[Blue Flame]

Hey PB'ers.

Question: Has anyone ever had the problem of when waking from sleep, the screen goes on, blanks, then goes on again, then fades the same way as when logging out of an account, then goes to normal?

Lately this has been happening to me and it's rather worrisome as it did not do this when I bought it 2 months ago. In addition to this (which i wrote about in another thread and need to get checked out as well) occasionally when i go to wake from sleep it won't wake up, or the computer will have shut itself down of its' own accord whether it's plugged in or on battery power.

Anyone have any insight, or experience with this (these) problem(s)?

Cheers,
Andrew

[ibook_steve]

Do you have an external display that you are attaching or removing during sleep? The backlight going off then fade to blue happens when making a monitor resolution switch or changing between two displays to only one.

Steve

[kafoochy]

My 15" 1.5Ghz does the same thing, although so did my previous 1.25Ghz G4 so I'm not that worried. I can't explain the computer shutting itself off rather than waking from sleep, but it happens rarely for me. The battery is always charged and everything. Crazy! but it's been working fine so I'm not complaining.

[Blue Flame]

nope, never used an external with this one. hmmmmmmm.

[ibook_steve]

I hate to tell you, but it's possible that there is something wrong with the monitor detect signalling on your DVI port. If possible, check the displays menu from time to time to see if your Powerbook thinks that it has an external display attached. The random shutdowns could also be related to this because there is circuitry to work with the soft power buttons on Apple ADC displays. For example, if you have an Apple display attached and hold the soft power button on the display for 5 seconds, the machine will shut down just like holding the power button on your Powerbook. If there's something wrong there, a similar thing could be happening. I think it's time to take that puppy to an Apple store.

Steve

[Blue Flame]

crap. thanks for the info, i'll check that.

[dennisbolt]

Every once and a while when I open from a sleep, it will awake, then go black for 1 second and then bright blue and then awake. Kinda like it blinked and had to think for a second before waking up. I have never thought it was an issue, but then it only happens once in say 15-20 sleeps. I have the newest 17" PB.

[DVD Plaza]

Originally posted by Blue Flame:
Has anyone ever had the problem of when waking from sleep, the screen goes on, blanks, then goes on again, then fades the same way as when logging out of an account, then goes to normal?

That's normal. What's happened is that, while closed, your PowerBook awoke itself from sleep - unplugging/inserting a USB device, wiggling an external mouse, etc will do this.

Since the PowerBook has woken up with the lid CLOSED, OSX sets itself to EXCLUSIVELY use the EXTERNAL DISPLAY (eg not mirror, not span, but only use the external). For this it obviously changes display settings, resolution, etc.

After a few moments OSX realises that the PowerBook is actually closed, nothing is happening, and that perhaps it shouldn't be awake. Your PowerBook then goes back to sleep.

Upon your return you open your PowerBook and the machine wakes up, OSX instantly appears on your screen, but then:

1. OSX realises you were setup for external monitor
2. Fades out the screen (in the logout fashion)
3. Display shuts off
4. OSX reconfigures for use with internal display (even though it was using it anyway)
5. Display reactivates
6. Screen fades back on

I get this all the time if my cat jumps on the table and kicks my wireless mouse around - basically the flashing of my display dobs her in

[Blue Flame]

i get what your saying, and it sounds plausible except for two things:

1) I don't use any external things with the computer, no mouse, no keyboard, no monitor.......ever.

2) This has happened with my computer on my desk with no changing of plugs (i.e. power, etc...) and nothing to bump it; i have no animals and it's happened overnight (i.e. I put it to sleep, went to bed, woke up in the morning and it was off).

I think there may be something wrong with the port, or with the latch on my PB. Here's an additional question for you PBers: When your PB is closed and you press on the top of the lid, is there any up and down play in it? Because if I shut my PB and then press on the top of the lid, it will move up and down slightly, whereas on my TiBook there is no play whatsoever. What I don't know is whether this is due to the new latch design or not. Maybe i'll go to the store tomorrow and see how their 17PB feels....

Thanks for the help all, if anyone else has comments I'd welcome more ideas

[DVD Plaza]

Originally posted by Blue Flame:
When your PB is closed and you press on the top of the lid, is there any up and down play in it? Because if I shut my PB and then press on the top of the lid, it will move up and down slightly, whereas on my TiBook there is no play whatsoever.

My AlBook has around 1mm of play in it but my TiBook has no play in it - just different designs I've never been concerned about it.

[Blue Flame]

yeah, i went to the bookstore today and theirs had the same play.......no worries i suppose

[wuzup101]

You could get some of these if you're worried about the play on your display.

[Blue Flame]

yeah, i saw those, i may actually pick some of those up.


So to get offtrack a bit: has anyone used them?


To get back on track: I took my PB into the store today and they reset the PMU and PRAM to see if that would fix it....

[simonjames]

did flashing the PRAM fix the problem?

I also get a screen problem intermittently but mine only wakes up when I hit the F2 screen brightness control

[Blue Flame]

i think it worked......it's definitely better as far as not waking up or flashing the screen when doing so. we'll see what happens.....

[simonjames]

I read in an Apple kbase article that flashing the PRAM doesn't affect monitor control but resetting the power management unit (PMU) might fix the problem. All this came from a helpful Apple Support guy and so I tried this last night and after 4 sleeps the unit hasn't had the screen problem - time will tell.

[simonjames]

time told - neither worked. Will call Apple again tomorrow and post what they say.