iMac going into sleep mode

pilot1087

Hi Guys,

I'm having some trouble with my iMac and I'm wondering if anyone might be able to help. It's a 3 month old 21.5" iMac, I called apple today and due to me being 14 days after my free phone service period they wanted £35sterling for the phone help. So I just thought I'd ask here first before parting with the cash.

The problem is it keeps going into sleep mode even when I'm working on the computer, for example I can be browsing the internet and the screen just goes black but I can hear that the computer is still running, when I move the mouse or press a key on the keyboard nothing happens. The only way I can get it working again is to turn the power off at the mains for ten mins and reboot but this only lasts a short while then I have to do it again.

Has anyone any ideas what might be wrong?

Thanks in advance, much appreciated.

Sad Professor

That doesn't sound like sleep mode. More like a crash. Have you installed any RAM?

pilot1087

I haven't installed anything, I think you're right in saying it's crashing, it just seemed like sleep mode, are there any diagnostic tools/apps I can get?

Sad Professor

Boot from the install disc by holding d on startup to run Apple's hardware test.

pilot1087

just tried it there and the screen is going black before the diagnostic finishes. It's getting very frustrating, think I'll just have to bite the bullet and pay for the phone support.

Ham'nd'egger

pilot1087 wrote: »

just tried it there and the screen is going black before the diagnostic finishes. It's getting very frustrating, think I'll just have to bite the bullet and pay for the phone support.

No, you ring them up, pay nothing and tell them that the machine is faulty.

brav

If AHT is failing you will prob have to bring it in for repair anyway

pilot1087

Hamndegger wrote: »

No, you ring them up, pay nothing and tell them that the machine is faulty.

I'll give it a go. They guy on the phone was saying I have a one year warranty on my hardware but needed to pay for him to help me over the phone. Why could this not have happened a couple of weeks ago while I still had the apple care cover

alexlyons

Register here and see if they can help. Huge community of very knowledgeable Apple enthusiasts. Don't pay a cent to Apple. Their product is faulty, its up to them to get it working. Tell support that you don't want their help, you want the machine fixed under warranty.

pilot1087

alexlyons wrote: »

Register here and see if they can help. Huge community of very knowledgeable Apple enthusiasts. Don't pay a cent to Apple. Their product is faulty, its up to them to get it working. Tell support that you don't want their help, you want the machine fixed under warranty.

Thanks Alex, I just had a look there and it turns out I'm not the only person with a narcoleptic iMac

Sad Professor

Try resetting the PRAM and the SMC. See below:
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1379
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3964

Also, disconnect everything except the mouse and keyboard from the Mac.

You should also check the log by opening Console (in Applications > Utilities). Look under CrashReporter and system.log. Check around the time that the crash happened (which should be easy as you had to restart the Mac each time). It's going to look like gibberish, but scroll back through the system log and see if there was a repeated error at the time of each crash.

And if you contact Apple again, tell them it's a hardware problem. Don't mention anything about sleep or they'll assume there's something wrong with your energy saver preferences.

faceman

in the event you cant fix the issue yourself and its only 3 months old then the seller of the iMac must deal with your issue without charging you. Be it a repair or a replacement. This is covered by the Sales of Goods and Services act.

pilot1087

Sad Professor wrote: »

Try resetting the PRAM and the SMC. See below:
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1379
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3964

Also, disconnect everything except the mouse and keyboard from the Mac.

You should also check the log by opening Console (in Applications > Utilities). Look under CrashReporter and system.log. Check around the time that the crash happened (which should be easy as you had to restart the Mac each time). It's going to look like gibberish, but scroll back through the system log and see if there was a repeated error at the time of each crash.

And if you contact Apple again, tell them it's a hardware problem. Don't mention anything about sleep or they'll assume there's something wrong with your energy saver preferences.

Just had a look at the log, there seems to be a "kCGErrorFailure" showing up on a few occasions.. I'm trying your two suggestions now.

Sad Professor

No idea what that is. Is it being reported at the time of the crashes?

Is there anything else?

aidan_walsh

A quick Google suggests that kCGErrorFailure errors seem to be related to OS X's window manager and depending on the error message in full can be either hardware or software related.

pilot1087

Sad professor, I tried your two suggestions and it stopped for about 2 hours but now its back, its like the computer keeps trying to restart itself but cant get past the white screen.

Aidan I'll check out what you said.

Thanks guys

Sad Professor

If it's blacking out while running the hardware test then it's definitely a hardware problem. It's within warranty, so get back on to Apple. Tell them you don't want telephone support, you want it fixed under warranty. Don't say anything about sleep mode. Tell them it is blacking out and crashing, even during hardware test, and won't start up.

