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Eriamjh · Dec 4, 2011, 09:46 PM

I need some professional OSX help and I've exhausted my leads and need someone with the skills to move forward.

I have two Macs running OSX, one Lion, one SL, that will not go to sleep by themselves. They sleep manually (Command-Ctrl-Eject) and stay asleep, but will not go to sleep based on energy preferences.

All I can say is a long time ago (about 2006) when this problem first cropped up, it was after I installed something. It's been too long ago to say what. Whatever it is that is preventing auto-sleep, it gets copied over each time I buy a new mac and use migration assistant. If I create a new user, it still won't sleep for that user, so it has to be something that's not user-dependent. It's buried deep inside OSX.

I've done a lot of searching on the internet and I have determined that it is likely not a process keeping it awake. All the processes are 64-bit and my first iMac was a CD iMac which predated 64 bit OSX.

It's not printer or internet sharing. It's all off.

Running pmset -g assertions says that I have no Kernal Assertions running. However, it says that EnableIdleSleep is 1, but I don't know what that means. Does it mean something is preventing EnableIdleSleep or that it is set (just not working)?

I don't know how to check logs to see what is what as I am not a UNIX expert in any way. If you ask me to check something, please give reasonable instructions on how to do that as i may not know how to do it. I can use terminal but don't know exactly where everything might be to check.

Anywhoo, all help is appreciated. I want to nail this problem once and for all.

Thanks, in advance.

Linda101 · Dec 4, 2011, 11:51 PM

Has anyone ever found a reason or fix for this problem? I'm having the same problem.

I tried pretty much everything. It HAS to be some sort of process or something.

Is there an way to programmatically monitor the sleep timer, to see, when it gets reset? Not even by what, just when, maybe that gives an indication to what it might be.

I would really like to fix that, without having to reinstall the entire system.

placebo1969 · Dec 5, 2011, 12:54 AM

This happens to me every so often. It used to happen more, but not as much recently. This is what I do. Delete these preferences:

/Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.PowerManagement.plist

/Users/username/Library/Preferences/com.apple.systemuiserver.plist

/Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.AutoWake.plist

You may not have that last preference. After trashing the preferences, restart. You may have to readjust your Energy Saver preferences.

reader50 · Dec 5, 2011, 01:38 AM

It's nice to see classic Mac troubleshooting. Trash corrupted preference files, and it might just fix the problem. Good suggestion.

Do your Macs start to sleep, then wake right back up? That could be caused by a USB hub or device that powers down slightly after the Mac does. Which would count as a USB event, and the Mac would wake up to handle it. I've lost track of how many times I've turned off the printer or scanner, or unplugged a USB flashdrive after sleeping. Only to have my Mac wake up. Even though the flashdrive had been unmounted earlier.

besson3c · Dec 5, 2011, 01:46 AM

Have you tried some warm milk?

Eriamjh · 10:45 AM

Originally Posted by placebo1969

This happens to me every so often. It used to happen more, but not as much recently. This is what I do. Delete these preferences:

/Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.PowerManagement.plist

/Users/username/Library/Preferences/com.apple.systemuiserver.plist

/Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.AutoWake.plist

You may not have that last preference. After trashing the preferences, restart. You may have to readjust your Energy Saver preferences.

Did that. No change. Didn't work.

Originally Posted by besson3c

Have you tried some warm milk?

Worked for me. Can't find the milk port on the iMac.

I just tried booting into Safe Mode and it STILL would not sleep by itself! WTF!

P · Dec 5, 2011, 01:20 PM

This comes up every now and then. I have the same thing, and in my case it's due to a third-party mouse that doesn't stay precisely still, preventing sleep. I live with it because I like the mouse.

Waragainstsleep · Dec 5, 2011, 01:34 PM

First of all as P suggests try sleeping the Mac with only Apple keyboard and/or mouse connected to USB. No other peripherals and no network cable if possible. See if it sleeps under those conditions.

If you are still getting spontaneous immediate waking, fire up the Console app in Utilities and check the system log for wake events. Post the wake codes here or google them. Should help us narrow things down a bit.

I once had a non-immediate wake issue with my PowerMac G4. Now and then I would come home to find it had woken itself up and my girlfriend as the time claimed it wasn't her. Turned out to be one of the cats walking across the keyboard.

Eriamjh · 05:55 PM

Originally Posted by Waragainstsleep

First of all as P suggests try sleeping the Mac with only Apple keyboard and/or mouse connected to USB. No other peripherals and no network cable if possible. See if it sleeps under those conditions.

That's easy for the Macbook. Nothing connected, not even via bluetooth (which is off).

If you are still getting spontaneous immediate waking, fire up the Console app in Utilities and check the system log for wake events. Post the wake codes here or google them. Should help us narrow things down a bit.

The system log doesn't appear to update when the laptop should be going to sleep. Whatever is supposed to trigger manual sleep doesn't appear to be triggering. The screen goes black, the light come on, but it never pulses indicating sleep. It sleeps manually with no inadvertent wake ups.

I'll try an SMC reset for the heck of it (I had an SMC fan speed controller installed at one time).

Eriamjh · Dec 5, 2011, 05:56 PM

That fixed it! Removing the SMC fan speed controller and resetting the SMC appears to have fixed it on my Macbook!

I'll look if I had the SMC program on my iMac 27" i7 and if I did, I'll delete it, and reset SMC.

Eriamjh · Dec 5, 2011, 09:58 PM

1 for 2 so far. The iMac still has insomnia. I'll have to dig deeper on that one.

Eriamjh · Dec 11, 2011, 12:59 PM

Thanks for everyone's advice. I checked the console and found some "things" not loading and some kind of Little Snitch respawning every 10 seconds, deleted a few more things (ancient PPC drivers, prefs for old programs, parallels garbage, uninstalled Little Snitch, etc.) and now my iMac goes to sleep also! Not really sure what the culprit was, but I have it sleeping on its own and, as a bonus, I got my old Canon Lide30 scanner working in Snow Leopard (hasn't worked since Leopard) using SANE.

Huzzah!