Weird cMP behavior

[Zeke D]

Hey, everybody.
I have a cMP 3,1 2x 2.8Ghz, 16GB RAM, 250GB WD enterprise HDD with 64mb cache, nVidia GT 8800 512MB running High Sierra via dosdude's HS patch. Since my wireless isn't supported, I'm running an Airport express (the new style.)

I clean installed HS and the GT8800 yesterday (was running EL Cap on an older 500MB WD HDD & Radeon HD 2600 256MB.) Didn't install anything else, other than some benchmarking software.

I let the unit sleep in the early evening, and turned off my 23" ACD. I did some reading in bed (my desk in in the master bedroom) went to sleep around 10PM. At 10:30, the video card fan spun up, and then after about 15 seconds or so, the fans slowed down, and the telltale click of the PSU - then it was silent. The power light did it's breathing thing. I didn't worry about it until it did the same thing at 11:30 and woke me and the wife up. I pressed and held the power button until it shut down - no power light at all. At 1:30am, the damn thing did it again! I yanked the power cord and was able to get some sleep.

My 5,1 never did anything like that, and I'm sure at one point I had the 3,1 plugged in and sleeping, so I can only assume that the stuff I did yesterday is responsible. Do you think that it's the video card, or the High Sierra? I guess it could also be the LAN doing something, since prior to installing HS, I was using wireless.

Thoughts?

 

[Darmok N Jalad]

I’ve seen a few more issues on HS when it comes to sleep on my 5,1. Usually it’s when I leave Lightroom open, and then the Mac won’t sleep. Do you have Wake on LAN enabled?

Also, I have a more modern GPU than you do, and it’s possible that your old 8800GT could be one of your issues, as it’s probably not officially supported on HS.

 

[ActionableMango]

The "wake reason" in your system log will tell you why it's waking.

log show --style syslog | fgrep "Wake reason"​

Post results here.

 

[Zeke D]

The "wake reason" in your system log will tell you why it's waking.

log show --style syslog | fgrep "Wake reason"​

Post results here.

Thanks, Mango

Macs-Mac-Pro:~ macuser$ log show --style syslog | fgrep "Wake reason"
2018-01-29 14:14:01.703890-0800  localhost kernel[0]: (AppleACPIPlatform) Wake reason: RTC (Alarm)
2018-01-29 14:14:01.703891-0800  localhost kernel[0]: (AppleACPIPlatform) Wake reason: RTC (Alarm)
2018-01-29 16:14:54.382998-0800  localhost kernel[0]: (AppleACPIPlatform) Wake reason: EHCI
2018-01-29 16:14:54.382999-0800  localhost kernel[0]: (AppleACPIPlatform) Wake reason: EHCI
2018-01-29 16:49:31.733823-0800  localhost kernel[0]: (AppleACPIPlatform) Wake reason: EHCI
2018-01-29 16:49:31.733825-0800  localhost kernel[0]: (AppleACPIPlatform) Wake reason: EHCI
Macs-Mac-Pro:~ macuser$

 

[ActionableMango]

RTC alarm means the computer woke for a scheduled event. Any number of applications can cause this, but typical ones would be a backup service or maybe something that wants to check periodically to update itself. Also should check energy saver settings where you can schedule wake times, but you would probably remember if you had done that.

EHCI is the USB bus, so some sort of USB device such as a keyboard or mouse event is waking the computer. Bluetooth also uses the USB bus. You can figure out which one from process of elimination by unplugging unnecessary USB devices. A lot of things might be connected by Bluetooth, even an iPad or iPhone. Also if you have a cat or something it might be jumping on the table causing just enough movement for the mouse to register a change and wake it up.

Good luck with your hunt.

 

[Zeke D]

The thing is, none of those timestamps match up with 10:30 & 11:30, and at 1:30am, I had previously turned off the unit, so it didn't "wake" from anything. Any new ideas?

RTC alarm means the computer woke for a scheduled event. Any number of applications can cause this, but typical ones would be a backup service or maybe something that wants to check periodically to update itself. Also should check energy saver settings where you can schedule wake times, but you would probably remember if you had done that.

EHCI is the USB bus, so some sort of USB device such as a keyboard or mouse event is waking the computer. Bluetooth also uses the USB bus. You can figure out which one from process of elimination by unplugging unnecessary USB devices. A lot of things might be connected by Bluetooth, even an iPad or iPhone. Also if you have a cat or something it might be jumping on the table causing just enough movement for the mouse to register a change and wake it up.

Good luck with your hunt.

 

[ActionableMango]

The thing is, none of those timestamps match up with 10:30 & 11:30, and at 1:30am, I had previously turned off the unit, so it didn't "wake" from anything. Any new ideas?

Nope, I don't. I've answered lots of wake questions on here but nobody has ever had it wake without logging the wake reason.

You could try the OSX forum. This is more of an OS question anyway and I doubt the problem is Mac Pro-specific...you might get better help there from an OSX guru.

Sorry that's all I have.

 

[Zeke D]

Well, the adventure continues. I unplugged the LAN cable in advance, and the unit did it again. I think that the next step is to reinsert the El Capitan drive, and see if the issue goes away. Thanks for your help, Mango.