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Computer keeps going into sleep mode

My computer keeps going into sleep mode randomly - even while I am actively working. It does this when I am plugged in and working from the battery. I have tried setting my system preferences to go to sleep never, but it continues to do this. I also also run disc utility. I greatly appreciate any suggestions - this is making it very frustrating and unproductive to work.

15" Powerbook, Mac OS X (10.4.7)

Posted on Aug 30, 2006 1:04 PM

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142 replies

Aug 27, 2018 3:43 PM in response to Heather1

Here's yet another "me too". Last week my 15" 1.5 Ghz G4 PB started acting up in the same manner. I had never heard of the issue until I did a Google search and BANG..... its seems as though there must be tens of thousands of machines suffering from this issue. This is definitely a flaw in either the design (placement of a component) or a flaw in the component itself. It's been to the Apple Genius Bar and back and still no solution. The guy at Apple said they had trashed the system settings folder and reset the nvram. Less that an hour of running the machine and it's back to its old tricks again.

I've tried everything I could find online short of ripping the blasted sensor out of the machine. The strange thing is that I'm getting the overheating message in the system logs but when I run Temperature Monitor it never shows any of the sensors running above the specified upper limit!

The machine is only 3 years old but out of warranty (no Apple Care). I've owned Macs ever since the old beige G3 towers and have never had any issues with any of them, but my experience with Mac laptops and reading all the info online has changed my mind about Apple and their product line. This thing cost me $2800 that averages out to almost $1000/year of ownership - thats far to expensive for my blood. I will never buy an Apple laptop again!

Here's a brief history of experience with owning a Mac laptop,

Oct 2004 purchased 1.33 PB g4.
April 2005 serious issues with display.
April 2005 returned for service - Apple replaces display - issue persists.
May 2005 returned to apple for service (same issue) - Apple replaces top case - issue persists.
June 2005 returned to Apple for service - Apple, unable to repair the machine, finally replaces the laptop.
Oct 2007 serious issue with narcolepsy.

The whole experience has been more hassle that it's worth!

Message was edited by: vastphoto

Sep 4, 2006 9:43 AM in response to Heather1

Sorry for getting your hopes up, but this reply is actually a 'Don't feel alone in your search' response. I came looking on the Apple Discussion to see if this fluke occurrence was my computer being compulsory (as it tends to be now and again) or if this was something other people were experiencing as well. So I guess we know at least two people out there with the 15" alum PB have this "I don't wanna work anymore, so I'm gonna go into sleep-mode now, whether you like it or not" symptom. The only side note I can provide is that I found it interesting mine started this symptom around the time when you made your post. My only two theories are a dated release virus since this seemingly happened to both computers around the same time OR I read about a recall, "PowerBook G4 (15-inch 1.67/1.5GHz) Memory Slot Repair Extension Program"; perhaps this is a new symptom for this problem. Well that's my little blurb, I'll be keeping a close eye on this problem, if I read anything positive I'll pass it along; otherwise if anyone else has any kind of clue what's going on here please feel free to toss a posty up. Thanks 🙂

15" Alum. PowerBook 1.67 GHz Mac OS X (10.4.7)

Sep 9, 2006 2:37 AM in response to Heather1

I have the same problem as you describe. I tried resetting the Power Management Unit (pmu). (link: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=14449 )
After resetting, the PowerBook worked fine for an hour and a half, but then went randomly into sleep mode again.

Someone on a dutch forum fixed the problem by replacing the motherboard. I hope there is a cheaper solution than that.

Sep 9, 2006 2:42 AM in response to ynze

Not sure yet whether or not replacing the logic board works.

Apple replaced mine last month under warranty, and I got the computer back with a bad battery. Other than the bad battery (see two other threads on this board), things worked well until yesterday. Yesterday, my computer went to sleep and would not wake back up. I had to reset the PMU to get its attention.

This is the problem for which I originally sent the computer back to Apple, and I'm hoping it goes away if they finally get me a replacement battery, but after yesterday's incident, I'm not really optimistic. The battery was not even in the computer when it fell asleep yesterday and would not wake up.

Sep 9, 2006 7:58 AM in response to Heather1

Well, I guess I am just adding to the general bad news here - I have a 15" PB doing identically the same sleep mode shut down. I find that I have to take the battery out to get it to respond at all. This actually started some months ago, then stopped, and then started again in the last few days. Then, it will enter sleep mode multiple times and then run for a while. I have now found that leaving the battery out seems to decrease the sudden halts. Of course, my PB's warrantee just expired. So, if anyone knows anything about this, it would seemingly help quite a few of us.

Cheers.

Sep 9, 2006 8:32 AM in response to Heather1

after following some of the other posts, I checked out my PB's system log, filtered for "temp" (temperature), and there it is: "kernel[0]: Power Management received emergency overtemp signal. Going to sleep." I guess this supports the erroneous temperature data/PMU theory as the cause.

Now, what to do about it is another issue - anybody got any ideas (obviously take it back but a $500 flight and $900 replacement motherboard has me looking for some other possibility!)

Thanks.

Sep 10, 2006 4:01 PM in response to Heather1

So i went to the Genius bar and a very nice Genius told me that he couldn't find anything wrong with the computer. I have no temp errors etc... But if i wanted to send it in to Apple it would cost $320 just to look at it, regardless of if they found something wrong with it or not. So i declined. If i have the powerbook hooked up to my external display it doesn't have the sleeping problem. But if I take it off the display it is up to it's old tricks. not sure how to proceed...

Sep 18, 2006 3:38 PM in response to Heather1

Yet another "me too" post unfortunately. I printed out the system log that showed the overtemp error and took it with me to the Genius Bar. It was a good thing I did too, as we could not reproduce the sleep problem while I was there. Because of the error they decided to send it off to (I assume) replace the logic board. Hopefully this will fix the problem. I will post when I get it back.

Sep 20, 2006 6:35 PM in response to Heather1

Do others agree that the fan seems to go into variable hyperdrive, then the the screen goes black and, a few seconds later, the fan abruptly shuts off; if you hit the spacebar it will revive.

Just removed the battery and things quieted down. Of course, Apple's lawyers think we should all take our batteries out and pretend we have desktop machines ...

Sep 21, 2006 3:46 AM in response to John Armstrong6

My PB goes through bouts but I have to say that I have not noticed the fan in all cases. The consistent thing for me is that the log file shows that the machine is generating an intermittent overheat signal and going into sleep mode. I have been running a realtime monitor and none of the sensors are actually anywhere near overheat.

It seems to me reading through both this thread and the others in this discussion area that this is a situation that deserves better consideration by Apple's engineers. More than a few of us are merely weeks/or months outside the warranty and this is obviously a design or component flaw. Most of us did nothing to our $2K computers to cause this issue - it deserves a solution and a warranty extension to get this problem sorted out.

Computer keeps going into sleep mode

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