Sleep Wake Problem

I've been having a problem with my Late 2014 Mac Mini. I'm a Mac "convert", so this is my first Apple product ever (I don't even have an iPod or iPhone.) I must say that I love my Mac (even though I can't upgrade the RAM or anything), although I've discovered a couple flaws since I bought it back in November. This problem, however, just showed up today and is really starting to annoy me.


I often put my computer into sleep mode at night when I go to bed and when I leave to go somewhere. Well, lately, my Mac has been having some other ideas on what "sleep" mode should be like. Once it goes into sleep mode, I can't wake it up with my mouse or keyboard. I have to literally turn my MacMini off (by holding the power button in) and restart it. While the Mac OS thankfully saves your work (something Windows never did) this isn't a HUGE problem, but it is an annoyance.


After doing some research, it appears that there is nothing wrong with my computer, but it seems to be more of a software bug. How can I fix it? It is annoying and even worries me a little bit.


Here's the specs on my MacMini if it helps at all:


Late 2014 MacMini with 1.4GHz Intel i5 processor, 4GB RAM, and 500GB Hard Drive. Running OS X Yosemite (10.10.) Bought on 11-26-2014

Mac mini, OS X Yosemite (10.10.1)

Posted on Jan 1, 2015 4:00 PM

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7 replies

Jan 1, 2015 4:10 PM in response to garrettfromboonville

Step 1

Take all the applicable steps in this support article. That's the starting point for any further efforts to solve the problem. Please read the whole article carefully (some of it is hidden by disclosure triangles) and don't skip any of the steps, including the ones under the heading "Additional troubleshooting." If you don't understand any of the steps, ask for guidance.

Step 2

If you're running OS X 10.8.5 or earlier, from the menu bar select

 ▹ System Preferences... ▹ Accessibility

If the checkbox at the bottom marked

Enable access for assistive devices

is checked, uncheck it and test.

If you're running OS X 10.9 or later, select

 ▹ System Preferences... ▹ Security & Privacy ▹ Privacy ▹ Accessibility

If any applications are listed on the right and have a checked box next to them, uncheck all the boxes and test. You may first have to click the padlock icon in the lower left corner of the window and authenticate as an administrator to unlock the settings.

Step 3

In the Energy Saver pane of System Preferences, uncheck the box marked

Put hard disks to sleep when possible

Step 4

If you don't already have a current backup, back up all data, then reinstall the OS.* You don't need to erase the startup volume, and you won't need the backup unless something goes wrong. If the system was upgraded from an older version of OS X, you may need the Apple ID and password you used.

If you use FileVault 2, then before running the Installer you must launch Disk Utility and select the icon of the FileVault startup volume ("Macintosh HD," unless you gave it a different name.) It will be nested below another icon with the same name. Click the Unlock button in the toolbar and enter your login password when prompted. Then quit Disk Utility to be returned to the main Recovery screen.

If you installed the Java runtime distributed by Apple and still need it, you'll have to reinstall it. The same goes for Xcode. All other data will be preserved.

*The linked support article refers to OS X 10.10 ("Yosemite"), but the procedure is the same for OS X 10.7 ("Lion") and later.

Step 5

This and the next step must be taken as an administrator. If you have only one user account, you are the administrator.

Launch the Console application in any of the following ways:

☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)

☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.

☞ Open LaunchPad and start typing the name.

In the Console window, select

DIAGNOSTIC AND USAGE INFORMATION â–¹ Diagnostic and Usage Messages

In the search box in the window's toolbar, enter "powerd" (without the quotes.)

You may see one or more lines like this:

com.apple.message.signature: Platform Failure

If you do see that, and you did everything in the preceeding steps, then you're dealing with an internal hardware fault. Make a "Genius" appointment at an Apple Store, or go to another authorized service provider.

Step 6

In the Console window, select

DIAGNOSTIC AND USAGE INFORMATION â–¹ System Diagnostic Reports

(not Diagnostic and Usage Messages) from the log list on the left. If you don't see that heading, select

View â–¹ Show Log List

from the menu bar.

There is a disclosure triangle to the left of the list item. If the triangle is pointing to the right, click it so that it points down.

