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I found a way to force the wake/sleep problem every time

K

kingpikey

macrumors member
Original poster
Jun 25, 2007
59
0
Title says it all. After much experimenting, I found one way to force the wake/sleep problem most MacBook Pro users are experiencing. The problem I'm referring to is the blank/black screen experienced when trying to wake one's MBP from sleeping.

My setup:
MBP, SR 2.2C2D, 4GB Ram (user upgraded), 120GB HD

Conditions:
10.5.2, all updated applied.
Fresh restart, PRAM cleared, battery removed & power button held down.
Bluetooth ON, using (new) Apple Bluetooth keyboard.
Airport wireless ON.
No applications running, iStat disabled, screensaver disabled.

Steps to force wake / sleep problem:
- power up MBP
- Bluetooth on, BT keyboard connected
- Mag safe power adapter plugged in and connected to MBP
- close lid to induce sleep
- MBP successfully sleeps (latch light pulses)
- wake MBP by pressing a key on the BT keyboard... NOT by opening lid (lid remains completely closed during this step)
- apple light illuminates briefly, as if trying to wake, then apparently goes back to sleep
- wake MBP by opening the lid, screen is now black/blank... all future attempts to wake MBP results in same black/blank screen and failed wake

Key step in the process:
- if the mag safe power adapter is NOT plugged into the MBP, and all steps are followed, the MBP will not attempt to wake up when the lid is closed. When actually opening the lid, the MBP successfully wakes.

Things I haven't tried:
- waking via BT mouse / mighty mouse (I don't have one)
- waking via external wired/wireless usb mouse

I'll try the wired/wireless mouse options and report back what I find. If anyone wants to try and reproduce this, please post your results (and of course your setup / conditions).
 
I've consistently been able to reproduce this. Has anyone tried this while using an external monitor?
 
This has been killing me, but I don't use a BT KB or mouse. It happens every few wakess
 
Perhaps I don't understand the issue, but, this has happened to me like twice on my Macbook, but it's always been my fault by doing something like you mentioned...Perhaps the problem is not really a problem at all, but rather the computer doesn't recognise input when it's tricked into wake/sleep like that?
 
Much simpler - if you don't have your MagSafe adapter plugged in, put it to sleep, and then plug the adapter in the same behavior will usually occur since it looks like the MBP attempts to wake up with the lid closed and fails. The funny thing about this is that its just the display that's screwing up since if you look in the Console after rebooting you can see log messages showing computer activity during the period when the screen is blank.

It always seems to screw up my Xcode projects when it happens. :mad:
 
Right. Maybe its smething to do with waking via external device input when its not supposed to. Possibly not using the external monitor connection as a condition for waking via external input when the lid is closed. (ie not checking for an external monitor before considering external input as a valid wakeup cause)
 
squeeks said:
maybe but not completely, ive had the problem when just opening the screen, not connected to any BT device
Click to expand...

Interesting. I've had that too, but inconsistently. The only way (thus far) I've been able to consistently reproduce the problem ("on command" so to speak) is via the above bluetooth keyboard method. I'm going to keep playing around with it when I get a chance. Hopefully if we can help narrow this down, the fix might be a little quicker to come (and hopefully thorough enough that it won't require 2-3 subsequent patches).
 
I'm wondering, have you found any way to consistently reproduce this without something like a BT keyboard? I'd like to take some process samples and see if we can't figure out what this is so it can get fixed in 10.5.3 (if it hasn't been already), but my method isn't consistent.
 
squeeks said:
maybe but not completely, ive had the problem when just opening the screen, not connected to any BT device
Click to expand...

Same here. BT is disabled, in fact. Also seems more common when the MBP has been asleep for a while (perhaps in the Apple equivalent of Hibernate -- I think they call if "Safe Sleep"?). But I'm not sure that's the case 100% of the time.
 
Sbrocket said:
The funny thing about this is that its just the display that's screwing up since if you look in the Console after rebooting you can see log messages showing computer activity during the period when the screen is blank.
Click to expand...

No doubt. The I can even get it to make the "bonk" sound if I mash the some keys on the keyboard. The thing is clearly all powered up, except for the display.
 
Sbrocket said:
I'm wondering, have you found any way to consistently reproduce this without something like a BT keyboard? I'd like to take some process samples and see if we can't figure out what this is so it can get fixed in 10.5.3 (if it hasn't been already), but my method isn't consistent.
Click to expand...

