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G4 Powerbook keeps going to sleep

W

wdaly

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 9, 2005
21
0
Can anyone help? As of today, my G4 powerbook keeps going to sleep, often every few seconds (i.e. as soon as it happens, I'll press a key to reactivate it, it'll come back on for a few seconds and then go right back off again; this is happening about 20 to 30 times in a row). Other times, it'll happen every minute or so. It's happening periodically (as I type this, for example, the problem's not happening). It's definitely the whole machine that's going to sleep and not just the display, as there's that usual 'whirring' noise of the machine starting up again.

I've checked my energy saver settings in System prefs, and both Power Adapter and Battery settings are set to never put the computer to sleep, and 'put hard disk(s) to sleep when possible' is unchecked.

I've also tried restarting the machine, and it still happened.

I'm running a G4 Powerbook on OSX 10.4.

Any help appreciated. Thanks.
 
iMeowbot

iMeowbot

macrumors G3
Aug 30, 2003
8,634
0
wdaly said:
I'll give that a try - just to be sure, this will only reset the power management, and date + time?
Click to expand...
Yeah, resetting the PMU zaps the PRAM as a side effect.
 
mad jew

mad jew

Moderator emeritus
Apr 3, 2004
32,191
9
Adelaide, Australia
iMeowbot said:
Yeah, resetting the PMU zaps the PRAM as a side effect.
Click to expand...


I didn't think it did. Well, there's some overlap but I didn't think everything in the PRAM was reset with the PMU reset. Of course, I could be wrong as usual.
 
W

wdaly

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 9, 2005
21
0
Well, I did the PMU reset (the clock reverted to default when I restarted) and it seemed to work for a couple of hours, it wasn't going to sleep, but unfortunately it's just started doing it again. Should I try the PMU reset for a second time?

Don't Hurt Me: to answer your question, I've had the powerbook since last July, so it's only 6 months old.
 
matticus008

matticus008

macrumors 68040
Jan 16, 2005
3,330
1
Bay Area, CA
I had this problem about eight months ago. I tried everything--resetting PRAM, NVRAM, the PMU multiple times and in different combinations, swapping the battery with a friend's, reinstalling Tiger, every hardware diagnostic product I could find or borrow, you name it. I was just hours from sending it back to Apple when it started behaving again.

And then, just the other day, it went to sleep while I was taking notes during an important presentation and refused to wake up. Almost full battery, light workload, climate controlled conference room. I had to remove the battery and restart it, and in the process lost a good 10 minutes of notes. But it's been fine since.

My point is this: try resetting the PMU, zapping the PRAM, etc. but if it doesn't work, don't bother reinstalling OS X or buying expensive hardware software. Just give it a few days and see if it stops acting strangely. It could save you a lot of time, frustration, and money. Only do the drastic stuff after a week or so has passed.
 
W

wdaly

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 9, 2005
21
0
matticus008 said:
I had this problem about eight months ago. I tried everything--resetting PRAM, NVRAM, the PMU multiple times and in different combinations, swapping the battery with a friend's, reinstalling Tiger, every hardware diagnostic product I could find or borrow, you name it. I was just hours from sending it back to Apple when it started behaving again.

And then, just the other day, it went to sleep while I was taking notes during an important presentation and refused to wake up. Almost full battery, light workload, climate controlled conference room. I had to remove the battery and restart it, and in the process lost a good 10 minutes of notes. But it's been fine since.

My point is this: try resetting the PMU, zapping the PRAM, etc. but if it doesn't work, don't bother reinstalling OS X or buying expensive hardware software. Just give it a few days and see if it stops acting strangely. It could save you a lot of time, frustration, and money. Only do the drastic stuff after a week or so has passed.
Click to expand...

Interesting to hear someone else has had the problem. Can you tell me how to zap the PRAM and what that does? (I had a 12" powerbook completely die on me before xmas, losing a massive chunk of work in the process, so I'm a little jumpy about losing work!).
 
W

wdaly

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 9, 2005
21
0
mad jew said:
Resetting the PRAM.

Do the fans come on often? More importantly, do they fail to come on despite the machine feeling hot? It really sounds like it could be a temperature or temperature monitor issue.
Click to expand...

Hmm, not sure - I don't really notice. The machine doesn't get much intense use at the moment, so it doesn't ever get very hot, unlike my old 12".
 
V

vmgravity

macrumors newbie
Jan 22, 2006
1
0
Same thing is happening to my 15" Alum G4.. currently fine, but yesterday it was unusable.. just as described in the first post.
 
