I have just spent the good part of two days trying to figure out why my 17″ Powerbook (1.67GHz) has narcolepsy. And an annoying couple of days it has been. I've narrowed the problem down finally, but I still have not come up with a solution. I'm blogging here in hopes that someone has either A) seen the solution or B) can answer a couple questions I have that will lead me to it. C'mon Mac-heads, time to step up here! Imagine my surprise when I logged in to find the last post here was Tom Mucks' post on his dead Toshiba laptop. LOL I haven't had trouble with this one at all until this. And no, I don't have Apple Care and it's out of warranty.
Before someone hops into the comments and tells me to:
- Repair permissions
- Zap the PRAM
- Reset the PMU
- Repair permissions
- Boot into single user and run fsck -fy
- Repair permissions
- Create a new user and test while running that
- Check the console.log and system.log
Let me just save you the time and let you know that I've done all that ad nauseum… and none of it works for more than a little bit. However, in doing all that, I found that I do have the error in my system.log that states that the machine has overheated and is being put to sleep. The problem is, after installing Temperature Monitor, and keeping track for a couple days, I found that I don't have an overheating problem at all. What I have is an insanely whacked out Trackpad sensor — or at least a whacked out reading — caused by “I don't know what.” And that's what I'm determined (hopefully with your help) to find out — with as little down time as possible. A gurl has to work y'know! (The sensor readings can vary within a two second readout period from -193F to 243F. Likely these are incorrect since I'd either be freezing or burning at either temperature.)
I found two posts (actually more, but two that were somewhat helpful and confirmed my findings) outside the Apple forums. Why am I outside the Apple forums you ask? Well, for one, I found at least three threads there with the same problem — but no solution. And also, because something is bad wrong with those forums right now and sometimes I have to click and time out five times before a page loads. Forget it. I done quit and gone ta googlin'…
In the first post I found at MacFixItForums, the guy was in Korea and ended up sending in his machine. Apple fixed it and according to him, the way they fixed it was, “Something about two contacts being pressed together under the surface to the left of the trackpad.” OK… that's plausible. But I don't really want to take my machine apart to check for such unless that turns out to be the solution with none other.
In the second thread I found, a gentlemen that apparently works on Macs seems to have fixed it another way. He states he “repaired permissions using Terminal and discovered a library widget had the wrong permissions. Once the Widget permissions were fixed, the laptop immediately stopped going to sleep and had been fine ever since.” This sounds much more like a solution I would like to try for myself. However, I've not figured out how to use the terminal to repair permissions. I know how to do it using Disk Utility only.
Does anyone have any clues for me? Has this triggered thoughts in your brain you might like to share? Here's hoping…
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Argh! I have the same problem with my nine-month-old 17″ Powerbook.
I’ve been Googling and Googling, trying to find an answer that doesn’t involve me taking this thing in for service, or shipping it out; all to no avail, it seems.
Does anyone know what the normal trackpad temperature is supposed to be? I don’t even use the trackpad, that’s what’s so frustrating about this for me.
I have a 15″ 1.67GHz PB which has also recently developed the same symptoms you describe with the trackpad temperature sensor going wacky. I’ve just done an erase and install to verify that the problem is hardware and, if so, Apple has said they will repair it.
Add my name to the list. Bought my Powerbook in Aug. of last year. Frustrating but it sounds like I’ll have to do w/o it for a week.
Add me too. 15″ powerbook 1.67Ghz bought it in early July of ’05. It just started acting up last month or so. Im taking mine in on monday to see what they can/can’t do. I’ll revisit with results!
it seems i’m jumping on this band wagon a little bit late.
i’ve got a 15′ 1.5ghz powerbook that’s only showed this problem in the past 2 weeks, never have i had a problem before that.
i bought mine from macmall.com so i’m not 100% sure of my warranty, but i’m soon going to look it up after reading this, as it seems the only fix so far is having the replacement parts put in.
any updates from anyone?
I took mine to Tekserve (I live in New York), told them about the problem, and they fixed it overnight. It is a hardware problem and must be fixed by replacing the top case. No software fix, at least not yet. Sorry folks.