Alternatively, bring it to an Apple Authorised Service Provider. If you are in Dublin, there's Mactivate, Evad, Typetec, etc, who can carry out warranty repairs.

pilot1087

Sad Professor wrote: »

If it's blacking out while running the hardware test then it's definitely a hardware problem. It's within warranty, so get back on to Apple. Tell them you don't want telephone support, you want it fixed under warranty. Don't say anything about sleep mode. Tell them it is blacking out and crashing, even during hardware test, and won't start up.

Alternatively, bring it to an Apple Authorised Service Provider. If you are in Dublin, there's Mactivate, Evad, Typetec, etc, who can carry out warranty repairs.

Thanks, I'll try ringing them again. If there's no joy I'll bring it to mactivate.

I'll report back when I do.

old_aussie

Macs have had this problem for over five years and mac fixes only seem to work for a few hours

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=621013&start=0&tstart=0

pilot1087

old_aussie wrote: »

Macs have had this problem for over five years and mac fixes only seem to work for a few hours

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=621013&start=0&tstart=0

This does not fill me with confidence! I called Mactivate and I'll bring it out to them tomorrow, at least it's still under warranty so hopefully any fixing that needs to be done won't cost me.

Sad Professor

old_aussie wrote: »

Macs have had this problem for over five years and mac fixes only seem to work for a few hours

No, they haven't. That thread is four years old. The OP has an iMac with a different problem.

old_aussie

Sad Professor wrote: »

No, they haven't. That thread is four years old. The OP has an iMac with a different problem.

Yes they have

From OP's first post

The problem is it keeps going into sleep mode even when I'm working on the computer


First post from link

"My computer keeps going into sleep mode randomly - even while I am actively working. It does this when I am plugged in and working from the battery. I have tried setting my system preferences to go to sleep never, but it continues to do this. I also also run disc utility. I greatly appreciate any suggestions - this is making it very frustrating and unproductive to work. "

Same thing, they go into sleep mode at anytime and there are older threads than that one

Sad Professor

The OP's Mac isn't going to sleep, it is crashing.

MACHEAD

Not justifying Apple's policy on the telephone suport issue, but it does state quite clearly that free phone support is only for the first 90 days. To extend this requires you to buy Apple Care.

brav

At the end of the day best to just bring to service provider, not much can be done over the phone

pilot1087

MACHEAD wrote: »

Not justifying Apple's policy on the telephone suport issue, but it does state quite clearly that free phone support is only for the first 90 days. To extend this requires you to buy Apple Care.

I didn't have a problem with this and I was aware it was for 90 days. I just thought it was a bit unfortunate the way the issue arose so soon after the 90 days were up.

Anyway, I've dropped it into mactivate and they'll let me know tomorrow what the problem is. I'll update when I hear from them.

old_aussie

So what's happening with the mac?

pilot1087

Hi Aussie,

No word yet from Mactivate, I said to myself I'd wait till today before ringing if I hadn't heard anything. I'll give them a call at lunchtime. I'll keep you informed.

pilot1087

just a quick update.

I got a call off Mactivate this morning. They said the iMAC won't even boot up at all now so they have to open it up. They think it's a hardware problem so it should be covered by warranty. I'll update if there's any further news.

pilot1087

Hi All,

I got a call off Mactivate this morning and they've said they took the computer apart and have tried almost everything and can't figure out exactly what the problem is. So by process of elimation they want to change the motherboard. It's been ordered this morning and they should have it by tomorrow.

Does anyone have any opinions on this? I'm a bit worried by the fact that it is going to be changed without an exact knowledge of what the problem is. Also I'm starting to feel that if the product is faulty I should be able to say to apple that I want a new machine.

I'm not feeling good about this situation.

Sad Professor

The logic board is most likely the problem. If that doesn't fix it, get on to Apple and demand a replacement.

pilot1087

Sad Professor wrote: »

The logic board is most likely the problem. If that doesn't fix it, get on to Apple and demand a replacement.

Ok I'll wait and see what happens

brav

Don't think you'd get a replacement if it 4 months old only if you had a few repairs already or it happened in the first few weeks but I may(probably) be wrong, but replacing logic will probably fix it anyway

old_aussie

Hi,

Progress has been made.

Let us know how it goes OP

MACHEAD

AASP's usually follow a standard process of elimination in fault finding, which if followed the whole way through each 'block' of the machine without an identified fault, leads to logic board replacement. As to whither or not you would get a complete replacement machine from Apple would depend on many contributing factors. But general rule of thumb is, if the machine is over two months old, it'll be repaired rather than replaced.

pilot1087

Just got a call off Mactivate to say my iMac is ready to be collected, I'll be collecting it tomorrow and I'll report back when I've spoken to them.

Any questions I should ask apart from the obvious?

pilot1087

Hi all,

Just to let you know I got my iMac back and it seems to be working fine now. They replaced the logic board so it was definitely a hardward issue and was covered by the warranty.

Thanks for all your help an advice. It seems we have a happy ending.

old_aussie

Good to hear OP