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Here are some questions and problems that people often encounter when using Sleeper. Before consulting this list, please check to make sure you are running the latest version, which is Sleeper 3.5. If you have a problem that is not addressed here or feel a question should be here but isn't, please send mail to support@stclairsoft.com
Questions:
Problems:
Will there be an OS X version of Sleeper?
Currently there are no plans to reimplement Sleeper for OS X. Because of the
OS X system architecture, it's not practical to write something like
the OS 9 version of Sleeper that actually takes control of the hardware and replaces
the built-in Energy Saver functionality.
If you're looking for more control of OS X's existing Energy Saver features,
there are several utilities already available that will let you do
more complex scheduling of sleep and wake-up, customized settings for different
applications, etc. Check MacUpdate.com or VersionTracker.com.
Will Sleeper fix problems I'm having with my iMac or G4 PowerMac?
Numerous users have reported that Sleeper successfully sleeps (and more importantly, wakes up) their iMac or G4 in situations where Apple's Energy Saver software does not. Whether this is true for your Macintosh really depends on the nature of the problem you're having.
Several important aspects of Sleeper's design help with these problems. First, Sleeper avoids using your Mac's built-in power management features if it can accomplish things in other ways. Fundamentally, it works differently than Apple's Energy Saver so it won't run into some of the problems that Energy Saver does. Second, Sleeper provides you with more control over energy-saving functions, so you can pick and choose the features you use, allowing you to avoid some problems once you're aware of them.
Most importantly, Sleeper is shareware. You can download a copy and try it for free!
Can I still use Apple's Energy Saver software?
Sleeper replaces nearly all of the features of Apple's Energy Saver control panel, making it unnecessary unless you want to use Energy Saver's ability to shut down and start up your Macintosh at particular times of day.
If you want to continue using Apple's Energy Saver software alongside Sleeper, you should make sure that Energy Saver and Sleeper are not trying to control the same things. Open the Energy Saver control panel, click on the "Show Details" button, and make sure that the sliders are set to "Never" for any actions that you already have Sleeper configured to perform. When you close the Sleeper control panel, it will check to make sure that Energy Saver is not duplicating any of its features, and will warn you if a conflict exists.
If you disable Energy Saver entirely, Sleeper will ensure that none of your Macintosh's built-in energy saving features interfere with Sleeper's.
Will Sleeper work with my... [fax modem, bbs, backup]
software?
Sleeper should work with any software. It has no knowledge of what program is
requesting data from the disk - it merely spins it down when it hasn't been used
for a while, and spins it up when there is a request to read or write data.
For fax modems, remember that it will take the disk a few seconds to spin up
before the fax can be received. It's best to set your fax software to answer on
the first ring to ensure that it can access the disk before the phone stops
ringing.
Why are some options disabled?
Some of Sleeper's functions may be grayed out if your machine does not have the hardware to support them. The screen saver will be disabled on Macs that are not capable of displaying color. The Energy Star features will be disabled on machines that do not have the necessary video hardware to turn off an Energy Star compliant monitor.
Will Sleeper work with my current screen saver?
Sleeper will work with screen savers that support the 'SAVC' and 'SAVR' Gestalt selectors, such as After Dark. This means that the hotkey will put the disk to sleep and trigger an alternate screen saver if Sleeper's screen saver is turned off. If the "Spin down only when screen saver is activated" checkbox is used and Sleeper's screen saver is disabled, Sleeper will check for another screen saver instead.
Note that when After Dark is active, Sleeper's Energy Star feature may not work. After Dark takes over your Macintosh so completely that Sleeper never gets an opportunity to check if it's idle. Disk sleep will work, however.
Why do all my drives stay awake when I'm only using one?
By default Sleeper keeps all disks awake if one is active. If you're working, you probably don't want to have a disk spin down. The Finder, standard file dialogs, and other parts of the Mac system access all the disks fairly frequently when your Mac is in use, so the disks will just keep spinning down and back up again, and you would have to stop and wait for them to do so.
You can change this behavior by turning off the "Spin down all disks together" checkbox. Depending upon the extensions and control panels you have installed and how you use your Mac, this may or may not be more convenient for you.
Does Sleeper watch for serial port and CPU
activity?
Sleeper doesn't have to. Unlike After Dark, Sleeper doesn't occupy the CPU when
your Mac is "sleeping," so there's no need for the sort of monitoring that After
Dark uses.
Is Sleeper "Accelerated for PowerPC"?
Yes. If the SCSI Manager on your system is running in native mode, Sleeper will install native code to do its work. Note, however, that in System 7.5.1 and prior (even on PowerMacs), the SCSI Manager runs in emulation. In this case, Sleeper installs 680x0 code, which runs faster than native code would because of the overhead of switching back and forth between native and emulated modes.