OK so i have the standard apple warranty (1 year) still on my powerbook, should i opt for the applecare or can i get this replaced for free/cheaper by just paying for the fees at the genius bar?
THEY WILL COVER IT. Get it covered under warranty.
I’m calling at 10am to see if my PB stayed on during all the testing Apple’s done over the past two days. I’m convinced it will be fine — they were running it yesterday with all my programs open while it ran video loops. If it weren’t fixed, that would put it to sleep fairly quickly.
They said they replaced the topcase AND the logic board (though I’m nearly convinced now that the topcase is actually the culprit).
Either way, I’m planning a trip to Raleigh to pick it up in the next couple days. I lucked out because a dear friend loaned me her PB to use while mine’s gone, so I haven’t suffered too much from lack of computer.
As to whether to purchase Apple Care or not — that’s up to you. If you’re still in your first year of ownership, this is covered 100%. So it’s a matter of whether you want to cover the rest of the time.
As a result of this blog’s collaborative empirical research, I certainly think that anyone who bought a new Powerbook last year should download Temperature Monitor, check their trackpad sensor, and if it’s wonky try to bring it in for repairs BEFORE the warranty runs out — even if it’s not been seized yet with teh narcolepsy. The guy at Tekserve who fixed mine said he has been replacing a lot of topcases due to this problem.
Very good suggestion. I remember mine going to sleep randomly a few times months and months before it became a persistent problem.
I’m also thinking about purchasing AppleCare before my warranty runs out in June. Point being that going through a middleman sucks. I’d much rather call up Apple and have them send out a box rather than farting around with the possibly incompetent local shop.
I just want to thank everyone on this comment thread. I just started having this problem on my 1.67Ghz PB G4 on sunday actually. It is really annoying but I now have a pretty good idea of how I need to proceed. Due to this I found an answer, albeit not one I was hoping for, quickly. Thanks again.
Add me to the growing list. I just had this problem two days ago and surprise surprise when i typed “faulty trackpad sensor in powerbook”, many others with the same problem popped up.
I’ve already saved my system logs, did a print of my temperature readings and am preparing it as evidence. It is extremely frustrating to have it sleep on you suddenly-at times it got so bad, i had to remove the battery. And guess what, the weird thing is i thought it was fixed a couple of days ago AFTER its first round of fits. Worked fine for a while, then the goddamn thing came back and made my powerbook sleep like a beauty today.
You guys can also try running the extended hardware test that apple provides, i tried running mine and at times (as with the other time when it went ballistic) it reported an error with the logic board, something like 2sth/1/2:Track pad. I first managed to encounter this during its first round, then subsequently the hardware test didn’t detect anything wrong, which i thought was fixed. I WAS WRONG. Right now when i scan the powerbook, the logic board still reports as alright, but the problem still persists, which only goes to show that the hardware test may or may not detect the problem. Thankfully i’ve taken pictures to document this,the error that is.
Where’s the petition, i’m prepared to sign up for it as well. this whole issue is really pissing me off.
My powerbook came back from Apple yesterday, and from what I can tell the random-sleep problem is gone. Also they cleaned my screen, which is wonderful. The track pad temperature has been staying at a solid 23 degrees since I’ve turned the notebook back on.
My background was put back to the stock blue, and the hard drive was renamed. But, that’s a small price to pay(Note: with Applecare, it is a microscopic price)
On the invoice it states they replaced the logic board and top case, just as everyone has had replaced. Although, whileon the phone with the courteous customer service girl with a cute voice, I did ask that in the statement she make mention the logic board and top case.
So, this is great. Everything is great. Just great. However, they might not stay great. So, I’ll follow this comment up with another in a week or so.
Solution found, I guess. Good luck everyone.
alright so i think im fed up with the problem and im ready to do something about it. now i dont have applecare, i can visit a istore not too far away, and i purchased my pwerbook from macmall.com, it’s still under it’s year warranty from apple.
basically what sshould my plan of action be?
Hi Matt… I wrote what I recommend in this blog entry:
http://www.communitymx.com/blog/index.cfm?newsid=689&blogger=15
It’s probably as good to send it off in the box Apple sends as it is to take it to a store that will repair it (since they won’t order the parts ahead of time — even if you can prove what you need.)
