No Sleep for G5 with PCI M-Audio card installed

[zuurbekje]

I have a G5 (1TB/2GB/10.5.8/single 1.6GHz - always in 'reduced speed' mode for some limited but welcome energy conservation) as an iTunes machine.

Recently I installed an M-Audio Audiophile 192 PCI soundcard, which is yielding excellent results in almost all respects. Except that now, I can no longer get my PowerMac G5 into sleep mode. And that blllllllows (pardon my French).

I have tried several things:

• PRAM reset (serveral times)
• Pressing CUDA button (several times)
• Reinstalling MacOS
• Reinstalling driver

If I take out the soundcard, sleep functions just fine again.

Just now Googling, on M-Audio's site I found this:
http://tinyurl.com/cocgfug
...quote: "M-Audio does not support sleep mode with any of its devices. The ability to re-establish a connection with a 3rd party device driver after waking from sleep or hibernation mode is system dependent. Because of this, M-Audio recommends setting your computer to never go to sleep. Instead, it is recommended that you turn off your monitor, or completely power off the computer."

Okay, that is a rather clear statement by the manufacturer. Still I think this is a huge bummer given my use: this G5 is rather power hungry, and I need it to go to sleep automatically when I don't use it.

Does anyone have a tip for me? Is there for example some (3rd party) software utility that can force a G5 into sleep?

What would even be an acceptable solution to me, would be if the G5 would completely shut off after some period of non-usage -- much like what Energy Settings may do. Get the computer to sleep after x minutes of inactivity. The option to turn the computer off instead of getting the computer to sleep doesn't exist to my knowledge, but can I perform some sort of hack to make that happen? (Of course I know about the option to shut the computer off at a specific time, but that's obviously rather inflexible.)

[DJLC]

I'm sure there's a way to set up a "shut down after x minutes" type command, but I'm probably not the one to figure that out.

That said, the sleep issue with PCI cards is an issue I remember well from my PPC days. I never found a fix; my issues always came from cheaper USB/FW cards.

[BrianBaughn]

Yes...you've got to live with the limitations the card imposes on you.

You say, "this G5 is rather power hungry, and I need it to go to sleep automatically when I don't use it." What is the added annual cost is for you if the machine doesn't sleep?

[666sheep]

Is there for example some (3rd party) software utility that can force a G5 into sleep?

Try this: http://www.dragonone.com/downloads/v...eSleep-2.0.dmg

But if it will work, your M-Audio card could be not recognized after wake – according to their info that you've quoted. It may even cause KP when waking from sleep.

[zuurbekje]

@DJLC: Thanks, I'll look into scripts if 666sheep's suggestion fails.

@666sheep: Thanks for the tip; I'll download it and see. If the soundcard in fact stops working after using it, I'll just restart -- having the computer stop using power automatically is *that* important to me.

I am lazier than The Dude, and knowing myself, the G5 might be on all day doing nothing. That is a waste. A restart to get my soundcard working again seems a small price to pay here.

@BrianBaughn: I have yet to buy (and I will) a power consumption measuring device, so I am not sure about the power consumption of my G5 music rig. But I am guessing that the G5 uses about 150 watts with reduced processor speed and just playing music, and 15 watts in sleep. Again, just a guess for now.

If we assume my G5 with sleep enabled would be running 3 hours a day, vs 6 hours a day -on average- without sleep enabled, we are talking about...
0.135 (kilowatts -- the difference between sleep and wake) * 3 (the difference in hours) * 365 (days in a year) * €0.25 (price of a kilowatthour) ≈ 37 euros a year. Hmmm, okay, not too much of a disaster, I'll admit that.

Still, I like to save energy where I can.

[zuurbekje]

Tried Please Sleep, no joy. The system just won't go into sleep.

I guess Force Sleep can't enforce sleep when sleep is blocked by hardware. Bummer.

So then I found this:
http://www.dssw.co.uk/powermanager/standard/

It allows me to turn the computer off after x minutes of inactivity.

Had to look for the 3.7 version though, because the version (4.0) currently offered supports Intel only.

Anyway. One is happy. Thanks for your input!

[MisterKeeks]

Originally Posted by zuurbekje

Tried Please Sleep, no joy. The system just won't go into sleep.

I guess Force Sleep can't enforce sleep when sleep is blocked by hardware. Bummer.

So then I found this:
http://www.dssw.co.uk/powermanager/standard/

It allows me to turn the computer off after x minutes of inactivity.

Had to look for the 3.7 version though, because the version (4.0) currently offered supports Intel only.

Anyway. One is happy. Thanks for your input!

You could also turn it off at a set time by selecting "Schedule" in the Energy Saver setting in System Preferences.

[zuurbekje]

You could also turn it off at a set time by selecting "Schedule" in the Energy Saver setting in System Preferences.

Thanks for the suggestion. But scheduling doesn't give me enough flexibility -- the G5 may be running for many hours before the scheduled power-off may kick in. No, I'm quite happy with the Power Manager solution.