iMac keeps going to sleep while I am using it.

[parrothead]

Any advice?

My iMac keeps going to sleep right while I am using it. It is extremely annoying and hurting my productivity. It definitely happens more often when I am playing a game or have a lot of apps open. Also, when I am running Vista through bootcamp it will crash games to the desktop.

I assume that this could be a problem with my graphics card or RAM? I am trying to get some advice here before going to Apple since I work at home and I really can't afford lost productivity while they hang on to the computer for two weeks.

My iMac specs: 20" screen running 10.5.8 on the 2.4GHz intel core 2 duo. I have 2 GB 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM (factory installed). The graphics card is an ATI Radeon HD2600 256MB

Thanks in advance for your help.

[Hellhammer]

Repair permissions with Disk Utility

[parrothead]

Repair permissions with Disk Utility

Thanks for the advice, but while I am sure that this won't hurt, I am not sure it will solve the problem. Will it help the crashing problem with I am booted natively in Vista? I have not any crashing issues with it until recently, which was the same time I noticed the sleeping issues when booted in OSX.

[Hellhammer]

Thanks for the advice, but while I am sure that this won't hurt, I am not sure it will solve the problem. Will it help the crashing problem with I am booted natively in Vista? I have not any crashing issues with it until recently, which was the same time I noticed the sleeping issues when booted in OSX.

There could be a permission that somehow forces your Mac to sleep. IMO it's just so easy to do it and it may fix it. If Vista is crashing too, verify the disk in Disk Utility too, might be a HD issue

[parrothead]

I have run the permissions repair and the disk verify. If the problem persists then we can seek for another answer.

[Hellhammer]

I have run the permissions repair and the disk verify. If the problem persists then we can seek for another answer.

Let me know ;) There are still plenty of things to test :p

[MacHamster68]

i just guess something went wrong within bootcamp after installing v...v....vista :rolleyes:

[parrothead]

Well, I repaired permissions and verified the hard drive. Just now I had the computer go to sleep on me 4 times in about 30 seconds. Any other suggestions?

[Hellhammer]

Well, I repaired permissions and verified the hard drive. Just now I had the computer go to sleep on me 4 times in about 30 seconds. Any other suggestions?

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1379
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3964

[parrothead]

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1379
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3964

So I tried both of these options and it didn't help. Any other ideas? Thanks for all the advice, BTW.

[Hellhammer]

So I tried both of these options and it didn't help. Any other ideas? Thanks for all the advice, BTW.

Delete

/Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.PowerManagement.plist
/Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.AutoWake.plist

[parrothead]

Tried that, didn't seem to make a difference. The last time I had the sleep syndrome my computer went to sleep 3 times in a row. Then when it slept a 4th time, I heard the HD spin down like normal, but the screen didn't go completely dark. It looked like I had just turned down the brightness to just barely the level where I could still see it. After that I could not wake the computer. I eventually had to hold the power button down until the computer did the forced shut down. Started up normally. Any other ideas?

BTW, thanks again for all the ideas so far.


Delete

/Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.PowerManagement.plist
/Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.AutoWake.plist

[Hellhammer]

Tried that, didn't seem to make a difference. The last time I had the sleep syndrome my computer went to sleep 3 times in a row. Then when it slept a 4th time, I heard the HD spin down like normal, but the screen didn't go completely dark. It looked like I had just turned down the brightness to just barely the level where I could still see it. After that I could not wake the computer. I eventually had to hold the power button down until the computer did the forced shut down. Started up normally. Any other ideas?

BTW, thanks again for all the ideas so far.

Hmm... Your iMac is challenging me! Try hardware check (http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1509)

[DoFoT9]

reinstall the OS? it wont delete files etcetc... just re-does OS stuff.

[parrothead]

I would love to try hardware check, but I seem to have misplaced the DVD that came with my computer. Do you know of any other way to run a hardware check, other than going into the Apple Store?

[Hellhammer]

I would love to try hardware check, but I seem to have misplaced the DVD that came with my computer. Do you know of any other way to run a hardware check, other than going into the Apple Store?

No, you need install disk to do it :( You could buy Snow Leopard for 29$ and give it a try

[parrothead]

I have the install disk for 10.6 would that work?

[Hellhammer]

I have the install disk for 10.6 would that work?

Is it retail or did it came with another Mac?

[parrothead]

I was able to run the Hardware Test using the disk from my wife's new Macbook. I ran the short test and got an fail code.

The code was 4MOT/1/40000002:CPU-0 :eek:

Does this mean that the CPU is bad on my computer or is it something else?

[666sheep]

What are your temps, especially CPU? It's fan is spinning?

Edit: i have read on Apple Discussions about this error code and found that it's CPU fan failure related.

[parrothead]

What are your temps, especially CPU? It's fan is spinning?

Not sure how to measure temps, but most of the time I do not hear the fan spinning unless I have been running a game for a while. Of course I haven't done that for a while since I get the sleeping problem when I am running games.

[666sheep]

Check this (in German but easy to understand): http://www.macuser.de/forum/f7/mac-geht-immer-454438/ Measure temps and fans rpm with iStat. I don't remember this Apple Discussions link, but you can find it by search engine when you paste your error code.

[parrothead]

I made an appointment at my local Apple Store Genius bar. I tried searching for the error code but only got info about other people having trouble with fans and other things, none of the codes had CPU-0 in them.

[666sheep]

I found that error code "4MOT/1/40000002:" refers to fan failure, and "CPU 0" (in other cases it could be "Exhaust" or other fan description) indicates exactly which fan failed. You can check temps and fan speeds with iStat to confirm it.

[parrothead]

Ok, with iStat my CPU temp is at 77 and the CPU fan RPM is at 0

[666sheep]

So, you got a winner ;) That's why usual methods such as SMC reset and other tricks gave no result with your issue. There must be some protection in firmware which puts your mac to sleep/low power mode when CPU temp is reaching critical value. I bet that after replacing failed fan your issue will be gone.