So your first step is to call…. get escalated to a PB specialist and then follow the instructions linked above for the repair.
GOOD LUCK!
I know your problem is different than the one I have, but if anyone else has a narcoleptic PowerBook and finds that putting pressure on the right side of the laptop (on the speaker grill below the power button) causes it to go to sleep, I have a possible explanation here: http://silhouette88.blogspot.com/2006/04/ok-mystery-of-narcoleptic-powerbook.html
HTHs someone.
Well ive had my top case, logicboard, airport, and keyboard/trackpad replaced and it still did it. The genius at the apple store ran a hardware test in front of me and everything tested OK. The only thing I have left to do is a clean install of OSX, if that doesnt work then ill take it back to the apple store. Wonder what they will have to say then? Ill post back in a few days to see what happens.
add me to the list. You guys are lucky though, my nearest apple store is a 6 hr flight to london! I’m based in Kuwait and i dont really trust the apple distributors here – no Mac Store close by.
Will it only be fixed at a Mac Store? I mean is it a simple task that can be done anywhere or does it involve a lot of work?
My PowerBook now has narcolepsy, too. 15″ 1.67GHz processor, from March 05. Apple “Genius” is doing stress tests. Discounts validity of readings from the temperature monitor app. ha. He’s supposed to call when it passes out.
I was lucky when I went to Tekserve, because my machine exhibited the symptom right away and I was believed from the beginning.
Apple-certified techs are issued CDs on a regular basis that check all the hardware on all newer Macs. With this CD, the faulty sensor can be confirmed very easily.
This seems pretty open and shut to me at this point. Powerbooks manufactured in the spring and summer of 2005 are prone to this.
Now that we’re moving out of the 1-year warranty period, I imagine we’re going to see a little more anger about it…
If, by discounts validitiy, he means, no way the trackpad temperature is hitting 200° above and below 0 within a 5 second period then I’m inclined to agree. If, however, he thinks the software is to blame and not the sensor, then please refer him to this thread.
Brent, again.
It’s been a month I think, and the sleeping problem hasn’t returned.
Yeah. Yeah, it’s pretty great. I mean, I’d say it’s pretty great. At least.
hey, I found a solution for everyone who don’t like to send the powerbook to repair (like me: warranty expired!). The3 solution is here and it’s working for me…
http://people.aero.und.edu/~spoonk/powerbook.html
thanks to the guy who provided it!
The narcolepsy hit my Powerbook last year, somewhere in August. I tried the PMU reset and all the other tricks (except for disabling the kernel extension!). Nothing worked.
Since I live in Accra, Ghana, I had to do SOMETHING to fix it, rather than ship it all the way to the US and not be able to work.
I recall that I read somewhere on the Apple forums, that it could be a Bluetooth related issue. I turned off Bluetooth devices waking the computer up and it worked!!!!
So if someone runs into this and all the regular stuff doesn’t work, try searching the Apple forums for narcoleptic and bluetooth and see if you can find that post.
Here’s another data point for your survey. I too am now the victim of the narcaleptic PowerBook. And like all of you, I’ve read all of the forum notes on this and tried all of the suggested cures, none of which worked. I get the overtemp warning in the log, and Temperature Monitor shows the trackpad sensor issuing erratic and wildly swinging temperatures. This is one very annoying problem.
Did Apple ever own up to the problem? My PowerBook is just out of warranty and I want to be sure that if I have to pay for a fix that it’s a sure thing and not some $800 guess appliied to a new logic board.
Feel all of you guys…my PB is still acting up even after resetting the PMU. Really quite the pain. I’ll hit up apple tomorrow and hopefully get the top case repaired I guess.
@bill
I’m not sure if they’ve “owned it” exactly. What I was told is that the phone people and guys that work in the store know about a problem only when it recurs. In other words, if it’s not a common problem, it doesn’t seem they have a way to disseminate the info within the system. (I did send a whole lotta info to the engineers, fwiw.)
