[hldan]

I wondered if anyone has experienced this issue. My 17" Powerbook 1.33Ghz runs beautifully, however when I close the lid and after an hour or so I open up the lid and all I get is a black screen. I hear the HDD running but nothing else. I end up holding down the power button forcing the Powerbook to shut down and then starting it back up and all is well but then it will randomly not wake up after sleep. I still get the same black screen but I can still hear the HDD running like before.
It seems to be 17" 1.33Ghz specific because I had the 1Ghz 17" and I currently have the FP iMac and this hasn't happened on those models. I'm not sure if this is Panther specific.
Has anyone else experienced this and is there a fix?
HELP!

[jeffrey_z]

i have a similiar/same problem with my 15" running 10.2.8. Have you fixed yours?

[mattyd]

this might sound stupid, but have you tried waiting a minute or so before restarting? i only ask because i've had similar issues with my TiBook, but only after disconnecting a second monitor. when i open the lid, the screen will be black, but after a minute or so it figures out which monitor its supposed to be using and the screen comes to life.

just a thought.

[Fothb]

I've had some random problems with my PowerBook not properly waking up when I had the password prompt turned on (to where a password is required to wake up). I've also heard from someone that had the opposite scenario (turning the password option on helped).

I'm assuming that your battery is fully charged when this happens? (if your PowerBook has drained all the way down, it won't wake up again until you provide it with AC power) Maybe try the password thing...

[gperks]

Seen this too. Black screen, F2 (brighten the screen) does nothing. The Sleep light is not on. I can shut and open the lid all day and it won't turn on.

Seems to happen when I shut the lid and pull the power plug at more or less the same time. I notice that doing that, it can take 15s or so to go to sleep (gong by the sleep light). Perhaps sometimes it never actually goes properly to sleep in this situation. But normally I wait to see the sleep light before popping the (15" 1.25) powerbook into its bag.

Once in a while waiting will let it go to sleep then I can awaken it normally. Yesterday though, I had to hold down the power switch.

10.3.2.

[stotan]

Originally posted by hldan:
I wondered if anyone has experienced this issue. My 17" Powerbook 1.33Ghz runs beautifully, however when I close the lid and after an hour or so I open up the lid and all I get is a black screen. I hear the HDD running but nothing else. I end up holding down the power button forcing the Powerbook to shut down and then starting it back up and all is well but then it will randomly not wake up after sleep. I still get the same black screen but I can still hear the HDD running like before.
It seems to be 17" 1.33Ghz specific because I had the 1Ghz 17" and I currently have the FP iMac and this hasn't happened on those models. I'm not sure if this is Panther specific.
Has anyone else experienced this and is there a fix?
HELP!

I dont know if this is the same thing your experiencing, but sometimes I open up the lid to wake it up, and the password screen comes on, so i type my password, but then it just goes back to sleep. I move the mouse around, or hit some keys on the keyboard but it does not respond. However, if i just hold the power button down for a second (like you would when you want to turn on the computer), it wakes back up, asks me to type my password again, and upon typing the password it actually brings me back to my desktop screen.

btw i run panther 10.3.2 but have had this problem from all versions of panther

[kaymac]

I have a 2 week old powerbook G4 12" Combo AL and have had an almost identical problem occur 3 times now. Each time the PB has gone to sleep and there's a DVD in the player. On wakeup, I'm prompted for my password and I enter it. The password dialog box goes away and I'm left with a black screen although I can see and move the mouse pointer. The only sol'n I've found so far is to power down and up but that's kind of harsh.

[malcolmosx]

Originally Posted by hldan

I wondered if anyone has experienced this issue. My 17" Powerbook 1.33Ghz runs beautifully, however when I close the lid and after an hour or so I open up the lid and all I get is a black screen. I hear the HDD running but nothing else. I end up holding down the power button forcing the Powerbook to shut down and then starting it back up and all is well but then it will randomly not wake up after sleep. I still get the same black screen but I can still hear the HDD running like before.
It seems to be 17" 1.33Ghz specific because I had the 1Ghz 17" and I currently have the FP iMac and this hasn't happened on those models. I'm not sure if this is Panther specific.
Has anyone else experienced this and is there a fix?
HELP!

The only option for me is to hold the power key down.( Powerbook 17" 1GHz)
after 5-7 secs it turns off- then reboot.

Any fixes posted?