To tell what code Sleeper has installed, command-click on the "Help" icon in Sleeper's control panel.
Does Sleeper work on portable Macintoshes?
Yes. While Sleeper duplicates many of the functions provided by the PowerBook control panel, it does provide some features missing on PowerBooks. If you have an external hard disk or monitor, Sleeper provides support for them while the PowerBook control panel does not.
Sleeper's screen saver also takes care of dimming the backlight on the LCD screen if you have the brightness for the screen saver set below 5%, and its Energy Star feature can be used to invoke the PowerBook's CPU sleep when desired.
Does Sleeper work with Syquest drives?
While it may work with some Syquest mechanisms, we have seen problems on several occasions. In other words, make sure you have the checkboxes in the Sleeper control panel turned off for Syquest drives unless you'd like to experiment for yourself.
Some Syquest drives will refuse to spin back up after being put to sleep. This appears to be an unfortunate side-effect of the Syquest being both a SCSI hard disk and a device with removable media: The SCSI-2 specification's STOP command shares the same operation code as the EJECT command, so Sleeper's attempt to send a STOP command to the drive is ambiguous, and the results depend upon the firmware in the drive controller's ROM.
Bernd Weisshaar also reports that Sleeper can cause problems ejecting cartridges from Syquest 270 drives if sleep is enabled for those drives. To fix the problem, either make sure that Sleeper is not controlling the drive by turning off the checkbox for that SCSI ID in the Sleeper control panel, or command-option-click on the "Help" icon in the Sleeper control panel and turn off the "Spin down on unmount" feature in the Expert Options panel.
How much power can Sleeper save?
Sleeper's screen saver saves approximately 23% on your monitor's power
consumption. When Sleeper is used on an Energy Star capable Macintosh with an
Energy Star compliant monitor, the monitor's power use can be reduced by 90-100%.
Power requirements for a few typical monitors are:
- Apple Multiple Scan 20
- Operating: 165 Watts
- Energy-saver mode: less than 15 Watts
- AppleVision 1710
- Operating: 150 Watts
- Energy-saver mode: 0 Watts
- Apple Multiple Scan 17
- Operating: 150 Watts
- Energy-saver mode: 11 Watts
- Apple Multiple Scan 15
- Operating: 90 Watts
- Energy-saver mode: less than 30 Watts
Disk sleep will cut your hard drive's power consumption by 80-90%. Here are power
consumption figures for some of the most commonly used disk drives in the
Macintosh market, including their power requirements while asleep. Keep in mind
that these are new models in which power consumption was a design concern. Many
older disks (and large ones in particular) consume considerably more power.
- Seagate Barracuda ST-32550N (2.5 GB)
- Idle: 12.27 Watts
- Sleeping: 1.6 Watts
- Quantum Atlas XP31070 / 32150 (1075 / 2150 MB)
- Seek: 8.5 / 10.2 Watts
- Idle: 7.6 / 9.0 Watts
- Sleeping: 1.0 Watt (estimated)
- Quantum Fireball 1080 (1080 MB)
- Seek: 6.5 Watts
- Idle: 4.0 Watts
- Sleeping: 0.8 Watt
- Quantum Lightning 540 / 730 (540 / 730 MB)
- Seek: 6.3 Watts
- Idle: 4.3 Watts
- Sleeping: 0.8 Watt
- Quantum Trailblazer 420 / 850 (420 / 850 MB)
- Seek: 6.7 Watts
- Idle: 3.29 Watts
- Sleeping: 1.0 Watt
- Conner CFP1080S (1080 MB)
- Seek: 6.5 Watts
- Idle: 3.75 Watts
- Sleeping: 1.0 Watt (estimated)
- Micropolis 4221AV (2 GB)
- Seek: 11.5 Watts
- Idle: 10.5 Watts
- Sleeping: ~1.0 Watt (estimated)
- IBM DPES-30540 / 31080 (540 / 1080 MB)
- Seek: 6.4 / 6.9 Watts
- Idle: 2.8 / 3.3 Watts
- Sleeping: 1.3 Watts
Sleeper crashes during startup if I bring up Conflict Catcher or Extensions Manager before extensions load.
This appears to be a problem with Mac OS 9.1, and has been fixed in Mac OS 9.2.1. On some Macs, the Sound Manager gets confused when Extensions Manager or Conflict Catcher interrupts the startup sequence, and any attempts by software to access your sound settings will cause a crash. You'll find that in these situations, Sleeper, the Sound Volume control strip module, and anything else that attempts to play a sound or access the speaker volume will crash after you interrupt the startup with Conflict Catcher or Extensions Manager.
Update to Mac OS 9.2.1 or higher to fix the problem.
My hard disk never spins down or keeps waking up.
