MacBook shuts down instead of sleeping

[hime03]

is it strange that my macbook now just shuts down when it runs out of battery instead of just going into sleep mode? It's about two weeks old now... it used to go into sleep mode, but now it just shuts down once the battery is down.

Also, I had the most wonderful experience with Apple. My first macbook (three weeks ago) had a small chip on the screen. When I finally noticed it, I thought it was a large piece of dust so it wasn't too terrible. I tried to exchange it at the local store where I purchased it, but it had already been four days and I had cut out the UPC for the printer and ipod rebate the day before and sent it out. So they recommended that I go see a mac genius and see if I can get the screen replaced because I could no longer exchange it or return it (risk losing my rebates). So, a bit upset that I was too prompt about getting the rebates in, I scheduled an appointment with a genius. When I spoke to him, he just went to the back and got the manager. The manager said instead fixing the screen, he'd liked to give me a new macbook and instant reimbursement for the ipod and printer! :)
(the rebates I sent in will be rejected since the mac has been returned)

The new macbook I noticed has a much louder superdrive.. seems to be working hard every time the computer wakes up and when I open it, but that definitely beats a chip on the screen. But now it doesn't go to sleep after the battery gets low, but instead shuts off. It doesn't bother me too much, but I'm wondering if I accidentally changed a setting somewhere. Any clues why?

[iBlue]

In system preferences, check in energy saver - go to options and see if the "restart automatically after power failure" is checked. (if so, uncheck)

It's just a guess but it may have something to do with it.

[Groovey]

Mine used to the same. I guess it has something to do with the battery calibration. Your battery's out of juice a bit before your computer thinks it should. Let it fully charge after it has went to last sleep or the kind of hibernation mode.

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=86284

[kristi-lynn]

same problem over here, except my blackbook did it the first time i drained it... i'm taking it to the genius bar tonight... will post later with results. i read on the apple forums that sometimes is means a battery replacement...

i tried that checkbox thing, i don't have that checkbox. it should be going to sleep, and it actually does at first i think, but then i hit the space bar or something and it just shuts down completely. i'm not too happy about it since i've also been having trackpad problems. i can honestly say i've never been quite so disappointed with an apple product.

[nolete]

I had this problem...

My MacBook Pro is 3 -4 years old, so recently I updated the OS and added some RAM. Just after making this, it started to shut down instead of sleeping when it reached the red spot in the battery level.

I thought it was a problem with the OS, so I checked this and other forums, tried resetting the energy settings and nothing worked... suddenly, a week after this, the trackpad button started to fail and I realized that this was caused by the battery, which looked "puffy" or inflated.

Even though my battery lasted more than 2 hours working, this was a sign of a bad battery, it wasn't cheap but I replaced it and now it is working perfectly.

I hope your problem is as simple as this...

[ankst]

My new 15" Macbook Pro 2.4GHz Core i5 is having this problem as well. I have calibrated the battery a total of 3 times. Each ending with the machine shutting down instead of sleeping. The last time this happened, my MBP restarted with the gray progress bar/safe mode??? Anyone else having this issue with their 2010 MBP???

[Str8edgepunker]

Add me to the list. I just had this happen yesterday. :mad:

[janestein]

I'm glad to read that it's not just my computer.

[hl450]

Has anyone out there taken their mbp to apple store for this problem? for exchange or refund within 14days?

[ur23design]

same issue. i7 macbookpro... battery runs out and computer shuts down. plug back in power..and nothing. will not come back on until power button is touched and it starts up from scratch all with nothing saved...

went to genius bar.. they saw error 60 in the console meaning improper shutdown due to battery.. they replaced the battery and I am still having the same issue.. other i7 at work is not having issue. I will be asking for a replacement machine.

[aeboi]

a lot of people are having this issue including me but I don't see why it's a problem since a simple closing of the lid will put your mac to sleep

[mrsir2009]

When you turn it on again does it start up normally or do something else?

