

Unfortunitely I had a booking with a Genius Bar in the US while I was still under Apple Care less than a year after buying my Macbook Pro in New York when this issue started happening. I was travelling round the world at the and due to some schedule changes I didn't make it to the Genius Bar. I regret that now.

I have tried so many things that I think now I will just have to live with the problem. I can normally fix it and ensure the machine boots by turning it upside down as I boot it. I always know that it will sleep on boot if the keyboard doesn't illuminate. Hence how I ended up discovering that the keyboard always illuminated when I turned the machine upside down.

I hope you get your issue sorted out.

I have also been having the exact same issues. I've heard that the issues have to do with the soldered connections on the logic board. Many electronics manufactured during that time period had begun using lead free solder, which after being heated and cooled many times will eventually crack and cause bad connections.

My 8 gb of ram often shows up as 4 as well. I've tried putting in only 4gb at a time and using the computer as is for a few weeks then switching the ram slots to see if one of them was defective but neither ram slot or card gave me trouble.

As your macbook tries to wake up it's not detecting some of your ram, where it had previously been storing your data, so it just doesn't know what to do.

I agree $250 is a steep price to pay for a mistake that Apple should be paying for. I agree as a student it used to be so nice when you could just open your macbook from sleep and bam have everything ready to go in a few seconds. Be very careful when restarting from a non-waking up mac, I screwed up my last hard drive manually turning it off like that for the same reason. If you have the time to manually shut down your mac everytime it will be worth it so that you don't lose everything, either way make sure you back up constantly!

I just hope I don't lose anything before then!

Begin keeping duplicate backups NOW. Use clones, Time Machine, whatever you wish (see ds store's Most commonly used backup methods).

I keep four clones and two Time Machine backups plus DVD archives. I've never lost anything yet. And, with my backup schemes, never will. Hard drives are cheap compared to data recovery.

Clinton