Sleep display and Windows 7 w/ 27" i5 iMac [Solved]

[Zonyc]

So I've had Windows 7 x64 running on my i5 imac for a few days now and everything is smooth as butter with the exception of sleeping the display or sleeping the entire system. I've done countless searches on this forum and any mac/windows forum I could find but it yielded no solution.

Is anyone else having this issue? The imac refuses to go to sleep regardless of power settings and the screen saver does not work. Forcing the display to sleep with the program Instant Sleep does nothing. It simply turns black for a second and then turns back on. Any advice or solutions would be greatly appreciated! Thank you.

Edit: Problem solved thanks to Crb! See post # 22 for solution.

 

[Matsta]

Wow was just about to create a thread asking the exact same thing.

I'm on Vista x64 and still can't get my 27" to sleep.

 

[Zonyc]

Wow was just about to create a thread asking the exact same thing.

I'm on Vista x64 and still can't get my 27" to sleep.

Lol well at least I'm not alone! I've devised a temporary solution by using a program called hot corners 2 and a black screen saver which seems to work for now. Hopefully somone has a fix or Apple will be supporting Windows 7 boot camp soon.

 

[Zonyc]

Has anyone found a solution to this issue yet?

 

[Yannosh]

SOLUTION FOR YOU, GUYS!

It's called Hot Corners and you can download the trial version here :
http://www.brothersoft.com/hot-corners-64983.html
Don't seems to have any time limit, but I'm not sure...

And it's even better than the sleep display from Snow Leo, bescause when you skip a song with the remote, it does not wakes the screen up!

Isn't it beautiful ?

 

[DoFoT9]

nice thinking, i hope that app works - hate trial versions

 

[Travisimo]

Same issue here with my 27" and windows 7. Hopefully this will be fixed when official boot camp drivers come out. You CAN configure the power button to put the computer to sleep when you press it - that works for me. But no automatic screen saver or sleep, which is a bummer.

 

[Crb]

Yep..I have the same problem with my 27" i5 but didn't get many responses in my thread either. It looks like we are going to have to wait for official driver support for Windows 7....

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/848662/

 

[Crb]

Anyone get a chance to try the 3.1 drivers yet to see if it resolves this issue? I am downloading now so if no one beats me to it, I will post the results here shortly.

 

[Crb]

Well, I just did an update via the Apple Software Update in Windows which installed the bootcamp 3.1 drivers and I am STILL having this issue. Aren't other folks having these same problems with Windows 7 and the 27" i5s?

 

[Zonyc]

Well, I just did an update via the Apple Software Update in Windows which installed the bootcamp 3.1 drivers and I am STILL having this issue. Aren't other folks having these same problems with Windows 7 and the 27" i5s?

Ditto, I'm still having the same problem after the 3.1 update. I've tried almost everything up to this point and have no idea what else to try!

Anyone else out there experiencing this issue with their 27" i5? Step forward and let us know how to fix it

 

[Crb]

Ditto, I'm still having the same problem after the 3.1 update. I've tried almost everything up to this point and have no idea what else to try!

Anyone else out there experiencing this issue with their 27" i5? Step forward and let us know how to fix it

Has anyone tried a fresh Windows 7 install yet with the 3.1 bootcamp drivers? I am wondering if one of the drivers installed from the 3.0 version of bootcamp is causing this issue.

If I have time tonight, I might try to do a fresh install of Windows 7 and ONLY install the bootcamp 3.1 drivers to see if the problem continues (unless someone else already knows the answer to this).

Also, is this happening to anyone with an i7 or C2D or is this only with the i5's?

 

[Zonyc]

Has anyone tried a fresh Windows 7 install yet with the 3.1 bootcamp drivers? I am wondering if one of the drivers installed from the 3.0 version of bootcamp is causing this issue.

If I have time tonight, I might try to do a fresh install of Windows 7 and ONLY install the bootcamp 3.1 drivers to see if the problem continues (unless someone else already knows the answer to this).

Also, is this happening to anyone with an i7 or C2D or is this only with the i5's?

I was just thinking about this too!

