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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

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

211 replies

Dec 22, 2013 4:27 AM in response to northernmunky

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

ANSWER

rMBP late 2013, 8 GB RAM, 256GB SSD

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

After update from 10.9 to 10.9.1 On 10.9 I had no issues.

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

ANSWER No replacement

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

ANSWER

no also without but I have a NAS connected

ANSWER

No (as far as I have observed for now)

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

WD My Book

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

WD My Book LIve

8. Do you have Time Machine Enabled?

ANSWER

yes

9. Do you have Crashplan installed?

ANSWER

yes

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

ANSWER

No idea

ANSWER

I cannot find this info

shufls

Level 1

0 points

Dec 22, 2013 5:13 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 (15’’, 2.3Ghz 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?

Since purchase of the computer.

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

Yes, same problem with the new machine also.

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

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)

Yes, a Western Digital 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)

8. Do you have Time Machine Enabled?

Yes

9. Do you have Crashplan installed?

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

Sometmes half hour, other times around an hour.

Yes, I have discrete graphics.

hailalistair Author

Level 1

9 points

Dec 22, 2013 6:29 AM in response to hailalistair

Can someone try to use another external hard drive, one that is not Western Digital? I have tried a generic external hard drive (an enclosure where I put an internal hard drive years ago, it is self-powered) and It did not crash my MacBook while on sleep.

Dec 22, 2013 7:00 AM in response to hailalistair

An update over here -- it hasn't happened in the day or so since unchecking "Wake for Wi-Fi access," "Enable Power Nap while plugged into a power adapter," and "Prevent computer from sleeping automatically when the display is off." I'll check back to update in another day or so.

hailalistair Author

Level 1

9 points

Dec 22, 2013 6:41 PM in response to montmorencythedog

Yes, to my knowledge the are two workarounds for the issue at the moment:

- Unplugging all external hard drives before putting the Mac to sleep. Ejecting them in finder is not enough, you need to physically remove the plug from the MacBook. (if you have a NAS this might not work)

- Unchecking "Power Nap" and "Wake for Wi-Fi network access" in Preferences. (this is much easier to do, since you need to do this just once. It doesn't seem to work for everybody though.)

dhampyre

Level 1

0 points

Dec 22, 2013 8:18 PM in response to hailalistair

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)

2012 15-inch Macbook Pro. Non-Retina

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

After updating to 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, haven't sent machine to Apple. I do not think it is a hardware problem

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

Disconnected all external drives and the problem persists.

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)

Do not have that option. I did uncheck the "Wake for network access" and it did not solve the problem

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)

3 external hard drives. One is my hardrive that came with my MBP that was placed into an enclosure after I changed drives to SSD. I use that as my Time Machine backup. I also have 2 Western Digital external drives. Both USB.

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. But I am using an app called Time Machine Scheduler

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?

Can't say. I walk away, the computer goes to sleep. I come back and it has restarted with the sleep/wake failure error message

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

rev_b

Level 1

0 points

Dec 23, 2013 3:01 AM in response to hailalistair

Just bought a late 2013 rMBP, just to bump into this issue. My previous early '11 17" MBP didn't have this issue, even with 10.9.1.

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

Late 2013 rMBP 2.3 Ghz/750M/16 Gb RAM/ 512 Gb SSD

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 connected my rMBP to external HDD's via USB 2.0 HUB

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

No. It's cleary a software issue.

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

Yes.

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)

Western Digital My Book 500 Gb. I'm seeing a pattern here.

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?

30 minutes to 1 hour.

Yes, but most of the time Iris pro is forced via gfxcardstatus.

I *think* I have found a workaround to this issue, feel free to try for yourselves.

I changed hibernate mode in command line with "sudo pmset -a hibernatemode 25".

However, after waking up from stand by with external drives connected, I got "disk not ejected properly" error, not sure why. So I tried this little app from app store, Jettison, that automatically ejects all drives when MBP goes to sleep and remounts them after waking up.

hailalistair Author

Level 1

9 points

Dec 23, 2013 5:22 AM in response to dhampyre

Yes, it's more than 99% likely that this is a software issue. In the last thread 6 people clearly stated that they had their Mac replaced, and nothing changed. (some people had their mac replaced multiple times!)