MOSX

[jamito]

i use to have this problem, not anymore since i have done a fresh install in tiger. i never came across a solution, but a trick i found to get the black screen to show somehting is plug in your dvi/vga adapter into your powerbook. i think the problem has to do with the fact that the powerbook thinks you have an external monitor connected to it. when you plug in the dvi/vga connection you force it to look for any connected monitors and then it discovers your powerbook's lcd. one thing i never tried but might work is command-f2. this is the key shortcut to detect displays. that also might work.

oscar

[Dave Hagan]

Count me in as well. I too have a 17" PowerBook, but it's a 1.5GHz Rev C model. I thought it was my PowerBook being quirky since it's been back to Apple 3 times for repairs. I have password on wakeup turned on. I haven't connected it to an external display or disconnected it from the power adapter when it does it. It's just random enough to be annoying.

[Highway of Life]

I believe I have a fix for this,

Are all of you running OSX 10.3.1-10.3.6 or 10.3.8-10.3.9 or 10.4?

If you are, you have to downgrade to OSX 10.3.7, if you need further instructions, reply to this message.

Highway of LIfe

[osxisfun]

more info?

[Highway of Life]

Re-install Mac OS X 10.3.0 from the install disc, first I did an Archive and install, but kept the prefs for my users.

Everything worked fine as far as the sleep problem, but some of my apps would no longer work, re-installing them did no good either.

I went back and re-installed system 10.3.0 Archive, but this time I did not keep the user prefs.

I then downloaded the Mac OS X 10.3.7 Combined Update.
http://www.apple.com/support/downloa...te_10_3_7.html

It worked!

All I had to do was go into the previous system and extract all my prefs and application support from both the system Library and the User Library.
Everything works perfectly now.

You should also follow the Digi-Design okay Operating System list. They will approve the system before you should install it.
Mac OSX 10.3.0 was approved, but 3.1 - 3.6 was not approved.
3.7 is approved, and 3.8 and 3.9 are not approved as well.

Highway of Life

[Highway of Life]

If you have the problem with the screen flushing with a dark purple or simular color, the above fix will solve that issue as well.

Highway of LIfe

[Highway of Life]

Here is a simular problem and fix from apple support.

Originally Posted by GACjumper

Highway and all

I had this problem immediately after installing 10.3.8. Sometimes it appears with what looks like a greenish aurora spreading across the screen. 10.3.8 supposedly has updates to the graphics card drivers which some hypothesize may be the culprit. I Think I was one of the first to start a thread and have not seen a fix yet other than an archive and install. did an archive and re-install to 10.3.4 and then upgraded with combo updater to 10.3.7, since I had never had a problem with this version.

All of my problems have since gone away and I will not return to 10.3.8. The archive and install is an option on the install DVD and I did not have to recopy any preferences. Nothing changed whatsoever and it was quite painless. Thanks for the tip on digi design highway, I checked here for any problems before I upgraded to 10.3.8 and did not find any so I will wait for a longer time on the next release and check Digi-Design.

Best of luck

[osxisfun]

thanks.

not sure if i want to go from 10.4 to 10.3.7

I'll check out the apple boards too - keep an eye on them

[leperkuhn]

I have the same issue with my g4 tower. i put it to sleep at night, only to find it going absolutely nuts in the morning. or, if i let it sleep for a little while, it'll sort of wake up but no video will show. i'm pretty pissed, especially since this thing is SO FREAKING LOUD that i have to shut it down at night as a result.

Bah.

[belldandy]

Standard procedures:

1. If you have installed non-Apple memory, take them out and put back the original ones in and see if you have the wake problem again.
2. Rest PMU, Reset NVRAM <-- Look up method from Apple Support
3. Sometimes the software is stupid and forgets to turn the LCD back on, close teh shell. Let the laptop to go back to sleep (sleep light is pulsing), and wake it up again.

[workerbee]

Originally Posted by belldandy

Standard procedures:

1. If you have installed non-Apple memory, take them out and put back the original ones in and see if you have the wake problem again.
2. Rest PMU, Reset NVRAM <-- Look up method from Apple Support
3. Sometimes the software is stupid and forgets to turn the LCD back on, close teh shell. Let the laptop to go back to sleep (sleep light is pulsing), and wake it up again.

Decidedly non-standard procedures:

1. Rest PMU, Reset NVRAM <-- Look up method from Apple Support
2. Do all the other things you can think of, like re-installing 10.4 from scratch (clean install)
3. If you have installed non-Apple memory, take them out and put back the original ones in and see if you have the wake problem again.
4. make a little voodoo dance around your powerbook, maybe bleed a chicken or something. Candles probably help as well.
5. Update 10.4.0 to 10.4.1
6. Replace the original Apple RAM with the same third-party non-Apple memory with which just one day ago your Powerbook consistently failed to wake

7. Sit back and enjoy your PB working absolutely flawlessly again.



This happenend here. I still have no idea what made my PB suddenly accept the two 1GB RAMs, but since I've updated Tiger, it runs perfectly smoothly.

