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iMac Doesn't sleep

C

cowman007

macrumors regular
Original poster
Mar 17, 2007
144
0
Hey Guys

My iMac doesn't go into sleep mode automatically!!! I need to manually go to the startup menu and click sleep. I've checked my setting and everything seems alright. Last night I logged out and I cam to my desk this morning and the computer just had the display turned off. I moved the mouse and saw the login screen. I quite sure the computer is supposed to automatically sleep? whats wrong twith my computer!
 
I'm a little confused. Logging out isn't the same as shutting down, if you leave your Mac alone long enough the display will turn off.

To set how long the computer stays awake or how long she screen stays on or even when the screensaver kicks in have a look in system Prefs under energy saver and screen saver... Hope that helped and I didn't miss the point of your post.
 
Do you have any external devices connected?
I have an external hard drive that wakes my iMac back up about 15-20 seconds after it's gone to sleep. Id you've checked your settings and it should be sleeping, its possible that something else is stopping it.
 
this is happening with my MBP too. it wont sleep after the certain amount of time ive set it too for the Custom profile in Energy Saver. ive also tried it on Better Energy Savings, Normal and Better Performance and it still doesnt work.

i havent made thread about it yet as im waiting for a software update to hopefully fix it.
 
I have seen this symptom on any number of Macs, but never a single cause or solution. To make matters worse, it's inconsistent; sometimes the Mac will fall asleep unaided, sometimes not. If anyone solved this problem, they'd deserve the Mac Distinguished Service Award.
 
This is happeneing to me as well. I think it is after the last update that this started. Hopefully a new update will fix the errors of the last update.
 
That really sucks. Anyway to clarify I've set my sleep options to 15 minutes when I come back to my computer after 15 the display is only turned off and the computer itself is not falling asleep I need to do it automatically. This requires some severe testing and a letter to Mr.JObs. Does anyone know who I can email???
 
This is going to sound strange, but can you try plugging the Mac into different wall outlet and seeing if it sleeps? Or if it's plugged into a power strip, bypass it? I have a suspicion about this issue, which I've been unable to prove.
 
IJ Reilly said:
This is going to sound strange, but can you try plugging the Mac into different wall outlet and seeing if it sleeps? Or if it's plugged into a power strip, bypass it? I have a suspicion about this issue, which I've been unable to prove.
Click to expand...

That Interesting. I have my iMac plugged into a power brick along with my printer/scanner and a light. Also Plugged in is an additional power brick which connect my second computer a router a modem and sme speakers. So in conclusion ALOT of power is being drained from this wall socket. I will try your idea tonight and Lets hope for the best!!!
 
cowman007 said:
That really sucks. Anyway to clarify I've set my sleep options to 15 minutes when I come back to my computer after 15 the display is only turned off and the computer itself is not falling asleep I need to do it automatically. This requires some severe testing and a letter to Mr.JObs. Does anyone know who I can email???
Click to expand...

Emails at Apple are generally taken to heart however for a sleep issue don't waste your fingers typing on the keyboard, it's not major enough for them to offer you anything more than to contact Applecare.
 
Although I'm sure you have already checked this but make sure under system pref>energy saver you set to put the computer to sleep.

For testing purposes, deactivate screen saver (set it to "never"), set both display and computer sleep to "3 minutes". Enable (check mark) put the hard disk to sleep when possible.

To isolate the cause, unplug all external hard drives, printer/scanner etc from your imac, and make sure it's not on a network. Then proceed to do the followings:-
  1. Repair permission with Onyx or Disk Utility and reboot to check status again. This alone should fix your problem.
  2. If this doesn't fix your problem, reset SMC and PRAM.

9/10 times these will fix your sleep issue. I doubt the recent software updates have anything to do with it.
 
I have a HP Scanjet 3570c that will not let my Mac sleep. I have to quit the HP Scanjet Manager.app process to let it sleep. MC
 
orpheus1120 said:
Which mac do you own btw? Have you resolved your sleep issue yet then?
Click to expand...

Most recently, I've seen this on two, very different iMacs (a G4 and a new C2D). The only thing they have in common is being plugged into the same wall power strip.

Ever done an OS reinstall?
Click to expand...

Not a chance. I hate wasting my time on anything so pointless and futile!
 
I repair the permissions and unplugged my ethernet chord and my printer cord. The Computer turns off the display but doesn't go to sleep. However tonight I plan to schedule the computer to go to sleep. I will report back and see how that works. BTW how to I reset the Pram and all that techy stuff!!
 
If you searched for one of my recent posts, you will know that I had this sleep issue about 3 week ago. I was able to rectify the problem within an hour with a bit of luck.

My sleep problem happened after I tried fiddling with my airport to allow internet sharing on my nokia n95 8gb and acer travelmate notebook. These went well and I was able to connect my nokia and acer to internet via my imac. I did also installed some other apps before this airport fiddling, so I wasn't sure what was the actual cause for the sleep issue. But what I knew was this sleep issue happened after these events.

I resetted smc and pram but it didnt helped. I removed the imac network I created and all apps that I installed during that time and that didnt help either.

Finally I repaired permission and rebooted. Now everything went back to normal and my imac can sleep as usual.

I am not sure which part of what I did solve the issue although it seemed like repairing permission solved it in my case. Unless someone is familiar with the inner working of leopard it is indeed very tough to pinpoint the exact cause. However we do know for a fact that there must be a process that is running at the background that disrupted the sleep timer, which causes a failure in automatic sleeping. Apple did in fact addresses the sleep issues in one of its documents and offered some suggests for resolution but I fail to find a link to it at this moment.
 
orpheus1120 said:
… To isolate the cause, unplug all external hard drives, printer/scanner etc from your imac, and make sure it's not on a network. Then proceed to do the followings:-
  1. Repair permission with Onyx or Disk Utility and reboot to check status again. This alone should fix your problem.
  2. If this doesn't fix your problem, reset SMC and PRAM.

9/10 times these will fix your sleep issue. I doubt the recent software updates have anything to do with it.
Click to expand...

tried all this and it hasnt fixed my sleep issue. i also sometimes have the wake from sleep issue where my Mac wakes up and the fans start to run but the display doesnt work. usually happends after ive slept my Mac overnight. the only way to fix it is to do a hard reset.
 
At first i thought it was OS specific, happens to me on a pretty inconsistent basis, but then got leopard and still happens, oh well.
 
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