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You are here: MacNN Forums > Hardware - Troubleshooting and Discussion > Mac Notebooks > Powerbook Random Sleep...narcolepsy?

Powerbook Random Sleep...narcolepsy?
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mad cow disease
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Join Date: Jan 2005
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Dec 29, 2008, 10:25 AM
 
I started to have a problem earlier this evening where my Powerbook (May 05 1.5 Ghz) would utterly randomly go to sleep, and I'd suddenly be unable to wake it.

I reset PMU, zapped PRAM, ran disk utility, all that jazz but nothing. Problem continues to recur. Sometimes I can wake the PB from sleep, but it will drop back into sleep after a split second or after five minutes or so. I have noticed that the internal fans are kicking in despite the fact I have an Antec Cooler sitting under the thing.

My research indicates that this may be the dreaded narcoleptic powerbook problem related to the heat sensor under the trackpad, and I'm looking for confirmation. Here's what I know:

1.) Temperature monitor reports no input from the trackpad temperature sensor (broken?).

2.) The console records the following:
Dec 29 02:58:13 ACA80167 kernel[0]: PowerManagement emergency overtemp signal. Going to sleep!
Dec 29 02:58:27: --- last message repeated 13 times ---
Dec 29 02:58:27 ACA80167 kernel[0]: PowerManagement emergency overtemp signal. Going to sleep!PowerManagement emergency overtemp signal. Going to sleep!

This information is corroborated with Temperature monitor's records, which show that the sensor intermittently reports ridiculous temperatures like 71C.

3.) The internal fans kick in randomly, which I guess means the computer thinks it's overheating (it clearly isn't).

As far as I can see the solution involves either destroying the heat sensor, removing it using a soldering iron (something I'm not particularly comfortable doing), shelling out $1000 to Apple for a repair (which I'm not doing) or just living with the problem.

Any other suggestions? I suppose a format wouldn't fix this, would it?
     
   
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