Please help!!!

I have a 2013 21.5″ iMac at work (it’s in use all the time, it runs the till software in the shop etc.) and it is being a nightmare! I’ve been a mac user and tinkerer for about 8 years now, but this one goes beyond my knowledge to be fair…

It keeps going to sleep! Randomly, infuriatingly, all the bloody time! It has done this a number of times over the last few months, and each time before I’ve done the SMC and PRAM reset as recommended here…

It’s a standard machine, 2.7GHz Core i5 processor, 8GB of 1600MHz DDR3 RAM etc. It is running the latest OS 10.9.5 and everything is up to date. It has got to the point where it’s not just frustrating, but embarrassing now as it often means it takes 5 minutes to serve a customer instead of 30 seconds!

I’ve also just repaired all the disc permissions etc. and that has made no difference.

I’ve googled everything, and all just comes back to the SMC and PRAM resets… Which I’ve done many a time! And it’s still not working… HELP ME SOMEBODY PLEASE!!!

Not a long term fix, but could running an app like Caffeine help in the short term.

iMac still in warranty? What does your energy saving settings look like? Installed any new apps recently? Any other trigger events before it started? Any pertinent info in Console?

Next time it happens, open Console and grab a copy-paste of the output.

Also include some output from “pmset -g” (or “pmset -g everything”)- that will show the current power management state.

I forget off the top of my head, but you can also get more detailed pm logging with pmset. Have a gander:

https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/documentation/Darwin/Reference/ManPages/man1/pmset.1.html

I can’t remember if you need to tell pmset to log it or it’s default, but the console should show the code for the _reason_ the mac went to sleep. Once you know this, you can fix it.

Oh yeah, and resetting PRAM and SMC and repairing permissions are in most cases total snake oil…

What about disk space how much is used up? If you can open a terminal and type:

df -h

then hit return what do you get?

Also, again in a terminal, run:

top

what do you get, top 4 lines or so not the whole list

It is running the latest OS 10.9.5

The latest is 10.10…. you could fire up the app store and get a copy of Yosemite. Check all the software you need to work will work in Yosemite first though!

And disk space and top might tell you something, but if it’s sleeping or not sleeping the info you need is the reason that triggers the sleep state. That’s in the console logs (or available with pmset).

Might be obvious but have you tried in system preferences setting computer sleep to never?

Check all the software you need to work will work in Yosemite first though!

…and backup before updating, of course.

…and backup before updating, of course

Well, of course the OP keeps regular up to date backups anyway, right?

DO NOT update until you know why it’s slow now, if you update and it gets worse you won’t know what to fix!

Do a backup, run the commands I’ve show above, check the hard drive is OK and then maybe, after min of 2 x backups, update 🙂

DO NOT update until you know why it’s slow now,

It’s not slow, it’s sleeping randomly.

if you update and it gets worse you won’t know what to fix!

If OP has a bootable backup, then they can update to see if it provides a fix. If not, then they can always revert.

Typing from my iPhone cos the iMac now won’t stay awake for more than 5 seconds! Yes really!!!

Installed caffeine. Did nothing…

Computer backs up regularly to external HD via time machine.

There’s tonnes of HD left, less than 50GB installed on a 1TB machine!

If I could get into terminal I’d type the commands in and give you a readout, but it literally sleeps within seconds of me waking it now!

Can’t run 10.10, the software I use for our till system isn’t tested for it yet… I have to wait to do any significant updates to check if the software is ready or not yet…

What happens if you login via another account.

Have you had a go at rebooting from the recovery disc? (Restart and hold down alt after the chime, select recovery disc from those available). Try permissions and disc repair from there first.
If there’s no improvement after the restart try re-installing the OS from the recovery partition, this can remove some odd behaviours.
After this it gets expensive.
Do you have a bootable back-up disc? If so boot from that after running a virus scan (you do have anti-virus?), try running TechTool Pro (downloadable from the web, Micromat make it) or one of the other commercial suites to diagnose the problem. These can take hours if you allow a disc surface scan so disable that before you start. The daddy of recovery tools is Alsofts Disc Warrior but this is only available on physical media from USA. A directory rebuild with this tends to cure most things.

Have you tried rebooting it? Daft question but…

Command-control-power to force a reboot if needed. Or there’s always the plug…

Then as I said, pmset to get sleep/wake events. E.g. look at this:

http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/52064/how-to-find-out-the-start-time-of-last-sleep

see how it logs the reasons for sleeping and waking?

Others here seem to be suggesting random fixes, I’m trying to suggest finding out the cause of the problem first!

Only one account on the machine…

Bloody caffeine has installed some malware on the damned thing!!! Argh!!!

It’s very nearly gone out the window already, and I’m a patient person with technology…

If you read up about the symptoms of needing an SMC reset, I’ve got pretty much the lot. Fans are usually on high speed despite no CPU load etc.

