OT - any Mac users?

[davep]

I have a relatively new iMac G5. When it goes into sleep mode, the white power on light pulses gently. Very cool, I think. Except sometimes it doesn't pulse, it stays solid. I think its supposed to pulse, and I can't figure out the conditions that cause it not to pulse. Any similar experiences or ideas, comments?

[Grant McLean]

Hi Davep

Yes, the light should look like it's breathing when she is put to sleep. I would check with some of the apple forum sites, or the support section of the apple website to see if there is an issue. I've heard there are problems with the 20" G5, something about leaking capacitors, don't know if this is related at all to your problem, but it should be something all iMac owners check.

cheers

Grant McLean
iBook, iPods rule!

[CNY rider]

We have an IBook and a 20" iMac. I've never seen the light just stay on while they're asleep.

[Climb01742]

dave, maybe yours has a sleep disorder? ;) mine always gently pulses, like a sleeping baby's breath.

[e-RICHIE]

my green light is a constant green.
sincerely (and i mean that...),
e-RICIE

[bcm119]

I have an old iMac at home, and it shows the same symptoms as yours- usually pulses when its asleep, but sometimes its solid, and the screen will immediately come back if you touch the mouse. Also, sometimes it will wake up in the middle of the night for no apparent reason. Its a little spooky. But its never been a problem, just a curiosity.

[kestrel]

So far my iMac pulses, but the mouse won't wake it, I have to press the spacebar.
Now that you mentioned it, I will pay closer attention to it over the next few evenings. :)

[Climb01742]

years ago there was a movie trailer that said (something like) there's only one thing wrong with the jones' baby...IT'S ALIVE!!!

our macs are alive. doing steve jobs' bidding whilst we sleep.

[Serotta PETE]

my green light is a constant green.
sincerely (and i mean that...),
e-RICIE

Means it is always going :bike:

[dehoopta]

I don't have a G5, all mine are powerbooks. My G4 Powerbook is my baby. But I digress.
Does tnis happen when you put it to sleep or when it goes to sleep? It may not be going to sleep, put rather, dimming the screen. open tre preferences acid make save you have it set to sleep after a specific time.

I'll write back when I am not on my pocket PC

[ericmurphy]

I have a relatively new iMac G5. When it goes into sleep mode, the white power on light pulses gently. Very cool, I think. Except sometimes it doesn't pulse, it stays solid. I think its supposed to pulse, and I can't figure out the conditions that cause it not to pulse. Any similar experiences or ideas, comments?

I'd check to see if the screen is the only thing sleeping. It could be that the Mac itself is not sleeping, in which case the status light will be on steady, not pulsing. Give the Energy Saver preference panel a look.

[ericmurphy]

So far my iMac pulses, but the mouse won't wake it, I have to press the spacebar.
Now that you mentioned it, I will pay closer attention to it over the next few evenings. :)

Do you have a wireless Bluetooth mouse? If so, check the Bluetooth preference panel, and make sure the box next to "Allow Bluetooth devices to wake this Mac" is checked.

[ericmurphy]

I have:

a 500 MHz G4 PowerMac I bought in 2000. Still going strong;

a 2002 600 MHz graphite iMac. Makes a nice e-mail/web browsing machine, plus it makes a great mail server. I send my personal e-mail through it from work since our Exchange server is so crappy;

a new dual-2GHz G5 screamer. It's about five times faster than the single 2 GHz P4 I'm forced to use at work. It has a 23" Cinema Display connected to it, which is about the dimensions of a roadside billboard, only much prettier. :-)

[Climb01742]

eric, if i may be nosey, what do you do? your dual G5 must be a rocket. what do you do with it? launch shuttles? :beer:

[gt6267a]

about a month ago, i picked up a powerbook. this think is the cats a-ss. why the f-bomb did i ever use a winblows machine. solaris at work and os X at home. i'm shedding microtrash as quickly as possible. do i sound like complete power tool, i think so. oh well, i went to georgia tech, it must be in the blood.

the powerbook rules. it's so easy to use. i bought the bluetooth mouse and keyboard. it took so little time to set them up that i thought something had gone wrong, but they worked. seriously, it's like i'm steve jobs's schill. this stuff is too easy to use. i'm not used to computers working on the first try. it's weirding me out. a bluetooth(not just wireless mind you) keyboard and mouse worked on the first try. that's sick. even solaris isn't this good (though, i hear the multi-domain biz on solaris 10 is super cool. when we get that, i might go back to preferring solaris over OS X)

basically, what it comes down to for me, microsoft makes some nice applications like word, excel, powerpoint, flight simulator etc. etc. but they can't make an OS if their lives depended on it. technology wise, we would all be better off if microsoft let people like apple and sun make hardware/OS and they concentrated on what they are good at, applications. their monopoly issues would vaporize and the masses would have access to higher quality and more stable computing.

ok, it's bed time and i've gone on enough of a an OT rant.

-k

[davep]

I did a little more testing this morning. If I put the iMac to sleep from the Apple menu its goes to sleep and the light pulses. If it goes to sleep automatically, it doesn't pulse and the hard drive doesn't shut down, at least not as long as I wanted to wait. I tried many different combination of settings in the Energy Saver panel and it just doesn't seem to be really going to sleep, just dimming the screen.

[ericmurphy]

eric, if i may be nosey, what do you do? your dual G5 must be a rocket. what do you do with it? launch shuttles? :beer:

Well, what I do with it unfortunately doesn't generate any revenues for me, but it is indeed a rocket! Like most people, I spend probably 80% of my time either surfing or sending e-mail, but the horsepower becomes really necessary when I'm editing video (with near-real-time transition rendering!), creating DVDs, rendering and animating 3D, recording and editing audio, or working in Photoshop on big 25-meg images from my digital camera. Things that used to take 40 minutes to render in, say, Bryce using my G4 now take about five minutes on the G5. And the G5 actually cost me less! Isn't Moore's law great?

[ericmurphy]

I did a little more testing this morning. If I put the iMac to sleep from the Apple menu its goes to sleep and the light pulses. If it goes to sleep automatically, it doesn't pulse and the hard drive doesn't shut down, at least not as long as I wanted to wait. I tried many different combination of settings in the Energy Saver panel and it just doesn't seem to be really going to sleep, just dimming the screen.

Do you have any services running, like a web server or ftp server, that would keep the computer from going to sleep? Also, some apps will prevent the computer from going to sleep. Running iTunes with the visualizer on will keep even the screen from going to sleep!

Have a look at your running processes and see if there's anything going on that would prevent the machine from sleeping.

[kestrel]

Do you have a wireless Bluetooth mouse? If so, check the Bluetooth preference panel, and make sure the box next to "Allow Bluetooth devices to wake this Mac" is checked.

Thanks for the tip EM, but it is just a plain old mouse with it's tail connected to the keyboard. It is a Microsoft mouse, maybe I'd better put the old Apple mouse back on and see if that's the problem. :beer: