[nuno1959]

hi guys

it's been a month i bought a 2013, 27'' iMac i5 ( 3.2GHz, GeForce GT755m, 8GB RAM + 16GB Transcend RAM i added ) & after MANY yet to be solved USB 3.0 issues w/ both my 1 year old NewerTech Guardian Maximus enclosures ( the 3rd, new one works FINE but i'll spare you - got an Apple Tbolt/FW800 adapter to be able to function.... ) i accidentally managed to erase a 3TB drive

i got Stellar Phoenix Mac Data Recovery to try get back as much data back as i could....

so far so good, problem is my iMac seems to ''hang up in time'' every so often !!

it's not going to sleep, it's not shutting down it's ....as if time stands still to it ? it's very weird & as a consequence Stellar Phoenix is taking FOREVER to get it's thing done - it's been days & days now... - VERY frustrating...

i went into System Prefs, (un)ticked all the boxes to keep it awake, except for the display which is set to be turned off after 20 mn


i've restarted the computer, checked if i installed the Transcend RAM correctly & tested it ( all good.. ) reset the SMC, the NVRAM, checked my temps & they seemed perfectly alright, iStat Menus showing typical results of : cores 1 to 4 between 54º & 56º C !?..

best way i can describe what happens is that after i'm away for a while, upon returning the screen is dark ( as it should, right ?.. ) i tap the space key, it takes a couple of seconds for it to come back BUT with a catch : the hour on the clock is NOT correct & there is absolutely no activity in the Stellar's app window's status/activity bars
then the iMac's clock only ''adjusts'' itself to the correct time some 8 or 10 seconds later & so do the blue status bars in the Stellar app window ''come back to life'' for lack of a better description - even Apple Mail only starts receiving/displaying new emails sent during this ''coma'' when the iMac comes out of it..

while i'm at the computer, the app progresses pretty fast recovering files, the only workaround i've found so far being making a huge list of YouTube videos to play one after the other
the same happened while scanning the drive making it a VERY TEDIOUS & long process, much longer than it normally would...

as it is right now, i'm still 1.2TB away from an almost full recovery ( seems Stellar managed to get back almost 2.5TB out of the 2.7TB of data i deleted - thank goodness for that !.. ) so i'm obviously weery to try something that might interrupt the process & have to restart from scratch but still i'd like to ask if anyone has experienced this or has any ideas what is causing this behaviour ?

in human terms it feels as if you're waking up someone in the morning that stares back at you w/ a hazy look in it's eyes & mumbles something only becoming coherent & LOOKING at you a couple of minutes later, you know what i mean ?

what could possibly been causing this ? any suggestions will be very welcome

many thanks for reading

Nuno

[P]

Are you running Mavericks? If so, the issue might be App Nap. Find your backup application in the Finder and get info for it. Check the box to disable App Nap.

[nuno1959]

Hi P

thanks for chipping in !
no, i forgot to mention i'm running 10.8.5 - i never upgrade OS ''on the spot'', i prefer to allow for a couple of months before i do - to give time for any bugs/incompatibilities to be weeded out

in another Mac Users Forum, after i posted this :

Screen Shot 2013-12-04 at 6.56.27 PM | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

someone pointed out that my iMac is set to sleep after 1 minute - which is weird because i certainly didn't set it that way & AFAIK that's NOT the default either….

do you have any idea how i can change this 1 minute thing ?

cheers

[P]

System preferences -> Energy Saver. Just drag the top slider to the right.

[nuno1959]

Hi P

that's just it - there's a slider ''missing'' : i only have a slider to set the display's sleep time

Screen Shot 2013-12-02 at 5.13.01 PM | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

it's a clean install, all updates done ( except OS.. ) puzzling to say the least….

[abbaZaba]

Look closer- it says prevent computer from sleeping automatically when the display is off.

Check it. With it unchecked, the computer sleeps when the display is off. This is what you are experiencing when you leave and come back. The computer is being put to sleep when the display dims.

This drove me crazy when I first got this Retina MBP. I couldn't figure out why it wouldn't hold a connection if I was AFK.

For what it is worth, you claim you are on 10.8.5, but I was under the impression this specific change was Mavericks only.

[nuno1959]

Hi abbaZaba

thanks for that, much appreciated ! i just re-checked & i yes, i AM on 10.8.5 ! :-b

i just checked the box you suggested, i hope it solves my troubles. meanwhile i did manage to finish the scan/data recovery without my iMac going to sleep by making a list of 180 Youtube videos & having them play one after the other - hardly an elegant way but it worked
now all i have to do is to rename each & every file, bloody lovely !!….LOL….

i'll report the results of checking that box…

cheers

[abbaZaba]

I didn't know it was on Mountain Lion- I went from a 1st gen macbook from 2006 to this Retina MBP so I went from 10.6.8 to 10.9. Either way, that did make me pull out my hair for a few days because I think I did exactly what you did and think it was only a displayer sleep slider.

Pretty sure that was what you were looking for.