Macbook shuts off instead of sleeping

Here is an interesting issue. My old macbook started to power down (complete shut-off) when the battery ran out. It was annoying as I'd have to set up all my windows anew each time it happened.

So I sold it and bought a new one. This one came with a brand-new battery, fresh out of Apple's repair. Yay! It would fall asleep after a short time of inactivity and came back into its original state as it is supposed to.

After that, I migrated all the stuff from my old computer via a time machine drive. It quit going to sleep for inactivity. I thought, it must have been a setting that got ported over - but checking on it, I see it's supposed to go down after 15 minutes. Next time the battery went dead, it shut off just like the old o

So this means, it's a software configuration issue, not hardware! Unfortunately, I was not careful and did not back up this new laptop prior to transferring the stuff off the old one. So I can't really go back. Anything I can do to troubleshoot?

I am running OSx 10.6.5, The model is MacBook 4,1 and the battery now has 5 cycles.

Thanks!

Welcome to the Mac Forums.

Let's clarify what's happening first.....

You're saying the machine is shutting down rather than sleeping? Or are you saying the machine refuses to sleep? It's normal for the machine to shut down when the battery is completely drained to prevent damage.

Let us know.

You might want to download and try SmartSleep. It's a freeware preference pane that controls hibernation mode of your computer. Since it appears to be related to a software setting, I'd check that out first.

I did not realize, it is normal to shut down - by which I mean, get out of the OS all the way. Before I started having this problem, my macbook always went to sleep peacefully and when I turned it back on, recovered the place I was at - instead of requiring a bootup of the OS. Can you clarify?

Also, for whatever reason, my macbook does not go to sleep after 15 minutes of inactivity like it's supposed to, and did before I transferred the data. It does, however, go to sleep if I tell it to via the apple menu.

KateYoak said:

I did not realize, it is normal to shut down - by which I mean, get out of the OS all the way. Before I started having this problem, my macbook always went to sleep peacefully and when I turned it back on, recovered the place I was at - instead of requiring a bootup of the OS. Can you clarify?

Also, for whatever reason, my macbook does not go to sleep after 15 minutes of inactivity like it's supposed to, and did before I transferred the data. It does, however, go to sleep if I tell it to via the apple menu.

Click to expand...

I think you might benefit from looking in System Preferences>Energy Saver. It is your Mac's "settings" for lack of a better term. See if a box is checked (or unchecked) that could be causing your MB to shut down instead of sleep.

MYmacROX said:

I think you might benefit from looking in System Preferences>Energy Saver. It is your Mac's "settings" for lack of a better term. See if a box is checked (or unchecked) that could be causing your MB to shut down instead of sleep.

Click to expand...

That was the first thing I checked... Here is a screenshot (I switched everything to minimum for testing - the screen goes to sleep - but the computer stays on (jiggling the trackpad wakes it up).

(BTW, I did download SmartSleep. It doesn't seem to have any effect as the computer fails to either sleep or hybernate).