Mac Pro restarts when awakened from sleep mode

[R-Co]

I searched the forum and see other sleep issues but none quite like this. My wife has a 2007 or 2008 Mac Pro running OS 10.5.8. Several months ago, it started having this problem: after being in sleep mode for any length of time, usually an hour or more, when pressing a key to wake it up, it restarts instead. It doesn't seem to do it when asleep for only a few minutes, but anything longer and the problem occurs. It did that for awhile and then the problem seemed to resolve itself. About a week ago it started doing it again. The applications that are usually running are Safari, Firefox, Entourage, occasionally Word or Adobe CS3.

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

 

[thehimay]

Do you happen to know if the machine is set to automatically restart after a power failure (under the Energy Saver settings)? Might be indicative that the machine is not properly waking from sleep, thinks it just lost power, and reboots as a consequence.

If it is set to automatically restart, uncheck that option and see if it still reboots after the problematic waking. If it doesn't, and just powers off instead of waking (when it decides to act up again), it might be a very early indicator of the power supply going. I just had to replace the power supply in my 2008 Mac Pro (3,1) after experiencing similar (and additional) issues with sleep.

Crossing my fingers that it is not your issue here!

P.S. Regardless, as it's an issue with power management to some extent, resetting the SMC would not be a bad place to start.

 

[ColdCase]

Sounds like there is a wake from sleep power surge that the PSU does not like or can't handle, sometimes. When my video card was on its way out, I had symptoms like this as well as random restarts.

The longer the mac is sleeping the more the caps discharge and then there is more surge when power is reapplied.

You could try reducing power demands, like temporarily pulling out a hard drive, and see what happens.

A fresh higher capacity PSU could just have enough capacity to handle the surge.

 

[R-Co]

Thanks for your response. I'll try resetting the SMC. There is an external USB backup drive plugged into the computer. Should I try leaving that unplugged? I read somewhere here on the forum that external USB or FireWire devices can sometimes cause sleep problems. (They're certainly causing sleep problems in ME.)

 

[R-Co]

Almost forgot -- I checked and it is NOT set to automatically restart after a power failure.

 

[djjclark]

anything of interest in the console log?

 

[R-Co]

anything of interest in the console log?

Well, there's a lot of activity in the console log, but none of it really means anything to me. How would I go about getting it translated? Send it to Apple? The computer is long past its warranty. Or should I just look for something specific in the log?

Thanks,
R-Co

 

[thefredelement]

Try resetting your energy saver settings to default and then see if that fixes it. I had some weird stuff in my power management plist file after I upgraded to ML, reverting to default, restarting, then setting my preferences fixed some odd shutdown/restart/sleep issues for me.

 

[R-Co]

Try resetting your energy saver settings to default and then see if that fixes it.

I'll give that a try. Yesterday I reset the SMC and left the external drive unplugged. It was in sleep mode last night and restarted again this morning when I woke it.

 

[R-Co]

I reset the energy saver settings to defaults and let the computer sit idle until it went to sleep. Woke it up twice and each time it restarted.

 

[Hirakata]

Try resetting the PRAM. Then reset the SMC.

 

[thehimay]

Well, there's a lot of activity in the console log, but none of it really means anything to me. How would I go about getting it translated? Send it to Apple? The computer is long past its warranty. Or should I just look for something specific in the log?

Thanks,
R-Co

Just post it on PasteBin and put the URL here provided here? Essentially, we're just looking for stuff that's occurring after the computer goes to sleep (e.g. "System Sleep" if you search the console).

 

[R-Co]

Just post it on PasteBin and put the URL here provided here? Essentially, we're just looking for stuff that's occurring after the computer goes to sleep (e.g. "System Sleep" if you search the console).

Okay, I tried to find stuff from Console Messages and system.log from when the computer restarted after being asleep. I didn't get any results when I searched for "system sleep", though. Here's the URL to PasteBin: http://pastebin.com/9pFxWExb

I reset the PRAM and SMC the other day but no luck.

Thanks,
R-Co

 

[R-Co]

Is there anything of use in the console log I put on PasteBin?

Thanks,
R-Co

 

[R-Co]

The problem persists and if anyone has an idea of what to try next, I'd appreciate it. Still not sure if it's the power supply failing or maybe a conflict with software.

Thanks,
R-Co

 

[El Awesome]

Reinstall OS X and create a new user. If the problem still occurs, it's a hardware thing. If it's solved, great.

 

[R-Co]

Update: I talked with Apple tech support and filled them in on everything I'd already tried (which is exactly what the tech support guy said he would've had me try). They told me to delete the com.apple.PowerManagement.plist file in the System Configuration folder within the System folder and then restart. Then when I adjusted the energy saver settings it creates a new .plist file. They said the old .plist file may have gotten corrupted. So far, it's been waking from sleep without restarting for a few days. I'm going to be aware of the next time I plug an external USB device (like the next time I back up with the external HD) and see if the problem reoccurs. Maybe the additional power needs of a USB device is causing the .plist file to be corrupted? But as of now, it's working fine.

R-Co

 

[troutweed]

Me too!

I'm having this exact issue with my 1.1

I recently put in 5355 processors, which has made it a great machine, excpet for this problem.

I have tried all of the suggestions above, and deleted the com.apple.PowerManagement.plist file (although I found it in SSD/Library/Preferences/ on my machine)

At SSD/System/Library/SystemConfiguration/ on this machine (OS10.6.8), there is a file called PowerManagement.bundle

Should I try deleting that?

Or is my PSU just plain stuffed?

 

[analog900]

I was having the exact same problem. 2008 2xquad core MacPro suddenly - after 5 years of flawless performance! - wouldn't wake from sleep anymore, instead it restarted. Tried all the things mentioned above, didn't help. Then, I discovered that System Profiler Power-on test failed, due to memory. Turns out 2 DIMMs were failing. Had an indicator LED on the lower memory riser on. After removal of the two DIMMs, the system wakes from sleep without any issues.
So I wanted to share this with the community in case other users might have the same problem.
Best

 

[Raycyr]

Exactly the same for me

I was having the exact same problem. 2008 2xquad core MacPro suddenly - after 5 years of flawless performance! - wouldn't wake from sleep anymore, instead it restarted. Tried all the things mentioned above, didn't help. Then, I discovered that System Profiler Power-on test failed, due to memory. Turns out 2 DIMMs were failing. Had an indicator LED on the lower memory riser on. After removal of the two DIMMs, the system wakes from sleep without any issues.
So I wanted to share this with the community in case other users might have the same problem.
Best

Exact problem on exactly same MacPro 2008 (2xquad core). The problem started a week ago, almost 6 years from purchased. Nothing has work yet to fix the problem (new os installation) I will check if I have some failed DIMM. I fond that the Mac is much slower than it was lately.
Will let you know the result.

Update: System Report indicate that only 2 out of 4 RAM memory module are working. That mean, 4GB RAM on a total of 6GB are bad.
After removing the 2 bad module, Mac Pro work fine, problem is fixed. The Mac Pro can wake up from sleep status without restarting.

Next step: Buying new replacement DIMM module.