That said, I’m fairly positive it’s the logic board and top case that has to be replaced — and that’s about 1100 dollars. If you’re just out of warranty, you may want to go join up with Rick Cameron’s Mac Group. He’s just out of warranty as well — and as this appears to be faulty equipment, he wants to get something going to get Apple to own up and pay for fixing those of you out of warranty.
http://groups.mac.com (you can get a 60 day trial if you don’t have a Mac account like me) and it’s the Narcoleptic group. I’ll try to figure out the address if you want to join. Email me at stephanie@communitymx.com
Good luck!
Stef,
I spoke to someone here at the small computer repair centre at the university and they said they might be able to do something about it anyway (even though it’s out of warranty). They have ways. But as it’s a university asset they will likely pay for it to be fixed even if they can’t wiggle something out under warranty.
On another note, I wanted to comment on a “fix” that was posted in the Apple comment boards. Someone wrote:
“I found a way to stop the sleeping error, from the research that i have done there is an error on the topcase or logic board that causes the temperature sensor to read in random and sparatic temperatures of +- 250 F this causes the computer to go into sleep mode to protect the computer following discovering this I realized that the problem can be fixed my moving 2 Kernal extentions out of the extension folder. doing so makes it so that the temperature is not read in and the random even cannot take place. The effect can be countered by running these line in the terminal
mkdir /ExtenstionTemp
sudo mv /System/Library/Extentions/AppleUSBTopCase.kext /ExtenstionTemp
sudo mv /System/Library/Extentions/AppleUSBTrackpad.kext /ExtenstionTemp
sudo touch /System/Library
reboot”
and it went on to say a few more things. I tried this and have two things to report. There is no AppleUSBTrackpad.kext extension in that folder in my version of Tiger – they may have combined it with the TopCase extension. Moving the other extension (TopCase) does kill the trackpad, but it doesn’t stop the sleeps from happening. One happened within seconds of logging in. So that’s out as a “cure”.
I wrote to an Apple Engineer I know in Montreal and he said that he didn’t know of any way to disable it in Open Firmware (which I had hoped would offer a cure). So that has so far led nowhere.
As this Mac is out of warranty my next adventure will be to open the case and examine the trackpad/sensor assembly. It may be possible to thwart it in other ways. I’m an electrical engineer and we have a shop full of technicians here at the university, so we may be able to do something with the hardware. If I get anywhere with this angle I’ll post something back in this space.
For now I’m going to fire up the old Ti PowerBook and use this thing in FireWire drive mode so I can get some work done. This sleep stuff is making me insane. Term starts in a week and I’ve got a lot to do before then. I can’t endure this nonsense through that period. If it sleeps in FireWire mode I’ll have to extract the drive and put it in a case I have. Just can’t work like this.
Someone earlier posted this link:
http://people.aero.und.edu/~spoonk/powerbook.html
Basically, it says to do the following:
cd /
sudo mkdir kext.backup
sudo mv /System/Library/Extensions/IOI2CLM7x.kext /kext.backup/
sudo rm /System/Library/Extensions.kextcache /System/Library/Extensions.mkext
This worked for me. My trackpad sensor was reading -200, and it was sleeping every few seconds with an emergency overheat error in dmesg. I did the above, and it basically just stopped watching the trackpad sensor. The other sensors are still monitored. So on sysstat, I have 3 sensors now instead of 4. I no longer have any problems.
Obviously, if it’s still under warranty, it’s probably worth getting fixed “correctly”. But in my case, the warranty was up a couple of months ago.. so this route was very appealing to me
Best of luck..
I should mention – that link has a lot of information, but the actual fix for me was those 4 lines, and that’s it.
cd /
sudo mkdir kext.backup
sudo mv /System/Library/Extensions/IOI2CLM7x.kext /kext.backup/
sudo rm /System/Library/Extensions.kextcache /System/Library/Extensions.mkext
The above fix did not work for me. Checked temperature monitor, and I am indeed experiencing rediculous trackpad temperature spikes.Unfortunately I am out of warranty, but my logic board has been replaced twice, and the screen once for video problems. Is it worth calling Apple to complain?
