Crashes/reboots/restarts while on sleep

Question

Level 1

9 points

Crashes/reboots/restarts while on sleep

This thread is exclusive to people who have spontaneous crashes/reboots/restarts while their Mac is in sleep. (this is usually connected to having a USB external hard drive plugged in the computer while on sleep)

In simple words, you are experiencing this problem:

1) You put your Mac to sleep

2) You return to it after some time and you find it on.

3) On screen you find this error message "Your computer restarted because of a problem." or similar, and in the report of the error message the Event is "Sleep Wake Failure" or similar.

If your Mac does not wake from sleep this is NOT the thread for you, please don’t write here.

If your Mac is experiencing black screens and freezes while waking up from sleep this is NOT the thread for you, please don’t write here.

This thread is a continuation to the “New rMBP sleep/wake failure crashes” thread.

I’m trying to better understand this problem. Allow me to ask you some questions. After you answer the first 5 question, feel free to write freely in this thread. (as longs as you are pertinent to this issue)

Please answer this questions carefully. If we get enough people to answer, I will personally slap this thread on the face of every Apple employee I can find, so they will have to stop saying "we never heard of this issue" and we can get a quick fix or a quick replacement if this is indeed an hardware issue.

PLEASE ANWSER THIS QUESTIONS BEFORE WRITING IN THIS THREAD FOR THE FIRST TIME

I suggest you copy and paste the questions below in your reply, and replace the text ANSWER with your answer.

1. Which Mac do you have? (If you have this issue with multiple machines, list them here)

ANSWER

2. When did the problem start? If you had Mountain Lion installed on this machine, did the problem start when you updated to Mavericks?

ANSWER

3. Did you have your Mac replaced from Apple because of this issue? If yes, does the new machine still have the problem?

ANSWER

4. Does your machine crash/reboot while on sleep only if you have an external hard drive connected?

ANSWER

5. Does your machine crash/reboot even if you uncheck "Enable Power Nap" in Preferences, Energy Saver? (before answering this, check that you have updated OS X to 10.9.1 and that you have unchecked Power Nap in both the Battery and Power Adapter tabs in Energy Saver)

ANSWER

OPTIONAL QUESTIONS

6. Do you have an external hard drive connected via USB? If yes, write the manufacturer name and model name of the drive. (example: Western Digital My Book)

ANSWER

7. Do you have a network connected drive? (like Time Capsule or an external hard drive connected to an AirPort Extreme, or a NAS)

ANSWER

8. Do you have Time Machine Enabled?

ANSWER

9. Do you have Crashplan installed?

ANSWER

10. How much time does it usually take for the first crash/reboot to happen, after you put the computer on sleep?

ANSWER

11. If you have a late 2013 MacBook Pro Retina, do you have discrete graphics in it? (In other words: do you have an NVIDIA GPU? If you don't know this, go into the menu bar, click the apple icon, click About This Mac, Click More Info, in Graphics you should find written “NVIDIA GeForce”.)

ANSWER

PS

Please forgive any mistakes in this text, unfortunately english is not my native language.

MacBook Pro with Retina display

Posted on Dec 21, 2013 7:05 AM

Reply

Answer 1

hailalistair Author

Level 1

9 points

Dec 21, 2013 7:20 AM in response to hailalistair

I will start 🙂

1. Which Mac do you have? (If you have this issue with multiple machines, list them here)

MacBook Pro Retina, Late 2013 (15’’, 2.6Ghz i7, Nvidia GeoForce graphics)

2. When did the problem start? If you had Mountain Lion installed on this machine, did the problem start when you updated to Mavericks?

It started when I bought this Mac.

3. Did you have your Mac replaced from Apple because of this issue? If yes, does the new machine still have the problem?

No

4. Does your machine crash/reboot while on sleep only if you have an external hard drive connected?

Yes

5. Does your machine crash/reboot even if you uncheck "Enable Power Nap" in Preferences, Energy Saver? (before answering this, check that you have updated OS X to 10.9.1 and that you have unchecked Power Nap in both the Battery and Power Adapter tabs in Energy Saver)

No! It works beautifully.

OPTIONAL QUESTIONS

6. Do you have an external hard drive connected via USB? If yes, write the manufacturer name and model name of the drive. (example: Western Digital My Book)

Yes, a Western Digital My Book (USB 3, 2TB)

7. Do you have a network connected drive? (like Time Capsule or an external hard drive connected to an AirPort Extreme, or a NAS)

Yes, I have an external hard drive plugged to my AirPort Extreme.

