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SEkker · Feb 27, 2005, 01:47 PM

I have a revA PB17 that is suffering from wake from sleep issues now that I have updated to 10.3.8. It is so bad I am not sure why I bother putting the machine to sleep -- probably 40% of the time, it does not wake up properly (keyboard does not work, or cursor is missing, etc). I cannot find a common source of the problem - I do take the machine from home to work and vice versa, and I have a lot of different peripherals, which I was assuming was the main source of problems. But today, I just put it to sleep at home, only using a BT mouse, and when I tried to wake it up, the internal trackpad and keyboard did not work. Hence, the peripheral hypothesis is not the simple solution.

Now, here's the question: I have a 10.3.7 backup (always make a CCC backup before I update), made a couple weeks ago. But the hassle of converging my new doc folder with this older OS seems like a lot of work to make sure I did everything right, when I could always just shut the machine down when I'm not using it. Hence, this is a convenience issue.

Or should I just live with it until Apple releases a fix? My big concern is that there is something insidious creeping into my defective Mac each time I'm forced to restart. Let me know your thoughts.

ibook_steve · Feb 27, 2005, 03:51 PM

How about just a clean archive and install and update? No harm in that. Restarts don't do anything bad.

Steve

SEkker · Feb 27, 2005, 04:23 PM

'Doh!

I always forget - every recent OS update has broken the print drivers for the HP color laserjet. So I install the drivers, but forget to repair permissions from the mess the HP installer leaves behind (the printer drivers from the OS X disk has several printing bugs in it).

The plan to go ahead and reinstall the OS is a good one -- if this permissions repair (followed by a disk warrior cleanup and subsequent repaired permissions) does not leave me with a usable OS. Thanks for the suggestion.

iREZ · Feb 28, 2005, 12:24 AM

I hate how the cursor disappears after sleep!!!!!

.

omarv · Feb 28, 2005, 04:38 PM

I did a clean reinstall of the update. it doesn't help on my 12" PB.

This is an awful update, almost as bad as when the quicktime update caused external harddrives to get fried and apple had to pay for everyone to get disk recovery services done.

SEkker · Feb 28, 2005, 06:04 PM

I have too much to do to properly troubleshoot this problem, but if it recurs, I'm probably not going to go past 10.3.7 in any new OS install.

I hope Apple sends out a fix soon - the lack of sleep really hampers the mobility of a laptop.

SEkker · Mar 19, 2005, 01:55 PM

UPDATE:

There was a posting at Macintouch -- in their case, the issue is coupled with the power management system.

Here's what I've done: always disconnect or reconnect the power while the computer is awake. THEN I put it to sleep while the computer is in battery mode.

Ever since I did this, the only time I had the wake from sleep problem was when I forgot, and the keyboard 'crashed' right after I plugged it in.

Sounds like a pretty easy fix for Apple, I just wish they'd release a 10.3.8b OS release rather than make all of us wait for their penultimate Panther release, 10.3.9.

If I figure anything more out, I'll post.

SCE

amazing · Mar 19, 2005, 10:20 PM

I don't have any wake-from-sleep problems with my 12" 1.33 in 10.3.8 and I suspect that perhaps you're having a problem with a 3rd party software or hack. Have you tried creating another admin user, plain vanilla, to see if the wake from sleep issue persists? You just keep putting it to sleep, browse for awhile, put it to sleep, browse, read the newspaper, put it sleep, read Salon or Wired, put it to sleep, etc. If that second plain vanilla user is OK, then you've got a user-specific issue in your main logon. You've done fsck, run MacJanitor, used Onyx etc to rotate the logs?

Frankly, if the 10.3.8 update really invalidated sleep in all laptops, there'd be no end to the stink.

The other thing you could do is move all the prefs to a folder on your desktop. If you suspect that it's a system-wide issue, move the prefs from your Sytem/Library folder. If you suspect it's a user-specific issue, move the prefs from your user library folder.

Hani · Mar 20, 2005, 11:56 AM

just wanted to start a new thread but thought my issue is similar,i just got my new 15" 1.67 powerbook, and it has by default 10.3.7, software update is telling me to update to 10.3.8, shall i go for it or not, is that important? i dont have any issues with my trackpad or sleep mode, so everything seems perfect now? shall i omit 10.3.8
thanks

iREZ · Mar 20, 2005, 03:34 PM

My cursor seems to always disappear when I have an external display connected. This isn't due to third party software, this is an Apple software update issue for the fact that I never experienced this problem when I ran 10.3.6, and as soon as I updated to 10.3.7 (and 10.3.8) the problem began again.

amazing · Mar 20, 2005, 03:43 PM

Originally posted by iREZ:
My cursor seems to always disappear when I have an external display connected. This isn't due to third party software, this is an Apple software update issue for the fact that I never experienced this problem when I ran 10.3.6, and as soon as I updated to 10.3.7 (and 10.3.8) the problem began again.

There's another solution that's sometimes helpful, namely fixing a whole variety of ills, most of which you would swear could not be fixed:
You download the combo update and reapply the combo update over the top of your current system. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.

I still wonder if anyone with the above problems has tried the plain vanilla second admin user to see if their problems go away? Again, if the issue is system wide (perhaps because a third party hack has installed something that has system-wide affects) then you'd also want to try deleting the prefs as outlined above.

SEkker · Mar 20, 2005, 04:11 PM

This 'wake from sleep' issue is a confirmed Apple problem with some computers in OS X 10.3.8. There are several nice summaries of people experiencing this problem in the macintouch reader reports. Indeed, the reports from 10.3.9 beta testers indicate this is one area specifically targeted by Apple for improvement in that OS update.

I generally do not use hacks for the very reason they tend to mess up the OS. I've never installed any 3rd party software for my trackpad or mouse. I probably have the fewest 3rd party software on my mac of any one on his forum. I also did not have any problem in a previous OS version thru OS X 10.3.7.

At the same time, I regularly use plenty of peripherals, including an Apple Cinema Display, keyboard, and mice (USB and BT) with my revA PB. I probably tax my power supply more so than the average user.

My specific recommendation is that unless OS X 10.3.8 specifically fixes something you have with your early version of the OS, I cannot recommend you install it. I normally wait some time to make sure the bugs are worked out in these updates, but I mistakenly said 'yes' when the auto update came up for os x 10.3.8. At the same time, users with newer AL PBs that do not plug their macs into any peripherals except an occasional mouse have reported no issues with OS X 10.3.8. Thus, as usual, your mileage may vary.

iREZ · Mar 20, 2005, 08:26 PM

...and as a "just so you know" I wiped my HD and reinstalled everything in Feb. and in the early version of Panther, that is on my system restore disc, ran fine on my computer with all the apps open, but as soon as I installed the combo update I started to see the repercussions right away. I'm really looking forward for 10.3.9, and a fix for this issue.