Yes I think so. I believe the problem is with the TOPCASE and not the logic board (even though Apple likes to replace both to be sure).
Some tips: Be polite at all times. Remember there are different classes of support. The regular tech support is not authorized to do anything out of warranty. However, they may transfer you to a customer service representative who CAN do that. Also, your best bet is if you tried to get it fixed while still in warranty. Why did you send it in before? It might be a good idea to say this has been going on for a while and you told them about it the first time you sent it in.
As far as I’m concerned none of the above attempted software fixes work. I tried them all months ago and they didn’t pan out. You can disable the trackpad and the sensor still causes havoc.
But the good news is that there does seem to be a cure available now. If you go to http://www.flickr.com/photos/sai/281380701/ you’ll find a short explanation and photos. As the resident EE in this thread I’m totally satisfied (based on personal communication with the person who did this lobotomy) that this does cure the narcolepsy. Once the temp sensor is removed it can’t take your system down again.
Removing it should be done with care by someone who knows how to do fine soldering, or if you have a small-tip high speed grinding or cutting tool you can just cut the legs off of the sensor. I’ve got a tool like a dentist’s drill that does this just fine. Whatever you do, don’t tear that cable or you’re going to have worse problems.
Finally, be aware that doing this will void your warranty or AppleCare, so only do it if your protection is expired.
My own laptop hasn’t had a narcoleptic episode for a month or more, and the last one only caused about a dozen sleeps and then it was over. But the next time it starts acting up that sensor is coming off.
I repeat, this cure is the only one (apart from top-case replacement) that works. There is no software cure.
I did something slightly different than the other posted fix. What you need to do, in english, is go find the system driver for the sensor in the extensions folder and remove it from the extensions. Once you remove it from the active extensions the system should no longer be able to understand the sensor and thus remove the problem. Though, I could be wrong I still think that there is a software fix for this. Anyway…
What I did:
First I made a new directory inside the
/system/library directory calling it “extensions_bkup” or something along those lines.
Then moved the driver “IOI2CLM7x.kext” from the active extensions directory to the backup directory.
The terminal commands are as follows:
sudo mkdir /System/Library/Extentions-bk_up
sudo mv /System/Library/Extensions/IOI2CLM7x.kext /System/Library/Extensions-bk_up/
Then restart the machine so the kernel doesn’t load the sensor driver and you should be fine. Check Temperature Monitor; it should no longer even list the trackpad sensor. So you should be fine.
A few notes:
The first time you enter one of the commands above it will ask you for a password, this is the same password you would use for anything else on the system.
Make sure you enter the commands verbatim and case sensitive. This is for safety sake, terminal commands can go terribly wrong quickly if you aren’t careful.
Lastly, everytime you update the operating system you will have to repeat this process because when you update your OS it sees that the driver isn’t there and it puts a new one in.
If something goes wrong, you would like me to clarify something, or this doesn’t work feel free to email me. I’ll do what I can to help or figure out that in fact this doesn’t work.
I seem to be experiencing the same problems with a dodgy trackpad sensor (judging by the temperature monitor). I tried doing the above extension hacks but still have the same sleep problem. In fact it seems to be getting worse. Anyone find a solution that doesnt involve cutting the machine up yet.
Hey Stephanie …
I’m right there with you, waiting to see what can be done exactly with the console and widget permissions … it is the only thing I haven’t tried. Apple hasn’t officially recognized the problem, and now I’m ready to sue … class action lawsuit anyone???
Hi Alex,
Thanks for the fix, so far its been working perfectly. 5 days and no more narcolepsy. Awesome. I like my PB again.
Here’s the fix again:
First I made a new directory inside the
/system/library directory calling it “extensions_bkup” or something along those lines.
Then moved the driver “IOI2CLM7x.kext” from the active extensions directory to the backup directory.
The terminal commands are as follows:
sudo mkdir /System/Library/Extentions-bk_up
sudo mv /System/Library/Extensions/IOI2CLM7x.kext /System/Library/Extensions-bk_up/
my 15″ is doing the same thing. I got this lovely error screen as well:
http://flickr.com/photos/devoinregress/424894792/
i had this issue.