8. Do you have Time Machine Enabled?

Yes

9. Do you have Crashplan installed?

Yes

10. How much time does it usually take for the first crash/reboot to happen, after you put the computer on sleep?

1 hour

11. If you have a late 2013 MacBook Pro Retina, do you have discrete graphics in it? (In other words: do you have an NVIDIA GPU? If you don't know this, go into the menu bar, click the apple icon, click About This Mac, Click More Info, in Graphics you should find written “NVIDIA GeForce”.)

Yes, I have discrete graphics.

Reply

Answer 2

Dec 21, 2013 7:40 AM in response to hailalistair

I chose my original posting location carefully; my mac reboots while asleep, as described/while attached to an external drive. The support folks recommended a few things:

> OS X Mavericks: Reset your computer's PRAM

> Intel-based Macs: Resetting the System Management Controller (SMC)

> OS X Mavericks: Reinstall OS X

> OS X Mavericks: If your Mac restarts and a message appears

So...yeah.

Reply

Answer 3

hailalistair Author

Level 1

9 points

Dec 21, 2013 7:51 AM in response to montmorencythedog

If you could answer at least the first 5 questions, that would be great. Please do. I wrote them to give this issue a bit of clarity and context. Hopefully we can reference this when talking to Apple and get a faster fix. End even if Apple doesn't do anything, we can help each other out much better If we have clear informations.

Reply

Answer 4

Dec 21, 2013 7:50 AM in response to hailalistair

1. Which Mac do you have? (If you have this issue with multiple machines, list them here)

New pro purchased about a month ago. Retina, 15-in, 16gb ram, 1600 MHz DDR3, Intel Iris Pro 1024 MB.

2. When did the problem start? If you had Mountain Lion installed on this machine, did the problem start when you updated to Mavericks?

When I started using the computer (which had Mavericks).

3. Did you have your Mac replaced from Apple because of this issue? If yes, does the new machine still have the problem?

No.

4. Does your machine crash/reboot while on sleep only if you have an external hard drive connected?

Seems so.

5. Does your machine crash/reboot even if you uncheck "Enable Power Nap" in Preferences, Energy Saver? (before answering this, check that you have updated OS X to 10.9.1 and that you have unchecked Power Nap in both the Battery and Power Adapter tabs in Energy Saver)

Yes.

OPTIONAL QUESTIONS

6. Do you have an external hard drive connected via USB? If yes, write the manufacturer name and model name of the drive. (example: Western Digital My Book)

My Book Essential (WD)

7. Do you have a network connected drive? (like Time Capsule or an external hard drive connected to an AirPort Extreme, or a NAS)

No.

8. Do you have Time Machine Enabled?

No.

9. Do you have Crashplan installed?

No.

10. How much time does it usually take for the first crash/reboot to happen, after you put the computer on sleep?

Varies. Sometimes only a few minutes. Sometimes I'll leave it on and hear a reboot in the morning. I have the feeling that it may be a 2nd or 3rd (or more) reboot in the course of the night when hear it that late.

11. If you have a late 2013 MacBook Pro Retina, do you have discrete graphics in it? (In other words: do you have an NVIDIA GPU? If you don't know this, go into the menu bar, click the apple icon, click About This Mac, Click More Info, in Graphics you should find written “NVIDIA GeForce”.)

Graphics Intel Iris Pro 1024 MB

Reply

Answer 5

hailalistair Author

Level 1

9 points

Dec 21, 2013 7:52 AM in response to montmorencythedog

Thanks a LOT.

Reply

Answer 6

CDT1975

Level 1

4 points

Dec 21, 2013 7:53 AM in response to hailalistair

Hi, i am Carlos.

1. Which Mac do you have? (If you have this issue with multiple machines, list them here)

MacBook Pro Retina 15" late 2013

2. When did the problem start? If you had Mountain Lion installed on this machine, did the problem start when you updated to Mavericks?

From first day

3. Did you have your Mac replaced from Apple because of this issue? If yes, does the new machine still have the problem?

One chance and the same issue.

