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No sleep after PCI card install (mac pro 3,1/snow leopard)

T

tealemon

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 19, 2013
12
0
I have a mac pro 3.1. running OSX 1.6.8.

I bought this NewerTech USB3/eSata PCI card recently, from OWC.

The card works, however, the computer won't go to sleep anymore. Not even when I tell it to go to sleep. It turns the screen off but the fans keep running and the power button doesn't fade like it normally does during sleep. It's like it only sleeps the display but not the system.

I have tried:
- resetting the PRAM
- resetting the SMC (though I'm not sure if that worked, counting seconds seems a little unreliable to me? I tried several times)
- starting up in safe mode
- plugging the card into different PCI slots

None of that worked.

The computer sleeps only if I remove the card.

But that's not the solution, because I really need the extra connections that it provides.

Does anyone have similar experiences? Or maybe some ideas what else I could try to get it to sleep with the card in it?

Also, is there any other way to reset the SMC on my system, other than that thing with unplugging, waiting 15 and then plugging in and waiting 5 seconds… because I'm never 100% sure that I waited the right amount of seconds and whether it actually worked? Is there some way to check if the SMC reset has worked?

Many questions. :) Thanks in advance for any help!
 
tealemon said:
I have a mac pro 3.1. running OSX 1.6.8.

I bought this NewerTech USB3/eSata PCI card recently, from OWC.

The card works, however, the computer won't go to sleep anymore. Not even when I tell it to go to sleep. It turns the screen off but the fans keep running and the power button doesn't fade like it normally does during sleep. It's like it only sleeps the display but not the system.

I have tried:
- resetting the PRAM
- resetting the SMC (though I'm not sure if that worked, counting seconds seems a little unreliable to me? I tried several times)
- starting up in safe mode
- plugging the card into different PCI slots

None of that worked.

The computer sleeps only if I remove the card.

But that's not the solution, because I really need the extra connections that it provides.

Does anyone have similar experiences? Or maybe some ideas what else I could try to get it to sleep with the card in it?

Also, is there any other way to reset the SMC on my system, other than that thing with unplugging, waiting 15 and then plugging in and waiting 5 seconds… because I'm never 100% sure that I waited the right amount of seconds and whether it actually worked? Is there some way to check if the SMC reset has worked?

Many questions. :) Thanks in advance for any help!
Click to expand...

Hi Tealemon. I have the same USB 3.0/eSata Newertech and using it under Snow Leopard 10.6.8 though using a 2009 4,1 Mac Pro. It doesn't support sleep. I clarified this with the tech support of OWC and this was also indicated in the product specs in the OWC page. Though in my case I don't put my Mac Pro to sleep.
 
:eek:
Oh. NOOOOOOOOOO.

I wonder if there are any other USB3 cards I could use... :/
 
hfg said:
My 5,1 MP is sleeping just fine with a CalDigit FASTA-6GU3 Pro eSATA/USB3.0 card installed.
Click to expand...

I can highly recommend this card. Have two of them in my Mac Pro, the old Caldigit FASTA-6GU3 and the newer FASTA-6GU3 Pro, no problem at all.
 
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Apple likes to have some subsystem which is buggy, and the bugs usually show with the Pro. It used to be USB, which has a ton of bugs that took years for them to iron out. Then eSATA, same story. Now it's sleep, they can't seem to get sleep worked out. Many different bugs here. The best is that in Yosemite the computer will wake up due to discoveryd multicast.
 
nigelbb said:
This Innatek card is a fraction of the cost of the CalDigit card & works out of the box with the native OS X USB3 drivers

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00HJ1DULE?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o05_s00
Click to expand...

I originally had "sleep" problems with my 5,1 Mac Pro. It would not enter sleep mode automatically, however I could manually put it into the sleep mode. This occurred with both the original CalDigit non-pro and Innatek I/O cards over the past couple of years.

The sleep issue went away when I switched from the Innatek card to the CalDigit Pro card (I switched because I again needed eSATA ports plus the USB 3.0 ports). Although I can't guarantee that WAS the change that fixed the problem, I haven't had a problem since. I did not tempt fate by putting the Innatek card back in to see. :eek:


There may be a Console Log entry that shows what is preventing sleep. I believe I saw some discussions on one of the threads here awhile back about this.
 
Last edited:
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tealemon said:
:eek:
Oh. NOOOOOOOOOO.

I wonder if there are any other USB3 cards I could use... :/
Click to expand...

Another option that I tried out and worked is by using the Energy Saver computer sleep. It puts the computer to sleep and does not cause any disconnection on the Newertech USB 3/eSata card. I am using 3 other brands of USB 3 cards, Caldigit USB/eSata combo, Inatech KT4004 and the Highpoint RocketU 1144CM 4 port USB 3.0. They don't support sleep via the Finder but thru System Prefs/Energy Saver the sleep works without disconnections. I think it's an OSX limitation and nothing wrong with the card.
 
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