Macbook wont go to sleep--how to fix?

Z

ziomatrixacs

Registered
Hey guys, In May, my friend was carrying her Blackbook around in her bag and orange juice some how migrated from the bottle to the side of the computer where the CD goes in. She let the computer air dry on its side and it turned on and worked perfectly fine... Until she put a DVD in. The DVD played but the felt bristols on the CD slot became hard and would not allow the DVD to come out. She took it to the Mac store and she had a "qualified" person take care of it. She needed the computer back ASAP so she asked for them to just remove the DVD. And they did, costing her $30. When she got the computer home, the guy had screwed up something in the computer so now when she closes the computer, it stays awake and will go to sleep after a random period of time, wake up, go back to sleep and repeat. Some times you can see the screen goes black when its shut, other times it doesnt..or any combination. Other than that, everything else was fine. She reported it to the Mac store and they told her to bring it in when ever was good for her. Well, its August now and she now needs to get it working properly. She took it to the same mac store and they conveniently lost the record of it being damaged and the guy who fixed it no longer works there! They were kind enough to look at the computer thinking it was a simple soft ware setting, which it they proved it was not. They also found that the bluetooth was not working either! They decided the best cure would be to erase the HD and reinstall OS leopard. They wanted $30 to just look at the computer, so my friend said no thanks because there is a chance it is something incredibly stupid, like a wire not plugged in. I offered to fix it, and she agreed.

I would like to know if anyone has any idea on why the computer would do such a thing? She never used blue tooth and the computer worked just fine while the DVD was stuck. It only acted up after she took it to the store to be fixed, and I witnessed it.

I know, I am not a mac tech, but I have found repair articles on Ifixit.com, and I succesfully took my IbookG4 apart to put a new DCin board in. I am not super experienced, but I do have some with computers..I also feel confident with working with small parts and screws (I do it on a daily basis)

If anyone can help, please do so. I am referring to the mac store as a last resort after seeing what they have done already..
 
I take it your friends Mac no longer has a dvd drive installed? It's probably a slot-loader so the slot remains but the interior is empty? Is that correct?

I can only hazard a guess that the sleep issue may be related to the missing drive and that a new drive needs to be installed ....

It's a shame about the mess with the Apple Store but regrettably I too have had a terrible experience with my local store changing over their database and subsequently losing all my work records which caused me no end of pain when it was necessary to put a case to Apple to have my faulty iMac replaced .... you need to ensure you keep a paper record and a scanned record of any job sheets as they are vital.

Back to your friends MacBook (Blackbook?), I chuckled at the "migration of orange juice" part, nice choice of words, but I seriously think that you need to get a working disc drive back in before dealing with the other issue ...

There are some real hard core cluey ones here who hopefully will be able to offer you advice on this and it's a shame your friend has had this trouble.
 
I appologize if this is kind of blunt but I currently have the computer open and would like help ASAP.. where is the switch that detects the screen is closed?

I got a lot of little screws to put back in and im trying to not forgot where they go--ill typew more later :) and yes it does have the DVD/optical drive still in she just dosnt use it
 
Crap.. the dag on thing still isnt working. I looked inside and the apple people bent some of the steel clips near the USB drive and above the CD drive. Im really not sure what to do..apple damage the computer and denys it, they can not find anything on the report despite the fact they my friend had evidence.

dahh...I can feel it now..$200 just for them to say oh, a screw was loose so we replaced the logic board or some crazy part
 
Before you dismantled the MacBook, did you look what the settings were in:

System Preferences ~> Energy Saver ~> Sleep?

Was the slider set to send the Computer and/or the Display to Sleep anywhere along the slider between 1min - 3hrs?



I found this regarding the sleep sensor:

The mechanism that controls the sleep signal when your portable closes is called a reed switch. It consists of a metal switch assembly (two pieces of thin metal inside a vacuum-sealed glass bubble or other insulator, connected to the logic board via wire), and a magnet somewhere else. When the magnet comes close enough to the glass bubble, the metal strips connect, closing a circuit and telling the computer to go to sleep.

