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iPod causing Powerbook to go to sleep

gauchogolfer

gauchogolfer

macrumors 603
Original poster
Jan 28, 2005
5,551
6
American Riviera
Hi everyone.

Well, it looks like I've got my first issue with my 1.67GHz Powerbook. I have it set to never sleep, only the display turns off, yet when I woke up this morning it was asleep. No big deal.

However, as I was using it, even while typing or surfing the net this morning, it went to sleep several times. Any ideas on what I should check?

I'm running 10.4.8, and I've just done the iTunes/QT update from System Updater. It's pretty annoying to have it go to sleep in the middle of a sentence. I'll give it a reboot now, and see what that does.

Anyone else here experienced a similar problem?

Thanks for the help.
 
Update:
OK, it now appears to be related to my iPod nano. When I plug in the nano, it mounts, opens iTunes, starts updating, then my laptop goes to sleep.

If I eject it, but leave it plugged in, it doesn't seem to cause any problems. So, evidently there is an issue for me using iTunes 7.1 with my nano.

Anyone else?

Update again: I repaired permissions, and plugged my nano back in. At first it seemed ok, didn't go to sleep right away. About 5 minutes later, snooze.....
Come to think of it, I believe iTunes had just finished downloading a podcast episode when it went to sleep. Could they be related? Who knows. So far I'm not impressed with 7.1.0

Looks like I have some more work to do on it.
 
One last bit of info. I'm currently using UNO, could that cause my weird conflict? I'm going to disable it for awhile to see if that fixes things. It is still going to sleep, even with the iPod unplugged. Weird.

Edit: ewww, I forgot how brushed metal looks. I really hope that UNO isn't the culprit.
 
No ideas yet? Oh well.
Here's some more updates:
Came back from leaving my machine alone for 1 hour. When I returned, it was asleep, and totally unresponsive. It took removing the battery and waiting several minutes for it to turn off. I'm about to fsck it and maybe reset the PMU? Why isn't mj here to help me? (Oh wait, I've already repaired permissions.)
 
Well, definitely reset the PMU :)apple: -option-P-R on boot until you hear the bonngggggg again)

As well, shut down and hold down the power button until you hear a loud and terrifying BOOOOOOOOOP. Don't be frightened.

See if that helps
 
I just reset the PMU, and checked with fsck (no problems with the drive). I didn't do the last thing you mentioned (does this apply to the powerbooks?) Anyways, we'll see how it goes.
I thought that the cmd-option-p-r was to reset the PRAM as well as the PMU. Do you think both are necessary?


iTunes is definitely borked, since it won't display any music on my computer, nor podcasts, though it will still take me to the iTMS. :rolleyes:
I'm going to try and reinstall it now.

Edit: OK, iTunes is back, time to see if I can keep from going to sleep now.
 
gauchogolfer said:
I just reset the PMU, and checked with fsck (no problems with the drive). I didn't do the last thing you mentioned (does this apply to the powerbooks?) Anyways, we'll see how it goes.
I thought that the cmd-option-p-r was to reset the PRAM as well as the PMU. Do you think both are necessary?


iTunes is definitely borked, since it won't display any music on my computer, nor podcasts, though it will still take me to the iTMS. :rolleyes:
I'm going to try and reinstall it now.

Edit: OK, iTunes is back, time to see if I can keep from going to sleep now.
Click to expand...

Yes it applies to powerbooks...

So you've been up for an hour and a half or so? No news is good news?
 
Sadly, I left it again, and it was asleep when I returned. However, this time it did wake back up like it should. I'm going to do both the PRAM reset and the hold-down-the-power-button-at-bootup-till-the-loud-bonnnng-sound thing and see how that goes. Currently it's better than before, but not like it ought to be.

Updates to come.

Thanks for the help.
 
So I just did the power button thing; wow did my fans run loud for a moment!
What does that do, exactly? (Maybe a firmware thing?) Anyways, I'm going to try running for a little and see how it goes before resetting my PRAM.

*fingers crossed*

Could it be a battery issue? CoconutBattery says I'm at 78% or so after 410 load cycles (25 months). It says the charger is not connected, even though it is. Any ideas? Maybe the iTunes thing was a coincidence, since it's going to sleep at the moment even with iTunes turned off.
 
On the phone with AppleCare...

Reset the PMU again.

Made new user account.

So far, no sleeping. But, these totally random things are tough to track down.
If it's my user account, will I be doing an archive/install or transferring all my user data to a new account? Only time will tell. :)

Update:
dragged all the system preferences .plist files to the desktop...

At least I have a case number for taking it into the AppleStore if necessary.

*fingers still crossed*
 
Final update?

OK, this might be a record for most posts to one's own thread.

It looks like the system preferences .plist files were to blame. I generated a new set of those and so far no shutdowns. Hopefully this will be helpful to others with a similar problem.

If only mad jew were here to remind me to drag the .plists to the desktop...

Update: still shutting down too early. Off to make an appointment at the Apple Store I go.
 
Okay mate, have you had the problem in the new account at all? As annoying as it may be running from a default account, try it for a good day of solid use or so and if it doesn't randomly fall asleep then we can be sure something's wrong in your Home folder. This doesn't necessarily mean it's a PLIST problem, but it could be.

Are you running from the adaptor this whole time? Does it wake up immediately after you ask it to most times or does it take a bit of prompting to get going? Have you calibrated the battery recently? Is it shutting down randomly or just sleeping? :)
 
Thanks for stopping by.
I'll try leaving it in the new user account overnight and see if it stays awake the whole time. That's about all the patience I've got at the moment. :)

I've had it go to sleep both on battery and adaptor, though it's mostly been on the adaptor today.

As for waking up, it's generally just a tap on the space bar to get back awake. If that doesn't work, I've had to take the battery out and wait for it to shut down.

I calibrated the battery last week.
 
Excellent. Post back with your results on the new account. Also, what sort of third party apps/plugins do you have running? Any third party peripherals? :)
 
Well, when I woke up this morning, it was asleep using the new account. It woke up fine, then went back to sleep about 30 seconds later.

I've got no peripherals plugged in, and no themes/hacks of any kind. The only real 3rd party apps are SizzlingKeys, Spanning Sync, Little Snitch, and ClearDock. The only one of those that's currently running is ClearDock. But, that's not running in my new user account, and it still slept.

Finally, I've got an appointment at the AppleStore at lunch time :)
 
Update:
I uninstalled all of the system preference plugins: ClearDock, SizzlingKeys, DejaVu, AudioHijack, MenuMeters, SpanningSync, and LittleSnitch. And, no unwanted sleeping for the last couple of hours. It looks like one of those was causing my problem. I'll let it go for today and see what happens. Strange thing to pop up all of a sudden, but whatever. If it keeps my machine from going to sleep, I can live without them.

The most recently installed was LittleSnitch; has anyone had problems with this app?
 
Verdict: being sent back to Apple, as soon as I move. It slept/froze while booted from the Genius' external drive, so they're thinking top case or logic board is the likely culprit. Time to do one last backup and send the sucker off.

Thanks for the ideas.
 
So, I finally got around to taking my machine in to my local Mac repair place. (I've moved, and I didn't want to part with it just yet.) After a few tests, they determined the thermal sensor in the top case near the trackpad has gone bad, and is causing the random sleeping. It'll be replaced in a day, and back in my hands. If you've got Mac problems in Santa Barbara, MacMechanic seems like a great place to go.

Cheers.
 
I've got my machine back now, with new top case (and keyboard). It's like typing on a brand-new machine, and the trackpad is back to its matte-y best.

Too bad they couldn't swap out the processors for something snappier. :p
 
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