iBook won't go to sleep properly

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Numbers1820

IXOYS
Just a day or two ago, seemingly out of nowhere, my iBook started to refuse to go to sleep properly. That is, it will not go to sleep properly when I close the lid. It will sleep nicely when I select 'Sleep' from the Apple menu, but as I'm carrying the 'Book around all the time, I really really want it to sleep with the lid closed.

By 'not go to sleep properly', this is what I mean:
1) I close the lid.
2) After a moment, I briefly see the LED sleep light come on in front of the computer.
3) In the next moment, I hear a low-pitched, mechanical whirring/spinning sound from inside the 'Book (hard drive? optical drive?), and the Apple on top of the lid glows. (I guess the latter symptom means the LCD screen 'came on'.)
4) Repeat symptom #2.
5) Repeat symptom #3...and on and on.

I searched the forums... Battery problem? Maybe some weird code from a recent Apple Software Update?

Your help and interest is appreciated ahead of time. Thanks!
 
i had the same problem with my imac g5, and called apple "reformat ur whole computer" they said.....i fought it, kicked myself, and finally did it. problem solved, this thing sleeps like a kitten whenever i need it to, or automatically. it is prob cause of a corrupt file, not a virus, ur just missing some small part that makes ur computer sleep when u want it to....even though u prob think u never changed any settings....cause neither did i. hope that helps
 
Is the iBook on when you open it up? Does it stay asleep when you choose "sleep" from the Apple menu and close it? That sound is the hard drive, as you won't hear anything from the optical drive unless there is a disc inside. You may want to call Apple and tell them your problem and say, "Short of reformatting, what can I do?"
 
Arden said:
Is the iBook on when you open it up? Does it stay asleep when you choose "sleep" from the Apple menu and close it? That sound is the hard drive, as you won't hear anything from the optical drive unless there is a disc inside. You may want to call Apple and tell them your problem and say, "Short of reformatting, what can I do?"
Click to expand...

Thanks, everyone, for your replies.

Arden, choosing sleep from the Apple menu, then closing the lid, results in the same symptoms. That is, it cycles between sleep (blinking LED) and non-sleep (screen comes on, optical drive spins).

Update: The sound is NOT my hard drive... After posting last night, I inserted a paper clip into the pin hole in the CD bezel to open it up. The sound disappeared, but the cycling between blinking LED/sleep and screen coming on/non-sleep continued. It seems that part of the problem is that my optical drive somehow thinks that there's a CD inserted, or that it needs to access it, but there isn't one inserted, nor does it need to access one (as far as I know).

Calling Apple would be great, but my 'Book just went out of warranty (yes, with 3-year extended AppleCare - great while it lasted!) four months ago. So you guys are my "cheap" lifeline! :eek:

One other thing: I have restarted and shut down/cold restarted (after 30+ seconds) several times since this problem appeared, most recently just this morning. No dice.

Now if I need to reformat, so be it. I can do it. It's just a time-consuming pain.

Thanks again!
 
Try resetting the PMU (Power Management Unit) and see if that fixes things.

Look through http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=14449 and find the instructions for resetting the PMU for your iBook (I was unsure of the version you have, so I couldn't look it up directly).

Just to note, resetting the PMU will also reset your NVRAM, so you'll have to reset the clock and perhaps a few other settings after doing this.
 
Also, do you have any other user accounts on your machine? If so, are they affected by this? If not, try creating one and see if it has the same symptoms. If it does not, then there is something wrong with your user account. If it does, it's the system itself.

Either way, a reformat might be the breath of fresh air you need... though I hate recommending it, since it would kill me to have to reformat my computer (except in certain circumstances, and even then it's a pain).
 
Darkshadow said:
Try resetting the PMU (Power Management Unit) and see if that fixes things.

Look through http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=14449 and find the instructions for resetting the PMU for your iBook (I was unsure of the version you have, so I couldn't look it up directly).

Just to note, resetting the PMU will also reset your NVRAM, so you'll have to reset the clock and perhaps a few other settings after doing this.
Click to expand...

Dark Shadow, I just reset the PMU, and things seem to be back to normal (i.e., my iBook happily sleeps with the AC plugged in). Thanks!

BTW, resetting the PMU did not seem to upset my clock - it was still showing the right time. Go figure.

Also, I will likely have to reformat my HD anyway sometime, because I've increasingly been getting kernel panics (screen freezes up, typically during some type of web searching on Safari, and then I get a message that says I need to restart the computer), which in the past has only been fixed by a reformat. But for now, the PMU reset was much, much simpler.

Numbers1820
 
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