You may see one or more reports with a name that begins with "Sleep Wake Failure" followed by a date. Select the most recent one. The contents of the report will appear on the right. Use copy and paste to post the entire contents—the text, not a screenshot.

I know the report is long, maybe several hundred lines. Please post all of it anyway.

Jan 1, 2015 4:18 PM in response to Linc Davis

Thank You. I really don't want to do anything to the SMC or re-install the OS. I don't really have a way to backup all my files (no time machine or external hard drives) and I don't even have a system disk, but even if I did have a system disc the Late 2014 MacMini doesn't come with a disc drive.


BTW, the power is on to the computer at all times. When pressing a key on the keyboard or mouse, it doesn't do anything. And the power LED on the front stays on instead of blinking (fading on and off slowly) when in sleep mode. Is there a simple way to fix this without doing anything in the SMC or anything...

Jan 1, 2015 4:42 PM in response to Linc Davis

User uploaded file

I followed Step #5 and thankfully I couldn't find anything that said that: com.apple.message.signature: Platform Failure


I went into the System Preferences but didn't uncheck the "Put hard drives to sleep when possible" option. How would that help? Below I grabbed a screenshot of the energy preference window...


User uploaded file

Other than this sleep/wake issue (and some freezing up on programs, which can be understood due to the limiting 4GB of RAM and 1.4GHz processor) this computer works flawlessly. There are some software issues (like in Safari sometimes it will give me problems, especially in YouTube) but those are all software-related and have nothing to do with the computer/hardware itself. Programs like Pages, Keynote, Mail, TextEdit, and even Pixelmator, Audacity, and iMovie work correctly.

Jan 1, 2015 4:53 PM in response to Linc Davis

There is no Apple Stores around here. The nearest Apple Store is 100 miles away and I'm very busy.


I put in to sleep mode, and while I only kept it in Sleep Mode for about 3 minutes, it woke right up. But it takes it about 15 minutes/20 minutes in sleep mode before it really falls asleep.


If it doesn't wake up tomorrow, I'll try unchecking the "Put hard drive to sleep when possible" option.

Jan 1, 2015 6:19 PM in response to garrettfromboonville

After doing some research, I found out that it is a software bug in Yosemite.


Apple ignored the many complaints from beta testers about the problem I'm having. (I even had the fuzzy screen problem.) It is not a hardware problem, but a software bug. Hopefully Apple will recognize the problem and fix it in a patch of Yosemite.


Tomorrow I'm going to call Apple and make them aware of the problem. Thankfully I'm not the only one with the problem, but it is sad that Apple just chooses to ignore input from their beta testers when Yosemite was still in beta stage.


Not a nice move on Apple's part. 😠


Then again, the computer runs fine other than that problem. I've experienced no other problems with Yosemite itself in that time. So why didn't they choose to just fix that one little bug?

Jan 2, 2015 8:37 AM in response to Linc Davis

yay - thank you Linc - I had the same problem as the OP - could not wake from sleep - black screen (with LCD back light on - but no cursor or anything else was visible) after sleep wake.


In the Console app I had a number of sleep wake failure logs in the Diagnostic and Usage Messages -

"powerd: com.apple.message.domain: com.apple.sleep.failure" and

"powerd: com.apple.message.domain: com.apple.iokit.wakereasons"

but luckily no Platform failure messages.


I tried steps 1-3 (including SMC reset and NVRAM reset) with no luck, I also tried disabling the screen savers and changing the Energy saving settings without any effect.

But re-running the OSx installer worked for me (the reinstall preserved my application data for all apps I use so no need for me to restore any backups).


By the way, before reinstalling I also tried installing the upcoming OSx 10.10.2 patch (I'm a developer and have access to the pre-releases) - but that did not fix the sleep wake issue either - it actually seemed to make things worse - the screen savers started updating only a part of the screen so that e.g. the clock would appear 3-4 places at the same time with different values - and the animation started lagging.


Before the reinstall I also discovered that I could reduce the problem - so it would not disturb me while at the office by setting the "Turn display off after: " to Never - as long as the screen had not been turned off I could still login. But once the screen had been turned off I could not login.


The reinstall was the only thing that had any effect - and luckily a good one 🙂.


Thank you


Cheers

Flemming

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Sleep Wake Problem

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