Something is accessing the disk. To more closely test the problem, use Sleeper's hotkey to put the disk to sleep and then see how long it takes before it "spontaneously" awakens. You can also option-click on the Help icon in the Sleeper control panel to view a log of disk sleep activity since the last restart. This may help to narrow down the problem by showing exactly when unexpected wake-ups are occuring.
Disk access can be caused by a number of different programs, including many control panels and extensions. To check if a control panel or extension is the problem, use the Extensions Manager or Conflict Catcher to disable all extensions and control panels except the basic Apple ones and Sleeper. Restart and try Sleeper's hotkey again to see if the problem has gone away. If it has, you need to determine which control panel or extension is accessing the disk. This is largely a trial and error process, though a little thought as to which programs might need to access a preference file or perform a scheduled operation can narrow things down quickly.
Some possible culprits are listed below:
The Finder:
When "calculate folder sizes" is turned on in
the Views control panel, the Finder will periodically check the sizes of files,
reading the information from disk.
Even when "calculate folder sizes" is turned off, the Finder will check some
information periodically. To make sure that this checking does not wake the
disk, set the disk cache in the Memory control panel to be 1024K or higher.
The Date & Time Control Panel:
When "use a network time server" is turned on in the Date & Time control panel disk access may occur periodically. Turn this feature off, or click on "Server Options..." and make sure that you have the "Manual" switch set.
SETI @ home:
SETI periodically saves its results to a preference file. If you use SETI as your screensaver, it will prevent your hard disk from sleeping.
Norton Utilities FileSaver:
This utility may access the disk during
idle time, depending upon the settings you have used with it. The "remind me when my disk needs to be optimized" option will definitely keep your disk awake.
Automatic compression or defragmenting utilities:
If you have one of
these set to run during idle time, it will spin up the disk to do its
work. When using Stuffit SpaceSaver, for instance, the idle time compression
option will keep Sleeper from putting the disks to sleep because it scans for
files in need of compression. You have to set a very long idle delay
or turn off this feature if you want your disk to stay asleep.
Software with scheduling capabilities:
Programs that put up reminders, launch software at particular times, or otherwise keep track of scheduled operations may access their preference file periodically to check for schedule changes. If they do, Sleeper will have to spin up the disk so they can read their preference files.
File Sharing:
If your Mac is on a network with file sharing enabled,
someone at another Mac may use your hard disk. File sharing also periodically
checks the disk to check for changes in permissions. You may have to increase
the disk cache in the Memory control panel to 1024K or more to prevent these
checks from actually accessing the disk.
Hourly Chimes:
Playing sounds may cause the hard disk to spin back up, since the sound must often be loaded from your System disk to be played. Setting a clock program to chime regularly may therefore cause disk access.
After Dark:
Loading a screen dimmer module from disk will wake a
sleeping disk. One way to avoid this when using After Dark's "Randomizer" module
is to set it to "1 module" to avoid switching modules after After Dark has been
activated.
Net Barrier's "Net Update Scheduler" extension: We've had a report that this extension accesses the disk every 15 seconds or so.
The "Use a Network Time Server" option in Mac OS 8.5's Date & Time control panel wakes up my Mac.
The "Use a Network Time Server" option in the Date & Time control panel makes your Macintosh periodically query a server over the internet to make sure its time is accurate. This will usually cause your Mac to wake from sleep.
To avoid this, you can obviously just turn the option off. If you prefer to continue using a network time server, you can minimize the effects by clicking the "Server Options" button and using the "Manual" or periodic update functions.
My Apple Studio Display won't wake up after the Energy Star setting turns it off.
On some Macintosh models, using "Power Off" mode in Sleeper's Energy Star settings to power down an Apple Studio Display will result in the display failing to power back on afterwards. The solution is to use "Suspend" mode instead, which maintains one of the sync signals to the monitor, thus preventing it from losing synchronization with the Mac's video signal.
If this situation does occur, manually powering the display off and then on again with its power switch should make it usable again.
Sleeper says my hard drive may have defective firmware.
See The hard disk in my PowerMac or Performa won't wake up from sleep, below.
The hard disk in my PowerMac or Performa won't wake up from sleep.
There is a bug in the firmware of some 2, 3, 4, and 6 GB Quantum SCSI hard drives installed in PowerMacs and Performas that shipped during the summer and fall of '97. Apple has acknowledged that the bug can cause the drive to crash or fail to boot after being put into sleep mode, and has released an update utility to fix the problem. If you might be affected, see our Apple Firmware Bug page for details on getting the update and installing it on your drive.
If you have added a non-Apple drive to your Macintosh, it may also have this problem if it is a Quantum Fireball ST model (hold down the option key while moving the mouse over the drive ID checkbox in Sleeper's Disk Sleep tab to see the model name). Quantum has acknowledged that the same bug affects these drives, but does not yet have a repair program in place. Please see the Quantum Firmware Bug page for more information.