[ankst]

a lot of people are having this issue including me but I don't see why it's a problem since a simple closing of the lid will put your mac to sleep


It's not normal for the machine to shut down when the battery runs out without automatically sleeping first. The battery calibration procedure says..."Continue to use your computer; when the battery gets very low, the computer will automatically go to sleep." So, not being able to properly calibrate the battery & the potential for data loss(since my MBP restarted in safe mode after the shutdown) are my concerns. Not to mention that the problem could be a faulty battery. I'll be taking my MBP to the "Genius Bar" soon to see what I can find out:rolleyes:

[aeboi]

It does not affect the calibration process, apple notes on the bottom saying that your battery will die anyways during the 5 hour wait time so it makes absolutely no difference if you put it to sleep yourself at 1%/2% or if your mac does it by itself

sleep just functions to save your work

[ankst]

It does not affect the calibration process, apple notes on the bottom saying that your battery will die anyways during the 5 hour wait time so it makes absolutely no difference if you put it to sleep yourself at 1%/2% or if your mac does it by itself

sleep just functions to save your work

Fair enough. Although there is still a underlying problem here that is preventing the machine from operating properly. Whether or not you decide to look into what appears to be a minor issue is up to you.

[reynaldom]

Wow!

I'm glad to see that I'm not the only one with this issue. My 13" MBP 2010 randomly does this, sometimes it goes to sleep but others it just simply shut down.

[splateagle]

No solution, just another "me too" only doubled: six months ago work replaced my old (2007) MBP with a new Core2Duo. We bought it refurbed because of budget constraints and it's been doing this trick any time the battery drains - since it's almost always used in the office I just chalked it up to being a refurb and left it.

Now I've saved up enough to replace my personal laptop (a vintage 2005 PowerBook G4) and the new i7 MacBook Pro (bought retail) is doing the same thing. Apple if you're listening, this needs addressing!

Found this thread (http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2415451&start=0&tstart=0) on Apple's knowledge base - as yet unresolved but lots of us having this problem... Firmware update perhaps?

Responding to the earlier "what's the big deal" commenter, this is a big deal to those of us using the machine on the hoof, putting itself to sleep when the battery gets low is a feature (and has been on every Apple laptop I've used since 2000) and one I rely on, it isn't working and that needs to be addressed.

[rockstarjoe]

I just had this happen on my 13" Macbook Pro (2010). It didn't do this the last time I calibrated. Did anyone ever find a solution?

[Hattig]

I just had this happen on my 13" Macbook Pro (2010). It didn't do this the last time I calibrated. Did anyone ever find a solution?

Clearly not, as I have this problem, even when the computer is plugged in to external power. Once the computer is asleep, it will eventually try to shutdown - but is thwarted by apps that block shutdown (Eclipse, TextWranger with unsaved docs, etc). Nothing in the logs.

[Cougarcat]

I've had my MBP since August, and have never drained the battery down to zero before, until now. At first I thought something funny was going on with hibernation mode, but I think I have this issue.

Has anyone gone to the Apple store or contacted Apple about this?

[bamf]

I recently downloaded SmartSleep to help me with some sleep and hibernation issues. It's a nice app if you are looking to really control what your machine does.

[Retrostarscream]

I've had my MBP for a few months & have only completely drained the battery twice. The First time it went to sleep, but simply shut down the second time. I found that a bit odd.

[iLog.Genius]

My experience is that the computer is not correctly reading how much power is remaining and is shutting down early/prematurely. Due to the summer holidays, my MacBook Pro just sits connected to the AC adaptor and I rarely calibrated the battery and found that it went from 93 percent capacity to 78 percent after calibrating it (because of the premature turn off).

To fix the problem, I started to run my MacBook Pro off the battery and getting it low and then charging it back up again and now my battery health is back up to 88 percent and now my computer is giving the low power/sleep prompt.

