iMac Sleep Problem

[zerolight]

I've had a white 24" iMac since they came out. It's been great. However recently it's developed a sleeping disorder.

I generally leave it on all the time, but have it sleep on periods of inactivity through the power management preference pane. This has been working fine until recently. Now it just turns the monitor off but stays awake.

I can click on the apple menu and choose sleep and it's fine. But if it's left unattended - say its downloading stuff or whatever, or we forget to put it to sleep, then it just stays on forever.

The fact that it sleeps if I manually intervene suggests it is not related to any connected device, however to rule that out I unplugged everything, even the ethernet cable. Still no sleep.

I ran a software update to make sure I had everything. Still no sleep.

I reset the SMC and SMU and PRAM. Still no sleep.

I booted up in Safe Mode. Still no sleep.

I logged out so no users were logged in at all and left it sitting on the login screen. Still no sleep.

I click the sleep menu item in the Apple Menu, or on the login screen, or press the power button, and it sleeps.

So something in the inactivity check is preventing it from sleeping. Something that runs even if I'm not logged in. Something that runs, even from booting in safe mode.

Any ideas.

Please.

 

[walnuts]

I've had a white 24" iMac since they came out. It's been great. However recently it's developed a sleeping disorder.

I generally leave it on all the time, but have it sleep on periods of inactivity through the power management preference pane. This has been working fine until recently. Now it just turns the monitor off but stays awake.

I can click on the apple menu and choose sleep and it's fine. But if it's left unattended - say its downloading stuff or whatever, or we forget to put it to sleep, then it just stays on forever.

The fact that it sleeps if I manually intervene suggests it is not related to any connected device, however to rule that out I unplugged everything, even the ethernet cable. Still no sleep.

I ran a software update to make sure I had everything. Still no sleep.

I reset the SMC and SMU and PRAM. Still no sleep.

I booted up in Safe Mode. Still no sleep.

I logged out so no users were logged in at all and left it sitting on the login screen. Still no sleep.

I click the sleep menu item in the Apple Menu, or on the login screen, or press the power button, and it sleeps.

So something in the inactivity check is preventing it from sleeping. Something that runs even if I'm not logged in. Something that runs, even from booting in safe mode.

Any ideas.

Please.

I'm having similar problems, though I haven't gone through the troubleshooting that you have. One thing- are you running time machine? Even without issues, my mac wakes up every hour to do backups.

Otherwise, its been staying up for me too recently- it could be my mobileme syncs, the backups...eventually I'll play with it all. Good luck to us both!

 

[joby866]

Here's what to do:

1. Shutdown your iMac
2. Unplug all cables
3. Wait 15 - 30 seconds, And plug back into iMac.
4. Boot up iMac
5. Once started, go into system preferences and in Energy saver click "Restore Defaults".
6. Reboot iMac

 

[zerolight]

Here's what to do:

1. Shutdown your iMac
2. Unplug all cables
3. Wait 15 - 30 seconds, And plug back into iMac.
4. Boot up iMac
5. Once started, go into system preferences and in Energy saver click "Restore Defaults".
6. Reboot iMac

Thanks, but if you read my post, I already reset my SMC which is what that does. I've also done my SMU and my PRAM.

However, it seems to have been caused by several processes, any of which, when running, prevent the system from going into sleep due to inactivity.

The culprits on my system are:

SteermouseManager - when running it won't sleep. I prevent this from running at login now, and if I need to change my button settings I quit the process afterwards. There's really no reason why the manager needs to be running, seems sloppy to do so even after you quit the app.

CNQL1208_ButtonManager - when running it won't sleep - I don't need this so I deleted it.

A number of Helpers, noteably ItunesHelper. I'm not sure what these helpers do, they don't appear to be necessary, but they seem to prevent sleep by fooling the Mac to thinking it's still actively in use. I just removed them from the login items and quit them in activity monitor.

Now it sleeps. It can take it a while right enough, even though I tell it to do so after just a minute. But at least it sleeps.

 

[joby866]

Thanks, but if you read my post, I already reset my SMC which is what that does. I've also done my SMU and my PRAM.

However, it seems to have been caused by several processes, any of which, when running, prevent the system from going into sleep due to inactivity.

The culprits on my system are:

SteermouseManager - when running it won't sleep. I prevent this from running at login now, and if I need to change my button settings I quit the process afterwards. There's really no reason why the manager needs to be running, seems sloppy to do so even after you quit the app.

CNQL1208_ButtonManager - when running it won't sleep - I don't need this so I deleted it.

A number of Helpers, noteably ItunesHelper. I'm not sure what these helpers do, they don't appear to be necessary, but they seem to prevent sleep by fooling the Mac to thinking it's still actively in use. I just removed them from the login items and quit them in activity monitor.

Now it sleeps. It can take it a while right enough, even though I tell it to do so after just a minute. But at least it sleeps.

When did you notice the sleep problems, and do you have Time machine? If so, you can move all your really important files to your Backup HDD in another folder in the HD (not backup folder) and then just recover the system with time machine before you started having problems.

 

[zerolight]

I do have time machine. Not sure when I started getting problems, I suspect it was 10.5.3 really. However what I did above seems to have done the trick anyway.

 

[walnuts]

Does "back to my mac" have anything to do with it? I jut allowed that in sytem prefs recently. WIll it not allow my system to sleep so that if I want to access it remotely I can? Could an attempt to access via back to my mac wake from sleep?

 

[Faramir1968]

same problem - no time machine

Guys,

Having the same problem here. Only recently has the iMac had problems going to sleep itself. If I tell it to sleep, no problem.

I am NOT using time machine so it can't be that.

What should I do?

 

[joby866]

Re:

Guys,

Having the same problem here. Only recently has the iMac had problems going to sleep itself. If I tell it to sleep, no problem.

I am NOT using time machine so it can't be that.

What should I do?

@ Faramir / Anyone

Go into System preferences and go to energy saver, then shutdown your iMac. Once done, unplug ALL CABLES and leave for about 15 seconds before plugging back in and booting up again.

 

[IJ Reilly]

@ Faramir / Anyone

Go into System preferences and go to energy saver, then shutdown your iMac. Once done, unplug ALL CABLES and leave for about 15 seconds before plugging back in and booting up again.

I think we've already been told twice that this doesn't help.

I have the exact same problem on one of our two iMacs (first generation aluminum). We also had it on the G4 iMac which strangely enough the insomniac iMac replaced.

On our insomniac iMac, the drive seems to want to spin down even if the preferences are set to not sleep the drive. Then a couple of minutes later the drive spins up again, presumably preventing the Mac from sleeping. This goes in indefinitely, or at least until Sleep is manually selected from the Apple menu.

In addition to the steps mentioned above, I've gone so far as to track down all of the preferences which could control sleeping and thrown them away. Doesn't help.

 

[libocannici123]

Ok! Same problem here.
(i have unplug reset.. and the whole she bangs already with no result)

1)
Let's see what it could be the cause. I had this problem after I have installed:
- Mobileme
- The Tube (TV card soft)
- Zattoo

What about you guys?

2)
Does anyone knows if from console it's possible to see any log from. I mean does the "sleep" process logs somewhere why it didn't actually went to sleep?