MacBook (13") Special Report: Sleep light oddities

Some users are reporting strange behavior from their MacBook sleep indicator lights.

In some cases, the sleep light starts immediately pulsing as soon as the lid is closed, even if the system has not actually fallen asleep yet. This can cause the user to ignore a problem that sporadically occurs with Apple portables where the system stays awake with the lid closed (due to a kernel panic or other problem), resulting in the system draining power and becoming extremely hot.

MacFixIt reader Kenny writes:

"The new MacBooks have the 'sleeping' light coming on as soon as you close the lid, this makes me worry that it hasn't gone to sleep, and it has happened to me once and two hours later i took my machine out of my bag and it was too hot to even touch (but luckily it survived) Also, whenever the screen shuts off the pulsing light comes on so you can't tell if the machine has gone to sleep or not."

Other users are reporting an issue where the light never pulses, even when the unit is asleep.

So far, traditional workarounds like resetting the MacBook's PMU have proved ineffective for resolving this issue.

Index:

• Do-it-yourself hard drive replacement instructions
• Excessive heat: Usage notes, cooling pads and more
• Final Cut Express is supported by GMA 950 chipset
• Irritating noises; eliminating
• Keyboard suddenly stops working
• Matched RAM pairs can come from different manufacturers
• Poor speaker output: Software-based workarounds
• Projector issues
• Release notes
• Sleep light oddities
• Some repaired units exhibiting wake-from-sleep issues
• Sudden shutdowns -- possible fixes
• Stains appearing at palm rests; cleaning and protecting -- Apple acknowledges
• Trackpad button "mushy", not registering clicks -- solutions
• Vertical lines appear on screen during startup
• Wireless (AirPort) dropouts -- fixes

Resources