Display insomnia

pedz

pedz

Registered
I noticed this yesterday for the first time. My display dims when not in use after a short while. At the 10 minute mark, when it should go off, it goes off for maybe a second and then pops back on at full intensity.

I haven't play with this much to see if it might be an application doing it but I haven't changed any applications recently either. Mostly its Firefox and Mail.

I tried resetting the pram and I reviewed (but didn't change) the settings of the power preferences and the screen saver (which is essentially off since it comes on after the power saver shuts the screen off).

Anyone seen this before?
 
Do you have any apps that would keep the video occupied running, DVD player, VLC, or similar by any chance?
Do you have any connected bluetooth (or other wireless) devices that might wake the system up, other than mouse or keyboard? How about USB devices?

When it's supposed to get asleep, say at 10 minutes of idle, when it wakes or stays awake, something should be showing in Console, as in what is happening over there. So keep the console running on the background, and see what we get there.
 
No DVD, vlc, etc. At work I have blue tooth trackpad and keyboard. At home I do not and I noticed it at home and remember that it was acting up at work at well.

I just changed the setting to 3 minutes. When I changed it I got this on the console:

7/26/11 12:53:08 PM System Preferences[5127] _mthid_copyDeviceInfo(216172782187184128) failed
7/26/11 12:53:18 PM Console[5108] _mthid_copyDeviceInfo(216172782187184128) failed

It went dark at 3 minutes for about a second and popped back to life. No subsequent update on the console.
 
What happens if you disconnect ALL peripherals save for the keyboard and mouse (USB, preferably -- might have to swap out with the original keyboard/mouse)?
 
I can try that tonight. Its a laptop so I can disconnect everything external. I'll update you with what happens but I predict it will be the same. Last night I had only a USB mouse attached (but I wasn't watching the console).
 
Turned off my wireless, no devices hooked up, no apps running except console. When the screen goes off, it pops back on and these messages are in the console log:

7/26/11 7:42:01 PM loginwindow[13207] _mthid_copyDeviceInfo(216172782187184128) failed
7/26/11 7:42:01 PM com.apple.loginwindow[13207] 2011-07-26 19:42:01.309 loginwindow[13207:107] _mthid_copyDeviceInfo(216172782187184128) failed
7/26/11 7:42:01 PM Console[13274] _mthid_copyDeviceInfo(216172782187184128) failed

I'm going to see if google might help me out some.
 
A google search led me to better touch tool (which I have installed). I disabled it and that cured the problem. I downloaded and installed a fresh version and that seems to be working. Their update process doesn't work sometimes. I've never connected it with any other symptoms though.

Anyhow, thank you for your help. Watching the console was the right first step.
 
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