WeatherCat or Mac problem?

[michael252]

I?m stumped.

Mac Mini, 1.4 GHz, i5, 4 GB mem, 500 GB drive (469 GB free)
OSX El Capitan 10.11.6
WeatherCat v2.40 Build 198

Sleep is turned off
?Prevent computer from sleeping?? is checked (I manually turn monitor on and off as needed)
Screensaver is turned off
Automatic login is turned on
Monitor and relaunch WeatherCat is checked

Computer is dedicated to WeatherCat, TimeMachine the only other thing running.

Occasionally, as often as twice a week or as little as once every two weeks, I?ll get an email from WU saying that my updates aren?t being received. Random time of day. I turn on the monitor and see a screensaver (supposed to be turned off) and then a user login screen (supposed to be auto log in). I type my password and WeatherCat begins its download from the station. (WeatherCat seems to still be running, but hasn?t gotten data) Often I?ll do a restart to be safe. I?m including a console file indicating a possible WC problem.

Any info would be appreciated.

Thanks!
Michael

[Randall75]

Hi Michael
 I have mine set to:
Computer Sleep never
Display sleep 20 minutes
Put Hard Disk to sleep when possible
Wake for network access
Start up automatically after a power failure


And I have no problems with it

But sometimes it is on WU's end especially since The weather Channel bought them out thing have not been as smooth as before.


Hope this might help


cheers
 

[xairbusdriver]

Running the same OS and WC versions as you, on a Mac mini. My settings are similar to Randall's except I don't even bother sleeping the drives. I do require a password on all my machines, mainly because they are running as Admin. However, a power outage doesn't prevent the machine from Starting up and restarting WC, I just have to log in to check on things. BTW, I don't even have a monitor on the mini, but I still have Display sleep at the first mark before "15 minutes"/

There is one thing you didn't mention in your Energy Saver settings: "Power Nap". Be sure that is not enabled.

Your Auto Login and Screen Saver settings not 'sticking' sounds like a System Prefs corruption. Do you have any Utility apps?

Are you using an Uninterruptible Power Supply? If so, is it set to shut down the Mac?

I tend to agree that WU has problems, however, if your Mac shuts down for long enough, WU will send these types of messages to you. I'd suggest looking at Console for any kind of "shutdown" and/or "Restart" messages. Especially any that occur on the same day.

[michael252]

Thanks guys.


Power nap is disabled. I attached a log file with my original post, but I'm no computer genius, so it doesn't mean much to me. It just happened to happen again a little while ago. I actually saw it this time. Screen blanks for just a second, then the user login screen appears. When I log back in, WC is still "running," although "semi-frozen." It grinds for a little while, then sometimes comes back to life. Definitely not a WU problem. But they do remind me when I'm not reporting.

[elagache]

Dear Micheal, Randall, X-Air, and WeatherCat troubleshooters,

Occasionally, as often as twice a week or as little as once every two weeks, I?ll get an email from WU saying that my updates aren?t being received. Random time of day. I turn on the monitor and see a screensaver (supposed to be turned off) and then a user login screen (supposed to be auto log in).

Unfortunately, there is at least one other WeatherCat user who had a problem like this and basically OS X has some sort of bug that causes it to go to sleep even when you have set all the options to prevent this.

I believe that other WeatherCat user with this same problem tried a utility like this one called Amphetamine:

https://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/52683/amphetamine

If you look at the bottom of the listing there are some alternative programs so you can see what fits your needs best.

That is probably the only way to be absolutely certain your computer will never go into some sort of energy saver mode.

Sorry but in the voice of Jimmy Durante . . . .

Such are da' conditions that prevail . . . .

Edouard

[Blicj11]

I am the guy who had the same problem. I had the same settings as you except I did not check Put HD to sleep when possible. It was still doing exactly what you describe. I called AppleCare. They had me do a bunch of stuff that did not help. I downloaded Amphetamine as Edouard stated above. It is a free utility that prevents your Mac from sleeping. I have never had a problem since I installed it. I am now running on Sierra and it still works fine. I recommend you try it.

[michael252]

Just installed Amphetamine. We'll see how it goes.

Thanks for all the help (especially if this works!)

[Blicj11]

Let us know if this works, Michael.

Are you using version 3.02 from the App Store or did you get it from somewhere else?

[michael252]

Two days, no trouble so far.
v3.02

[Blicj11]

After I installed it I never had a problem since.

[michael252]

Looks like Amphetamine didn't cure the problem. Died again today.

[Blicj11]

Dang it.

So is WC actually going to sleep? You can tell because there will be a message in its log.

[michael252]

No, I don't think WC is sleeping. In fact, nothing is sleeping. When it happens, screen goes blank for a couple of seconds, then a user login screen, and when no one logs in, it goes to screensaver. It's like the user logged out. When I enter the user password, WC is still there. Circular spinning thing for a minute, then everything is back to normal. But I have no idea why.
BTW, I just updated to WC v2.4.1

[elagache]

Dear Michael, Blick, and WeatherCat troubleshooters,

No, I don't think WC is sleeping. In fact, nothing is sleeping. When it happens, screen goes blank for a couple of seconds, then a user login screen, and when no one logs in, it goes to screensaver. It's like the user logged out.

If your computer is "logging you out" automatically, something is wrong with the computer or the OS.  Have you checked log files accessible by the Console application for errors at the time this happens?  You should see something there that should point to the source of the problem.

Sorry you are still struggling with this.

Edouard

[michael252]

There's a log file attached to the first post, but it means little to me.