I recently obtained a Mac Pro 2013. This is my first 'trash can' Mac, having previously used aluminum tower models for many years. I was quite pleased with it during the setup, but a problem arose while installing software. It suddenly began to overheat while in sleep mode. The first suspect was incompatible software or a virus. I went through the usual procedure of checking Activity Monitor. It appeared that Photos could be the culprit, and I read where others had had problems with it causing overheating. After removing the plist, however, the problem persisted. It was a long process to get all of the software installed, and I had to really 'thread the needle' to get everything to work. One of the licenses (for MathType, which is essential for my work -- can't stand the current version) requires going to a web site that no longer exists. So I used Migration Assistant to copy over various settings. It worked by some miracle, and I wasn't sure if I could successfully reproduce those steps. I was dreading having to start over, but then I discovered the problem by luck. During the setup, I didn't have a mouse for every computer in the house. So I moved one mouse from computer to computer. I unhooked it from the Mac Pro 2013 to do something on another computer. When I came back, it was cool to the touch! The laser in the mouse was shining all the time, which apparently caused the system to be confused in sleep mode. I was surprised that such a thing could cause serious overheating, but I sure was relieved to discover the cause!
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MP All Models defective mouse causing Mac Pro 2013 to overheat in sleep mode
- Thread starter cinclodes
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Its amazing that something as overlooked as a mouse or keyboard can cause such weird issues. I recently had a wired keyboard causing issues. You would think they either work or don't. Not cause issues that make you think there is something corrupt in your system. Glad you discovered the problem. To bad you had to jump through so many hoops before identifying.
I've just completed 25 days of elimination testing to conclude that the Apple Magic Keyboard & Trackpad were crashing my machine on wake if they were connected by wire, because the Firmware Update Daemon (which I suspect is triggered by the wake-while-wired being conflated with a plug-in event) was unable to communicate with Apple's servers due to my outgoing firewall.
It could have been just as bad for me, but I got lucky. I was about to wipe the disk clean and start re-installing from scratch. If lucky, I would have managed to get everything working again. It may or may not have seemed OK after going through that process, depending on which mouse I happened to use. It would have been very confusing if I had started out with a good mouse and then at some point switched back to the bad mouse. I was lucky that it cost me only one day of troubleshooting and one night of lost sleep. It could have been much worse. The worst case scenario would have been if I had wiped the disk clean and then been unable to get the apps running again. It was trial and error to get one of the apps running.
You have hit the nail on the head! I never would have suspected that it was the mouse, which seemed to be operating properly. I might have never resolved this issue if it had not been for the fact that I had to disconnect the mouse to use it on a different computer.
Lucky indeed. Only thing i had done was replace the cmos battery. But had to wait for a BR2032 to ship because NOBODY has them locally. So i had a few days of anxiety. Replaced battery and same issue but as you had done i just happen to try a different keyboard and no issues, then tried the mac keyboard on my laptop and it went crazy. So i also got lucky.