CubeHacker

CubeHacker

macrumors 65816
Apr 22, 2003
1,243
251
It might be overheating. You can check the system logs to see if they specify anything. It can also be a hardware failure.

I had a similar issue with my G4 cube going to sleep (and waking itself up again) over and over. The problem ended up being in the power button. However, I don't think thats your issue because if it was, then it would also wake itself up again and not simply put itself to sleep.
 
W

wdaly

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 9, 2005
21
0
DOACleric said:
It might be overheating. You can check the system logs to see if they specify anything. It can also be a hardware failure.

I had a similar issue with my G4 cube going to sleep (and waking itself up again) over and over. The problem ended up being in the power button. However, I don't think thats your issue because if it was, then it would also wake itself up again and not simply put itself to sleep.
Click to expand...


Aha - checked the system logs, and there's a string of messages which read:

"Power Management received emergency overtemp signal. Going to sleep."

'overtemp' presumably means over temperature, as you suggested. The machine doesn't really seem like it's over heating, but now I'm worried I could fry something inside if I leave it too long – so any suggestions as to what I should do next?
 
W

wdaly

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 9, 2005
21
0
rockandrule said:
What would AppleCare do about this situation? Is it covered?
Click to expand...

Do you mean specifically my machine? I don't have Apple Care unfortunately.
 
W

wdaly

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 9, 2005
21
0
Ok, I've now installed a piece of software called Temperature Monitor and it's showing everything as normal except for the Trackpad – which it says is 238.5º C !!!!!!! This obviously isn't true, so something's definitely wrong here. Is this a hardware fault? If so, how urgent is it? I really need to do work tomorrow, resetting the PMU when needed seems to buy me some time, but I could bring it along to the Genius Bar at my local Apple Store on Tuesday.
 
mad jew

mad jew

Moderator emeritus
Apr 3, 2004
32,191
9
Adelaide, Australia
Sounds like the thermometer on the trackpad is badly calibrated. I don't know of an easy way to fix this so maybe just take it in to Apple and see what they say. :)
 
discoforce

discoforce

macrumors 6502a
Jan 27, 2004
575
0
Vermont, USA
mad jew said:
Sounds like the thermometer on the trackpad is badly calibrated. I don't know of an easy way to fix this so maybe just take it in to Apple and see what they say. :)
Click to expand...

It definitely sounds like a heat issue, but I had a similar issue when I first got my 15 pb (1.25GHz). I had pretty bad white spots develop on the screen shortly after buying it. I also noticed that when my screen went to sleep, I would type my password, see the desktop for 1/2 a second, then it would goto sleep again. Both the white spots and sleep problems went away with the new screen they put in. :confused:
 
Counterfit

Counterfit

macrumors G3
Aug 20, 2003
8,195
0
sitting on your shoulder
wdaly said:
Do you mean specifically my machine? I don't have Apple Care unfortunately.
Click to expand...
Every Apple computer is covered by 90 days free phone support, and 1 year materials/workmanship warranty. Download a couple other temp monitors to see if they read the same, and if they do, take it to a store and show someone at the Genius Bar. Or call, your choice.
 
W

wdaly

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 9, 2005
21
0
Thanks for the responses - I've checked and my comp is actually still in warranty, so I'll take it along to Apple this week. I've never had to send anything to be repaired by Apple before - how are they usually? I will obviously back everything up, but do you get your system and files back intact?
 
janey

janey

macrumors 603
Dec 20, 2002
5,316
0
sunny los angeles
wdaly said:
Thanks for the responses - I've checked and my comp is actually still in warranty, so I'll take it along to Apple this week. I've never had to send anything to be repaired by Apple before - how are they usually? I will obviously back everything up, but do you get your system and files back intact?
Click to expand...
apple has pretty fast turnaround times. and yes, files often do come back intact when they do repairs, but that's no guarantee - make a backup of it and erase all sensitive data before sending it off :)
 
W

wdaly

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 9, 2005
21
0
janey said:
apple has pretty fast turnaround times. and yes, files often do come back intact when they do repairs, but that's no guarantee - make a backup of it and erase all sensitive data before sending it off :)
Click to expand...

Will do - does that include third-party applications, torrent clients and stuff like that?
 
discoforce

discoforce

macrumors 6502a
Jan 27, 2004
575
0
Vermont, USA
wdaly said:
Will do - does that include third-party applications, torrent clients and stuff like that?
Click to expand...

The danger isn't that you might lose a file here or there. The danger is that they may decide your hard drive needs to be replaced. They'll reinstall system software but your files will be gone. :eek:

At least that's my understanding as I pack up my powerbook this morning :(
 
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