4. Does your machine crash/reboot while on sleep only if you have an external hard drive connected?

Yes only with external HD WD and power suplí

5. Does your machine crash/reboot even if you uncheck "Enable Power Nap" in Preferences, Energy Saver? (before answering this, check that you have updated OS X to 10.9.1 and that you have unchecked Power Nap in both the Battery and Power Adapter tabs in Energy Saver)

Yes, uncheck power nap and the problem persists

OPTIONAL QUESTIONS

6. Do you have an external hard drive connected via USB? If yes, write the manufacturer name and model name of the drive. (example: Western Digital My Book)

Western Digital Ext HDD 1021 Media

7. Do you have a network connected drive? (like Time Capsule or an external hard drive connected to an AirPort Extreme, or a NAS)

No

8. Do you have Time Machine Enabled?

No

9. Do you have Crashplan installed?

No

10. How much time does it usually take for the first crash/reboot to happen, after you put the computer on sleep?

15 minutes

11. If you have a late 2013 MacBook Pro Retina, do you have discrete graphics in it? (In other words: do you have an NVIDIA GPU? If you don't know this, go into the menu bar, click the apple icon, click About This Mac, Click More Info, in Graphics you should find written “NVIDIA GeForce”.)

Yes, i have NVIDIA GeForce

Reply

Answer 7

Dec 21, 2013 8:12 AM in response to hailalistair

1. Which Mac do you have? (If you have this issue with multiple machines, list them here)

Macbook Pro Retina late 2013. 1Gb SSD, 16Gb RAM, 2.6Ghz core i7 with discrete GPU.

2. When did the problem start? If you had Mountain Lion installed on this machine, did the problem start when you updated to Mavericks?

The machine came preinstalled with Mavericks. Crashed the first night. Reinstalled from scratch. Did it again. I called Apple for help. They offered to exchange the machine. I accepted and not crash ever since with the replacement machine.

For what it is worth: I was very careful with the replacement machine: I did not check "migrate system settings" in the migration assistant (from a 2010 mbp under SL).

3. Did you have your Mac replaced from Apple because of this issue? If yes, does the new machine still have the problem?

Yes, the machine has been replaced. Yes, it fixed the problem: no crash of any kind ever since.

4. Does your machine crash/reboot while on sleep only if you have an external hard drive connected?

No.

5. Does your machine crash/reboot even if you uncheck "Enable Power Nap" in Preferences, Energy Saver? (before answering this, check that you have updated OS X to 10.9.1 and that you have unchecked Power Nap in both the Battery and Power Adapter tabs in Energy Saver)

Did not check that.

OPTIONAL QUESTIONS

6. Do you have an external hard drive connected via USB? If yes, write the manufacturer name and model name of the drive. (example: Western Digital My Book)

No.

7. Do you have a network connected drive? (like Time Capsule or an external hard drive connected to an AirPort Extreme, or a NAS)

NAS volumes over wifi.

8. Do you have Time Machine Enabled?

No.

9. Do you have Crashplan installed?

No.

10. How much time does it usually take for the first crash/reboot to happen, after you put the computer on sleep?

3-5 hours.

11. If you have a late 2013 MacBook Pro Retina, do you have discrete graphics in it? (In other words: do you have an NVIDIA GPU? If you don't know this, go into the menu bar, click the apple icon, click About This Mac, Click More Info, in Graphics you should find written “NVIDIA GeForce”.)

Yes.

Reply

Answer 8

hailalistair Author

Level 1

9 points

Dec 21, 2013 8:31 AM in response to francois.pays

Interesting, very interesting. Can you check something for me? Do you have Power Nap enabled in this new machine? Do you have an external hard drive connected to this new machine? (If yes, is it a Western Digital drive?)

The issue you had seems a bit different from the one most people have. Your Mac did crash even with no external HDDs.

Reply

Answer 9

Dec 21, 2013 9:22 AM in response to hailalistair

Power Nap is enabled on power adapter, disabled on battery power. I left all such system settings unchanged on both machines. No external drive connected. Only the same Wi-Fi NAS volumes.

The original machine did not look to be born under an auspicious star... It also exhibited dubious slow/instable gigabit ethernet. After the first crash, I assumed that I messed with the system settings because of a senseless migration from SL. So I reset the pram and reinstalled the system. It crashed again. I packed the machine the very next day.