Why does Sleeper warn about other "built-in power management features"?
When you close the Sleeper control panel on Macintosh models that have built-in power management (PowerBooks, PCI PowerMacs), Sleeper checks to see if you are using any power saving features that might conflict with the options you have chosen in Sleeper. If you are using Sleeper's Energy Star or screen saver options, it will warn you if you are also using display dimming or power-off in the PowerBook or Energy Saver control panels. If you turn on disk sleep in Sleeper, it will remind you to turn off disk sleep in the PowerBook or Energy Saver control panels if you have it enabled there.
If you get these warnings when Energy Saver is installed and you think you shouldn't, either disable the Energy Saver control panel and Energy Saver Extension, or make sure you have Energy Saver set up correctly (see Can I still use Apple's Energy Saver software, below).
When I shut down, my disk drive spins down and back up again.
Version 3.0 of Sleeper fixes this problem on most Macintosh models. There are still a few machines on which the behavior occurs, but we haven't been able to reproduce it here. We're trying to collect more data to find some correlation, so if it happens to you, please send email to support@stclairsoft.com and give us your machine configuration. We'd like to know the model of Macintosh, system software version, disk drivers, control panels and extensions you're using.
In the meantime, you can disable the option which tells Sleeper to spin down the disks at shutdown so that this doesn't happen. Follow these steps:
- Open the Sleeper control panel.
- Command-option-click on the "Help" icon in the control panel.
- In the dialog box that appears, turn off the checkbox marked "Spin down unmounted disks."
- Close the dialog and the Sleeper control panel and restart.
My Mac locks up after my hard disk wakes up.
There have been conflicts reported with Norton FileSaver, and these are being investigated. If have FileSaver installed, try disabling it. If that corrects the problem, please contact support@stclairsoft.com so we can gather as much data as possible to get the problem resolved.
The only other occasion where this problem has been reported is with Syquest drives, as documented in Does Sleeper work with Syquest drives?
Enabling my Daystar Turbo 601 or PowerPro 601 accelerator disables disk sleep.
Daystar PowerPC accelerator cards contain SCSI Manager 4.3 in their ROM, but actually use the old SCSI Manager to interface to the internal SCSI bus. This confuses Sleeper, which thinks that SCSI Manager 4.3 should always take precedence over the old SCSI Manager. In the case of the Daystar cards, this results in Sleeper being unable to find any of the disks on the machine's original SCSI bus.
To work around the problem, simply disable SCSI Manager 4.3 in Daystar's control panel. This prevents the SCSI Manager 4.3 code from loading at all, and thus avoids Sleeper's confusion. It will not affect performance in any way, since the new SCSI Manager 4.3 code is not used for the internal bus, even when the switch is on. Only users with an FWB SCSI Jackhammer card need to keep the SCSI Manager 4.3 switch turned on.
Thanks to Paul Frye for bringing the problem to our attention, and the folks at Daystar for their swift, thorough responses to our technical inquiries.
My screen dims and will not brighten again.
If you are using both Sleeper and the screen saver Eclipse, Eclipse may try to remember the brightness of your screen while it is dimmed by Sleeper. This results in a dark screen that will not brighten. Using the Monitors or Monitors & Sound control panel to change the gamma setting on the monitor will return the screen to its proper brightness.
I upgraded my System software, and now Sleeper's screen saver won't work.
This has been reported by several owners of NuBus-based PowerMacs with the PowerMac AV video card (6100/60av, 7100/66av, 8100/80av, etc). It appears that the "Monitors and Sound" control panel installed with System 7.6.1 and later doesn't initialize the gamma tables at startup, rendering them useless and thus preventing Sleeper from dimming the screen.
There is already a workaround built into Sleeper for this. To enable it, do the following:
- Open the Sleeper control panel.
- Command-option-click on the "Help" icon in the control panel.
- In the dialog box that appears, turn on the checkbox for "Work around the bug in the 660AV and 840AV built-in video."
- Close the dialog and the Sleeper control panel and restart.
The screen on my Performa 600, Quadra 660AV or 840AV, or PowerPro 601 accelerated Mac doesn't dim.
There appears to be a bug in the initialization of the on-board video on the Performa 600, AV Quadras, and on machines equipped with the Daystar PowerPro 601 accelerator. If you start up with a non-multisync monitor set to 16 or 24 bit mode (thousands or millions of colors), modifications to the monitor's gamma table don't do anything, so the screen won't dim.
To work around this, command-option-click on the "Help" icon in the Sleeper control panel and turn on the AV workaround checkbox. At startup, this will toggle the screen depth to 256 colors and back to your original setting, causing the screen to flicker, but also causing the gamma table to be correctly initialized.
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