Help: MBP will not exit sleep mode...

[M11]

Hey folks,

As of last night, my MBP started acting very strangely. After entering my username and password, it would enter the desktop for a short period of time and then kick back into sleep mode; the screen would turn back to black. Sometimes it will let me stay on the desktop for a long time and other times it will hardly let me stay on the desktop. I called apple support and they had me start the computer in safe mode; even then it occasionally kicks me out. The tech guy said that it was a "strange software issue" and not a hardware issue. I thought it was a hard drive issue; my hard drive makes an odd sound when it unlocks (a grinding sound), but it has been doing that for quite some time with no issues. I tried to reset the SMC and it didn't do anything.

How should I remedy this problem? Is this a hard drive issue? Hard drive failure? Has the grinding sound finally caught up with me? I am running OS X; not leopard or snow leopard. I know I need to upgrade, but this shouldn't be happening.

Thanks,

M

 

[DeltaMac]

When your screen goes black - does the sleep light on the front of your MacBook Pro come on? Is that light steady (meaning only that the video is off), or pulsing (which indicates sleep)? If the light is pulsing, can you leave sleep by pressing any key?
Have you tried testing the hard drive yet? You can do that by booting up to your OS X installer DVD, and choosing Disk Utility from the menus (should be the Utilities menu), then select your hard drive, and click the Repair Disk button (different from Repair Disk Permissions) What's the result of that repair?

 

[M11]

Yes, the light pulsates. Yes, I can leave sleep mode by pressing any button, but the screen quickly goes back to black after pushing any key. I was unable to run the OS X DVD installer because my computer just entered sleep mode every time I tried to load the disk. I tried to run the disk by restarting the computer; it would load and then tell me that I had to restart the computer. I did this several times and it consistently told me to restart the computer.

 

[DeltaMac]

The 'strange software issue' would be on your hard drive.
That would not have anything to do with the problems that you might have when you boot to your installer DVD.
Can you boot to the hardware test?
Same installer DVD (I'm assuming it's one of the grey DVDs that originally came with your MacBook Pro), start while holding the letter D (for Diagnostics), and run the test that you see. If the test also has screen blackouts, then - you have a hardware problem, and without any doubts.
And, time to take in for service...