Mac Book Pro wakes up in my backpack

Question

This has happened to me twice: I press the power button on my Mac Book Pro, choose sleep, close it, unplug everything, confirm that is off (by pressing my ear to it) and put it in my bag. Some minutes later, the laptop wakes up by itself.

Both times I caught it in time. The second time it was so hot I couldn't touch some parts -- it refused to actually wake up, and the screen was blank. Restarting it worked though.

Any ideas what might be going on and/or how to prevent this?

More details: It's a Mac Book Pro unibody 15" from 2009.

Answer 1

This used to happen to me all the time. There can be several causes, but usually the problem is you bang the mac in your backpack and it thinks that the lid is opening. It then does a full wake up, and it won't go into suspend again until the lid is opened and closed.

Apple is utterly helpless when you call them. Don't bother.

Swapping the CPU board will not work. This is a hardware and OS bug.

Here's how I solved the problem:

 sudo pmset -a lidwake 0
 sudo pmset -a acwake 0
 sudo pmset -a sms 1

The first makes it so that your mac will not wake when the lid is raised; you will need to hold down the shift key (or any key) instead.

The second makes your machine not wake when the power source changes from battery to AC or vice-versa.

The third assures that the sudden motion sensor is enabled.

This solved my problem. It will probably solve yours.

Answer 2

No. However I think you Should call apple!!! they would have the best idea.. By the way, what year is it? I could give you more info but it would be a waste of time unless i know what year it was released.

Answer 3

I agree. You should get in touch with Apple support. I've had my MacBook wake up from sleep with the lid close only a couple of times, and each time, it was triggered by my pulling off the external mouse. It doesn't happen all the time, though; only rarely.

Answer 4

Ditto regarding contacting Apple, but one other idea: When I leave the tiny USB dongle for my external mouse in the MBP and then press a button on it, the system will wake. Especially if the mouse isn't turned off and put in the backback as well :) Something similar in your case maybe?

Answer 5

1. Like others have said, make sure that you don't have anything plugged into USB.
2. You might also want to turn off Bluetooth.
3. You might try changing the sleep mode to Hibernate. This will require you to push the power button to wake the computer making it harder to accidentally wake:

http://www.macworld.com/article/53471/2006/10/sleepmode.html

Answer 6

I experience this problem if I leave my expresscard memory card reader in the computer when I put it to sleep. It sleeps then a few seconds later wakes, then realizes the lid is close then goes back to sleep... again and again. Took out the expresscard and it no longer happens, which is a shame since I bought that thing to permanently reside in my computer.. not the case!