That said, if you are having crashes even with all external hard drives disconnected (I must remind you to disconnect them physically from the computer, ejecting is not enough) and you don't have a NAS. You could be having another issue, that is hardware related.

rev_b

Level 1

0 points

Dec 23, 2013 10:23 AM in response to hailalistair

No, since I set hibernatemode to 25 and installed Jettison I haven't got a crash yet. I came back just now to my desk where th rMBP is connected to external display and USB hub, and it hasn't crashed. However, even with jettison, when exiting standby I got "usb disk not ejected properly" error.

I'll set hibernatemode to 3 again and I'll see if jettison alone can handle the issue.

rev_b

Level 1

0 points

Dec 23, 2013 10:34 AM in response to rev_b

Nope, with hibernatemode set to 3, I can only exit sleep with a hard reset if USB hub is connected. It didn't reboot itself, but from my previous experience, it's only a matter of time.

I guess hibernatemode 25 partially fixes it for me.

greytux

Level 1

0 points

Dec 23, 2013 12:41 PM in response to hailalistair

Since it happens alot with WD drives, I tried updating the harddrive's firmware to the latest version 1025. Unfortunately it didn't help, the rMBP keeps restarting with the same issue...

Disabling Power Nap again solves the problem for me in the meantime.

Dec 23, 2013 2:39 PM in response to hailalistair

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

ANSWER

rMBP late 2013, 16 GB RAM, 256GB SSD

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

Always

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

ANSWER No replacement

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

ANSWER

Yes

ANSWER

Just changd settings - will report back

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

WD My Book

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

WD My Book LIve

8. Do you have Time Machine Enabled?

ANSWER

yes - but only for my mac connected WD

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

No idea

ANSWER

Iris Pro

It seems that a software issue and WD drives might be causing issue... lets hope the disable power nap helps.

hailalistair Author

Level 1

9 points

Dec 23, 2013 4:01 PM in response to greytux

Same here, I updated the WD firmware of my drive again today, but nothing... the MacBook crashed.

In meantime I contacted Apple through the online chat (a second time)

I showed them this thread and I managed to get this response:

OK, we’ll I’m definitely noting it in the file and I will discuss with a Mgr as well regarding a path for escalation. Also, good that you upgraded to 9.1, for that had some patches addressing multiple issues with third party items. Regarding the reformatting, this may be a good step Raffaello, since it would at least rule out a formatting problem, but I would agree with you that it seems more like a firmware software incompatibility with the OS since the Ext WD drive works on your other Mac.

[...]

Raffaello. Yes, from what I am investigating, you seem to be correct. I appreciate you taking the time to advise us of this issue again, and being such a diligent user to post it in the Apple forum, and I’ll do all I can to gain exposure here too. I would suggest you posting your thoughts within the wd.com discussion forums too, and keep an eye on all updates from Apple through Software Update, as well as stay in contact with us, for currently, there does not seem to be any further patches beyond what you have already installed. Also, keep an eye on the WD website for firmware upgrades too.

[...]

Again, thank you Raffaello for your diligence. I have noted all on this end, so please stay in touch with us. I will send you a case # at the end of this chat, and hope I have given some satisfactory additional steps to assist you in addressing this problems further, but I agree, seems to be a need for a firmware update.

I would like to talk this issue with an Apple Genius in person and show them this thread (talking to them withouth this thread is useless, I did that last week), but they are pretty busy in this period and I can't get an appointment anytime soon.

I will also email WD again. (the last time, they wouldn't listen me, because they said they have not enough reports from people about this issue).

hailalistair Author

Level 1

9 points

Dec 23, 2013 4:40 PM in response to hailalistair

I also filled a bug report at http://www.apple.com/feedback/. I invite you to do the same.

Dec 23, 2013 4:45 PM in response to hailalistair

Bug report submitted.

Crashes/reboots/restarts while on sleep