Yet I think that the majority of the problems described in the previous thread have a sofware cause and I cannot wait for Apple to solve the problem for all affected people. Let us hope in the next Mavericks update.

Reply

Answer 10

hailalistair Author

Level 1

9 points

Dec 21, 2013 9:28 AM in response to francois.pays

Thanks a lot for replying. Very informative. I'm happy that you solved your issues.

Reply

Answer 11

sethta

Level 1

0 points

Dec 21, 2013 9:44 AM in response to hailalistair

1. Which Mac do you have? (If you have this issue with multiple machines, list them here)

Macbook Pro Retina late 2013. 512Gb SSD, 16Gb RAM, 2.3Ghz core i7 with discrete GPU.

2. When did the problem start? If you had Mountain Lion installed on this machine, did the problem start when you updated to Mavericks?

I purchased a 4TB WD MyBook and split it into two partitions with one of them being used for Time Machine. After that, I received the reboots during sleep.

The computer came preinstalled with Mavericks.

3. Did you have your Mac replaced from Apple because of this issue? If yes, does the new machine still have the problem?

No, I haven't had it replaced. I contacted Apple 4 days after the problem started. I had turned off PowerNap, but still had the problem. Apples asked me to disable Wake for Wi-Fi Network Access, and since doing that the problem has disappeared.

4. Does your machine crash/reboot while on sleep only if you have an external hard drive connected?

Yes (before I turned off PowerNap and Wake for Wi-Fi)

5. Does your machine crash/reboot even if you uncheck "Enable Power Nap" in Preferences, Energy Saver? (before answering this, check that you have updated OS X to 10.9.1 and that you have unchecked Power Nap in both the Battery and Power Adapter tabs in Energy Saver)

I have to have both PowerNap and Wake for WiFi disabled. If either is checked, the computer reboots. I've confirmed this with both 10.9 and 10.9.1.

OPTIONAL QUESTIONS

6. Do you have an external hard drive connected via USB? If yes, write the manufacturer name and model name of the drive. (example: Western Digital My Book)

Yes. Western Digital My Book 4TB. Split into 2 partitions.

7. Do you have a network connected drive? (like Time Capsule or an external hard drive connected to an AirPort Extreme, or a NAS)

No.

8. Do you have Time Machine Enabled?

Yes.

9. Do you have Crashplan installed?

No.

10. How much time does it usually take for the first crash/reboot to happen, after you put the computer on sleep?

4 hours. Checking the console log, my computer wakes itself at 2 hours for Time Machine (even if PowerNap is turned off, which is why Wake for Wi-Fi needed to be disabled, even the drive wasn't connected over the network, which really makes no sense) and then on the second wake, it has the Sleep Wake failure. Then it proceeds to reboot every 2 hours after when it wakes for Time Machine.

11. If you have a late 2013 MacBook Pro Retina, do you have discrete graphics in it? (In other words: do you have an NVIDIA GPU? If you don't know this, go into the menu bar, click the apple icon, click About This Mac, Click More Info, in Graphics you should find written “NVIDIA GeForce”.)

Yes.

Reply

Answer 12

Nifon

Level 1

0 points

Dec 21, 2013 10:17 AM in response to sethta

1. Which Mac do you have? (If you have this issue with multiple machines, list them here)

MBP late 2013 15"

2. When did the problem start? If you had Mountain Lion installed on this machine, did the problem start when you updated to Mavericks?

from the beginning when I start to connect the esternal HD

3. Did you have your Mac replaced from Apple because of this issue? If yes, does the new machine still have the problem?

NO

4. Does your machine crash/reboot while on sleep only if you have an external hard drive connected?

YES

5. Does your machine crash/reboot even if you uncheck "Enable Power Nap" in Preferences, Energy Saver? (before answering this, check that you have updated OS X to 10.9.1 and that you have unchecked Power Nap in both the Battery and Power Adapter tabs in Energy Saver)

I have to try it

OPTIONAL QUESTIONS

6. Do you have an external hard drive connected via USB? If yes, write the manufacturer name and model name of the drive. (example: Western Digital My Book)

yes, Western Digital My Book 2TB

7. Do you have a network connected drive? (like Time Capsule or an external hard drive connected to an AirPort Extreme, or a NAS)

NO

8. Do you have Time Machine Enabled?

NO

9. Do you have Crashplan installed?

NO

10. How much time does it usually take for the first crash/reboot to happen, after you put the computer on sleep?

not sure about it, some hours probably 2 hours.

