MacbookPro8,1 freezes when trying to wake up from hibernation/Safe Sleep (e00002eb), 10.14.6

[hellothere231]

Hey there,
My daily driver recently broke, so for now I've had to switch to my old late 2011 MacBook Pro -- bought a new battery, keyboard, along with a new hard drive cable to replace the original one which was on its way out, and plopped in a 128gig SSD.
I fixed it up on Monday + upped the ram to 8 gigs, and used dosdude1's Mojave Patcher to freshly install 10.14.6. Everything seems to be working fine (new battery is weirdly calibrated and a bit dodgy, although only 40 bucks so not expecting much), besides it not being able to exit hibernation.
Strangely enough though, whenever it enters hibernation through low battery, it crashes and kernel panics with the error code e00002eb -- yet whenever I manually enter hibernation (setting hibernatemode to 25 and running "pmset sleepnow"), it just seems to lock up on the progress bar.
I've tried resetting its NVRAM and recreating my sleep file, although it hasn't seemed to work at all and I still get the same behaviour. I have noticed that my sleepfile is smaller than my physical RAM size at only ~4.2gigs, which this Apple Community thread seems to indicate can be an issue, although I'm not exactly sure how to go about resizing it (recreating it didn't seem to work). Not really sure what else could be the issue, anyone else have any ideas? Thanks in advance.

 

[brianmowrey]

Is your normal mode 3 or 25? If 25, does 3 work or have the same issue?

I don't trust 25 on SATA. Safe sleep burns a lot of battery on mine, just like many other Macbook Pros have experienced starting this year with one of the Moj/Catalina updates. But it boots in 20 seconds so I just power off when I want to "hibernate."

My sleepimage is 1.07GB, ha.

 

[hellothere231]

Is your normal mode 3 or 25? If 25, does 3 work or have the same issue?

My normal mode is 3 and it seems to work fine, the only time mode 25 is used is when my computer shuts off due to low battery (which is default behaviour anyways IIRC).

I don't trust 25 on SATA. Safe sleep burns a lot of battery on mine, just like many other Macbook Pros have experienced starting this year with one of the Moj/Catalina updates. But it boots in 20 seconds so I just power off when I want to "hibernate."

My sleepimage is 1.07GB, ha.

Perhaps it is just a SATA problem? I know it's worked fine in the past though, although those were on versions of MacOS that my MacBook still supported -- maybe it just has something to do with Mojave being unsupported? If you want, I can upload my kernel panic log if that'd help.

Yeah, I did some extra Googling and it seems like the smaller sleepimage is just normal behaviour, something to do with memory compression AFAIK.

 

[brianmowrey]

`25 kicks in by timer. There is a timer value for "high" battery and for not "high," as well as a battery charge percentage value that defines the high threshold. It does not kick in solely by battery charge - only powering off does (though of course if one sets standbylow timer to 1, then the same effect is obtained). *Edit: I mixed up standby with hibernate but I have to run* The way you phrased the problem in the OP still makes sense but not where you describe your machine "shutting down due to low battery." How can you experience a crash/panic if the computer is shutting down? Is it not starting up properly afterward?

Also, if you've got the Moj/Catalina fast battery drain during safe-sleep issue, you might not even be reaching your standby/25 timer value before the battery triggers power-off. You would still have a sleepimage via 3 but there could be some other wrinkles causing problems

 

[hellothere231]

The way you phrased the problem in the OP still makes sense but not where you describe your machine "shutting down due to low battery." How can you experience a crash/panic if the computer is shutting down? Is it not starting up properly afterward?

Sorry, I meant when the MacBook automatically hibernates due to low battery -- I experience the kernel panic once the computer starts up, and tries to restore its previous state.

Also, if you've got the Moj/Catalina fast battery drain during safe-sleep issue, you might not even be reaching your standby/25 timer value before the battery triggers power-off. You would still have a sleepimage via 3 but there could be some other wrinkles causing problems

I don't think I've noticed any battery drain during safe-sleep? Then again the only time I've seen safe-sleep activate is whenever my battery dies, in normal use I only ever experience the "breathing light" sleep when I close my lid.

