Lately, my mac has been experiencing intermittent sleep disorder, ie it won't fall asleep automatically. Toggling sleep manually works though. As this occured only after the 10.5.3 update, I thought it had something to do with the update. I promptly did a permission repair, but the situation was not resolved. Did a PRAM reset to no avail either.
Knowing now that the problem is not software update related, I had to retrace my steps during this period to check for any anomaly in my system usage, so that I can pinpoint the cause of this sleepless issue by employing a systematic process of elimination by exhaustion. For this purpose, I had deactivated screensaver, and adjusted both screen and computer sleep time to 1 minute each to speed up my diagnosis in case anyone of you would like to know.
By running the Apple hardware test, I had ruled out any hardware as the cause. No new USB/firewire devices are introduced during this time either. So I can safely rule that out too.
Next is software. I run through the list of newly installed apps and check if any of them might interfere with the sleep timers. I do that by checking
I thought I could spot some anomalies. None was found. The two lists were completely the same.
One thing for sure though, during any time when I experience the sleep issue, a reboot will fix it. This led me to believe something was introduced into the system after a reboot that had caused the sleep disorder intermittently. I try to refresh my mind by reading through the Apple document on sleep issue, so that I know what is my next cause of action. I finally narrow it down to Safari 3.1.1 (which I hardly use in the past, but been using it recently purely to test it) and Adium.
At times, the mac will sleep automatically when both apps are opened. At times, it won't. I finally eliminated Adium as the cause when I once rebooted the system, and running Adium on a clean system to see if my mac will sleep automatically. It did.
By more trials and errors, I finally realise it had something to do with my browsers - Firefox and Safari. This was when I started looking at the websites I frequent only during this particular period through the History panel in Safari. Then I realise the frequency I've been viewing Youtube is exceedingly high, and I did more tests. I realise every time I visit youtube, my mac won't go to sleep automatically, even when I'm not viewing any videos. Every time I'm not, my mac sleeps fine.
Now this is what I have gathered so far, so I'm not sure if this is an isolated problem I'm facing only, or any of you might not be aware consciously but it's worth me telling so you guys can give it a try and see what happens.
First of all, the Apple document states the a mac will not sleep when the system is downloading files/data. As long as your mac is accessing information from a particular site, your mac will not fall asleep automatically. The screen sleep timer will not be reset by internet activity (only hardware activities). That means your screen will sleep even if you are downloading files. However your mac will not fall asleep.
It seems everytime I visit youtube, the site is always constantly feeding information to the mac. At the home page, my browser will be accessing i.ytimg.com at a fixed timing.
It seems it is doing so as youtube is trying to update the section on the most current videos being viewed.
How about other parts of youtube? Will they cause your mac not to sleep too? Well, I watched a video, and remember how youtube shows other video titles of similar tags at the end of it? Something like this.
Youtube will force your browser to access information from i.ytimg.com again in order for it to constantly display updated similar tagged videos at the end of a played video (or at least that's what I figure).
So my mac won't automatically go to sleep with youtube. 😀 Perhaps this is supposed to be THE way, but I've never really experience it before only because I rarely frequent youtube, and circumstances didn't allow me to spot this intriguing sleep issue before.
I welcome any comment. Or tell me what I've been missing all along! 😀
Knowing now that the problem is not software update related, I had to retrace my steps during this period to check for any anomaly in my system usage, so that I can pinpoint the cause of this sleepless issue by employing a systematic process of elimination by exhaustion. For this purpose, I had deactivated screensaver, and adjusted both screen and computer sleep time to 1 minute each to speed up my diagnosis in case anyone of you would like to know.
By running the Apple hardware test, I had ruled out any hardware as the cause. No new USB/firewire devices are introduced during this time either. So I can safely rule that out too.
Next is software. I run through the list of newly installed apps and check if any of them might interfere with the sleep timers. I do that by checking
- If any of them have been added as a startup item,
- checking the Activity Monitor for their related background processes. I then took a snap shot of all the processes when the mac is sleepless, and compare the list against the activity list when the mac is sleeping fine.
I thought I could spot some anomalies. None was found. The two lists were completely the same.
One thing for sure though, during any time when I experience the sleep issue, a reboot will fix it. This led me to believe something was introduced into the system after a reboot that had caused the sleep disorder intermittently. I try to refresh my mind by reading through the Apple document on sleep issue, so that I know what is my next cause of action. I finally narrow it down to Safari 3.1.1 (which I hardly use in the past, but been using it recently purely to test it) and Adium.
At times, the mac will sleep automatically when both apps are opened. At times, it won't. I finally eliminated Adium as the cause when I once rebooted the system, and running Adium on a clean system to see if my mac will sleep automatically. It did.
By more trials and errors, I finally realise it had something to do with my browsers - Firefox and Safari. This was when I started looking at the websites I frequent only during this particular period through the History panel in Safari. Then I realise the frequency I've been viewing Youtube is exceedingly high, and I did more tests. I realise every time I visit youtube, my mac won't go to sleep automatically, even when I'm not viewing any videos. Every time I'm not, my mac sleeps fine.
Now this is what I have gathered so far, so I'm not sure if this is an isolated problem I'm facing only, or any of you might not be aware consciously but it's worth me telling so you guys can give it a try and see what happens.
First of all, the Apple document states the a mac will not sleep when the system is downloading files/data. As long as your mac is accessing information from a particular site, your mac will not fall asleep automatically. The screen sleep timer will not be reset by internet activity (only hardware activities). That means your screen will sleep even if you are downloading files. However your mac will not fall asleep.
It seems everytime I visit youtube, the site is always constantly feeding information to the mac. At the home page, my browser will be accessing i.ytimg.com at a fixed timing.
It seems it is doing so as youtube is trying to update the section on the most current videos being viewed.
How about other parts of youtube? Will they cause your mac not to sleep too? Well, I watched a video, and remember how youtube shows other video titles of similar tags at the end of it? Something like this.
Youtube will force your browser to access information from i.ytimg.com again in order for it to constantly display updated similar tagged videos at the end of a played video (or at least that's what I figure).
So my mac won't automatically go to sleep with youtube. 😀 Perhaps this is supposed to be THE way, but I've never really experience it before only because I rarely frequent youtube, and circumstances didn't allow me to spot this intriguing sleep issue before.
I welcome any comment. Or tell me what I've been missing all along! 😀