11. If you have a late 2013 MacBook Pro Retina, do you have discrete graphics in it? (In other words: do you have an NVIDIA GPU? If you don't know this, go into the menu bar, click the apple icon, click About This Mac, Click More Info, in Graphics you should find written “NVIDIA GeForce”.)

YES

Reply

Answer 13

hailalistair Author

Level 1

9 points

Dec 21, 2013 11:08 AM in response to sethta

Good point. I also have Wake for Wi-Fi access disabled. I suggest that everybody who didn't fix the problem by turning off Power Nap should tries to turn off "wake for Wi-Fi access" as well. (in Preferences, Energy Saver, Power Adapter)

Reply

Answer 14

greytux

Level 1

0 points

Dec 21, 2013 11:48 AM in response to hailalistair

1. Which Mac do you have? (If you have this issue with multiple machines, list them here)

rMBP 15" late 2013

2. When did the problem start? If you had Mountain Lion installed on this machine, did the problem start when you updated to Mavericks?

Mavericks was installed when bought, problems since the beginning.

3. Did you have your Mac replaced from Apple because of this issue? If yes, does the new machine still have the problem?

NO

4. Does your machine crash/reboot while on sleep only if you have an external hard drive connected?

YES

5. Does your machine crash/reboot even if you uncheck "Enable Power Nap" in Preferences, Energy Saver? (before answering this, check that you have updated OS X to 10.9.1 and that you have unchecked Power Nap in both the Battery and Power Adapter tabs in Energy Saver)

NO

OPTIONAL QUESTIONS

6. Do you have an external hard drive connected via USB? If yes, write the manufacturer name and model name of the drive. (example: Western Digital My Book)

Western Digital MyBook 3TB

7. Do you have a network connected drive? (like Time Capsule or an external hard drive connected to an AirPort Extreme, or a NAS)

NO

8. Do you have Time Machine Enabled?

YES

9. Do you have Crashplan installed?

NO

10. How much time does it usually take for the first crash/reboot to happen, after you put the computer on sleep?

about 1-3 hours. repeatedly reboots about every hour if in sleep mode for longer.

11. If you have a late 2013 MacBook Pro Retina, do you have discrete graphics in it? (In other words: do you have an NVIDIA GPU? If you don't know this, go into the menu bar, click the apple icon, click About This Mac, Click More Info, in Graphics you should find written “NVIDIA GeForce”.)

YES

Reply

Answer 15

Dec 21, 2013 3:48 PM in response to hailalistair

1. Which Mac do you have? (If you have this issue with multiple machines, list them here)

Macbook Pro Retina late 2013. 1Tb SSD, 16Gb RAM, 2.6Ghz i7

2. When did the problem start? If you had Mountain Lion installed on this machine, did the problem start when you updated to Mavericks?

On purchase (with Mavericks)

3. Did you have your Mac replaced from Apple because of this issue? If yes, does the new machine still have the problem?

No

4. Does your machine crash/reboot while on sleep only if you have an external hard drive connected?

Yes

5. Does your machine crash/reboot even if you uncheck "Enable Power Nap" in Preferences, Energy Saver? (before answering this, check that you have updated OS X to 10.9.1 and that you have unchecked Power Nap in both the Battery and Power Adapter tabs in Energy Saver)

No, since unticking Power Nap, no issues with external drives plugged in or otherwise.

OPTIONAL QUESTIONS

6. Do you have an external hard drive connected via USB? If yes, write the manufacturer name and model name of the drive. (example: Western Digital My Book)

Yes, WD 1112, 1130 (I have 5x WD Drives) all via USB 3.0

7. Do you have a network connected drive? (like Time Capsule or an external hard drive connected to an AirPort Extreme, or a NAS)

No

8. Do you have Time Machine Enabled?

Yes

9. Do you have Crashplan installed?

No

10. How much time does it usually take for the first crash/reboot to happen, after you put the computer on sleep?

Couple of hours

11. If you have a late 2013 MacBook Pro Retina, do you have discrete graphics in it? (In other words: do you have an NVIDIA GPU? If you don't know this, go into the menu bar, click the apple icon, click About This Mac, Click More Info, in Graphics you should find written “NVIDIA GeForce”.)

Yes GT 750M

Reply