My iMac wakes up from sleep at random times. The screen doesn't come on, but you hear that kind of mechanical sound the computer makes when you press the power button to turn it on or when you wake it up from sleep, and you hear the hard drive start to spin for about 3 seconds, then it goes off. It's so strange and sometimes it even startles me. It's only been doing it for 2 months and only does it when I put the computer to sleep. Is this a fixable problem, or should I take it in to the Apple Store and have it swapped out?
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2010 iMac randomly wakes up from sleep
- Thread starter i4Collin
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Have you setup the Time Machine for backup? It may be the case that the Time Machine checks your data for backup.
Have you scheduled anything for the machine to do periodically?
If all the above is not true, it is a good idea to call the Apple support.
Have you scheduled anything for the machine to do periodically?
If all the above is not true, it is a good idea to call the Apple support.
I have an external hooked up to mine and I have the same issue. It will randomly turn on in the middle of the night. is the HD linked with the problem?
My problem is that my slightly older iMac randomly reboots when coming out of sleep.
I've also got a Seagate external and I swear that it wakes up the iMac occasionally at random. It also seems to keep the iMac from waking up quicker at times too.
IMO, the iMac pays too much attention to what is going on with devices on the USB bus and should just wake up and deal with the drive(s) later. I'm on a peecee at the moment but isn't there settings in the Power system preference to control what wakes up the system? Can't remember right now, but a reset might help too. Is there anything running at bootup that could randomly wake the system up.
Time Machine doesn't wake up my iMac, or at least I have not noticed that it does. Have you tried looking at the logs immediately after a random wakeup to see what might be going on?
I've also got a Seagate external and I swear that it wakes up the iMac occasionally at random. It also seems to keep the iMac from waking up quicker at times too.
IMO, the iMac pays too much attention to what is going on with devices on the USB bus and should just wake up and deal with the drive(s) later. I'm on a peecee at the moment but isn't there settings in the Power system preference to control what wakes up the system? Can't remember right now, but a reset might help too. Is there anything running at bootup that could randomly wake the system up.
Time Machine doesn't wake up my iMac, or at least I have not noticed that it does. Have you tried looking at the logs immediately after a random wakeup to see what might be going on?
Some enclosures have a firmware which does not play well with OS X Sleep mode and wake up periodically. This cause the Mac to stir.There is not much that can be done about (as far as I can tell).
Mine does the same. 2011 iMac no external hard drive connected but I do have a time capsule connected with USB hub which has a 2 tb external drive as well as a printer
Do you have wake for network access turned on?
Or iTunes active and something in the house trying to talk to it?
Try quitting all apps, and see if it still does it. If not, turn them on one by one to find the culprit.
Or iTunes active and something in the house trying to talk to it?
Try quitting all apps, and see if it still does it. If not, turn them on one by one to find the culprit.
I have a 2010 iMac i7:
Ever since 2 updates ago, I've been having a similar issue. Worst is that I think that it could be motion activated. I make sure to turn on my lamp and my speakers BEFORE putting the computer to sleep(a slight vibration could "wake up" the computer due to the mouse sensing something... No USB Keys connected, no external hard drive... but I DO have a printer that is on t all times.
I'm at a point where I unplug my network cable and shut down the computer. Still paranoid from that hack I got on my old PC...
Am I the only one that is living this?
I've recently noticed this myself, I have my imac set to prompt for my password when waking from sleep or screen saver. I wonder if this is stopping it from going back to sleep... Though i do have an external drive connected via firewire but it used to work..
one way to find out i guess.
one way to find out i guess.
IR Remote Control?
I was having the same issues with our iMac in the Family Room - turns out it was the Universal Remote that was controlling the Apple TV. The signal was bouncing around the room and turning on the mac, launching itunes/front row, etc. You can disable the remote in system preferences on the mac.
I was having the same issues with our iMac in the Family Room - turns out it was the Universal Remote that was controlling the Apple TV. The signal was bouncing around the room and turning on the mac, launching itunes/front row, etc. You can disable the remote in system preferences on the mac.
Apple appear to have changed the way that wake on LAN works from Snow Leopard onwards. It seems as though my iMac wakes every two hours (without turning on the display, but I do hear the hard drive spin up)
From Apple: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3774
"With Wake on Demand enabled, your Mac will occasionally wake for a brief time, without lighting the screen, in order to maintain registrations with the Bonjour Sleep Proxy. On some Macs, sounds from the optical drive, hard drive, or fans may be heard during these brief periods."
Read here for more info and how to disable this if you would still like to use wake on LAN, or just disable wake on LAN altogether:
http://blog.martinshouse.com/2010/09/fixing-wake-on-lan-on-mac-snow-leopard.html
From Apple: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3774
"With Wake on Demand enabled, your Mac will occasionally wake for a brief time, without lighting the screen, in order to maintain registrations with the Bonjour Sleep Proxy. On some Macs, sounds from the optical drive, hard drive, or fans may be heard during these brief periods."
Read here for more info and how to disable this if you would still like to use wake on LAN, or just disable wake on LAN altogether:
http://blog.martinshouse.com/2010/09/fixing-wake-on-lan-on-mac-snow-leopard.html