Unfortunately I have early midterms this semester and will be busy until the weekend; however, I do intend to try a reinstall soon.

If you do get a chance to try a fresh 7 install, please post your results here and let us know if the problem is resolved. I'll do the same if I beat you to it!

 

[Crb]

If you do get a chance to try a fresh 7 install, please post your results here and let us know if the problem is resolved. I'll do the same if I beat you to it!

Sorry, I was hoping to get home earlier last night to test this but ran out of time. Unfortunately though, that means I probably won't have any time yet until the weekend. I will definitely post the results here if no one beats me to it before then!

 

[Crb]

Just a FYI to other folks having this problem. I did get some free time last night and performed the following tests...

First, reloaded Windows 7 64 (Enterprise) on my bootcamp partition. Then before I did anything else, I tested the screensaver and.... Nothing.

Sooo, I went out and downloaded/updated all the drivers and patches via Windows Update and tested again.....Still Nothing.

I then went and downloaded the bootcamp 3.1 drivers which (unfortunately), you cannot install without first installing the bootcamp 3.0 drivers (3.1 is an upgrade). Once I got this far, I ran out of time to do anything else but this weekend I guess I am going to have to once again, install the 3.0 bootcamp drivers and then upgrade to the 3.1 bootcamp drivers but I don't have a lot of faith that it is actually going to function correctly this time either.

 

[Crb]

Just out of curiosity...what peripherals do you guys have attached to your i5 (different keyboard/mouse, external HDD, etc)? Just curious to see if we all have something in common.

Also, if you are having this trouble, is your Windows 7 install setup on a homegroup?

Also, I still want to know if anyone has an i5 and DOESN'T have this problem?

 

[Zonyc]

Just out of curiosity...what peripherals do you guys have attached to your i5 (different keyboard/mouse, external HDD, etc)? Just curious to see if we all have something in common.

Also, if you are having this trouble, is your Windows 7 install setup on a homegroup?

Also, I still want to know if anyone has an i5 and DOESN'T have this problem?

That sucks about the fresh Win 7 install! Did you use that usb drive procedure that Apple has put up on their site in order to get the correct ATI drivers?

Ok so I have a Drobo (8tb), WD My book (1tb), Razer Death Adder mouse, Apple keyboard, Belkin USB hub x 2, Altec Lansing XA3021 speakers.

I noticed that the mic in the iMac was not working until after I updated to 3.1, so at least thats something I guess...

Also, I should add that I also have a 3.06 ghz C2D iMac (last gen) with the exact same peripherals and Windows 7 install (x64) and it does not have this problem.

 

[Travisimo]

This is a most troubling issue for me on my 27" i5 iMac. Using Windows 7 in Boot Camp is great, but I can't leave my computer in Windows 7 while I am away because of this issue. For the record, the screen saver and sleep mode will activate when I'm in Parallels 5 (where I don't even need or want it, of course). But I've tried everything I can think of and nothing will activate while I am in Boot Camp. So I'm assuming it's a function of the video and/or monitor driver that is causing this problem since Parallels uses it's own drivers?

I can get the computer to go to sleep by assigning "Sleep" to the power button. If I press Power on my iMac, the computer will sleep. Unfortunately, sometimes it wakes up by itself and when I come back after some time, the screen is on without a screen saver or anything.

 

[Zonyc]

This is a most troubling issue for me on my 27" i5 iMac. Using Windows 7 in Boot Camp is great, but I can't leave my computer in Windows 7 while I am away because of this issue. For the record, the screen saver and sleep mode will activate when I'm in Parallels 5 (where I don't even need or want it, of course). But I've tried everything I can think of and nothing will activate while I am in Boot Camp. So I'm assuming it's a function of the video and/or monitor driver that is causing this problem since Parallels uses it's own drivers?

I can get the computer to go to sleep by assigning "Sleep" to the power button. If I press Power on my iMac, the computer will sleep. Unfortunately, sometimes it wakes up by itself and when I come back after some time, the screen is on without a screen saver or anything.

I have my power button assigned to sleep as well but I've noticed that after sleeping it twice it no longer wakes up and requires a reboot by holding the power button down (which the Drobo despises). Have you noticed an issue like this?

