MacBook Pro Crashing Overnight?

[pk7]

Hi all,

My 15" Early 2011 MacBook Pro doesn't seem like it can stay on overnight.

These past couple of nights, I've been performing tasks overnight, such as downloading games on Steam or uploading 700 photos to Picasa Web. I figured I'd plug the laptop in, put it on a laptop cooler, and change the energy saver settings so that the computer and hard drive never sleeps. (I turn off the display by lowering the screen brightness all the way using the keyboard.)

For the past 2-3 nights, I have noticed that either Steam has crashed overnight, and when I try to upload photos or do any other task overnight, I notice in the morning that I'm back at the login window and I am no longer signed in, as if the computer has restarted automatically or simply crashed.

I'm running 10.8. Can someone tell me what's going on? It's been really frustrating these past few nights.

Thanks!

 

[omgitscro]

Check Energy Saver under System Preferences. Click on the "Schedule..." button. You will want to disable any schedules if they are enabled.

Report back, it might be a different issue. Another thing you might check is if your RAM is running well, I would recommend doing a full (overnight, CD-based) MEMtest for this.

 

[FatGuy007]

Download an app called caffeine, that happened to me to. It's one of the most useful utilities I downloaded and so lightweight.

 

[omgitscro]

Download an app called caffeine, that happened to me to. It's one of the most useful utilities I downloaded and so lightweight.

Indeed, Caffeine is a great app. It is now available in the Mac App Store!

Edit: FatGuy007 is suggesting that your computer is going to sleep while these time-intensive processes are running. If I remember correctly photo upload should trigger the system's built-in caffeine command so that the process isn't halted overnight, but it is still possible. Try downloading a game or uploading pictures overnight, but turn sleep off from the Power Saver prefpane.

 

[pk7]

Check Energy Saver under System Preferences. Click on the "Schedule..." button. You will want to disable any schedules if they are enabled.

Report back, it might be a different issue. Another thing you might check is if your RAM is running well, I would recommend doing a full (overnight, CD-based) MEMtest for this.

I just checked scheduling and nothing was enabled.

You bring up an interesting point with the RAM though, as I did just recently upgrade to an 8 GB x 2 kit from Corsair. I will check and see if the RAM has been installed properly and securely (as I did have some doubts about this after I did it) and I will run MEMtest as per your suggestion. Great idea, thanks!

Download an app called caffeine, that happened to me to. It's one of the most useful utilities I downloaded and so lightweight.

I was actually looking at Caffeine just a while ago! I'll give it a shot.