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PowerBook temperature sensors going crazy and suddenly sleeping, then not waking

T

thomasp

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Sep 18, 2004
654
1
UK
My powerbook (1.5GHz, OSX 10.4.8) has just unexpectedly gone to sleep twice (once straight after waking) while browsing the internet using Safari.

I shut it down and rebooted it, and upon startup, I noticed the temperature for my trackpad was doing very strange things - see attachment.

At the time of the sleepings, I was using my Bluetooth Mighty Mouse. It seemed the only way I could stop it from sleeping as soon as waking was to turn off the MM.


The trackpad does not feel hot or anything to the touch and all other temp sensors are normal


What's going on here? Is my PB about to die?
 

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Very likely sensors on the topcase are going nuts, I've seen it a fair number of times on powerbooks reporting sleep issues. As it is not likely your powerbook is dying, I would bring it in to the GeniusBar, or call AppleCare. Topcase replacement will solve your issues.
 
Now Disk Utility seems to crash the entire computer (everything bar the mouse freezes) whenever I try to verify the hard drive. Will boot up from my external FW HD and see if I can verify that way.

Trouble is, not only is this machine out of warranty, but I'm also at university and a considerable distance from the any Apple Store, so I can't easily take it in for repair (not that I can be without a computer)

It seems the bad trackpad readings started this morning when i first booted the computer up, but it only starts to go crazy now, about 8 hours later (I had just woken it up from 2 hours sleeping)


Edit:

How much would "topcase replacement" cost?


Edit #2:

HD = OK
 
Happened again just now. Had been using the comptuer for about 2 hours, with my BT Mighty Mouse plugged in. After the fans having been on for about 15mins (ran a bit hot while using safari - perfectly normal for what I was doing though), the laptop suddenly went to sleep and wouldn't wake up and stay awake until i'd "fanned" the case to cool it down.

My guess is that the trackpad temperature sensor is on the blink. See the temperature monitor window attached. It was claiming about 60C just before sleeping (the first big gap), but the trackpad felt no hotter than it usually does. Incidentally, according to Temp Monitor, the specified upper limit for the trackpad is 48C

Is there anything I can do to stop this happening? I can't take my computer in to repair until the easter holidays, which are over a month away.


Additional note: The Mighty Mouse probably isn't causing it - it slept while typing this post, registering a spike of +90C and then -125C for the trackpad, without BT or the Mighty Mouse on


Please help!

Thanks :)


Edit:

Also, it's making my computer unusuable, which is something I simply cannot afford to have at the moment, with the amount of university work I have on
 

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This is now incredibly urgent - my PowerBook now refuses to wake from sleep - I have to hold the power button down with the battery and mains unplugged to get it to "unsleep"

What's causing this and what can I quickly do to stop it?

I really, truly cannot afford to be without my computer, even for a day.


Edit:

I've reset the PMU, and repaired permissions but that's not cured anything.
 
I'm going through the same situation. I took my Powerbook to the Genius bar in Apple Store Regent St. I told the 'genius' exactly what was happening. Unfortunately, my Powerbook wouldn't put itself to sleep in front of the genius, but luckily it had put itself to sleep and wouldn't wake up just before I walked up to the bar.

This happened to a colleague at work, albeit more severely. I also know of another case. All of our 'Books where purchased in Spring/Summer 2005. If you search around on the 'net there are plenty of people reporting the same thing.

But you know what the kicker is? The genius said he'd search the database for the problem, and apparently it isn't a known issue. Bollocks! Also the genius took my RAM out to see if that was causing it (it wasn't) then didn't seat it properly.

So anyways, do you have AppleCare? I'm planning on phoning Apple back up and making them let me send it in for repair. I'm appalled by the AppleCare service - I told them what was wrong and what I've done (repair permissions, reset PRAM/NVRAM, reset PMU, even re-installed OS X), and they told me I had to take it to an Apple Store to get it repaired.

You are not alone, it's definitely a trackpad sensor problem, which requires replacing the sensor/logic board/top case. Which means you have to send it in for repair. I've also noticed the ambient light sensor in my PowerBook doesn't work anymore, although I suspect that's unrelated.
 
I took my PB to my local Apple Authorised Service Provider (no apple store nearby) and they had it for 3 days performing "extensive tests" and they claimed it didn't play up at all while it was in there. When I got it back (obviously nothing had been done), I looked in the system.log file and the computer had gone to sleep due to the "emergency overtemp signal" about 100 times in 3 days - I wasn't best pleased...

I also zeroed the HD and reinstalled OSX - and not to my surprise, that didn't solve it.

One thing that did temporarily solve the problem was booting into open firmware mode - hold down CMD+Alt/Option+o+F while turning the computer on, then typing the following (no spaces):
reset-nvram
Press Enter/return
reset-all
Press Enter/return - this will reboot your PB

However, this week, the problem reared its ugly head and doing the above didn't "fix" it. Although, at the moment (having recently done a PMU reset followed by open firmware reset), it seems to be behaving itself.