 

[Travisimo]

I have my power button assigned to sleep as well but I've noticed that after sleeping it twice it no longer wakes up and requires a reboot by holding the power button down (which the Drobo despises). Have you noticed an issue like this?

I haven't had that happen yet, but it's pretty obvious that power management is broken in boot camp with the new iMacs. And we waited so long for the boot camp update too.... it's a shame this didn't get fixed.

 

[Crb]

Well I did some more testing last night and I am still having trouble...

I installed the bootcamp drivers (3.0 and then upgraded to 3.1) and I then used the following command from a elevated command prompt...

powercfg -energy

which creates a file that shows I have about 14 problems entering powersave. Most of the problem relate to USB (I will only list a couple)...

USB Suspend:USB Device not Entering Suspend
The USB device did not enter the Suspend state. Processor power management may be prevented if a USB device does not enter the Suspend state when not in use.
Device Name USB Root Hub
Host Controller ID PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_3B3C
Host Controller Location PCI bus 0, device 26, function 7
Device ID USB\VID_8086&PID_3B3C
Port Path

USB Suspend:USB Device not Entering Suspend
The USB device did not enter the Suspend state. Processor power management may be prevented if a USB device does not enter the Suspend state when not in use.
Device Name Apple IR Receiver
Host Controller ID PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_3B34
Host Controller Location PCI bus 0, device 29, function 7
Device ID USB\VID_05AC&PID_8242
Port Path 1,2

Out of curiosity, I unplugged all of my USB devices (Wireless Mouse and External HD) and the problem still occurs but when I see things like the second error I posted, it makes me wonder if I can do anything but wait for Apple to release proper drivers since the current ones don't work.

Now, with that said, I have a couple more issues causing the computer to not be able to go to sleep and these are a bit more troubling...

CPU Utilizationrocessor utilization is high
The average processor utilization during the trace was high. The system will consume less power when the average processor utilization is very low. Review processor utilization for individual processes to determine which applications and services contribute the most to total processor utilization.
Average Utilization (%) 41.33

Platform Power Management Capabilities:ACPI _PSD Object Failed Validation
There is a problem with the definition of the ACPI _PSD object on this computer. Installing the latest system firmware (BIOS) may resolve this issue.
Group 0
Index 0

After seeing this, I checked task manager and sure enough, when I am running Windows 7 on my i5, my system is constantly using about 30% CPU for two processes....one is "System" and the other is "MsMpEng.exe".

Are you other folks seeing your CPU utilization high even at idle in Windows 7?

Anyway, I wish I had a fix but all I have are more problems. Like I said though, unfortunately, I think these are going to require new driver fixes from Apple before this will run properly.

 

[Crb]

I FOUND THE SOLUTION!!!!!

And it is all kinds of stupid....

First, I uninstalled Microsoft Security Essentials and the "MsMpEng.exe" process went away but the "System" process was still going at around 25% percent. Further investigation showed that I had 1 core of the i5 running at 100% utilization so after some research, I figured out what was causing it (this is where it gets ridiculous)....


Unplug your speakers. yep...that's it,just unplug your speakers...


I can only assume it is a bad sound driver or something because this doesn't occur in OSX.

After the magic "fix" of unplugging the external speakers, I re-installed security essentials and that "MsMpEng.exe" process no longer consumes any resources at idle so this weird speaker issue must have been conflicting with that as well.

Then came the true test, will the screensaver work.....

YES!!!

I assume this same "fix" will work for everyone and I read somewhere else that if you plug your speakers in, and then slightly pull them out of the jack, the CPU utilization will drop back to 0 and still allow you to play audio through them but I haven't tested that yet. Or you could just use the internal speakers (which I really hate to have to do)

Anyway, post back and let me know if the same "solution" works for you guys.

Edit: I just found this support discussion at Apple's site for the headphone jack CPU problem thingy if anyone is interested...

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2239832&start=0&tstart=0

Edit2: I just tried the other solution I posted about pulling the speaker cable just slightly out of the port and it does work. CPU utilization drops back to 0. You literally only pull it out like a millimeter. Weird....

