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My Mac won't go to sleep

BiikeMike

BiikeMike

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Sep 17, 2005
1,019
1
Hello everyone.

I have an older Mac Pro, quad 2.66. Running 10.6.5, Bluetooth keyboard, and magic trackpad. My computer stays on all the time and won't sleep by itself. I have it set to go to sleep after 15 minutes, but it doesn't. I've tried unhooking the printer, external hard drive, etc, but still no dice.

Any ideas?
 
Are there any hidden processes that may be preventing sleep? Have you checked activity monitor?
 
Have you shutdown or restarted your computer and then tried to let it sleep?
 
If you haven't restarted yet, try that first. If you have, check your bluetooth, sharing, etc, settings to see if they my be keeping your Mac awake.

Here is Apple's help page for 10.6 sleeping trouble.
 
No RAID card, I have restarted, installed updates, etc. What should I be looking for in activity monitor?
 
Try ensuring that you have ALL applications shutdown and see it is sleeps. If it does, open up all the apps you normally use and then start shutting them down one at a time and see if/when it sleeps. That will help you figure out if an app is causing the issue.
 
Also try:

1) removing all external devices (other than the monitor, keyboard and mouse).

2) completely removing any anti-virus software [I am not convinced it is useful at all on macs]

3) zap PRAM [reboot and hold down "Command+Option+P+R" while booting, when hear startup sound 2nd time it is done and you can release the keys]. Let it reboot as normal now, and try to sleep again

4) Reset SMC - http://support.apple.com/kb/ht3964

Spidey!!!

[edited to leave mouse, keyboard connected]
 
Last edited:
Have you replaced or added any internal hardware?

I ask as my Mac Pro 1,1 (2006) will not sleep by itself with my non-Apple optical drives installed (Samsung SH203B or Lite-On LH-20A1S).
This is due to them checking to see if a disk is in the drive every few minutes.
 
Yea if you have 3rd party optical drives, it seems to prevent sleep. I had to take mine out on my 3,1 MP.
 
No third party optical drives, but I have third party HDDs. I'll try all the other posted stuff. Thanks!
 
Just to clarify, do you mean the system doesn't sleep when idle (in accordance with your system prefs energy saver settings) or that it doesn't sleep even when you hit apple menu, sleep?
 
PleaseSleep solved my problem. I had the same issue, my system sleep setting just wouldn't work, I figured it was a third part app like iStat menus or something preventing deep sleeep.

Whats odd is that the screensaver settings work, drive sleep and scheduled sleep/wake works, but the setting to put the computer to deep sleep after a period of inactivity never worked.
 
I've had the same problem for 3 weeks, tried everything and just got help finally solving it - in my case there was a file in the printer queue waiting to print, and that was keeping the computer from sleeping! I know the original post said they tried unplugging the printer, but in my case I don't even have one; the queue was waiting for the previous owner's printer, which was still installed, to print. Simple and quick to check in printer preferences, even if there's not one connected! :)
 
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