iMac not sleeping

[Cams]

My iMac recently stopped going to sleep. I have the power settings set for the display to power down after 15 mins and the HDD to power down as well. A couple of days ago it stopped doing that and now it sits with the screensaver showing for hours on end. As much as I like my screensaver, I'm concerned about the energy consumption.

I'm running Leopard with the latest updates.

Cheers
Cams

 

[rcanpolat]

have you tried simply rebooting?

i dont mean that by an insult or anything but often my OSX starts to lock up if i dont reboot every few days.

Other then that it could be a recent update. perhaps safari 4 beta or a security update. try removing the most recent updates you have installed

 

[IJ Reilly]

Rebooting is good advice. I'd have you try that as well. Also, you say that this behavior started recently. Have you installed anything new recently?

 

[Cams]

I have tried rebooting. It's my wife's computer and she asked me to have a look at it last night. The first thing I did was run software update and it picked up a few things -- can't recall exactly what off the top of my head, but I'd guess it's been about two weeks since the last update. It's possible that this is new behaviour since installing the last load of updates, but I can't be sure. I'll ask my wife later how long it's been doing it for and then check the update logs. Where could one get a record of updates and dates of updates?

 

[portent]

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1543

 

[IJ Reilly]

I would not suspect any of the system updates, since these are applied to millions of Macs without causing this problem. The poster above suggested resetting the SMC, which is worth trying. It can't hurt.

The only experience I have with Mac insomnia occurred on a Mac that had the software for a Logitec cordless mouse installed. My clue that this was the issue (though I'm probably never going to be 100% certain) is that when this Mac was migrated to a new Mac, the new Mac had the exact same problem. I tried a lot of things but finally when I upgraded the Mac to Leopard I used the Archive and Install method, and the Mac has been sleep correctly ever since. That's why I ask about the installation of third-party software or hardware.

 

[rcanpolat]

dont rule out the possibility. it could very well be a series of applications you have running.

for example the new updates and running msn messenger and the mail app. its pretty difficult to pick out what is causing the problem.

i know its the last thing you want to do but it may end up that you need to back up your files to an external hard drive and just reinstall osx fresh.

 

[IJ Reilly]

i know its the last thing you want to do but it may end up that you need to back up your files to an external hard drive and just reinstall osx fresh.

I assume you mean an Erase and Install, since there's no such thing as a "fresh" install. There is absolutely no reason for him to do this. Worse comes to worst, an Archive and Install is the most drastic measure that should be required, but even this only after other methods have been tried.