In the MacBook Pro, the magnet is located inside the display, on the right side. (If you're typing at your keyboard, staring at the screen.) It's about halfway down on the 15" model, and if you hold a paperclip to the front-facing area, it'll stick.

The reed switch itself (the glass bubble with metal strips inside) is in the same position, but inside the main body of the computer itself.

When you close your lid, the two come into close proximity. Bang, sleep.

There is a possibility that when your logic board was replaced, the reed switch was damaged somehow. If you have a magnet, you can check by running said magnet across the top of your case, on the right-hand side. (The part of the machine with the speaker grill and keyboard, that is.) The best way to determine the position, since it's different with different display sizes, is to use a paper clip on the side of the display to find the magnet, then determine the switch location from that.

If you can't get a magnet to trip the switch, and resetting the PMU didn't work either, you will probably need to return the unit to the repair center.
Click to expand...
The battery connector (MacBook) contains the reed switch which causes the machine to sleep when the screen is closed
Click to expand...

Here is some more:

MacBook Pro won't sleep when I close the lid


.
 
Last edited:
Neither of those problems sound like what this one is doing. When the lid closes, the computer will sleep for maybe 10 seconds and wake back up. When you tell it to sleep in Finder > sleep it will do the exact same thing. Its possible it could be softwware but it showed up AFTER the guy took it apart. I only took the top keyboard off, I didnt go any deeper. I started seeing ominous "if you touch this your spine will curve and your warranty will void" signs. I put it back together and nothing changed.
 
Bah.. I gave up and let her take it to the apple store. I hate taking apart their computers.. Check that off on the Jobs not to take list..
 
HOLY JUMPING GRANDMA ON A FIDDLE STICK!!!!

Apple called...im not sure if they wwere joking or what
They said the logic board has to be replaced !!?? It will cost $800 for them to do it and then they gave the ultimate insult... "Your screen, key board, ect. is still good, we can keep your computer and give you $100 for it" Yes, a computer purchased in late april, damaged in may, damaged even more by THEM and now they want $800 or to keep the $1500 computer and give my friend $100. Bull crap!

My friend has a black 13.3" macbook wwith a Core 2 duo 2.2ghz processor. I looked on I fixit.com and found the only 2.2ghz version of the mac book to be some santa rose version! Im no apple genius but I do know how to build mechanical stuff.. if someone could help me find the correct logic board (if the logic board is the part that is evven damaged!) Ill install it for my friend...

It just doesnt make sense. The computer worked fine. Orange juice tried to mix with Apple and then CD wouldnt eject. All worked well except the CD thing. She takes it in, then all the sudden it wont sleep properly as if the switch is damaged or if the sensor is "misaligned". The guy that worked there and removed the dvd admitted infront of his boss who was present that he may have misaligned the sensor. The same boss was present there just the other day when we were there. Before, his boss said "we will take note of the complaint" and now they say there was no proof? Of course my friend thought Apple was the cool guy and would live up to the note, and did not think about getting written proof. Now she takes it back, the note is gone, and they want her to pay $800 for a logic board to be installed or they can give her $100 to keep the computer..and she even heard the bosses boss telling another guy she could get more money for it on Ebay from around a corner.

Is it me or does something sound fishy about this? Its weird because that computer is a really tight fit, When I took it apart, I saw ZERO NONE nada orange juice on the circuitry. The only orange juice was on the case and it was dry. The CD drive was also clean too. The real fishy part is that the logic board is on the left side of the computer and the CD drive is on the right side. My friend may be clumby enough to leave a $1 bottle of juice iin a bag with $1500 computer and $500 in books but she isnt dumb. She kept the computer off for 48 hours and left it sitting vertically, wwith the USB stuff sticking straight up. She said not a lot of juice came out to her surprise and the computer did wwork fine. It just wouldnt eject cd's and she took it in before i could fix it. The juice got on the felt thingys in the slot and made them harden so CDs couldnt eject...


Could someone showw me where that dagon switch is in a 13" black mac book and wwhere to find a logic board?

Agh my ibook keyboard is screwing up too..just the w v and p keys give me twwo of each letter..
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top