MBP won't sleep, and is VERY slow to boot up.

Hello all.

Recently, I acquired my first ever Mac, and now it's time for my first ever tech inquiry. In order to get my toes wet, I got a used MBP from a re-seller on ebay. Dangerous, I know, but the details seemed good, and I didn't want to sink all of that money into a platform I wasn't sure I'd be sticking with. I am now the proud-ish owner of a 2009 MBP, 15", 2.44 Ghz, 4GB RAM with a 500GB harddrive. It functions powerfully with no hiccups, except for these 2 issues:

1) When it starts up, it takes 7 or 8 minutes before my desktop is active. The pointer responds to my movement on the track pad, but everything else (icons, etc...) on the screen is frozen. None of my shortcut keys are usable during this period either (screen brightness, volume, etc...). After the "freeze" period is over, everthing returns to normal. My fiance has a MBP as well, so I know this process should take significantly less time. Turning this annoyance of a problem into a big problem for me is the fact that my computer doesn't sleep, and I either have to leave it on or shut it down completely when not using it.

2) Whether closing the lid or trying to put it to sleep any other way, my system does not sleep. Instead, the display goes black and can not be re-activated unless I force a restart. The system sounds like it's still running, and the light on the latch release does not pulse as it should, rather, it is constantly lit. I've tried checking my power settings to no avail. I can still shut it down normally, however. If I fix nothing else, I'd love to have this problem taken care of, because what's the point of a laptop if it can't be moved around or quickly accessed?

These are my problems, and i'm hoping someone out there with more experience and knowledge can help point me in the right direction. I thought I'd try the forums before facing the prospect of paying to have a Mac Genius look at it. I have a moderate level of technical aptitude to try and work through whatever suggestions you've got for me.

Thanks for any assistance!

freshmacconvert said:

1) When it starts up, it takes 7 or 8 minutes before my desktop is active. The pointer responds to my movement on the track pad, but everything else (icons, etc...) on the screen is frozen. None of my shortcut keys are usable during this period either (screen brightness, volume, etc...). After the "freeze" period is over, everthing returns to normal. My fiance has a MBP as well, so I know this process should take significantly less time. Turning this annoyance of a problem into a big problem for me is the fact that my computer doesn't sleep, and I either have to leave it on or shut it down completely when not using it.

Click to expand...

First of hall, how fast is the HD?
Second, how much stuff do you have on Start up? (Apple menu -> system preferences -> Accounts -> click on your account -> Login items)
Third, do you have Onyx? And if not, download it and run it to repair the hard drive.
Fourth, how much room do you have available on the hard drive?

And have you tried reinstalling the OS?

Full or dying HD would be my first guess, RAM my second.
Did you do a clean install when you got the Mac?
Have you installed all the software updates?


First up, I would download OnyX. http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/11582/onyx
Be sure to go to the version for the OS she is using.
After the HD has been verified, select the automation tab with everything selected, and see how it runs after that.

If you have a lot of free space on your HD (at least 20%), then I would boot off the install disk holding C when you hear the chime until you see the spinning gear, select the language and click next, go to utility>disk utility in the menu bar when it appears, select the HD and click repair disk permissions, and then select repair disk.
Then quit disk utility and installer and restart.

Thanks for the suggestions! I actually headed down to the Mac store, and found that the computer was still under apple care. Hooray! The genius I was working with felt bad for me, since nearly every piece of hardware had been compromised, so he gave me a great deal on an elevated service tier. A fall had damaged the logic board, motherboard, and hard drive. It should be frsh when I get it back.

Hi there,

I am having a similar problem with my MBP when it goes to sleep. It won't come back from the sleep. It has happened twice in the past three days. Two weeks ago I did the procedure that you mention above and restarted from the Mac OS Original DVD. I actually performed a full restoring using the TimeMachine. The system could not repair the disk and it recommended to erase and reinstall, so I did it. However, the screen going black happened after I repaired the disk.

My concern is that this might not be a problem of the hard drive but of the MotherBoard. By any chance would you know how to differentiate if it is a HDD or a MB issue. Is it possible to diagnose the state of the MB? I already ordered a new HDD, which I should get next Thursday.

Thanks
Raul