El Capitan Frozen After Sleep

As I said before, I do not use that software. That is for playing Windows on a Mac. I do not do that. So my problem is obviously not VMWare Fusion since it is not on my machine. I have now gotten into the habit of powering down every time I stop using the Mac. Pretty ****** inconvenient too. Yesterday I forgot to do it when I went to the store...just closed the cover and when I opened it, a horrible noise was happening. Sounded like a motor running hard. I thought it was done for but when I forced a power down and restarted, it seemed OK. I need to get this looked at. That's for sure!

Same problem here with MBPro Os 10.11.5. The issue started about a week ago, after I had the newer El Capitan update for a short time. For me it happens on wake from sleep most of the time after more than about 30 minutes and always if lid is shut, then opened. Have gone through the resets Apple recommends. Currently trying to shutdown whatever processes I can as mentioned in this thread (do not have VMWare). Hoping for a solution or 10.11.6?

That is exactly what has been happening with me. I am still under AppleCare so I called them. They walked me through the two resets but with no change in anything. So then they walked me through a reinstall of the OS and after one hour in sleep, it was OK. I went out for the afternoon, thinking all was well, and leaving it in sleep. But when I came back the problem was back. It freezes upon opening the lid and waking it. So now I power down every time I am going to be away from the computer. Very annoying. I will be calling them again, but have been very busy and being on permanent "hold" Is really not fun.

BTW, I don't think it's that VMWare or anything like that. I have none of that. It's something in the OS. I'm sure of it.

Update: Got hold of AppleCare again and they said that if the reinstall didn't work, the next step is to do a restore of the version of El Capitan 10.11.0 I had when I bought it. I am opting to take it to the Genius Bar. Not going to go through this myself and risk losing my data. I won't be able to get in there until next week at the earliest due to my schedule. I will post back here when I get an answer. I don't think the support guy wanted to say anything on the phone but when I said I thought it was a problem with OS 10.11.5, he did not disagree with me.

Folks, I am a software engineer by profession. I have been writing computer code for the last fifteen years.

This is a software bug/problem that came along with the El Capitan update. Do not waste your time with whatever the support guys tell you to do.

This problem will only go away when Apple releases a fix.

Until then avoid the long sleep by shutting down the Mac when you are done working.

AGreed. There was a version of virtual box that initiated the problem. Reverted to older version and it went away. Now I've downloaded the latest release of virtual box and the issue is gone even with the latest 10.11.5.

I don't know what virtual box is and I don't think it's on my computer, yet I freeze every time I go to sleep more than about 20 minutes. TY Smartyram for your post. I have been suspecting that but cannot get verification from Apple Tech help. I was going to go along with their suggestion about a restore but really don't feel I should have to do all that. This is their fault and they need to come up with an upgrade....fast! I am going to file a formal complaint.

even my Macbook pro running version 10.11.5. I'm facing the same problem as well..

is there any fix on this????

That's what I have, a fairly new Macbook Pro. No. There is no fix as long as we are running 10.11.5, apparently. I spent a lot of time with AppleCare support technicians, doing all the fixes they can do long distance. They said I need to take it to the genius bar and have them save my files and do a complete restore, a reinstall of the earlier edition of El Capitan that my Macbook Pro shipped with. I really haven't had time to do that so I am powering down when I am not going to be using the computer. When I am at home with it, I am leaving it hooked to the power, and have set it not to go to sleep... just the screen. It's a real pain in the butt.

Apple has not admitted it, but many of us with this problem think it is a glitch in the 10.11.5 OS upgrade. Maybe it's only happening with laptops. I don't know, but most of the people posting here do have laptops I think. None of us had this trouble until after we upgraded. For me, it started about a week later and only froze sometimes, then it gradually got worse, freezing if I'd put it to sleep for longer than two hours, then one hour, then a half hour, until now, it freezes every time I close the lid for more than a few seconds.

I am hoping that they will fix this problem with the next upgrade. Not sure when that will be. I notice nobody with tech skills seems to be monitoring this thread. It's like they are avoiding it. I wonder why.

I agree. I'm using Parallels and it's doing it. Didn't have a bit of trouble until the last update to El Capitan. Hope they hurry.

Nope. Doing it on my mid-2011 iMac.

I can't speak for everyone but I noticed this problem crept in two very specific scenarios:

ℹ First: If my MagSafe cord was being "fussy" (i.e., MagSafe 1 cord with MagSafe 1-to-MagSafe 2 adapter) and not showing the green/amber light when plugged in, the Mac would occasionally wake to a black screen (no pointer). Resetting the SMC didn't fix it for very long so before I took it to Apple, I started using the MagSafe 2 cord that came boxed with the Mac, and the problem went away. If I have any advice here, it's try another MagSafe cord, or perhaps another outlet. It may not sound like it's a fix but it's worth trying if it's having a deleterious effect on the SMC (which controls wake/sleep).