 

[Zonyc]

I FOUND THE SOLUTION!!!!!

And it is all kinds of stupid....

First, I uninstalled Microsoft Security Essentials and the "MsMpEng.exe" process went away but the "System" process was still going at around 25% percent. Further investigation showed that I had 1 core of the i5 running at 100% utilization so after some research, I figured out what was causing it (this is where it gets ridiculous)....


Unplug your speakers. yep...that's it,just unplug your speakers...


I can only assume it is a bad sound driver or something because this doesn't occur in OSX.

After the magic "fix" of unplugging the external speakers, I re-installed security essentials and that "MsMpEng.exe" process no longer consumes any resources at idle so this weird speaker issue must have been conflicting with that as well.

Then came the true test, will the screensaver work.....

YES!!!

I assume this same "fix" will work for everyone and I read somewhere else that if you plug your speakers in, and then slightly pull them out of the jack, the CPU utilization will drop back to 0 and still allow you to play audio through them but I haven't tested that yet. Or you could just use the internal speakers (which I really hate to have to do)

Anyway, post back and let me know if the same "solution" works for you guys.

Edit: I just found this support discussion at Apple's site for the headphone jack CPU problem thingy if anyone is interested...

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2239832&start=0&tstart=0

Edit2: I just tried the other solution I posted about pulling the speaker cable just slightly out of the port and it does work. CPU utilization drops back to 0. You literally only pull it out like a millimeter. Weird....

Crb, you're a genius! For more than a month I've struggled with this problem and it turns out its a simple headphone jack/driver issue!

I just pulled my speaker cable and cpu 3 dropped down from 100% to less than 10 and the best part of all is that the display finally stays asleep! It's interesting that that this slipped past apple as I've read quite a few boot camp threads where people have described one cpu running at full bore.

I'm curious Crb, what did Windows Live Essentials have to do with the sleep? I'm running avira and had the same issue as you.

I'm going to mess around with some audio drivers and see if I can find a working one that doesn't invove pulling the speaker wire out of the machine. I can't seem to pull it out 1 mm without the speakers reverting to the (horrible) sounding iMac speakers.

I appreciate your perseverance in this matter Crb. Thank you very much again

 

[Crb]

I'm curious Crb, what did Windows Live Essentials have to do with the sleep? I'm running avira and had the same issue as you.

Not really sure but whatever issue that driver has with speakers being plugged in must somehow react with Antivirus applications since the same thing happened to use with a completely different AV app. The good news is once you unplug your speakers, the AV utilization drops as well (no idea what causes the actual conflict though)

I'm going to mess around with some audio drivers and see if I can find a working one that doesn't invove pulling the speaker wire out of the machine. I can't seem to pull it out 1 mm without the speakers reverting to the (horrible) sounding iMac speakers.

I appreciate your perseverance in this matter Crb. Thank you very much again

No Problem....glad to have it fixed myself. If you have any luck finding some audio drivers that work, please update this post. Hopefully Apple will find the solution to their audio drivers and get this fixed (along with the 16-bit colors in the video driver problem...that is an entirely different matter though..there are other threads on that)

BTW Zonyc....any chance on updating the original subject of this topic and adding a [Solved] or something so others know to look in here for the "solution"?

 

[Travisimo]

Holy cow! I can't believe you figured that out! That's awesome! This solved the exact problem I was having. I would have NEVER thought it had anything to do with having external speakers plugged into my iMac. As soon as I unplugged the speakers, the computer will now sleep and the screen saver works. And I took had the 30% CPU usage while the speakers are plugged in - that's just crazy!

ALL is not well, I'm afraid. One time already, the computer went to sleep but would not wake back up. I had to hold down the power button and reboot. Strangely, I got the message "resuming Windows" instead of "starting Windows" but I know for sure it was just on "sleep", not "hibernate". I might try just sleeping the display, not the whole computer and see if the same thing happens.

Obviously, I don't want to do a reboot every time to wake up the computer while in Windows. But if sleeping the display works without issue, that will be good enough for me until Apple addresses this problem.

Anyway, thanks for all the work and posting the work-around for this problem!