What I suggest to those who are having problems is to start using your computers off the battery, getting it low and charging it back up for a week calibrating it once to see if there is any change.

[soniasim]

I've been having this issue for months, have tried everything suggested in most forums, such as battery calibration, reset of smc and pram, deletion of the plist file associated with the energy settings, restore defaults in energy saver... I tried to change hibernate mode via terminal from 3 to 0 and my mac still shuts down when the battery drains.

I also ended up buying a new battery today and I still have this problem! I just can't believe this is happening, it is so irritating! The only thing left is to reinstall SL from scratch. I really, really hope I won't have to do that!

[Harmush]

Does the RAM get saved to the HD when you sleep a MacBook?
If so do you have enough hard disk space?

[Cougarcat]

Does the RAM get saved to the HD when you sleep a MacBook?
If so do you have enough hard disk space?

Yes, but HD space is not an issue.

I got my computer in early August, and I remember hibernate mode/sleep on battery drain was working fine then. Not sure what could have happened since then.

[soniasim]

As I stated above, I decided to erase and install SL, because this problem is driving me crazy. If it's still not solved after that, I have no idea what else could be wrong... Maybe it's a hardware issue, or maybe it's a bug in the OS that Apple hasn't managed to solve yet...

[rockstarjoe]

Tried again last night and this time it seems like it did hibernate (when I hit the power button it showed the grey progress bar and brought me back to where I was before the battery died). Interesting... the sleep light never came on though!

Also, when I first got my MBP I reinstalled SL from the included restore discs.

[soniasim]

After testing my new battery and fresh OS today, I have had my first hibernation after a loooooong time! The computer went to safe sleep and it woke up normally after hitting the power button (grey screen with progress bar). Hopefully it will stay that way!
Considering that, when my new battery completed died yesterday for the first time, the computer shut down instead of safe sleep, it is most likely that something in the OS was corrupt that was causing this issue and now that SL is clean installed, the MacBook acts as opposed. Will do more battery load cycles and will post feedback...

[wrafter]

I might have a solution - well, it worked for me. :)

I clicked on my battery symbol (top right corner) and clicked "Energy Saver Preferences..."

In the section entitled "Put the computer to sleep when it is inactive for:" I had recently set the slider to "Never".

As a result (though I didn't know it til 5 minutes ago), when my battery came down to about 19% power, the machine just died instead of going into sleep mode, as it used to.

Change the slider to something like 10 minutes.

When I did this I got down to 15% - then got a prompt about low battery - and I continued on down to 7% before I reconnected the machine to the power. I believe I have resolved the issue. Someone else might like to check and confirm.

[Magrathea]

Started to have this same issue. It does sound like a calibration issue. Battery needs some reserve juice in it if it has to hibernate, so if the computer somehow reads the capacity of the battery incorrectly the machine will drain down the battery and the laptop may still think the batter is at 10% seconds before the battery dies.

I have tried the following:
Old faithful, repair permissions
Reset PRAM and SMC

Still no hibernate for me! Also if you battery is very old, my battery is going on 2.5 years then it may just be bad, BUT if you download coconut battery it'll tell you the capacity of it and my battery still has 84% of it's new capacity so it's probably OK. Some also mentioned that the capacity may still be ok but the battery is warped, those that can may want to check this, pre 2009 Macbook, the rest of you: you may have to undo some screws.

Stuff I will try:
Download the program someone mentioned here, to actually try to force my mac into hibernation before it gets to 10% capacity. I seem to recall problems with a sleep image many moons ago and simply getting the system to rebuilt is, I deleted it, fix the problems.

Having said all that, if you work at coffee shops alot and are constantly draining down the old battery, you wont get more than two year out of any laptop battery. Current laptop has see a lot fewer coffee shop days than all of my previous models hence it's still acceptable capacity.

[Cougarcat]

I stopped having this issue, but it reappeared in Lion. Battery life is also worse.