[Deegan]

Purchased a Mac Mini and was sooo happy, I sold it and traded up to a Power Mac Dual 2.0 and have been pretty happy. However, I've noticed a very, very annoying problem -- something my Mac Mini never did.
When the computer has been idle for a while and I return, I either move the mouse or tap the keyboard to wake the system up. The screen returns immediately and the mouse moves initially, however, when I mouse over the dock or try to click on anything, the dreaded BEACHBALL appears for about 3-5 seconds, pausing everying. If I'm over the dock, the dock freezes in place for the same amount of time, the beachball spins, then things get back to normal.
Normally, I can hear the harddrive spin up during this process so I'm leaning toward the harddrive sleeping. I've gone through the System Preferences Energy Saver section and increased the "Put the computer to sleep when inactive for ... " and the "Put the display to sleep when inactive for ..." (both settings are currently at 2 hours, no change). Additionally, the "put the hard disk(s) to sleep when possible" is currently UNchecked. Again, no change.
Is there a way to get into the BIOS and adjust the harddrive sleep paremeters?
The only other thing I can think of is I put 2GB of memory in the system right after purchase. The system works so I'm 99% sure it is the correct memory but could the wrong memory cause this delayed wakeup? Perhaps the wrong CAS or speed? Trying to cover any thought.
Your help is appreciated. Thank you.

[mdawson]

I have noticed a similar issue with my dual processor 2.3 GHz Power Mac G5. Some things will operate normally after waking the system, but a number of things will give me the spinning beach ball and I can hear the fans spin up faster for a few seconds. I have experienced the beach ball at other times where it would appear that the internal hard drives have gone to sleep despite my power settings:

Sleep Tab
[*]Put the computer to sleep when it is inactive for: 1 hour
[*]Put the display to sleep when the computer is inactive for: 1 hour
[*]Put the hard disk(s) to sleep when possible: unchecked
Options Tab
[*]Processor Performance: Automatic
[/list]I have noticed that if I step away from the computer and it idles for 10 to 15 minutes or more, I tend to get the beach ball the next time I do something and it does sound like something, either the fans or the internal hard drives, is spinning up. My screen saver is not even set to kick in until 30 minutes of idleness, so I have to wonder what is going to sleep here. Of course, now that I think about it, it may be because I have the processor performance set at Automatic. Maybe setting it to Highest will make a difference.
In terms of waking the system, it seems that OS X is making access to the computer available after awakening before the computer has fully ready. I did not have this issue with my Power Mac G4 Cube running Mac OS 9.2.2, but then, when the Cube was awakened it took longer for the system to appear to be ready for user input (several seconds) vs. the near instantaneous awakening of OS X. Personally, I would rather wait a few more seconds for the computer to actually wake up rather than face a spinning beach ball when I actually go to do something.
This is not the only area where OS X seems to have adopted some Windows-esque behaviors. I have become accustomed to knowing that just because Windows shows the desktop and appears ready to go after start up or logging on to an account, in reality it may be several seconds to a few minutes before the system is really ready to deal with the user. When I start up a Mac once the desktop appears the system is ready for use and that has been the case in both OS X and the Classic Mac OS in my experience. On the other hand, when it comes to displaying icons, I have noticed that OS X sometimes will display a generic icon during certain Finder operations eventually replacing it with the correct icon after a split second or so. I have always known Windows to have to figure out what a document is and display its correct icon, but until I migrated to OS X I never saw this on a Mac. While it occurs far less frequently in OS X than in Windows, and it occurs on a much smaller scaleI do not get windows full of generic icons like I do on a Wintel PC, I find the existence of this quirk troublesome, if only on a subconscious level, even though I know it does not actually affect anything.
ADDENDUM
In reply to:

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Is there a way to get into the BIOS and adjust the harddrive sleep paremeters?


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There is no such thing as BIOS on a Mac and it is highly likely that this obsolete hardware standard will never see the inside of a Mac. Macs use Open Firmware and the new Intel-based Macs use the Extensible Firmware Interface (EFI). That said, I am not sure if the hard drive sleep parameters are controlled by the firmware or OS X. Hopefully, some of the posters here that are better versed in Open Firmware will chime in and help you with this.

[oldsithlord]

I have this problem as well on my g5 dual 2.7 also my airport needs to be turned off then on again after walking away or soemtimes on the initial launching of safari weird...