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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.



<Email Edited by Host>

MacBook Pro with Retina display

Posted on Dec 21, 2013 7:05 AM

Reply
211 replies

Feb 26, 2014 8:31 AM in response to hailalistair

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

iMac 21.5 inch - Mid 2011 Memory 4 GB 1333 MHz DDR3 Graphics AMD Radeon HD 6750M 512 MB Software Mac OS X Lion 10.7.5 (11G63)


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 began two weeks ago suddenly. My machine has been running fine since purchase in December 2011. Sleep failure error began when running Lion. The Apple Store Genius Bar had me upgrade to Mavericks to see if that would correct the issue. I upgraded to Mavericks and it worked fine for 24 hours and then problem started reoccuring daily.


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

Not replaced, out of warranty


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

No. I have had it crash both with external hard drives connected and without them connected.


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 not tried this, and will do so tonight.


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)

I have had two external hard drives connected in the past. I disconnected after problem started. They were a Lacie and a Western Digital I believe.


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?

Anytime after 2-3 hours. Mostly happens overnight, after machine goes to sleep on its own, or if I select "sleep" from the Apple menu


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”.)

N/A

Feb 26, 2014 8:34 AM in response to guinness66

My desktop iMAC mid 2012 that was running Lion OS started shutting down rather than "going to sleep" two weeks ago. It is unresponsive to mouse or keyboard when I try and wake it, and when I push the power button on the back, it will not wake either, it does not respond until I hear the "gong" of restart. The machine is fine when I am working on it and never shuts down, or has any other issues. If I put it to sleep and try and wake it up a few minutes later, it wakes fine. It is when it is left for a few hours or overnight that it shuts down rather than sleeping.

I took it in last Saturday to Apple Store. They ran basic diagnostics at the genius bar with me. All the hardware came up as working fine. The tech reset PRAM, SMU, did a safeboot, etc. Then he reset the bluetooth for keyboard and mouse, thinking it may be connected to that. They also advised me to update my OS to Mavericks to see if that resolves the issue. I've updated to Mavericks, and it worked fine for 24 hours and has now started having the same problem again.


Seems like a growing OS glitch. I've found more than a few forums on Apple with people experiencing the same thing. Remedies people have tried included everything from, new video cards, replacing logic board, power supply, wiping hard drives, clean installs, adjusting screensaver/ displays, trashing cache/cookies, disabling sleep/hibernation, removing third party software, disconnecting USB drives, etc. Seems everyone on the forum had a few days of success with whatever they try, and then the problem returns. Based on this seems like it's an issue that began with Lion and continues through Mavericks on some machines (both desktop and laptops). No real common denominator other than the Lion/Mavericks OS with everyone's machines. Oddly enough it just seemed to happen to my machine one day, and not an issue right after purchase or after updating system software.


My question...is it worth returning to the Apple Store as the Genius bar suggested, and leaving my computer for more intensive dignostics? If so many people are having this problem, and my initial diagnostics came back clear, it seems like replacing a logic board, video card or power supply is a waste of my time and more importantly my money. My other question, when this waking from sleep error/shutdown occurs, I receive a prompt to report the issue to Apple, which I do each time. Will this lead to them addressing the problem with an update taht will correct the problem?

Feb 26, 2014 1:18 PM in response to hailalistair

Problem still persisted for me and I have gone so far as to:


- Disconnect all external hard drives

- Disconnect speakers

- Quit all running Applications

- Quit Safari


Still had "Sleep Wake Failure" in the morning or after a few hours of machine not being used. Was thinking it could be related to an extension/program like Suitcase Fusion but not the case. Also wondered if upgrading to Adobe CS6 last month was the reason this problem suddenly began on my iMAC.

Feb 26, 2014 1:42 PM in response to hailalistair

I think it's OS problem, only because that is the only common denominator between our machines as far as I can see.


Without examining the machine and just hearing my symptoms, a local Apple Authorized Computer repair guy suspected it may be a power supply or heat problem causing the iMAC to power down...but diagnostics came back at Genius Bar as all hardware including power supply being good.


My friend bought the same exact machine as me from the Apple Store at the same time in late 2011. His machine is still fine at the moment. Wondering if it is something that happens over time or is triggered by soemthing like USB external drives.

Feb 26, 2014 5:00 PM in response to hailalistair

I have a client with a new late 2013 MBPr 13" running 10.9.1 that's getting the same Sleep Wake Failure issue with no external devices. It is backing up to TM. Had the geniuses look at it today and they diagnosed a bad power supply, swapped a new one. We're upgrading to 10.9.2 and leaving it sleeping overnight. I'll let you all know if this fixes it.

Crashes/reboots/restarts while on sleep

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