10.5.2 Still has Sleep/Wake problems

This is just so frustrating …

I’m typing this posting on the iMac because the MacBook Pro with 10.5.2 won’t wake up.

I simply opened the lid as I have done a million times but even though I heard the Mac power on and the white pulsing led on the front turned off, the screen stayed dark.

After a few minutes I gave up and closed the lid again, hoping it would go back to sleep again so that I can give it another try. The white LED on the front is now on, not pulsing and I can hear the Mac do stuff.

The screen is still dark. And now the fans are working at full speed too.

I’m hoping for a little miracle because I have a whole bunch of apps and windows open. But I’m afraid I’ll have to reboot this piece of crap again.

As I said in a previous posting, the MacBook Pro seems to be the number one problematic Apple portable at the moment with regards to sleep and wake. I’ve never had sleep/wake problems of this scale on any other Apple portable.

For the record: this is a plain MacBook Pro with a standard install of 10.5.2. No kernel extensions, no crazy software. I basically just use Terminal.app, Safari and some other very standard apps.

Lame.

Sick and Tired of MacBook Pro Leopard Issues

This is a rant about a 2000 EURO laptop that does not work correctly.

I’ve been using Apple computers since 1980 and Apple laptops since ’97 or so when I had a PowerBook 150. I’ve had many iBook models, PowerBooks in all shapes and sizes and now I have the last model of the MacBook Pro 15″. The Late 2007 ‘Santa Rosa’ model.

In all these years I have never owned an Apple laptop that was so incredibly badly supported by Apple’s own operating system. The MacBook Pro in combination with Leopard is a true compatibility disappointment. It feels like a flakey Windows XP install on crappy hardware. Which is crazy since they are both made by the company that we love so much.

Let me explain the issues that I have.

Sleep/Wake Problems

I have constant sleep and wake problems with this MacBook Pro. I know that the MBP now uses full hibernate where it can take a LONG time before it goes to sleep. My problems are different though.

• Sometimes it does not wake up when I open the lid.
• Sometimes it wakes up but the screen stays dark.
• Sometimes I close the lid and I can see that the backlight stays turned on. Forever.
• Sometimes the backlight goes off when I close the lid and the I see the Apple logo flashing every couple of minutes.
• Sometimes I hear the CD drive making it’s purr sound when the lid is closed.
• Many times the ony way to get control back is to reboot. Sucks bigtime.

I’ve seen sleep/wake problems with all other models since the iBook but never so structural as with the MacBook Pro running Leopard. This is simply embarrassingly bad. It used to be one of those great features. Now I am afraid to open my MacBook because there is a good change I will have to reboot.

I’m not the only one. See the following threads on Apple’s MacBook Pro discussion forum. Just search for Sleep or Wake.

Keyboard Issues

I have described my keyboard problems in detail on this blog. Summarized the problems are: first keystroke has no effect after some period of idle time. Keyboard functionality disappears completely.

Apple put out a fix for this in the form of a software update. I think this proves that they simply fragged up support for their own hardware. Unfortunately the fix does not work for many people. Many folks on Apple’s discussion forum are reporting that they still have the above issues, even after installing the update.

See for example the following threads on Apple’s discussion forum: #1355165, #1356337 or #1129578

It’s INSANE that so many people are still having issues and that there is no proper fix.

‘Jumpy’ Mouse Issues

What I mean with Jumpy here is that you move the cursor for a little bit but instead it jumps all over the screen.

The problem is probably related to the wireless connection since I have heard from a lot of people that the mouse is jumpy when the MacBook Pro is looking for a wireless network to connect to. When it is connected to a wireless network of decided that no network can be found then the jumpy mouse problem goes away.

That by itself is already a big problem since your MacBook Pro is basically unusable during that time. And it can sometimes take a really long time before it find a usable network, so all that time you are basically waiting behind a non-working computer. But even more annoying, for many people the mouse stays jumpy even after succesfully connecting to the wireless network.

It actually just happened to me: I was at the Copenhagen airport to fly home and when I opened my MacBook Pro the mouse got all jumpy and stayed that way. Now back at home in Amsterdam I have to reboot and close 8 terminal windows with work and editors with documents open to get rid of this problem. Extremely Lame

This is clearly a Leopard software problem since I never had this issue with 10.4 on this same MacBook Pro.

See the following threads on Apple’s discussion forum: #1206438 , #5889720 , #5881774 , #6126097 , #6137148

I’m not alone. Just check Apple’s own MBP forum or the forums on any Apple fan site. Leopard has been out for months, this hardware for much longer. I can only think of one reason why the MBP has so many issues with Leopard: they never did proper testing and quality assurance since everybody in Cupertino was too busy building new products.

Prices go up, quality goes down. These are really bad signs.

Involuntary Reboot #71

I’m so tired of this sh*t. *Again* I have to reboot my MacBook Pro because it woke up after four tries of closing and opening the lid with a bouncy mouse pointer as a result. This is only the .. fourth time this week that it happened.

Someone at Apple ought to lose his or her job for completely messing up Leopard compatibility on the MacBook Pro.

Involuntary Reboot #4 – Trackpad Issues Again

Fourth time. I open my MacBook Pro to wake it up. Mouse behaves erratically like it is on crack. Same symptoms as before.

I let my MacBook Pro sleep and then wake it up. Hope that the problem is gone. It got worse: both the keyboard and trackpad are not working now.

After connecting an external keyboard I was able to get this from the system log:

AppleUSBHub::setPowerState(0x68fd800, 2 -> 4) timed out after 10617 ms
USBF:	305518.599	AppleUSBUHCI[0x660f000]::DeviceRequest
   - dmaCommand (0x690c500) already had memory
      descriptor (0xebfb080) - clearing
USBF:	305518.599	AppleUSBUHCI[0x660f000]::DeviceRequest
   - buffer dmaCommand (0x690c300) already had memory
      descriptor (0xecd8900) - clearing
USBF:	305518.599	ControlTransaction: control packet
   1 error 0xe0004057

Maybe some smarties in Cupertino should fix this. It looks like a software problem.

Leopard is like Windows. A reboot each day. So incredibly lame.

Involuntary Reboot #3 – Trackpad Issues

I just had to reboot my MacBook Pro because the trackpad started to act all weird after waking from sleep. Like I described here.

This is a brand new MacBook Pro, which had it’s main logic board replaced two days ago as a result f completely failing keyboard and trackpad.

I’m running OS X 10.5.1 and I did a clean install and then transferred my home directory. I have NO weird software installed that could mess with USB related things.

Leopard has some SERIOUS issues with this hardware.

The problem is, I simply don’t trust my Mac anymore. I expect it to stop working any minute. Which is not really good if you do all your professional work on that machine.

In other words. I’ve lost confidence in OS X and the MacBook Pro. Very sad.

Involuntary Reboot #2

It happened again! I simply opened my MacBook and I am getting exactly the same symptoms: when moved around with the trackpad the cursor bounces around on the screen.

Involuntary Reboot

This might be a little oldskool for some people.

Do you remember that when the old original Mac (128K/512K/Plus) read a floppy disk that there was not enough time to deal with all the interrupts for the mouse movement? And that the mouse would jump around the screen?

The same thing just happened on my MacBook Pro after a couple of failed tries to wake the Mac up from sleep.

The hardware must have been confused or so because ‘top’ did not show any process sucking up all CPU time. I tried to sleep/wake the MacBook, turn the Airport off and on but nothing helped. After a reboot it is fine again.