I removed the temperature sensor from the trackpad wih a soldering iron and screw driver.
I have had no problems since doing this over a month ago
PB 15″ G4 1,67MHz 512Mb RAM + 1 Gb RAM extra
Had my motherboard replaced in octobre, within waranty period, witch was quite a service, because I wasn’t in anymore for about two weeks.
Anyway, it goes te sleep quite frequently, sometimes so many times in a row that working properly is impossible.
If it’s holding on I’m going to that kernel-extension-remove trick.
What’s most annoying is that when my PB works properly I just don’t want anything else. But I spend a good 2150 euros on it, so I feel bad when it stops doing the things I expect it to do. First there was this motherboard-to-harddrive-connection-crash, now there’s this…
Got mine back from tekserve working. they replaced the top case (and bottom case because it had dents).
So, my PB just started doing this yesterday. I also bought it in may 2005..But for some reason mine took a lot longer for this to happen to. All of the cases of this “sleep disorder” that i have read about all happened a year ago. Did your problem ever get resolved? I haven’t found anything from 2007.
Thanks!!
If i would have kept reading to the end of all these comments i would have seen that this has happened to people this year..haha! Opps
I’d like to add myself to the list as well. Bought the PB in July 2005 and is having all the sleep problems outlined above. I have no idea how to implement that fix with the .kext stuff in it (may as well be in Russian).
I am out of warranty and have absolutely no idea what the next best step is? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
I’d like to add myself to the list as well. Bought the PB in July 2005 and is having all the sleep problems outlined above. I have no idea how to implement that fix with the .kext stuff in it (may as well be in Russian).
I am out of warranty and have absolutely no idea what the next best step is? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
My PB also suffered from narcolepsy. I bought my 17″ 1.67 G4 PB in August 2005, it started having sleep issues in April 2008. Like everyone else, I got the overtemp error message in console, and temp monitor showed large spikes in the trackpad temperature. I removed the trackpad temperature chip (as detailed in Rick Cameron’s blog and others), and I haven’t had any sleep problems since.
Happy New Year all.
After struggling with Apple Groups nutty interface for a couple of years, I’ve migrated the Narcoleptic Apple Powerbook support group to:
http://nap.collectivex.com
Please join and contribute ideas, share solutions. Apple owes us and the more victims in our group the better our chance of some factory support.
Re: Alex – (adm5042psu.edu)’s post: THANKS! To explain, just as with all others here, I too have a PBG4 17″ from 2005. At one point, ran beautifully. Around 2007 or so, it began to pull the narcoleptic stunt… A LOT! Finally, did a clean install in 2008 and for a while it was back to normal. After a few OS updates, it once again began to pull the sleep cycle.
At first, thought it was from overheating via being on a bad lap stand. Or overheating from too much processing (trying HD video).
It’s been so bad lately, that it would fall asleep at least once within first 15 minutes of being on. Found this forum – Thanks to Stephanie for putting it together, something I’ve essentially spent the last 2 years searching for on/off.
Reading through this, was starting to have that sinking feeling that there still wasn’t a cure, but! Tried Alex’s procedure and today, had it running with all sorts of things blazing for 5 hours without any issue!
Hoping to put it through the wringer over next few days to see what happens.
One note: When I went into the folder searching for IOI2CLM7x.kext and found
IOI2CLM6x.kext
IOI2CLM8x.kext
in addition to it.
I ended up moving all 3. Does anyone know if that was wise? As it’s still running pretty smoothly, I’m not complaining, but just wondering if anyone else has any thoughts.
Either way, THANK YOU to all who have put this together, followed up, offered such great and detailed resolutions for all of us in the Apple Community.
RE: Helder
No Problem! I’m glad my little hack seems to be working for you. As for the removal of the other kernel extensions, I’d recommend against it. I do not know what, if anything, those drivers control. So, just to play it safe, I’d put them back. However, that being said, if everything seems to still be working fine, I wouldn’t worry about it too much.
Oh just a note to anyone still finding this thread useful: I figured out this hack in 10.4 Tiger, so if you are running Leopard it *SHOULD* still work, but I can’t guarantee it. Good Luck to all.
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