ℹ Second: The following issue crept up after running Fusion Pro 8.1.1 and Windows 10, even after I had quit Fusion before putting the Mac to sleep. The problem only manifests if I've run Fusion at some point during my session on the Mac, and quit the application; otherwise, my Mac sleeps/wakes just fine. After running without Fusion at all for about two weeks, constantly sleeping and waking the Mac, the issue has not returned (knock on wood!). However, isolating the issue down to Fusion took some troubleshooting, and it only crept up again once I installed Fusion on a clean install of 10.11.5.

When I tried to wake up the Mac by opening the lid, the screen would be lit but black with a spinning pinwheel (see below). --This is with all apps are quit before the Mac was put to sleep. In pursuit of figuring out what the problem was, I did the following:

+ Reset NVRAM

+ Reset SMC

+ Format/re-installed Mac OS X 10.11.5

+ Fresh install of Fusion Pro 8.1.1

...and the issue crept up once I started running Fusion again.

I honestly don't know the correlation but my guess is Fusion has a deleterious effect on either the SMC, or how El Capitan sleeps and tries to wake up after it's been run.

I don't think it's a problem with the hardware, otherwise it would be doing it all the time. Fusion did not have any problem(s) that I'm aware of until 8.1.1; moreover, if you check their message board, it's full of complaints specific to 8.1.1.

I hope this is of some use to you guys as you look for solutions. Like I said, I don't know how much my usage matches yours but the two things I've noted above were what caused the same or similar issue(s) described in this thread.

Mid-2015 15" MacBook Pro (DG)

16GB RAM / 1TB PCIe SSD

Intel Iris Pro / AMD Radeon R9 M370X 2GB VRAM

Mac OS X 10.11.5

I think your problem is slightly different than everyone here. I've seen no reports of trouble with the power cord. You may have some other issues there. You may want to take you cord to the Genius Bar and get it checked out. Could be a short there. I had one go out on an older MacbookPro some years ago. But this Macbook Pro is rather newish and and has no such problem. It shipped with El Capitan but not the 10.11.5 versoion. I think it was 11.3 but I can't remember. Also, I don't have that program you mentioned. Nor do I ever run Windows on my Mac. And it doesn't ever wake into a black screen. When I go to wake it, it is frozen in whatever way I had it when I put it to sleep. The screen wakes up but nothing moves. (in fact, I can put the screen to sleep and wake it without a problem. It's only when I put the entire computer to sleep that it freezes.) If there was a window open when I put it to sleep, it is still open but frozen. No cursor, and mousepad is unresponsive. Doc won't pop up at all. No action...just a frozen system. It happens every time, no matter whether there is an app opened or even if I close every app before I put it to sleep. It happens whether the cord is in or whether I am running on battery. I'm positive it is an OS problem. It never happened until I upgraded to 10.11.5 OS. I think there must be a bug in that OS, possibly only active on MacBook Pros. I am now in the habit of powering down when not using it, and never letting it sleep. Very annoying, especially when I am using it on just battery, because it there is no way to turn off automatic sleep when it's not got the cord in. Only way to bring it out of the freeze is to hold the power button down for several seconds until it dies completely and then doing a reboot. So annoying. I'm a little ticked off that this has been going on for a long time and posted here, like forever, and no one at Apple is addressing this. I'm sure they've had a TON of calls at AppleCare. They refuse to admit it's their OS.

The adapter I was referring to is this: http://www.apple.com/shop/product/MD504LL/A/magsafe-to-magsafe-2-converter

When I went back to the MagSafe 2 AC adapter that came with the MBP, the problem went away.

If you take to Apple--which I think you should if everything else has been tried--the first thing I presume they will try is resetting the SMC, NVRAM, and clean installing OS X 10.11.5. If the problem persists without any 3rd party software installed, you may indeed have a hardware problem on your hands, and it's worth taking in to Apple; otherwise, the Genius Bar would be better equipped to tell you if it's software related or not.

I did take it to Apple, and they did try resetting SMC and NVRAM, and clean installing OSX 10.11.5. No change. That's when they told me I needed to do a restore to the OS that it came with. That told me something is actually wrong with 11.5 rather than hardware. They wanted me to go back to an earlier OS because it would have fixed it. Well... I am in the middle of a family health crisis and cannot go do that right now so it will have to wait. In the meantime, I'm hoping them come out with an 11.6 to go forward not backward.