Just done another SMC and PRAM reset and got about a minute of activity out of it, before it then slept again!!!

Seriously… Any more ideas?

Bloody caffeine has installed some malware on the damned thing!!! Argh!!!

Erm…how? It’s an App Store download. Where did you get it from?

Others here seem to be suggesting random fixes, I’m trying to suggest finding out the cause of the problem first!

😀

Aye, try booting into safe mode and trying some of the fixes above…..

Someone will have said yes to the install of the malware.

Unisnstall caffeine and delete the malware.

Overheating? Is it in a dusty environment?

Just tried rebooting into the recovery partition so I can run disc utility… It keeps sleeping still!

I have a feeling it’s a hardware not a software issue! 🙁

OK, jumping on the random-fix bandwagon for a moment here, lets consider some obvious causes that are easy to fix:

Power it off, off at the wall too. Jab the power button a few times, check it’s not sticking.

Unplug the keyboard, does it still sleep?

My thinking here is a simple problem would be the power button (on KB or mac) sticking or similar causing a sleep.

We need the output from pmset, soon- can you get it and post it?

Sooo. Have we had a Console report yet?

No.

Sleep issues on Macs are a PITA.

While we’re waiting for a console output, can I ask for help on my own Mac-related issue? 🙂

When booting it sits at the grey screen with a HDD icon in the middle waiting to be clicked. I don’t keep a mouse plugged in and it’s a right faff to connect one up (Mac Mini under the telly with all USB ports used – when booted I use a Bluetooth k/b+mouse).

Any idea what causes this?

Set the startup disk, it’s somewhere in system preferences or disk util, I forget. Google it…

And a BT KB&Mouse should work from boot on a mac… :-/

Remembered I had my (nearly 4 year old that I’ve had no issues with touchwood) MacBookPro in my car, so now have a keyboard I can type with again… I’m a little calmer now.

Right… I’m sat with the imac to my side, and laptop on my lap.

Running disc utility in system recovery at the moment (and yes, keeps sleeping still)… Disc is verified, permissions were slightly out but now repaired.

Power button isn’t sticky.

Keyboard is a wireless one, but again, power button isn’t sticky.

Machine isn’t overheating, it just often thinks it is. It’s in a shop, not a particularly dusty one, certainly very little dust around compared to the environment my desktop at home has to deal with!

About to attempt to boot into safe mode…

IA, can you talk me through what I need to do for pmset…? I’m not familair I’m afraid. I’ve not messed around in terminal very much to be fair, never had much need to til now!

Set the startup disk, it’s somewhere in system preferences or disk util, I forget. Google it…

Start terminal, give us the output from:

pmset -g everything

That’ll show all the power settings as our starter for 10. Then whilst we’re pondering that, run:

pmset -g log | grep -e ” Sleep ” -e ” Wake “

that will sit there logging sleep and wake events. Once you’ve had it sleep itself, wake it, let it sleep again etc – basically capture a few events then paste that output here too.

Thanks, I’ll give that a try tonight. I’ll now bow out and stop side-tracking the original thread 🙂

IA, what’s your email address? I’m gonna have to save it as a text file…

You could always paste it into pastebin and link it? Then other folks can look too in case they have suggestions?

http://pastebin.com/

Other text sharing sites are available…

There you go IA… http://pastebin.com/5Ufk5ptn

FWIW, it’s now decided not to sleep itself for the moment! I don’t trust it at all, but it’s temporarily behaving again…

OK from a quick skim of that:

It all looks fine setttings wise.

I can see how frequently the sleep events are occurring, I can see why that would be maddening! No obvious cause there either.

Really need to set pmset logging as per the second command above and see if it records anything more helpful.

So my only thought for now is there’s perhaps something wrong with the power profiles (there seem to be a few) but without a good imac config to compare with I can’t tell.

I think you could remove the current settings and force them to be reset by moving:

/Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.PowerManagement.plist

to say your desktop, e.g. like

sudo mv /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.PowerManagement.plist ~/Desktop/.

(it’ll want your password)

Reboot, then go to energy saver in prefs and reset it as you you wish the settings.

That might be the wrong file above, i had to google it as I don’t have a mac to hand. Proceed at your own risk, take backups, not my fault if it explodes etc etc ….

The other thing to try would be use pmset (read the manual) to disable the various ways it’s allowed to sleep (power button, time etc etc). Then if that stops it sleeping, re-enable them one-by-one to see which is problematic.

FWIW if it was my mac, I’d try moving the preferences as above first to regenerate them (can always move them back). Again massive disclaimer, debugging a computer over a bike forum with incomplete knowledge here!

PRAM reset worth a punt?

PRAM reset worth a punt?

First thing I did… Months ago… And many times since!

Just shutting the shop now, then gonna spend a bit of time following IA’s advice… Incredibly it’s been well behaved for the last few hours though!

I’m surprised no-one else has said… for such a new machine, just whizz it into Apple and they have a good poke around for free…

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