Hard drive keeps booting up

K

kingjaydub

Registered
I have a MacBook Pro and last week I upgraded to Snow Leopard 10.6.2 and now when I close my laptop, my hard drive spools up every minute and it's very annoying. I can't leave some apps open because they have illegal operations due to the hard drive booting repeatedly. It's to the point now where every 60 or so seconds my external speakers come on, my hard drive spools up loudly.
When I finally open my laptop the screen comes on for a few seconds, cuts off and goes black and then comes back on a few seconds later.
When my laptop is open it works perfectly however.
Please help, this is a very annoying problem causing problems with some software and I'm worried the on and off of the hard drive may wear it our prematurely.
 
Are you using your MacBook Pro in clamshell mode? That is, you have an external display, mouse and keyboard, and use the MacBook Pro with the lid closed. In that case. the hard drive should run from time to time as you use the system - completely normal...
If, on the other hand, you are simply closing the lid, expecting the MacBook Pro to sleep, then that's certainly not normal. Your system can really overheat to the point of possible damage if the internal display also comes on while the lid is closed. You can easily see if this happens, because the Apple on the lid will light up.
 
No, I'm not using it in clamshell mode.
When I close the lid it used to go into standby/sleep, but now all you hear is the hard drive trying to boot over and over again. It happens anytime between every 3 seconds and every 60 seconds. Most of the time it also plays the startup sound though the speakers.
The apple on the outside of the laptop does not light up.
I've searched everywhere and can't find a single thing explaining this.
 
You have a hardware problem, probably a sensor switch (the one that senses when the lid is closed)
I recommend that you take your MacBook Pro to an Apple service center, and have it checked out.
First - does your MacBook Pro sleep (and stay asleep with no action from the hard drive) when you manually select sleep from the Apple menu? Don't close the lid, but leave it open when you try this.
Then - if you press and hold the power button, so your MacBook Pro is forced to shut off - does the power remain OFF? Release the power button after it shuts off, and leave it for a few minutes to see if anything like that happens.
Have you tried to reset the SMC (power manager)? Do this be removing the main battery, disconnect the power adapter, and hold the power button for 5 seconds. Then, reinstall the battery, connect the power adapter, and test again.
Have you tried running your hardware test diagnostic that's on your original installer DVD?
 
I narrowed it down and the weird thing is, it only does it when the power supply is hooked to it. If I'm running it on the battery, I can close the laptop and it's completely fine.
When it's plugged in, as long as I leave the laptop open, it's fine... which leads me to believe it's not the power supply.
 
Have you tried it on a different power outlet and also a different power outlet outside the home to make sure it is not environmental?
 
I have the same problem and I have found more people with the same problem. It is not hardware related. It happens only with Snow Leopard and when the power supply is pluged in. The computer keeps waking and going to sleep each ten seconds. The same happens if you select Sleep from the Apple menu (except that the computer stays awake).
If you unplug the power supply it goes to sleep perfectly.
I'm trying to discover why but until now with no luck. I don't know if it is related to the Snow Leopard itself or to some plug in or application.
Mi computer is a MacBook Por (not unibody) 2,4 GHz Core 2 Duo.
 
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