Mac Pro going to Sleep

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Level 1

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Mac Pro going to Sleep

Hi guys,

We have an old Mac Pro (Dual-Core Intel Xeon) running OS X 10.6.8 acting as a server.

For some reason this machine keeps going to sleep or hibernation - after 10-15 minutes the fans die down, monitor goes blank and I'm unable to wake it up again. I can't screen share or VNC in, only SSH works, but most of the primary services are still running - LDAP, Home folders, Network shares and such.

All the sleep options are set to never.

Display and hard drive sleep are disabled.

Repaired the system drive.

Reset SMC and PRAM.

And still no hope, it still goes to sleep and nothing in the console is indicating why. What could be the reason for this? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

Posted on Feb 24, 2016 3:56 AM

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Answer 1

Jason L

Community Specialist

Feb 25, 2016 9:39 AM in response to d3adm8n

Howdy d3adm8n,

It sounds like you've already done quite a bit of troubleshooting to try and resolve an issue with your Mac Pro going to sleep unexpectedly. Try taking a look at the article linked below and running through the additional troubleshooting tips that it provides.

If your Mac doesn't sleep or wake when expected - Apple Support

If your Mac goes to sleep unexpectedly

Make sure that Energy Saver is set up the way you want: choose Apple menu > System Preferences, then click Energy Saver. Adjust one or more of the following controls to affect when your Mac goes to sleep. Some of these controls aren't available on your Mac model.

"Turn display off after" slider

"Display sleep" slider

"Computer sleep" slider
If a slider is set to "Never," sleep is disabled for that feature.

Schedule button

Make sure that you aren't putting your Mac to sleep accidentally:

Pressing the power button can put your Mac to sleep.

Moving your mouse pointer to a hot corner can put your Mac to sleep, depending on your Mission Control settings. Choose Apple menu > System Preferences, then click Mission Control. Click the Hot Corners button, then see if any of the corners are set to "Put Display to Sleep."

Using magnets near your Mac notebook can put your Mac to sleep.

If the previous steps don't work

These additional steps may help identify or resolve the issue:

Reset the SMC.

Reset NVRAM.

Disconnect external devices other than your Apple keyboard, mouse, and display. If that resolves the issue, gradually reconnect your devices, testing each time, until you find the device that is interfering with sleep. Then check the documentation that came with the device, or contact the device manufacturer.

Start up in Safe Mode to see if the issue is related to non-Apple startup items, login items, or kernel extensions.

Try to isolate the issue by using another user account.

FaceTime is not available in all countries or regions.

Take care.

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Answer 2

d3adm8n Author

Level 1

0 points

Apr 26, 2016 7:54 AM in response to Jason L

Thanks for the reply, Jason L.

I have tried all of this and nothing has worked. I mentioned that everything is still working despite the display and pretty much all graphical access going to sleep, so the solutions posted wouldn't work anyway.

Does anyone else have an idea?

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Answer 3

Eric Root

Level 10

684,027 points

Apr 27, 2016 8:29 AM in response to d3adm8n

Try a restart.

Do a backup, using either Time Machine or a cloning program, to ensure files/data can be recovered. Two backups are better than one.

Try setting up another admin user account to see if the same problem continues. If Back-to-My Mac is selected in System Preferences, the Guest account will not work. The intent is to see if it is specific to one account or a system wide problem. This account can be deleted later.

Isolating an issue by using another user account

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