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PowerMac G5 Insomnia

A.Goldberg

A.Goldberg

macrumors 68030
Original poster
Jan 31, 2015
2,557
9,725
Boston
Hi Everyone,

So I've noticed now that I have my G5 up and running that it appears to be suffering from what I would classify as 'idiopathic chronic onset insomnia'- That is an ongoing difficulty falling asleep with out unknown origin. And once asleep, the G5 has no problem staying asleep. I have tried a couple fixes and since then only on couple occasions I have found it sound asleep.

1) Checked to make sure software is up to date - yes, it is
2) Verified and repaired permissions
3) Successfully reset PMU or whatever they call it on the G5
4) Checked startup items - only thing is our iTunes Helper friend

Any other suggestions? I do have file and printer sharing turned on. Do you think that might cause interference?

I am a PharmD (pharmacist) so I've considered perhaps some Ambien or trazadone but I don't know the proper route of administration. Perhaps playing some meditation videos in Quicktime might help?
 
Last edited:
A.Goldberg said:
Hi Everyone,

So I've noticed now that I have my G5 up and running that it appears to be suffering from what I would classify as 'idiopathic chronic onset insomnia'- That is an ongoing difficulty falling asleep with out unknown origin. And once asleep, the G5 has no problem staying asleep. I have tried a couple fixes and since then only on couple occasions I have found it sound asleep.

1) Checked to make sure software is up to date - yes, it is
2) Verified and repaired permissions
3) Successfully reset PMU or whatever they call it on the G5
4) Checked startup items - only thing is our iTunes Helper friend

Any other suggestions? I do have file and printer sharing turned on. Do you think that might cause interference?

I am a PharmD (pharmacist) so I've considered perhaps some Ambien or trazadone but I don't know the proper route of administration. Perhaps playing some meditation videos in Quicktime might help?
Click to expand...
Do you have any third party PCI USB cards installed?

I've found those to be a main source of this. Some boards don't allow sleep. That seems to be the case with my Sonnet in my G4. Unfortunately for me, I can force my Mac to sleep but then I just get a coma from which the patient never wakes except with a forced restart.
 
Do you by any chance have a flashed video card? Ive read that some cards once they are flashed don't allow the machine to come out of sleep
 
eyoungren said:
Do you have any third party PCI USB cards installed?

I've found those to be a main source of this. Some boards don't allow sleep. That seems to be the case with my Sonnet in my G4. Unfortunately for me, I can force my Mac to sleep but then I just get a coma from which the patient never wakes except with a forced restart.
Click to expand...

I actually have experienced this. While my USB 2 card has a NEC chip I installed a USB 1.1 card at one point just cuz i had it and it was NOT a NEC chip when the MDD tried to sleep the USB 1.1 card woke it right back up.
 
Check the sharing settings and make sure Internet Sharing is not on. If it is on the machine won't go to sleep. I had the same problem with my MBP.

Also you didnt say anything about the Energy Saver settings so make sure it is set to sleep in the Energy Saver settings :p
 
The three things I look at when dealing with a Mac that is not sleeping is PCI cards, video cards, and USB devices. I have had a Mac style USB keyboard that would randomly wake the G5 and cause it to KP. Replacing the keyboard fixed the issue. Can you post what video card and USB devices are with this Mac?
 
Internet Sharing is Off
No PCI cards installed
Video Card is the standard GeForce FX 5200 Ultra

And yes, Energy Settings are set to induce sleep.


USB Devices
Current Style Apple USB keyboard- aluminum with white chicklet keys
USB Apple Mighty Mouse (I noticed they don't use this name anymore)
23" Apple Cinema HD display
HP LaserJet 1012 printer

It is connected to the internet via Ethernet and lacks AP and BT.
 
Last edited:
My troublesome DP original G5 has a similar issue, it will refuse to go to sleep and an image will remain on the screen. My thoughts turn to the GPU as well, which is the stock Radeon 9600.
 
It has no problem turning off the screen and it will sleep if I manually tell it to do so, it's just the automatic function.
 
A.Goldberg said:
Internet Sharing is Off
No PCI cards installed
Video Card is the standard GeForce FX 5200 Ultra

And yes, Energy Settings are set to induce sleep.


USB Devices
Current Style Apple USB keyboard- aluminum with white chicklet keys
USB Apple Mighty Mouse (I noticed they don't use this name anymore)
23" Apple Cinema HD display
HP LaserJet 1012 printer

It is connected to the internet via Ethernet and lacks AP and BT.
Click to expand...
Is it the Acrylic Display with the ADC plug? If so, what happens if you hook the Mac to a different display using the DVI port?
Maybe read through this discussion.
 
It looks like I've had some success...

I deleted /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.PowerManagement.plist
/Users/username/Library/Preferences/com.apple.systemuiserver.plist

She's now sound asleep (still using the Cinema HD display)
 
A.Goldberg said:
It looks like I've had some success...