Edit: I hope this stupid bug is not creeping back... 2 no-wake-from-sleep crashes since yesterday (nothing changed in the system, no new software)...

[cryango]

I have a 17" G4 Powerbook 1.33 GHz. When I got the machine it had constant trouble with the wake from sleep problem. I simply replaced the cheap Partiot brand RAM with the OE type (Samsung) RAM per the suggestion of a freind. I haven't had a single instance of this problem since ! I would suggest checking your RAM with TechTool and seeing if it checks out good. If it doesn't then replace it, and for god sakes don't by cheap RAM. For something that is so important you can't afford to buy junk !

[highstakes]

I have a MBP with the latest OSX, and I have similar problems with the password-blank screen deal. I close the lid again, let is go back to sleep, and wake it up again...and that works just fine.

[bmwguru]

My G4 started doing something similar, when it goes to sleep it does't really. The LED indicating sleep mode does not come on anymore. The next time you wake it up it does so without being able to reestablish a connection with WiFi. You can reboot and its all operational again. Have not heard/found a fix yet

[markponcelet]

I have this problem every day. It annoyed me so much that I wiped out my partition and reinstalled OS X to try to fix it. Long story short, the problem is still there.

I've discovered that, when this problem occurs, the computer is actually awake! The backlight is just off. To solve the problem, do this:

1. Press the power key to bring up the "shut down" dialog box.
2. Press "S" (for sleep)
3. Wait for about twenty seconds to give your MBP time to write information to disk (for safe-sleep). Watch the LED on the lid latch. It should begin to pulse when the computer is truly asleep.)
4. Press the shift (or any) key. I hold mine down, but it only takes one or two seconds for the DVD drive to make its noise and for the comuter to wake up.

This has worked for me 100% of the time.

[Mac User #001]

Have you tried hitting the space bar to wake it after you have opened it? I've had to do that a few times when opening and closing my iBook quickly.

[itasara]

I have an aluminum powerbook. It has had insomnia on and off for sometime. Usually not sever until today. Sometimes when my adapter plug comes out and the battery runs down, I replug the adapter in and then the computer does not wake up; at least the screen is black. Usually if I wait about 10 minutes it wakes up. I don't understand why when I plug in the electricity it still stays black. Tonight I was out and apparently the dog or some animal
unplugged it. However I could not wake it up no matter what. No sounds; no nothing. I took the battery out for lack of anything else to do. The machine light in the front still shone as it does when it is closed and in kept vacillating from bright to dim. When I pulled out the adaptor as well as the battery, the light still shone. How can that be? Is there a backup battery somewhere?
`Anyway, maybe an hour later, the computer finally woke up on it's own. That was an awfully long time for it to sleep and not wake up. It worries me! I was hoping to hold for before getting a new computer, but maybe I won't be able to wait much longer. sometimes even just closing the lid at night and opening it in the morning, the computer has sleep issues, but usually wakes up within a short time. Lately the little magnetic latch stopped working so I have to put something heavy on the computer in order to shut the lid. I wonder if the settings in the energy prefs have anything to do with this. Maybe I should set it to never sleep? or to never shut down the hard drive? I don't know. Do any of you?

Ellen
upstate NY
15" aluminum powerbook
Processor: 1.25 GHz Powerpc G4
768 MB DDR SDRA
OS 10.4.9

[markponcelet]

Hello, all. I just sent a 15" MBP back to apple for this very problem. Since I've been following these forums for sleep problems with my 17" MBP for six months now, I took meticulous notes and asked all kinds of extra questions. Basically I wanted to both get the problem fixed and come away with enough information to post something to these forums. Well, here's what I've found.

My 15" MBP had the same problem that this thread opened up with. Sometimes, when opening the lid, the backlight fails to turn on. The machine is actually awake (which you can tell because the switch on the front isn't illuminated and the caps-lock key will turn on and off), but the backlight won't turn on no matter what you do.

Once I realized I had this problem, I quickly deleted the partition and started with a clean install of 10.4.11. Yes, Leopard was out, but I didn't have a copy for that machine yet. What I was trying to do was eliminate any chance of software causing the problem. Sure enough, the problem was reproduced easily, and Apple agreed it was a hardware issue.

According to a couple of product specialists at Apple, the only two things that are likely to cause this problem are the SMC controller and the magnetic sleep switch. If the SMC is the culprit, then there will be other symptoms, like problems turning the machine on, energy saver preferences spontaneously changing to default, clock problems, and so on -- none of which I had ever experienced with that machine.

