Mac mini hard to wake up, is it ok to leave on always without ever sleeping?

This morning I couldn't wake my mac mini (2.3 Ghz Intel Core i5, Mac OS X 10.7.3) from the deep sleep it was in (I got it yesterday - its new - so it had only been asleep for about 7 hours).
I first tried clicking and wiggling the wireless mighty mouse (turned it on first), pressing keys on the wireless keyboard (turning it on first), pressing the power button quickly, and even connected a usb keyboard directly and pressing the keys. Nothing worked. I had to turn it off by keeping the power button pressed for a few seconds until it shut off, and then turned it on again.

I changed the setting in System Preferences ->Energy Saver and deselected the option of "Put the hard disk(s) to sleep when possible", I also selected "Restart automatically if the computer freezes", and put the Computer Sleep time to "Never" and left the Display sleep to 15 minutes.

It went to sleep a bit later, and I tried to "wake it up" quickly, but couldn't do it again (not with wireless mouse, wireless keyboard, or usb keyboard)... I thought because the HD weren't sleeping and it hadn't been long since it went to "sleep", it would wake up quickly but no! I had to turn it off again by pressing the power button again.

I read that this is a problem that Lion has? Hopefully Apple will fix it soon as it is annoying...

What I did now is set the Display sleep to "Never" as well so it doesn't go to sleep at all, and since I am having on about 16 hours a day, I thought I would turn it off at night every day, is that what is recommended since its set to never sleep?

Does anyone have a trick for waking it up easily? I am not really comfortable never letting it sleep.

Many Thanks!

If it's new and doesn't work properly, take it back.

MightyGem said:

If it's new and doesn't work properly, take it back.

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Hi MightyGem,

Thank you for your comment. I will call Apple and ask if this is considered an unproper behavior, but I have read on the internet that this IS a how it normally works.

Do you have one and it does wake up easily, to make you think mine is not working properly by not easily waking up?

All of my 3 Macs wake instantly, which is how it should be.

MightyGem said:

All of my 3 Macs wake instantly, which is how it should be.

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Thank you for your reply MightyGem,

Can you please let me know if one of the three Macs you mention is a Mac Mini (2.3 Ghz Intel Core i5, Mac OS X 10.7.3)?

Do you have it with a wireless keyboard or mouse, and moving these it wakes up?

Thank you very much!

Best Regards,

Tamara

not sure I understand what "Deep sleep" means, but I often leave mine on and go out 5-10 hours. When I return, the mac loads instantly at the press of the spacebar although sometimes it takes a bit for the hdds to spin up. The same thing is to be said for my dad's mac mini which has the exact same specs as yours. (I have iMac, specs in the sidebar)

alcom4x said:

not sure I understand what "Deep sleep" means, but I often leave mine on and go out 5-10 hours. When I return, the mac loads instantly at the press of the spacebar although sometimes it takes a bit for the hdds to spin up. The same thing is to be said for my dad's mac mini which has the exact same specs as yours. (I have iMac, specs in the sidebar)

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Thank you Alcom4,

My iMac and MacBook have never had any problem waking up from sleep. Its instant.

My concern is with my new Mac Mini.
By "deep sleep" I mean an over 8 hour sleep.

Does your dad have a wireless keyboard? Isn't it set up to never sleep? Mine right now is set up to not sleep and the screen saver does come on when I am not using it, and any click on the wireless mouse or key board, wakes it up, my problem is when the hard drive or Display really are sleeping (you can tell if its sleeping or not by the dimming light on the mac mini). Thank you very much in advance!

well to be honest he's using a wired windows keyboard and mouse, but it has the default energy saving settings, that is to say it goes to sleep whenever it's inactive. he usually leaves it on at night to download torrents though.

In general I would not recommend leaving any computer on 24/7. I used to do this with the gaming PC I had and the result was that they motherboards would die very quickly (I had that pc for ±4 years and went through 4 motherboards). i try to turn off my iMac whenever I can. This being said, my iMac uses both magic mouse and wireless keyboard and I've had no problem with lost connections during sleep.

Can you please let me know if one of the three Macs you mention is a Mac Mini (2.3 Ghz Intel Core i5, Mac OS X 10.7.3)?

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No. I have a MacBook and two older Minis.

Do you have it with a wireless keyboard or mouse, and moving these it wakes up?

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One of the Minis uses a wireless mouse, and wakes up straight away.

"deep sleep"

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No such thing. Not with Macs, anyway. Sleep is sleep, doesn't matter how long it is, the input required to wake doesn't change.

alcom4x said:

well to be honest he's using a wired windows keyboard and mouse, but it has the default energy saving settings, that is to say it goes to sleep whenever it's inactive. he usually leaves it on at night to download torrents though.

In general I would not recommend leaving any computer on 24/7. I used to do this with the gaming PC I had and the result was that they motherboards would die very quickly (I had that pc for ±4 years and went through 4 motherboards). i try to turn off my iMac whenever I can. This being said, my iMac uses both magic mouse and wireless keyboard and I've had no problem with lost connections during sleep.

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Thank Alcom4x for your replies, and your tip about not leaving a computer on 24/7.

My iMac also wakes up immediately, its just the mac mini I am wondering about. It seems its a Lion OS, and the fact that it uses a lot of RAM and mine only has 2GB. I'm doing other tests (waking it up with a plugged apple mouse), and increasing the RAM (and trying to wake it up with wireless mouse/keyboard, which is what I prefer).

MightyGem said:

Sleep is sleep, doesn't matter how long it is, the input required to wake doesn't change.

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Thank you for your informative reply MightyGem, I didn't know any sleeping time was the same, I always thought if it was for a short period of time it hadn't really fallen "too deeply" into sleep ;D

I have modified the settings of my Mac Mini to being able to sleep, selecting "Put the hard disk(s) to sleep when possible", and the "Computer Sleep" and "Display Sleep" to 15 minutes, as I can wake it up by plugging an Apple wired mouse (model M5769), or a non-Apple wired mouse (Steren COM-525).
Thank you Alcomx4, as knowing that your dad has the same mac mini than I, and he wakes it up with the wired mouse is the reason I tried it out, and it works great! It wakes up immediately!

I still use my Apple wireless mouse (Model A1197) to work, as it is so much better than the other, but I keep the other one handy to plug it in (I don't have it plugged in all the time as it wastes one of my USB spaces ) and click it to wake up my Mac mini after it falls asleep. I'm happier this way as I wasn't really comfortable not having it sleep.