I deleted /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.PowerManagement.plist
/Users/username/Library/Preferences/com.apple.systemuiserver.plist

She's now sound asleep (still using the Cinema HD display)
Click to expand...

Wow, glad it was something software related, rather than hardware. Enjoy your sleeping beauty.
 
A.Goldberg said:
It looks like I've had some success...

I deleted /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.PowerManagement.plist
/Users/username/Library/Preferences/com.apple.systemuiserver.plist

She's now sound asleep (still using the Cinema HD display)
Click to expand...

I can't put my eMac to sleep cuz when i do it pinwheels and locks up. Any suggestions for that?
 
MatthewLTL said:
I can't put my eMac to sleep cuz when i do it pinwheels and locks up. Any suggestions for that?
Click to expand...


Does this happen when you manually put it to sleep, when it is automatically set to sleep, or both? What OS are you running?

1. Try Restoring Permissions in the Disk Utility
2. Try Resetting the PMU - I believe in the EMAC the button is underneath in the compartment that houses the RAM
3. Consider all possible settings or programs that could interfere with sleep mode- waking for faxes or network access, etc
4. If you have 10.5.8 I suppose you could attempt deleting the following files (if they exist) followed by a restart, as they should regenerate:
-/Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.PowerManagement.plist
-/Users/username/Library/Preferences/com.apple.systemuiserver.plis
-/Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.AutoWake.plist
5. Reinstall the OS, somehow I sense this is your best bet, but the other 4 steps are easy enough to try

6. Try Quetiapine Fumarate
 
A.Goldberg said:
Does this happen when you manually put it to sleep, when it is automatically set to sleep, or both? What OS are you running?

1. Try Restoring Permissions in the Disk Utility
2. Try Resetting the PMU - I believe in the EMAC the button is underneath in the compartment that houses the RAM
3. Consider all possible settings or programs that could interfere with sleep mode- waking for faxes or network access, etc
4. If you have 10.5.8 I suppose you could attempt deleting the following files (if they exist) followed by a restart, as they should regenerate:
-/Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.PowerManagement.plist
-/Users/username/Library/Preferences/com.apple.systemuiserver.plis
-/Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.AutoWake.plist
5. Reinstall the OS, somehow I sense this is your best bet, but the other 4 steps are easy enough to try

6. Try Quetiapine Fumarate
Click to expand...

does it with both ever since i put a 7200PRM 80GB TiVo HDD in it
 
MatthewLTL said:
does it with both ever since i put a 7200PRM 80GB TiVo HDD in it
Click to expand...

If nothing above that I posted works I would wipe the drive entirely and reformat it. Then reinstall the OS. See where that takes you.

If I remember correctly...
1) Back up everything
2) Put in OS install disc and restart
3) Start computer and hold down C
4) The computer will boot off of the disc. I think you then have to go to the menu bar at the top and somewhere up there you open Disc Utility
5) Erase the drive and reformat it to Mac OS Extended Journaled
6) Reinstall OS

Hopefully that will solve your problem. How did you originally load OS X onto the hard drive? A clean install or a clone?
 
A.Goldberg said:
If nothing above that I posted works I would wipe the drive entirely and reformat it. Then reinstall the OS. See where that takes you.

If I remember correctly...
1) Back up everything
2) Put in OS install disc and restart
3) Start computer and hold down C
4) The computer will boot off of the disc. I think you then have to go to the menu bar at the top and somewhere up there you open Disc Utility
5) Erase the drive and reformat it to Mac OS Extended Journaled
6) Reinstall OS

Hopefully that will solve your problem. How did you originally load OS X onto the hard drive? A clean install or a clone?
Click to expand...

Being that it was a TiVo HDD wiping and formatting it was a nacessity to even install OS X

EDIT: I did what yor suggested my removing plist files now it just sits at the apple logo with the spinner
 
Last edited:
MatthewLTL said:
Being that it was a TiVo HDD wiping and formatting it was a nacessity to even install OS X

EDIT: I did what yor suggested my removing plist files now it just sits at the apple logo with the spinner
Click to expand...

Yes but you could have formatted the drive and installed the new OS, or formatted the drive a copied a clone of the previous hard drive. I assume this problem existed since the first time it attempted to sleep after installing the new hard drive? If you used a clone and the clone was corrupt that could be the cause.

The plist files are supposed to regenerate upon restarting the computer. It sounds like at the minimum you have some seriously corrupted software. Perhaps try reposting your issue in the PPC to draw some more attention. Maybe some other members could chime in about possible hardware related issues or if they have any other thoughts.
 
Didn't check the option in preferences.

My G4 MDD would go to sleep at the allotted set time, but to wake it up I'd have to pull the plug and restart. Then I started turning off the feature in the preferences (light bulb) and set it so in 15 minutes it would go to sleep, but did not allow the hard drive to be put to sleep. Now there is no problem.

Patt
 
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