iMac sleep restart

[Larry McManus]

My iMac is less than a year old. When it goes into sleep mode it will not start unless I hit the power button. It has been doing this about a month now. I have used Disk utility sveral times with no change. I am running Catalina 10.15.7

 

[pigoo3]

When it goes into sleep mode it will not start unless I hit the power button.

With the situation stated...is your iMac actually still "sleeping"...or at some point did it turn itself off completely?

When you hit the power button...are you actually doing a "cold-boot" and not really waking it from sleeping?

- Nick

 

[MacInWin]

Welcome to the forum. What are the settings in System Preferences for Energy Saver? I don't remember the exact words in the settings for Energy Saver in that version.

 

[chscag]

My iMac is less than a year old. When it goes into sleep mode it will not start unless I hit the power button. It has been doing this about a month now. I have used Disk utility sveral times with no change. I am running Catalina 10.15.7

First, you should update macOS to Big Sur 11.1.

Then, you can try a SMC reset. Very easy to do with an iMac.

How to reset the SMC on Mac desktop computers

1. Choose Apple menu > Shut Down and wait for your Mac to shut down.
2. Unplug the power cord.
3. Wait 15 seconds.
4. Plug the power cord back in.
5. Wait 5 seconds, then press the power button again to turn on your Mac.

 

[easilyscan]

iMac purchased new at Best Buy early November 2018
MacOS High Sierra 10.13.6

Retina 4k - 21.5” - 2017
3 GHZ Intel Core i5
8 GB 2400 MHz DDR4
Radeon Pro 555 2048 MB

My problem is very similar to the OP. I'm guessing it started about 3 weeks ago.
I choose the sleep mode when I'm done using it every night.
It's usually down for approximately 10 hours, & it completely shuts down. (have to press start button, choose myself or guest, & login)

If I only put it to sleep for a short period (under an hour) it will wake up fine & all I have to do is enter my password.

There was one other problem on start up recently, but I forgot to do a screen-shot. Something to do with the bluetooth/keyboard/mouse administrator unable to find them, and/or it was searching for them. I plugged the charger into the back of the mouse for approximately 3 seconds, removed it, & that fixed the problem.

Slow/sluggish especially during start up. Desktop icons take forever (at least relative to when it was new) to load. Ram and/or OS ?

Broadband is through charter/spectrum & I use an external modem (Cisco DPC3008) & unplug it every night.

Here’s a screen-cap of my energy saver settings, & 5 more describing the issue.

 

[chscag]

Same advice as I gave in post #4. Reset the SMC and report back the results.

 

[MacInWin]

There has been a long-running issue with Watchdog. It occasionally causes the symptoms you report, plus others. I've had my MBP suddenly stop, just stop, not crash, not restart, just stop. Then it starts up again right where it was, including, in one case, playing a video I was streaming from just where it stopped. I did some research, didn't find anything but others with issues, but what I have done that has seemed to keep it from happening for a couple of weeks now is to use Amphetamine (it's in the App Store) and setting it to never let the Mac fully sleep. I do let the display go dark, but the CPU is "tickled" by the app every so often. Also, turn off Power Nap as Watchdog seems to fail more often with the option selected.

Chscag suggested an SMC reset, which some folks have reported has helped, but it has not proved to be a permanent fix.

I think Apple is aware of the issue, but there hasn't been a fix for it.

 

[ferrarr]

You could also enable the option to: Prevent computer from sleeping automatically when the display is off.

 

[easilyscan]

Same advice as I gave in post #4. Reset the SMC and report back the results.

Reset the SMC, but no change. Although I didn't upgrade the OS as you suggested to someone else.
Still running High Sierra 10.13.6

I just recently downloaded & installed H&R Block tax software, & all my tax information will be available in a week or 2. After I'm done with that, I'll upgrade the OS, try again, & report back.

 

[Kokomac]

Hello everyone,

I just joined to state I have the exact same problem. The computer has started to crash while on sleep and it also started some weeks ago.

I have the exact same model as @easilyscan, Retina 4k - 21.5” - 2017, but am on 10.15.7.

I just did a recovery reinstall of Catalina this morning, but the problem is still present... Really wondering what the problem could be...

iMac purchased new at Best Buy early November 2018
MacOS High Sierra 10.13.6

Retina 4k - 21.5” - 2017
3 GHZ Intel Core i5
8 GB 2400 MHz DDR4
Radeon Pro 555 2048 MB

My problem is very similar to the OP. I'm guessing it started about 3 weeks ago.
I choose the sleep mode when I'm done using it every night.
It's usually down for approximately 10 hours, & it completely shuts down. (have to press start button, choose myself or guest, & login)

If I only put it to sleep for a short period (under an hour) it will wake up fine & all I have to do is enter my password.

There was one other problem on start up recently, but I forgot to do a screen-shot. Something to do with the bluetooth/keyboard/mouse administrator unable to find them, and/or it was searching for them. I plugged the charger into the back of the mouse for approximately 3 seconds, removed it, & that fixed the problem.

Slow/sluggish especially during start up. Desktop icons take forever (at least relative to when it was new) to load. Ram and/or OS ?

Broadband is through charter/spectrum & I use an external modem (Cisco DPC3008) & unplug it every night.

Here’s a screen-cap of my energy saver settings, & 5 more describing the issue.

 

[MacInWin]

Read post #7. WatchDog seems to be the issue but there is no fix for it. As a workaround, I use Amphetamine to keep the CPU awake all the time.

 

[Kokomac]

Read post #7. WatchDog seems to be the issue but there is no fix for it. As a workaround, I use Amphetamine to keep the CPU awake all the time.

