Not sleeping

My iMac (late 2007) running 10.5.5 (and previously 10.5.4) seems not to sleep unless I make it do so manually.
Daniel Cohen wrote on :

My iMac (late 2007) running 10.5.5 (and previously 10.5.4) seems not to sleep unless I make it do so manually.

The Energy Saver setting doesn't seem to work, but on the other hand display sleep does work. This suggests that something unexpected is accessing the hard drive.

Is there a known bug regarding this? If not, is there anything I should do to find out what is stopping sleep.

billy replied on :

Daniel Cohen danspam@redacted.invalid writes:

My iMac (late 2007) running 10.5.5 (and previously 10.5.4) seems not to sleep unless I make it do so manually.

The Energy Saver setting doesn't seem to work, but on the other hand display sleep does work. This suggests that something unexpected is accessing the hard drive.

Is there a known bug regarding this? If not, is there anything I should do to find out what is stopping sleep.

This sounds like something is running, so the computer doesn't appear to be idle. In my case it's either a weather or clouds display program (or maybe both), so I have the user who won't give them up just put her computer to sleep manually. These are both menu bar items, they don't show up in the dock. You may have something similar running...?

Billy Y..

Daniel Cohen replied on :

billy@redacted.invalid wrote:

Daniel Cohen danspam@redacted.invalid writes:

My iMac (late 2007) running 10.5.5 (and previously 10.5.4) seems not to sleep unless I make it do so manually.

The Energy Saver setting doesn't seem to work, but on the other hand display sleep does work. This suggests that something unexpected is accessing the hard drive.

Is there a known bug regarding this? If not, is there anything I should do to find out what is stopping sleep.

This sounds like something is running, so the computer doesn't appear to be idle. In my case it's either a weather or clouds display program (or maybe both), so I have the user who won't give them up just put her computer to sleep manually. These are both menu bar items, they don't show up in the dock. You may have something similar running...?

I have a suspicion about a couple of programs. I could always check by stopping them. But I was wondering if there was any general way (in some log, for instance) of finding out.

Doug Anderson replied on :

danspam@redacted.invalid (Daniel Cohen) writes:

My iMac (late 2007) running 10.5.5 (and previously 10.5.4) seems not to sleep unless I make it do so manually.

The Energy Saver setting doesn't seem to work, but on the other hand display sleep does work. This suggests that something unexpected is accessing the hard drive.

Is there a known bug regarding this? If not, is there anything I should do to find out what is stopping sleep.

I've had this problem on a G5 isight iMac and found it very frustrating.

On upgrading to 10.5.5 and following the reset SMU instructions it (finally) started working again. I was never able to diagnose the problem. I've also had this problem on one of my G3 imacs, but not another similar (not identical) one.

I've never (on either machine) been able to identify what was keeping the machine awake.

Barry Margolin replied on :

In article gbqu8m$jdu$1@redacted.invalid, billy@redacted.invalid wrote:

Daniel Cohen danspam@redacted.invalid writes:

My iMac (late 2007) running 10.5.5 (and previously 10.5.4) seems not to sleep unless I make it do so manually.

The Energy Saver setting doesn't seem to work, but on the other hand display sleep does work. This suggests that something unexpected is accessing the hard drive.

Is there a known bug regarding this? If not, is there anything I should do to find out what is stopping sleep.

This sounds like something is running, so the computer doesn't appear to be idle. In my case it's either a weather or clouds display program (or maybe both), so I have the user who won't give them up just put her computer to sleep manually. These are both menu bar items, they don't show up in the dock. You may have something similar running...?

Another app that prevents sleeping is Sheepshaver, the PPC Mac emulator that you need to use if you want to run classic Apps in Leopard.

Daniel Cohen replied on :

Barry Margolin barmar@redacted.invalid wrote:

Another app that prevents sleeping is Sheepshaver, the PPC Mac emulator that you need to use if you want to run classic Apps in Leopard.

Interesting. I have SheepShaver, but only have it running very occasionally.

Does anyone know anything about LightsOut? It's a program that among other things has a separate timer that works when Energy Saver doesn't. But the manual doesn't explain what overrides the timer. Obviously keypresses or mouse movement must do so, but it does not mention whether hard disk access will do so, though I would guess not.

billy replied on :

Daniel Cohen danspam@redacted.invalid writes:

I have a suspicion about a couple of programs. I could always check by stopping them. But I was wondering if there was any general way (in some log, for instance) of finding out.

I haven't been able to find any info, although I haven't looked very deeply, either. In my case it was obvious, we noticed the computer not sleeping the same day the programs were installed.

Does anyone know anything about LightsOut? It's a program that among other things has a separate timer that works when Energy Saver doesn't. But the manual doesn't explain what overrides the timer. Obviously keypresses or mouse movement must do so, but it does not mention whether hard disk access will do so, though I would guess not.

I'd ask its author. Thanks, by the way, for finding this. I'm going to give it a try myself...

Billy Y..

Old_CSMAer replied on :

In article nek5cuww7n.fsf@redacted.invalid, Doug Anderson ethelthelogremovethis@redacted.invalid wrote:

danspam@redacted.invalid (Daniel Cohen) writes:

My iMac (late 2007) running 10.5.5 (and previously 10.5.4) seems not to sleep unless I make it do so manually.

The Energy Saver setting doesn't seem to work, but on the other hand display sleep does work. This suggests that something unexpected is accessing the hard drive.

Is there a known bug regarding this? If not, is there anything I should do to find out what is stopping sleep.

I've had this problem on a G5 isight iMac and found it very frustrating.

On upgrading to 10.5.5 and following the reset SMU instructions it (finally) started working again. I was never able to diagnose the problem. I've also had this problem on one of my G3 imacs, but not another similar (not identical) one.

I've never (on either machine) been able to identify what was keeping the machine awake.

I had to reinstall Leopard on my G5 iSight iMac to get it to sleep properly again. Even then, my wife loves to leave Hoyle Card Games running and that will prevent proper sleep.

Daniel Cohen replied on :

billy@redacted.invalid wrote:

Daniel Cohen danspam@redacted.invalid writes:

I have a suspicion about a couple of programs. I could always check by stopping them. But I was wondering if there was any general way (in some log, for instance) of finding out.

I haven't been able to find any info, although I haven't looked very deeply, either. In my case it was obvious, we noticed the computer not sleeping the same day the programs were installed.

Looks as though it must be something else, such as aUSB hub. I believe these can sometimes cause issues.

Anyway, I logged out of my usual non-admin account and into my admin account which had no programs opened. It still wouldn't sleep. Activity Monitor showed only running things were ones I would expect and need.

Does anyone know anything about LightsOut? It's a program that among other things has a separate timer that works when Energy Saver doesn't. But the manual doesn't explain what overrides the timer. Obviously keypresses or mouse movement must do so, but it does not mention whether hard disk access will do so, though I would guess not.

I'd ask its author. Thanks, by the way, for finding this. I'm going to give it a try myself...

Yes, I do aim to ask. But haven't yet had a reply about another question I asked him.