Can't log back in after screen saver

G

glennreid

Registered
This has happened on and off for years. I'm on the latest OSX on a Mac Pro tower system, but it happens on all my sytems occasionally. The screen saver is set to require a password to get back in, which works *most* of the time. Sometimes, though (like just now) I get back to my computer and it has a black screen and it just beeps when I type. All keys, except modifiers like Shift. Control-C beeps. Return beeps. F13 beeps. 'S' beeps. All of them.

The only way out of this has been to force a restart, which is not good. I have tried briefly pressing Power which can get the computer to go to sleep, but the same thing happens when I wake it back up.

I have never been able to find an explanation to this, online or otherwise. It's a bad bug, it seems.

Glenn Reid
 
I have also had this issue on my current (late 2006) MacBook Pro and its predecessor. I have the security preferences set to require login after the screensaver runs. When I return to the machine and get the black screen that seems to be the only problem. I can hear incoming email and IM pings, can access the machine over the network, etc.

My suspicion is that this is linked to peripherals or network devices -- maybe there is a check gone awry when transitioning from screensaver to the login window. What sometimes works is to disconnect everything -- power, network cable, USB -- and sleep the computer by closing the lid. About half the time it will then wake properly.

Yesterday when this happened and I used the method above successfully, I saw in Activity Monitor that the process ScreenSaverEngine had died. Next time this happens I'll SSH into the Macbook using my phone and kill it, and see what happens.

Similar discussion here: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=8495614
 
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