MacOS – preset the hibernation file size on a Mac so that it can always hibernate

By default, the MacBook actually copies its RAM to disk any time it enters sleep mode (called Safe Sleep). You'll notice this because when you close the lid on your MacBook, there will be a few seconds before the light on the front starts flashing. When the battery gets to 0%, all the computer needs to do is power-off, since the RAM state has already been saved.

This makes me wonder if the problem is happening anytime you return from sleep, or only when the battery hits 0%.

I had similar issues on my MacBook, where the laptop wouldn't return properly from sleep mode. These have gone away for me since disabling hibernate and disabling lid wake.

Many people with SSD disks choose to disable hibernate as the process of Safe Sleep causes a lot of extra writing to the disk (and SSDs have a limited writable lifespan). Since you've upgraded to 8 GB, the laptop is writing 8 GB to disk each time you close the lid.

Note that disabling hibernate will also let your laptop enter sleep mode instantly when you close the lid (something I really like). You'll also recover 8 GB from the sleepimage file, which is pretty valuable on a 128 GB drive.

The only concern is that disabling hibernate will be a problem for you if you actually do hit 0% battery frequently. In this case, it will be as if the laptop had been powered off (crashed). That's not the end of the world, but you will lose any unsaved documents you may have been working on. The solution: don't let your laptop get to 0% battery and shutdown the MacBook when you know it will be off for an extended period of time.

Disabling lid wake prevents the laptop from returning from sleep until you hit any key. I believe this is what actually solved my display issues, but I'm not sure since I did both.

In any case, here's what I suggest for people with an SSD:

sudo pmset -a hibernatemode 0
sudo pmset -a disksleep 0
sudo pmset -a lidwake 0
sudo rm /var/vm/sleepimage

Confirm the settings with sudo pmset -g.

You can find more tips to optimize your MacBook for your SSD here: http://sysadmin.flakshack.com/post/9253439680/ssd-tweaks-for-mac-os-x

I got the "System is low on disk space/memory" error as well as a number of other intermittent problems when I upgraded my original apple memory. It turned out to be either bad memory, or marginal timing specs.

Startup disk has no more space available for application memory?

When I put the original memory back in, the problems went away - so try that if you've exhausted your other options.

I did eventually do a little more research and found a 16GB set that very closely matched Apple specs for my early 2011 macbook pro 17 memory, and it's had no problems for several months now.

I suggest trying out the original apple memory and seeing if the problem goes away. If it does, return the memory you have, and see if you can get a different set that works better.