I just disabled Power Nap, as other forums seem to suggest. If that doesn't fix it, I'll give Amphetamine a try. Thanks.

 

[easilyscan]

iMac purchased new at Best Buy early November 2018
MacOS High Sierra 10.13.6

Retina 4k - 21.5” - 2017
3 GHZ Intel Core i5
8 GB 2400 MHz DDR4
Radeon Pro 555 2048 MB

*Update* 02-09-21
I've already tried the SMC reset several times, & disabled Power Nap. No change
I haven't tried Amphetamine, or upgraded the OS.

It's getting progressively worse. Today I had to hit the restart button on the back. The start up bar made it a little over 1/2 the way across & stopped.
Waited 10 minutes. No change, so I unplugged it, & tried again. Same result. Unplugged it again, & that time start up was successful.

Here's a capture of my energy saver settings.

Would option number 1 be similar to amphetamine ?

My options/questions
1: Earlier in the thread, I stated that I'd like to wait until after I did my taxes (sometime after February 13th) before upgrading the OS.
I just found out that my tax info won't be available until February 27th.

MacInWin stated……..”WatchDog seems to be the issue but there is no fix for it”
Can I take that to mean that even if I successfully upgraded to Big Sur 11.1. (as chscag suggested) there's no guarantee anything would change ?

I'm very close to a Best Buy store, so geek squad would be a possibility. From what I've read here, I'm under the impression that this would most likely be a waste of money ?

After the problems I had with start-up today, I'm wondering if I shouldn't intentionally shut it down every night when I'm done ? My thinking is that this would prevent whatever is causing the shut down issues to take place. Does this sound reasonable ?

Is this issue caused by a virus or something similar, or is it purely an Apple problem ?

 

[MacInWin]

CLIP...

MacInWin stated……..”WatchDog seems to be the issue but there is no fix for it”
Can I take that to mean that even if I successfully upgraded to Big Sur 11.1. (as chscag suggested) there's no guarantee anything would change ?

It is happening on my machine running Big Sur 11.2.1, and it happened with 11.0.1, 11.1 and 11.2. It also has been reported on Catalina and High Sierra. It has been around for a while.

EDIT: Let me correct one thing. It has not happened YET on 11.2.1, but then I only installed it today so it could well still be there. If you do a search for "Watchdog macOS panic" you'll get a ton of hits on the subject, but no single solution. Lots of "try this" suggestions.

I'm very close to a Best Buy store, so geek squad would be a possibility. From what I've read here, I'm under the impression that this would most likely be a waste of money ?

Depends on the BB staff. Most of them are not terribly Mac savvy, but for this one there is no solution.

Is this issue caused by a virus or something similar, or is it purely an Apple problem ?

Not a virus or anything similar. There is something wrong with WatchDog, which is a component of the OS.

As for the options in your picture, if you check the top one, that might help. Amphetamine also sort of helps, but I've had it happen once since I re-activated Amphetamine, so that's not a full cure, either.

On your restarts, after a hang it can take quite a while to restart because the system detects that it ended abnormally, so it does full checks on the internal drive before it moves on. That's why the bar gets stuck. Next time, if it happens, let it go until it finishes. It will eventually start. I've waited as long as 30 minutes on a 1TB SSD, so on a spinner drive it could be very long indeed.

 

[easilyscan]

Thanks for all the info.
Much appreciated !

I'll cross my fingers & hope 11.2.1 includes a permanent fix.

I have to admit that when you stated "It has been around for a while" it irritated me.
Apple is a company worth 2.28 trillion as I type, seems that with the resources available, something like this could be corrected/updated fairly quickly.

I'm going to check option 1 on the energy saver settings.
Assuming no other problems occur between now & then, when I turn in tonight, I'm going to shut it down & see how it starts up tomorrow.

 

[easilyscan]

After all the problems I had getting it started yesterday (after letting it go to sleep on it's own Monday night)
Last night, I chose to 'shut down'

Started up perfectly today.
Hopefully this continues until a permanent fix becomes available.

 

[ferrarr]

Personally, I would leave option 1 checked, and also uncheck option 2.

 

[easilyscan]

"Personally, I would leave option 1 checked, and also uncheck option 2"
Sorry for the late reply. I appreciate the advice/info, but as long as everything's working so well by simply shutting it down every night, I'm going to stick with that for now.

 

[easilyscan]

It's Back


In early February, I started shutting it down every night & it worked fine.
During the day, when I'd leave, I'd just let it shut down/go to sleep on its own.
That worked fine until yesterday. Was gone for about 6 hours, returned home at around 8 PM, & it wouldn't start.

Tried the SMC reset.
MacInWin stated:
On your restarts, after a hang it can take quite a while to restart because the system detects that it ended abnormally, so it does full checks on the internal drive before it moves on. That's why the bar gets stuck. Next time, if it happens, let it go until it finishes. It will eventually start. I've waited as long as 30 minutes on a 1TB SSD, so on a spinner drive it could be very long indeed.

I wasn't there to actually see it, but on the first try, after about 45 minutes, it shut down.
On the 2nd try, it shut down after around 2 hours of 'trying'

I unplugged it overnight, & this morning it started up. I checked the energy saver settings thinking maybe they had changed, but they're still the same. The first 3 options are checked.

Earlier in the thread, I asked if upgrading the OS would make any difference ?
In case there's been updates/fixes that I'm not aware of, I'll ask again.
Current OS

 

[chscag]

From the kernel panic report you posted, it appears that your machine is panicing and restarting because of failing graphics. That's clearly spelled out in the report. Take a look at the first line of the report.