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General discussion

Intel Macbook fails to sleep

Apr 23, 2007 8:17AM PDT

I bought an intel MacBook 1.83GHz 7 months back. Everything was fine until one day it refused to sleep on closing the lid. I opened the lid, and closed it back again, and it went to sleep fine.

Soon thereafter, I noticed that the MacBook started to fail to sleep on closing the lid with increasing frequency. One night, after finishing work, I just closed the lid as usual, and went to bed. I woke up to touch an extremely hot MacBook with fan running at full speed. And from then on, it has NEVER slept! I have tried closing the lid, using the Apple menu via mouse to sleep, and also used the terminal command for sleep. Nothing works!

I have repaired permissions thousand times, verified disk thousand times, completely reinstalled OS X Tiger twice, all to no avail.

Additionally, I don't know if it's a related phenomenon or not, but the bluetooth is also "not available" most of the times these days.

The warranty period of 90 days is over, and a poor student like me doesn't like to spend money. Please help me cure this MacBook insomnia!!! Thanks!

Discussion is locked

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My advice.
Apr 23, 2007 8:23AM PDT

Extend the warranty now.

Also what happens if you tap the power button instead of relying on the lid switch?

Bob

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Tapping the power button - MacBook doesn't sleep
Jun 3, 2007 4:12AM PDT

Tapping the power button brings up a dialog box for shutting down, restarting etc. But still it doesn't sleep.

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Warranty
Apr 23, 2007 10:07AM PDT

This machine is under warranty for 12 months from the date of purchase.

Call Apple now and report the problem. Get a case number and write it dowm.

They will, most likely, get you to perform an Archive and Install of the system. This will put a new system on your machine while keeping all your data intact.

1-800-SOS Appl

Let us know how you get on

Oh yes, Bob's suggestion that you extend the warranty, poor student or not, is a good one.

P

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Insomnic MacBook - sleeps when booted from Ubuntu Live CD
Jun 3, 2007 4:19AM PDT

Okay, I won't extend the warranty.

The MacBook never sleeps when running OS X, but it was able to sleep on closing the lid when running Ubuntu from Live CD. What's going on?

I feel there is some software in OS X that is preventing the MacBook from sleeping. If that is the case, a system archive and reinstall may not help because as I restore the archive, the troubling software may be restored as well. Am I right?

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Not quite right on the Archive and Install
Jun 3, 2007 4:43AM PDT

The Archive section of the process refers to the process whereby your user folder is moved to somewhere safe and put back after the System has been replaced by the Install portion of the process.
Your passwords, bookmarks, network settings, cookies, Mail, addressbook and the like are all preserved.

If this is a Software problem, and it sounds as though it might be, a fresh install "may" fix the problem. Remember that you will have to bring the OS back up to date after the A&I as you will only have the OS version that is on the installation disk.

It's worth a try

P

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Do you happen to have...
Jun 3, 2007 4:19AM PDT

Alarm software (eg- Alarm Clock Pro?) or other software that operates during the computers sleep processes? If so, they're probably the problem. On my Macbook, some thief-deterrent software I had prevented the computer from automatically sleeping.

If not, I would refer the problem to Apple and CNET Mac Hardware Forum, being that it seems like a hardware problem instead/as well.

Alex

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Macbook insomnia
Jun 4, 2007 2:08AM PDT

No, I do not use any alarm software. In fact I did a fresh install of OS X yesterday, and the MacBook wasn't sleeping even with a fresh install of base system only. I am going to call Apple today, and let's see what they do. I will update the thread then. Thanks!