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I think my APC UPS is 'waking up' my iMac

Mindflux

Mindflux

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Oct 20, 2007
1,987
1
Austin
I've been trying to figure out for a little while what wakes my iMac up. Last night I plugged the iMac directly into the wall and removed the status cable from the APC so it doesn't communicate with the iMac.

I put the iMac to sleep and it slept until I woke it this morning. Normally I'd get up, hit the space bar 'wake' it up to find it was already awake (IM logged in, WLAN connected).

When it normally comes out of sleep I can see it connecting to the WLAN via the icon in the upper right, and I can see Adium log off (because it slept all night) and re-log in.

So far, so good. I've also had it where I put it to sleep at 9am, and by 9:15 when I'm at work I log into my AIM/MSN client and it tells me I'm logged in elsewhere.. and sure enough the iMac is awake at home.

So far, so good. iMac is still sleeping at home.

What good is a UPS if you cannot use it and not lose other functionality?
 
I just picked up a Tripp Lite OMNI900LCD, and I have my 24" (mid-2007) iMac set to go to sleep after 3 hours. The UPS doesn't seem to be waking up my iMac.

Do you use the PowerChute software from APC or the UPS controls in the energy saver control panel? In the Energy Saver control panel, click the "Schedule" button - is your mac set to wake up at a certain time??

I have a question.. If you use the energy saver, does OS X know what kind of runtime you have on battery power? My UPS seems to only report the percentage of life left, which isn't a big deal. I set it to shut down after about 10% remaining.
 
djc6 said:
I just picked up a Tripp Lite OMNI900LCD, and I have my 24" (mid-2007) iMac set to go to sleep after 3 hours. The UPS doesn't seem to be waking up my iMac.

Do you use the PowerChute software from APC or the UPS controls in the energy saver control panel? In the Energy Saver control panel, click the "Schedule" button - is your mac set to wake up at a certain time??

I have a question.. If you use the energy saver, does OS X know what kind of runtime you have on battery power? My UPS seems to only report the percentage of life left, which isn't a big deal. I set it to shut down after about 10% remaining.
Click to expand...

I just use the leopard built in functionality for UPS's. I loaded powerchute but then realized Leopard can do it itself (allows me to tell it to shut down when battery reaches a certain level).

No schedules for wake/sleep. The iMac does not wake up (thus far) plugged directly into the wall socket with the usb cable unplugged from the mac.
 
djc6 said:
I have a question.. If you use the energy saver, does OS X know what kind of runtime you have on battery power? My UPS seems to only report the percentage of life left, which isn't a big deal. I set it to shut down after about 10% remaining.
Click to expand...

I use the energy saver and the computer seems to know everything that my UPS knows concerning run time/percentage.
 
Mindflux said:
I just use the leopard built in functionality for UPS's. I loaded powerchute but then realized Leopard can do it itself (allows me to tell it to shut down when battery reaches a certain level).

No schedules for wake/sleep. The iMac does not wake up (thus far) plugged directly into the wall socket with the usb cable unplugged from the mac.
Click to expand...

... and you never experience any power surges overnight? This would wake the computer up, although I'd think it would go back to sleep.

May I suggest leaving it plugged in to the UPS, but shutting it down, until this issue can be resolved? I would be uncomfortable with my computer "out in the open" of random voltage.
 
termina3 said:
... and you never experience any power surges overnight? This would wake the computer up, although I'd think it would go back to sleep.

May I suggest leaving it plugged in to the UPS, but shutting it down, until this issue can be resolved? I would be uncomfortable with my computer "out in the open" of random voltage.
Click to expand...

I have to agree. Another user in these forums recently had their magsafe toasted with a spike. Dont leave your computer naked on the grid, just too risky. And remember, brown outs/sags are far more dangerous than spikes!
 
termina3 said:
... and you never experience any power surges overnight? This would wake the computer up, although I'd think it would go back to sleep.

May I suggest leaving it plugged in to the UPS, but shutting it down, until this issue can be resolved? I would be uncomfortable with my computer "out in the open" of random voltage.
Click to expand...


Power surges every night? I don't think that's likely.
 
Well I plugged it back into the UPS and it slept for about 12 hours before I woke it. The data cable between the UPS and the iMac is still unplugged. So best guess is some sort of communication between them might be waking it?
 
Mindflux said:
Well I plugged it back into the UPS and it slept for about 12 hours before I woke it. The data cable between the UPS and the iMac is still unplugged. So best guess is some sort of communication between them might be waking it?
Click to expand...

NO CONNECTION between the UPS and iMac = UPS is not your source of problem.

It's probably some USB device or some third party app.
 
Consultant said:
NO CONNECTION between the UPS and iMac = UPS is not your source of problem.

It's probably some USB device or some third party app.
Click to expand...

The other two devices are a hp printer turned off and an iPhone or iPod hooked up but most likely sleeping (or not plugged in at all).

Tell me why nothing but the unplugged UPS status cable seems to have fixed my problem? As long as that's not hooked up my Mac has slept soundly the last two days. It makes sense to me. If my mac is sleeping but the UPS goes "uh oh little brownout" and kicks to battery mode, it has to update the Mac of it's condition, which in turn could wake the computer. If there truly are little spikes and brownouts as often as other posters in this thread would like you to believe.
 
Mindflux said:
If there truly are little spikes and brownouts as often as other posters in this thread would like you to believe.
Click to expand...

There are more areas that have steady voltage than not. I think it's easiest, however, to blindly say that yours isn't. You're protected as long as you're plugged in, so just leave the USB unhooked, turn it off when you'll be gone for 12+ hours, and you should be golden. Note, however, that your computer probably won't auto-turn off.
 
Ok, UPS -> USB cable still unplugged from iMac. iMac still sleeps like it should.

I guess Apple needs to apply a patch not to wake the iMac on status updates or something similar.
 
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