Sleeping computer

[Blicj11]

I discovered today that, according to WeatherCat, my iMac was sleeping. This is the fourth time this has happened to me and I am going to explain what I found and what I did.

I have my iMac set to prevent computer from sleeping. See attached screenshot. I pressed the space bar on my keyboard to restore the display and found that WeatherCat was inactive. When I clicked on WeatherCat to make it the active window, it "woke up." See attached screenshot of entries I copied from the console log. It looks to me like the iMac was asleep (or at least WeatherCat was asleep) for a wee bit longer than two hours.

To attempt a fix for the the sleeping problem, I did three things:

• I selected Restore Defaults on the Energy Saver options in Yosemite System Preferences.
• I reinstalled Yosemite.
• I adjusted the Energy Saver settings to the way I had them set in the first place (Prevent computer from sleeping automatically when the display is off).

I'll just have to wait and see if it happens again, but in the meantime, if anyone can think of something else I can check, or if I have misinterpreted the Console messages, I would appreciate your thoughts.

[Bull Winkus]

Blick, are you using UPS software to automatically shutdown the computer before the UPS runs down in the event of an extended power outage? If so, your UPS software may need to be updated for Yosemite.

That's all I got. Perhaps someone else has a better suggestion.

 

[JosBaz]

Hi Blick,

Although it should not be an issue anymore (it used to be at somepoint), you may want to try and disable App Nap to see if it has any influence?

Can easily be disabled by locating the application and pressing Command + I (or choose "Get Info" from the contextual menu). In the Get Info window, check the option to "Prevent App Nap" and you're done.

Jos

[Blicj11]

Herb:

For several versions now, OS X does not use third-party UPS "drivers", but UPS shutdown control is built into the operating system by Apple. I called the manufacturer of my UPS to confirm. Thanks for the suggestion.

Jos:

Goeden dag, mijnheer. I think you are right, App Nap should no longer be an issue. Nevertheless, I took your suggestion anyway and disabled it. Thanks.

 

[Bull Winkus]

Duh? What's app nap?

[elagache]

Howdy Blick, Herb, Jos, and WeatherCat seekers of an OS X "bug trap. . . . " 

I discovered today that, according to WeatherCat, my iMac was sleeping. This is the fourth time this has happened to me and I am going to explain what I found and what I did.

. . . . .

I'll just have to wait and see if it happens again, but in the meantime, if anyone can think of something else I can check, or if I have misinterpreted the Console messages, I would appreciate your thoughts.

I'm afraid you should be thinking along Randall's point of view . . . .

Do you see anything in the console log that might indicate what was happening when your computer "fell asleep?"  This might actually be due to a bug somewhere and your computer effectively "responded to the crisis" by going to sleep.  Another thing to check is the crash reports.  If there were some programs that crashed that might point to the culprit.

Sorry, this isn't the sort of thing that is building up my confidence!

Edouard

[Randall75]

Hi Blick
 As Jos posted if you reinstalled Yosemite then you do need to have that in the get info of WeatherCat that you have App Napp  is checked or it will go to sleep if the Cat is not processing something


cheers 

[Blicj11]

Duh? What's app nap?

App Nap was introduced in Mavericks as an energy saver. Basically, the OS X can tell when you have an app open that you aren't looking at because it is hidden underneath another open window. If the hidden app isn't doing something active like downloading a file, the operating system slows the app down and returns it to full speed when you come back to look at it. For a short while it was an issue with WeatherCat, but Stu fixed something in the code so that WeatherCat does not take App Naps. You can read about App Nap here: https://www.apple.com/osx/advanced-technologies/

But just in case, I did disable App Nap for WeatherCat.

Edouard, you are right; I should have looked in the console log. I did look at the log, but I was filtering it only for WeatherCat. It never dawned on me to look at the unfiltered log. Next time...

[Bull Winkus]

Thanks Blick! That sheds a light on the subject. How could I have gone so long without knowing? Oh well. That's just the way I roll. 

[Randall75]

Hi Blick
 Old mines forget very easy these days


cheers


 

[elagache]

Howdy Blick, Herb, Randall, and WeatherCat troubleshooters,

Edouard, you are right; I should have looked in the console log. I did look at the log, but I was filtering it only for WeatherCat. It never dawned on me to look at the unfiltered log. Next time...

Actually you have the old logs available.  In the Console application scroll down to near the end of the side bar and you'll start to see files with names like system.log.1.gz.  On my Mac, I have files all the way down to system.log.20.gz which takes me back to March 8.  If you click on any of those files you can see the messages for that day.  If the event happened within the range of files you have, that would allow you to do some retrospective sleuthing.

Cheers, Edouard 

[Blicj11]

Thanks Edouard. I followed your instructions and did find the appropriate log. I don't know what it means, but I copied the console messages from the last good upload until I woke it up a couple of hours later. It looks to me like the iMac went to sleep. Perhaps Stu can interpret the attached.

[Felix]

Have you considered resetting the SMC and PRAM?

[Blicj11]

Thanks for the suggestion Felix. I had not thought of that. I can't see how resetting (in my case) the NVRAM would affect sleeping. However, definitely the SMC could be involved, so I have now reset it.

[elagache]

Dear Blick, Felix, and WeatherCat troubleshooters,

Thanks Edouard. I followed your instructions and did find the appropriate log. I don't know what it means, but I copied the console messages from the last good upload until I woke it up a couple of hours later. It looks to me like the iMac went to sleep. Perhaps Stu can interpret the attached.

Hmm, that long string of entries that look like this:

Mar 13 12:48:18 MightyCraic-iMac kernel[0]: [0x524c51000, 0x14000]

Make me wonder if this isn't some sort of kernel panic (serious crash of the core of the operating system.)  Apparently it recovered since you were able to get your machine running again.  I am puzzled.  Normally the logs have the words: "kernel panic" when there is one.  On the other hand, spewing out a bunch of incomprehensible hexadecimal to the log files is definitely not something the kernel should be normally doing either.

I'll be interested to see what Stu thinks after he returns from the wilderness.

If it happens again, you might need to get some help from Apple.  This could be some sort of a hardware problem.

Bummer dude, . . . . Edouard