That left the magnetic sleep switch. There are two components to this in my machine: a magnet in the display (near the isight camera) and a switch just behind the button that you press to open the laptop. This was replaced when Apple replaced my top cover assembly -- basically the keyboard, trackpad, speaker grills, and power button.

When it came back, the problem was still there. That's when I noticed that when you push the button to open the laptop, the monitor springs up and sort of bounces on the tight hinge. I told my product specialist at the time that maybe what was happening was that the monitor was opening, and maybe wiggling right on the edge of the sleep switch's ability to sense that magnet -- basically telling it to wake up, sleep, wake up, sleep, all in rapid succession. So we tested the problem by slowly closing the lid. Sure enough, the monitor could be more than an inch open when the machine fell asleep. Far more than my 17" MBP.

Even though we've already replaced the sleep switch, the Apple Rep asked me to send in the machine. They'll be running a much more extensive battery of tests on it this time, he said. Hopefully they'll replace the switch again (or maybe the magnet?) and get this thing back to normal.

One thing he did want me to mention on the forums is that even if you're out of warranty, Apple offers a flat-fee service for fixing hardware problems. It's a hefty price (something like $329 plus tax), but he said they will replace anything for that amount, whether it's the sleep switch or the logic board. This could be significantly cheaper than taking it to an authorized service tech.

In addition, any further problems (within 90 days of that service) get fixed for free -- so long as they're somehow linked to the original problem or the service call itself.

I'll post back here once I get more information on this round of repairs.

[markponcelet]

Oh, a couple of things I forgot to mention:

If your computer doesn't turn its backlight on when opening, unplug the power. If your energy saver settings are set to turn off the monitor during periods of inactivity, let your laptop be idle for that long. Unbeknownst to you, the computer will put the display to sleep. When you wiggle your mouse, it'll wake up the display normally.

This only applies when the backlight is off and the machine is awake, of course, and you have to have your energy saver settings configured to put the display to sleep.

Also, if you have problems where the computer fails to fall asleep when the lid is closed or it wakes up a few seconds AFTER falling asleep, my Apple rep said that the culprit could be a program failing to suspend itself in time. Basically the sleep command is sent, all programs are supposed to suspend themselves, and then the computer goes to sleep. If one lags, then the activity of that program suspending itself wakes the computer up.

The Apple rep agrees that this would not happen with a fresh install of OS X. So if you have a pristine installation of OS X and the problem occurs, then start looking at the SMC and the magnetic sleep switch.

G'night, all. My computer may not sleep properly, but I sure can.

[Big Mac]

Very good tips, mark.

[markponcelet]

I have finally reached the end of my repairs at Apple. To refresh, this is a 15" Rev. B Macbook Pro that would not turn on its backlight when waking from sleep. The problem occurs intermittently about 33% of the time, and only seems to happen when opening the lid (though granted I hardly ever put the machine to sleep any other way than opening and closing the lid).

There were three repairs that were done. All of my product support specialists were extremely knowledgeable.

Repair 1: Replaced the top case assembly, thinking that it was the sleep read switch. Didn't fix the problem, but the latch came back sorta hard to use.
Repair 2: This repair triggered a more exhaustive set of tests by the repair depot. The machine came back with a new DIMM. We assume the DIMM failed a test, but replacing it didn't solve the problem.
Repair 3: Replaced the logic board. Didn't solve the problem.

Now, on the fourth repair request, Apple has opted to replace the machine. This doesn't bode well for those of us with other machines that also have this problem. It probably means that it's not a simple swap-out-a-part fix. Or if it is, then the combined powers of four unique product support specialists and myself couldn't find the offending part.

I have failed you all. I hang my head in shame.

[giannidalmas]

well, it seems that the Leopard Graphics Update included in the 10.5.2 released finally fix the problem.

[Hans M Aus]

PowerBook G4 15", PowerBook5,2, PowerPC G4 (1.1) 1.25 GHz

My friends PB has the same problem. I think the problem started after he upgraded to 10.4.
Is there any hope that upgrading to 10.5 would eliminate the problem?

[markponcelet]

Unfortunately, I'm on 10.5.4, and the two sleep problems still persist on both of my computers. One fails to wake up properly (actually it's awake when the lid is closed, and asleep when you open it), and can be awakened by pressing the shift key. The other has an intermittent issue where the monitor backlight fails to turn on after the machine has been asleep. This problem happens whether the machine is open or closed.

So neither problem was fixed by the most recent software updates ... at least in my case, they weren't.