As I'm coming back from uni. tomorrow and will be "close" to an Apple Store, looks like I'm going to have to take it into the Genius bar and demand them to do something - I can't afford to have a £1500 paperweight, especially with coursework deadlines looming.


Edit:

Unfortunately, I don't have AppleCare, and my warranty expired 8 months ago :(
 
Good luck with that. The 'genius' actually said to me not to pay attention to the console logs as they don't really mean anything. Idiot :)
 
pulsewidth947 said:
Good luck with that. The 'genius' actually said to me not to pay attention to the console logs as they don't really mean anything. Idiot :)
Click to expand...


Cheers :) The tech I spoke to at my local service provider also said the same thing.

But, I know assumptions can be dangerous things, when I have a spiking temperature sensor (yes, 3rd party software = BAD!) and a random sleeping issue, combined with "Power Management Utility received emergency overtemp signal. Going to sleep", I'm kind of inclined to think there's something up with a temperature sensor. AND when my computer shows no other signs of overheating, I'm inclined to think that said sensor is broken.
 
As an update to this thread, I finally kicked up enough fuss to get apple to pick up my Powerbook for repair. It was away for about 20 days, and has come back having had the logic board and ALS board replaced (my ambient light senser stopped working).

Touch wood it's fine now. I'm running firefox, itunes, photoshop and adium, all while scanning and it hasn't had a snooze! Now if only I could update to 10.4.9 without getting kernel panics every 5 mins :p
 
Thanks for keeping us updated on the status. I like it when people report their repair experiences.

20 days is kinda ludicrous though. I'm lucky enough to live close to an apple authorized repair center and I have a great relationship with them. I had my PB fans replaced without even showing them that they're loud, and it was done in an hour, since they ordered the part and called me when it went in. I dropped off the PB before a doctor's appointment and picked it up 1.5 hours later, without a scratch or gap anywhere.

I told the guy (Shawn) before he opened it up that this is my baby, and I will notice the slightest scratch on it. He laughed and did the repair for me a lot more quickly than I had imagined.

Same with my 17" iMac. The hard drive died one day (sucky), and it was repaired and ready to be picked up in under 2 hours. Those guys are awesome.
 
pulsewidth947 said:
This happened to a colleague at work, albeit more severely. I also know of another case. All of our 'Books where purchased in Spring/Summer 2005. If you search around on the 'net there are plenty of people reporting the same thing.
Click to expand...

Wow, I purchased my 15" powerbook (refurb) in August of '05. Having the same temperature problems. I will be using it for a while and then it will get too hot and go to sleep. I have to wait about 30 min. to let it cool down completely or move to the granite counter top.

I do not have applecare so I was thinking about just getting one of those targus notebook pads with the fans in it and try to get by for another year or so if the repairs are expensive. Any idea of how much it would cost to get this thing fixed.

EDIT: I also get "emergency temp." messages in my log file when this happens.
 
Not sure, you could phone apple and ask how much it costs to replace a logic board. My problems weren't actually heat related - the sensor would register it being too hot, but the Powerbook was actually cold to the touch - sometimes having just been switched on!

If the cost is prohibitively expensive, then you could always disable the sensor. I don't know if that works, or if it'll ruin your Powerbook, so its up to you. There seems to be a less severe method at towards the bottom of this thread. Either way I'd investigate how much it costs to get it fixed before messing round with system files. If you do decide to do the above, make sure you make 2 good backups of all your files before proceeding!

Good luck!
 
My Powerbook G4, born ~May 2005, has had six fits of narcolepsy since I started trying to reply to this message, including twice requiring restarts and post deletion. So I'll get right to the point.

(1) Frog-guy (sorry, have to type too fast to look at what your name is, in case I have more narcolepsy)--how much did it cost to get your laptop fixed? The so-called Genius told me $350 US yesterday, but he didn't realize it's not merely a logic board problem, but also the trackpad temperature sensor and casing.

(2) How can I find out if I live within driving distance of a certified Apple repair center?

Please god, let me submit this post before another bout of narcolepsy hits...
 
Well, the gods let me post that previous message, finally. But I've had two fits of narcolepsy in the, what, 5 minutes since then. Anyway, forgot to ask question #3 to frog-guy:

(3) Why did it take 20 days? The so-called Genius told me 7 business days yesterday. Though, again, he was assuming the problem is isolated to the logic board.
 
Didn't cost me anything because I have Applecare. Took about 20 days because it was 2 days getting there (had to send me a box then send it back to apple), then 7 days before they did the first repair, then 7 days before they did the second. Then next day delivery back. Also there was 2 bank holidays in there where no-one works. I didn't think it was that unreasonable in all honesty. I sent a camera for repair to canon once and it took them 3 months. I'll never buy another canon product :)

In other instances, I've seen both the logic board and the temperature sensors replaced. But in my case it was just the logic board and the ambient light senser which was replaced. But those were two seperate issues.
 
I really hope I don't need a new logic board - they're even more expensive than the top case unit, aren't they? I think if I do I'll probably end up buying a £300 Dell laptop :mad: :( and then wait until I can afford an MBP
 
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