It seems to be happening pretty consistently for me for the following steps:

1) Close lid, wait for sleep
2) unplug USB mouse
3) wait a minute for it to wake/sleep again
4) open lid

As you said above, it looks like this wakes the MBP up (apple logo lights up, screen must be on) with the lid closed -- then it goes right back to sleep again. After that the screen doesn't wake up as it should.
 
I can confirm this method. I've tried it with a Logitech wireless mouse / usb receiver.
esd said:
It seems to be happening pretty consistently for me for the following steps:

1) Close lid, wait for sleep
2) unplug USB mouse
3) wait a minute for it to wake/sleep again
4) open lid

As you said above, it looks like this wakes the MBP up (apple logo lights up, screen must be on) with the lid closed -- then it goes right back to sleep again. After that the screen doesn't wake up as it should.
Click to expand...
 
kingpikey said:
I can confirm this method. I've tried it with a Logitech wireless mouse / usb receiver.
Click to expand...

Thanks, kingpikey. Good to hear that we've at least all got the same annoying problem. I've found that even just clicking the mouse can do it.

Now that we can reproduce the problem, we just need to solve it. I've actually made some progress here :)

Using the "cscreen" utility floating around the net, I was able to successfully bring a blacked-out mac back from the dead using a little shell script. I rigged that up to run every time the computer wakes and (aside from adding a few seconds of screen fading in and out every time you wake it up) it seems to completely solve the problem. I'll post details later tonight.

I'm gonna see if I can figure out enough xcode to write a little app that can detect the blank screen and automatically recover it if needed.

Also I noticed that when the MBP does that wake/sleep thing with the lid closed, there's a curious entry in the system.log that isn't there on a normal sleep/wake:
ScreenSaverEngine[453] Screen saver is running in blackout mode.​
That sure sounds interesting.
 
I have had some similar issues (most notably Sbrocket's scenario with the Magsafe connector).

What I end up doing when the machine is in that weird state is simply closing the lid - it seems to "formally" put it in sleep. I'd wait a few seconds, then open the lid again, and all seems well.

Again, this may be unrelated to other folks' problems, since I don't use BT that often. However, with the Magsafe scenario, it seems to clear it up.
 
tip said:
What I end up doing when the machine is in that weird state is simply closing the lid - it seems to "formally" put it in sleep. I'd wait a few seconds, then open the lid again, and all seems well.
Click to expand...

Interesting. I wonder why that works for you, but never works for me. Do you have a second monitor attached?
 
My MBP does it when it sleeps for a long time, like overnight. If I actually shut it down, then it is fine. This AM, I forgot to shut it down, was asleep all night, and woke up fine. Same for me.

No external stuff plugged in during any of this. For me either, if anyone cares.
 
Easier Fix...

Hey I have another way to wake the computer without having to reboot every time. For some reason the MBP thinks there is an external monitor plugged in which is why the hard disk and everything else are working but not the actual screen. If you have an external monitor just plug it in and both screens will then turn on. You can then unplug the external monitor and your MBP screen will still be on with no more issues (until the next time you close the lid).
 
mine only wakes with a blank screen when its not connected to anything.
when i have it at home i do not close it when its connected to anything.
:confused:

will try this tomorrow when i go back as i do not have a bluetooth keyboard

my wired keyboard turns off when i close the lid so...

does this happen on macbooks?
 
So far I've been able to completely avoid this problem happening by itself by manually selecting "Sleep" from the :apple: menu. Once it sleeps (fading latch light), I close the lid, and it has been waking up every time.

Might be a short term solution until the lid close / sleep issue is formally fixed.
 
i talked to the guys from apple today about this and my current issue.

again they said, its a know problem and are working on an update:rolleyes:
 
I know that my computer is in deep sleep, so I just wait a few moments for the computer to load everything back into memory.
 
I had this exact same problem on my MBP 2.2 Ghz 160 GB.

I was running the iStat Pro Dashboard widget and disabled it. As soon as I did, all my sleep issues disappeared and my MBP awakens normally every single time.

If you are using iStat Pro, try disabling it and see if it solves your sleep issues too.
 
alphaod said:
I know that my computer is in deep sleep, so I just wait a few moments for the computer to load everything back into memory.
Click to expand...

Its different from deep sleep, alphaod. The main display is just shut off and (depending on the person) no amount of putting it back to sleep and waking it up again seems to pull the display out whatever mode its stuck in.

Oh, and expect a fix with 10.5.3 whenever they get that out the doors. *wink wink* ;)
 
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