[RealMac]

Ok, here's a quick posting.
Recently, I took an ibook/800 machine into the Apple Store to be looked at (after a static discharge incident when I sat down to the machine on a cold winter's day). Turned out the battery was dead and needed to be replaced.

Now, I'm experiencing another problem. I sometimes let the computer go to sleep mode with the display open other times I just close the case. My problem is that sporadically, the power light just totally goes dead and I need to force shut down the system and boot it up again.

I'm still covered under AppleCare and am looking to get a 15" aluminum powerbook to replace this iBook system I have now. A lot of my time has been spent browsing message boards and travelling to and from the Apple Store out in Garden City.

I've upgraded the ram to 640mb, using memory purchased from crucial's online store. I haven't removed the memory yet or reinstalled OSX (did it just a month or so ago), though that seems like a logical next step. If I were optimistic, I'd say this was just some fluke in 10.2.4 and 10.2.5 would fix it. I have a feeling that's not the case though.

I don't want to make the hour trip to the store and hour back, but it looks like that may be my only option.

Any advice would be helpful.

[xtal]

Sleep issues can sometimes be solved by resetting the PMU.

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=14449

[RealMac]

Originally posted by xtal:
Sleep issues can sometimes be solved by resetting the PMU.

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=14449

Forgot to mention that I've zapped the PRAM and reset the power management unit. The problem seems to come and go. It went away for a couple of days last time and reared its ugly head again. Crossing fingers...

I'm running the extended hardware tests now to see if anything shows up.

[RealMac]

All tests passed. Quick question for you guys. When your iBook is powered up and not in sleep mode, does the power light stay on, or is it off?

I could've sworn mine used to be on, but now it's off.

[Rainy Day]

When your iBook is powered up and not in sleep mode, does the power light stay on, or is it off?

I could've sworn mine used to be on, but now it's off.

On my Wallstreet, it's off. The only time it's on is when it's sleeping. YMMV.

The sleep problem you're experiencing sounds like a common software problem and not a logic board issue. It has plagued me in MacOS X, but is nowhere to be found when booted to MacOS 9.1.* Most of the people experiencing the problem - of which i am aware - are using older PowerBooks, like the Wallstreet and Lombard models, but that doesn't mean it's exclusive to those models.

Under MacOS X 10.0 & 10.1, the book would go to sleep alright, but sometimes wouldn't wake up properly. Under 10.2, that problem went away, but was replaced by the book not going to sleep properly. The display would go dark, but the HD would continue spin and the power light remains off (a problem which others had reported prior to 10.2 but which i never experienced). If you look really carefully at the display (or use a flashlight), you can see the display is still there, but the cursor is frozen and the clock in the menu bar stops advancing. A reboot is required. Once in a while, the display goes completely off (i.e. nothing can be seen, even with a flashlight). This is more like the 10.1 coma sleep symptoms.

I thought that it might have something to do with my MacOS X 10.2 install, so i wiped the HD clean and completely rebuilt the system. Still encountered the problem with a stock system.

I find if i start the book, and put it to sleep right away, i'm more likely to encounter the problem than if i let it remain awake for a while. Also, letting the Power Saver put it to sleep seems to be alleviate the problem somewhat (although not completely). It's a frustrating problem, and can lead to disk corruption. A few times it trashed my HD fairly badly. Fortunately, there's DiskWarrior.

_________________________
* Actually, i did experience a similar problem in MacOS 9.1, but once i learned to always switch to the Finder before putting the book to sleep, i stopped experiencing the problem.

[immsav]

I have a new iBook 800 with 3rd-party RAM, too, and I experienced sleep problems that sound similar to yours: the 'book would sometimes wake up from sleep, but more often than not, I would have to restart the machine to get it working again.

After talking with the Apple guy on the phone for a while, he suggested removing the extra RAM--and it worked! I haven't experienced a single sleep issue since taking out the RAM, but I really look forward to receiving a new stick of 512 from Coast-to-Coast--128 megs is just too little!

Hope this helps,

Jacob

[Rainy Day]

While RAM not meeting Apple's spec's may indeed cause certain MacOS X related problems, i don't cut corners when it comes to RAM. My third party RAM is from TechWorks and is Apple Certified. Since the problem i described doesn't occur when booted to MacOS 9, and the symptoms changed between MacOS X 10.1 and 10.2, there clearly is some kind of software related problem here.

I think Apple just isn't interested in supporting older machines.