Or wait, am I just mixing up safe-sleep and hibernation (hibernation as in waking w/ progress bar)? Safe-sleep is just Apple's term for hibernation on their portables, right?

 

[brianmowrey]

Safe Sleep / 3 keeps RAM powered up but adds "safety" by creating a sleepimage, just in case. It seems like a Moj/Catalina update this year has made Safe Sleep eat a lot more power per hour, perhaps intentionally or perhaps not. Hibernate / 25 turns off power to RAM, so waking will require repopulating RAM from the sleepimage no matter what. Setting standby mode to 25 saves power during sleep and resolves, for some, the fast-sleep-drain issue, but at the cost of slower wakes. 25 was designed for Apple's proprietary SSD PCIs, not SATA, which is why I don't use it.

Here's the eclecticlight "manual" on pmset. But, it misleadingly describes "Standby" in pmset as referring to "Hibernate". In fact "standby" refers to whatever is set for "hibernatemode," which can be either 3/Safe Sleep or 25/"hibernate". Hence, my sloppy previous post.

There's no 25/"hibernate" use at all by default in 2nd-gen MBPs, unless you use the pmset command line to enforce it.

So, when I hit 70 minutes of sleep, I switch to safe-sleep. RAM stays powered and battery still drains pretty fast (as of the mysterious mid-2020 change).

So for your issue the question is whether you're even getting to the standbydelay timer. If so, you shouldn't be having kernal panics, but also, the main instigator for the problem could be that your machine died (powered off due to drained battery) in the first place. In which case, the hanging progress bar during hibernation is a separate issue, as 25/hibernate is not even happening when you close your lid.

 

[hellothere231]

So for your issue the question is whether you're even getting to the standbydelay timer. If so, you shouldn't be having kernal panics, but also, the main instigator for the problem could be that your machine died (powered off due to drained battery) in the first place. In which case, the hanging progress bar during hibernation is a separate issue, as 25/hibernate is not even happening when you close your lid.

Ohhh ok then, I'm pretty sure I get what you mean. I have noticed that whenever my battery does get low enough to force the system into sleep mode, the sleep light stays completely illuminated for a while (which I assume happens as the system writes memory to the sleepfile), and then just shuts off. I haven't used a Mac in a while; is that breathing light supposed to be activated whenever it forces itself into sleep because of a low battery?

If so, then maybe could it be shutting off mid-way through the write due to low battery, which results in a corruption of the sleepfile? It is a cheapo Amazon replacement battery so it seems plausible, and from what I've seen online the e00002eb error can be caused by a corrupt sleepfile as well.

 

[brianmowrey]

is that breathing light supposed to be activated whenever it forces itself into sleep because of a low battery

MacBooks only force power-off due to low battery, is what I tried to say in my second reply but had to rephrase in my third. Whereas “standby” (either 3 or 25 depending on hibernatemode value) activates by “standbydelay“ timer

 

[hellothere231]

MacBooks only force power-off due to low battery, is what I tried to say in my second reply but had to rephrase in my third. Whereas “standby” (either 3 or 25 depending on hibernatemode value) activates by “standbydelay“ timer

Oh ok, but before it powers off due to low battery, it's supposed to save the memory contents to the sleepfile so it can load back your previous session once you plug your MacBook in, right? I might just still be misunderstanding things though, so sorry if that's the case; I'm still seeming to have trouble getting this concept for whatever reason.

 

[brianmowrey]

Oh ok, but before it powers off due to low battery, it's supposed to save the memory contents to the sleepfile

only if you have reached standbydelay timer value. A sufficiently weak battery could prompt shutdown before the standbydelay timer triggers a sleepimage. But whether your machine has or hasn’t reached the standbydelay timer value before it powers off, it’s not that surprising that powering on throws errors. Battery death during sleep should be avoided, not touble-shoot’ed.

 

[hellothere231]

But whether your machine has or hasn’t reached the standbydelay timer value before it powers off, it’s not that surprising that powering on throws errors. Battery death during sleep should be avoided, not touble-shoot’ed.

Ohhh ok then, I see. In that case, I think I might just go return the battery and order a higher quality one off Amazon to see if that fixes the problem -- already looks like it's getting weaker, so I doubt it'll last very long anyways. Thanks for your help.