MBP won't wake from sleep

[linds900]

Hi. I'm a new member, totally a noob here and sometimes tech dumb (which is why I have a mac in the first place).

Lately my mac started to not wake from sleep. I can click the keyboard, swipe the trackpad, and try to hard reset the power button all I want, but nothing works. Generally, I close it and put it aside for a few minutes, then pick it up and try it all over again until I get *some* sort of response. It's taken several minutes of this where before it was immediate to sign in and start up.

Usually, I only sleep the computer. I'm going to shut it down tonight and hope it lives again.

Last time I was in a mac store, they said my battery needed servicing, but that it wasn't so bad that I needed to replace it immediately (and I didn't want to cough up the $120 either). I haven't myself noticed an appreciable difference in run time.

I'm leery about the PRAM memory shortcuts, since I'm not sure what they do yet, so I've not tried them. I have a great deal of sensitive material on my mac that I absolutely cannot lose, even when I'm keeping up with harddrive backups.

People who know computers––halp.

 

[brdeveloper]

The PRAM reset usually doesn't nothing harmful, it just bring back some settings to factory defaults. I had this with my Mini after upgrading RAM and a SSD. It wouldn't wake at all, but I got a black background with a swirling and movable beach ball of death.

I think that what worked was checking/repairing permissions on Disk Utility. Maybe when I migrate to the SSD some data was write protected. But I also did the PRAM reset... really don't know what exactly made it wake up properly again.

 

[linds900]

The PRAM reset usually doesn't nothing harmful, it just bring back some settings to factory defaults. I had this with my Mini after upgrading RAM and a SSD. It wouldn't wake at all, but I got a black background with a swirling and movable beach ball of death.

I think that what worked was checking/repairing permissions on Disk Utility. Maybe when I migrate to the SSD some data was write protected. But I also did the PRAM reset... really don't know what exactly made it wake up properly again.

Would the PRAM reset take the files off the desktop or leave them be nice and kindly where they are? I have to make sure my files and the files of the people I'm working for are safe. By factory defaults, that would just be background and time settings etc, or more in-depth stuff? I've had this mac so long Idk what I've changed.

 

[KUguardgrl13]

When did you buy your MBP (i.e. What year is it?)? My 2009 had sleep/wake issues that lead to SATA cable problems (the cable that connects the hard drive to the logic board). It's gone away since I stopped taking it to school every day and replaced the battery (also repaired permissions before updating to Mavericks). The sleep/wake issues started long before the battery was noticeably bad though. I'd only had it for maybe a year and a half.

So of your Mac is a 2009 or 2010 and you take it to school or work, you might look into a hard shell case or something. Supposedly the design of those machines and the quality of SATA cable they used don't mix. The cable gets compressed when it's put into a bag with other things like books and wears out over time.

If your Mac is newer, I don't really have an explanation. Starting in 2011 they started using a better SATA cable and changed the internal design a bit. The retina MacBook pros use a different means of connecting the solid state drive to the logic board.

 

[T5BRICK]

Would the PRAM reset take the files off the desktop or leave them be nice and kindly where they are? I have to make sure my files and the files of the people I'm working for are safe. By factory defaults, that would just be background and time settings etc, or more in-depth stuff? I've had this mac so long Idk what I've changed.

Resetting your PRAM won't affect ANY of your files. I doubt it'll do anything to solve your problem, but it isn't going to hurt anything either.

 

[linds900]

When did you buy your MBP (i.e. What year is it?)? My 2009 had sleep/wake issues that lead to SATA cable problems (the cable that connects the hard drive to the logic board). It's gone away since I stopped taking it to school every day and replaced the battery (also repaired permissions before updating to Mavericks). The sleep/wake issues started long before the battery was noticeably bad though. I'd only had it for maybe a year and a half.

So of your Mac is a 2009 or 2010 and you take it to school or work, you might look into a hard shell case or something. Supposedly the design of those machines and the quality of SATA cable they used don't mix. The cable gets compressed when it's put into a bag with other things like books and wears out over time.

If your Mac is newer, I don't really have an explanation. Starting in 2011 they started using a better SATA cable and changed the internal design a bit. The retina MacBook pros use a different means of connecting the solid state drive to the logic board.

My MBP is a 2010, aluminum hard shell and all. I've had a Speck hard case on it ever since I got it, and whenever I put it in my backpack, it was always in the separate laptop case part. Idk if that affects anything.

I've not updated to Mavericks, since one IT guy at my workplace said it screwed up the operating systems of all the macs there, and I'm not tech savvy enough to retrofit even my iTunes.

I got the mac to be a little more consistent with the sleep/wake issue once I shut it down for a few long periods in a row. It's just that the computer does this every few months.

 

[KUguardgrl13]

My MBP is a 2010, aluminum hard shell and all. I've had a Speck hard case on it ever since I got it, and whenever I put it in my backpack, it was always in the separate laptop case part. Idk if that affects anything.

I've not updated to Mavericks, since one IT guy at my workplace said it screwed up the operating systems of all the macs there, and I'm not tech savvy enough to retrofit even my iTunes.

I got the mac to be a little more consistent with the sleep/wake issue once I shut it down for a few long periods in a row. It's just that the computer does this every few months.

I kept mine in an Incase sleeve and also in the laptop pocket. I don't know if the sleep/wake issue was related to the cable failures, but they seemed to be for me. It wouldn't wake up, I'd hard restart (hold down the power button to shut it off and restart it), then I'd get what's called the "flashing folder of death" meaning the computer can't find the hard drive. Both my local Apple store and an authorized repair shop replaced the cable I mentioned a few times as well as the hard drive itself. The issue seems to have gone away since I upgraded to a newer MacBook Pro and have been leaving the old one at home turned off unless I'm using it to download movies in iTunes.

I'm not sure why Mavericks would cause issues where you work. Could be that you use some older software that requires something called Rosetta that only the older versions of OS X support. Otherwise I'm not sure what issues updating could cause.