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iMac sleep light slowly driving me mad...

A

adav

macrumors member
Original poster
Dec 26, 2006
59
0
Hello, this is my first Macrumors post YAY :cool: . I've been a longtime lurker.

Anyways, I've recently got myself a new 24" iMac and it's wonderful! However, I have one gripe - the sleep light slowly pulsating in my room at night is turning me into a madman!

I like having my imac on sleep so that it turns on instantly, therefore atm i have to open my laptop screen in front of it - although light spills out around it. I know it gets slightly dimmer when it's dark.

Is there anyway to disable the light or make it very very dim to prevent my clicking finger from getting close to the shutdown button every evening.. and we wouldn't want that!

Many thanks
 
The built in Ambient Light Sensor should dim the light automatically in a dark room - so it really shouldn't be that bright.

...But if you find that it's too bright, just stick a post-it over it.
 
:eek: 2 replies in 3 mins

a post-it note is an idea worth trying.

I just was hoping (or hopping, can't remember which is the spelling not for jumping on one leg) that an amazing Mac-lord would reveal an amazing secret that makes the sleep light please me:( :p .
 
here's what i do with my iMac:

instead of sleeping it at night, i just put the display to sleep. That way...

1. No pulsating light.
2. Internet (iChat) stays on, so i can keep receiving messages.
3. Computer starts up instantly & quietly when I wake up and use it.

There's no way to instantly put the display to sleep, but you can use Energy Saving preferences and make the display sleep in 1 minute. That's what i do, i hope you like my method!
 
ero87 said:
here's what i do with my iMac:

instead of sleeping it at night, i just put the display to sleep. That way...

1. No pulsating light.
2. Internet (iChat) stays on, so i can keep receiving messages.
3. Computer starts up instantly & quietly when I wake up and use it.

There's no way to instantly put the display to sleep, but you can use Energy Saving preferences and make the display sleep in 1 minute. That's what i do, i hope you like my method!
Click to expand...

i like this idea very much, i shall try tonight! Thanks
 
Do these lights mean anything?

On my Macbook it pulsates at a nice rate but on my gf macbook it turns on and off a lot more quickly?

Does it have to do with the power settings?
 
EricNau said:
The built in Ambient Light Sensor should dim the light automatically in a dark room - so it really shouldn't be that bright.

...But if you find that it's too bright, just stick a post-it over it.
Click to expand...

Really? I have the ALS (Ambient Light Sensor) iMac G5 and I didn't know it did that. You learn something new every day!
 
adav said:
Is there anyway to disable the light or make it very very dim to prevent my clicking finger from getting close to the shutdown button every evening.. and we wouldn't want that!

Many thanks
Click to expand...

At the risk of sounding like an eco-warrior why don't you just turn it off at night and save cash and electricity? How long does it really take to boot up?

Edit: I hope this doesn't sound aggressive - its not meant that way!
 
GreenWing said:
At the risk of sounding like an eco-warrior why don't you just turn it off at night and save cash and electricity? How long does it really take to boot up?

Edit: I hope this doesn't sound aggressive - its not meant that way!
Click to expand...
Putting a Mac in Sleep Mode turns the power off to everything except the RAM. It therefore uses maybe a few pennies of power (if that) at night. I have to admit, there is nothing like sitting down at the computer and have it be instantly on.

Personally I would either drape a heavy blanket over the entire machine or have the display turn off. You could probably setup a hotkey for that. It's too bad Apple doesn't allow the pulsating light to be disabled ... maybe in a future release (OS X 10.5?).
 
QuarterSwede said:
Putting a Mac in Sleep Mode turns the power off to everything except the RAM. It therefore uses maybe a few pennies of power (if that) at night. I have to admit, there is nothing like sitting down at the computer and have it be instantly on.

Personally I would either drape a heavy blanket over the entire machine or have the display turn off. You could probably setup a hotkey for that.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info - I didn't know this. However the point still holds - you gain 40 seconds of time (in which you could do something like have a pee in the morning anyway) vs. using electricity and still having the few seconds of lagging as it wakes up.
 
adav said:
Hello, this is my first Macrumors post YAY :cool: . I've been a longtime lurker.

Anyways, I've recently got myself a new 24" iMac and it's wonderful! However, I have one gripe - the sleep light slowly pulsating in my room at night is turning me into a madman!

I like having my imac on sleep so that it turns on instantly, therefore atm i have to open my laptop screen in front of it - although light spills out around it. I know it gets slightly dimmer when it's dark.

Is there anyway to disable the light or make it very very dim to prevent my clicking finger from getting close to the shutdown button every evening.. and we wouldn't want that!

Many thanks
Click to expand...

Turn it off. People had to do that before computers went to sleep.

If you really don't want to turn it off, turn it round to face the other way.


FJ
 
adav said:
hoping that an amazing Mac-lord would reveal an amazing secret that makes the sleep light please me:( :p .
Click to expand...

Unless your sleep light has much more amazing functionality than mine, it ain't gonna happen.

You could however just pop the back off the imac and disconnect the thing, but then you lose the opportunity to ever have it please you...
 
I'm surpised someone hasn't made a hack to change that.
My iMac doesn't bother me really- it's so dim when your eyes are closed you can't tell it's even on.
 
Sleep display

ero87 said:
here's what i do with my iMac:

instead of sleeping it at night, i just put the display to sleep. That way...

1. No pulsating light.
2. Internet (iChat) stays on, so i can keep receiving messages.
3. Computer starts up instantly & quietly when I wake up and use it.

There's no way to instantly put the display to sleep, but you can use Energy Saving preferences and make the display sleep in 1 minute. That's what i do, i hope you like my method!
Click to expand...



I know it new in leopard that you can set one of your expose corners as a sleep display but there is an app called sleep display which will turn off ur screen for you. just to let you know
 
wow.... bumping.

The current iMac's sleep light is much more improved. It hides under the right speaker and it's highly unnoticeable.
 
minik said:
wow.... bumping.

The current iMac's sleep light is much more improved. It hides under the right speaker and it's highly unnoticeable.
Click to expand...

eXan said:
Can you make a pic showing its location on alu iMacs?
Click to expand...

LMAO!!!!!

LMAO!!!!!

That is waaaaay to funny. I posted a thread a couple months ago about a green light shining from below my iMac's right speaker!

TURNS OUT IT WAS THE MOTHER BOARD :p:p:p:p

Nothing special here, old white imacs had the green light too.

EDIT: I found the thread : https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/404908/
 
I shut off my display on demand with an Active Screen Corner.

To access this feature:
1. Open System Preferences.
2. Click Expose & Spaces.
3. Choose a corner, and assign a function under the Expose tab.

It works really well, I have the top right corner assigned to sleep the display, and the bottom left assigned to the screen saver. The screen saver locks the computer as well, so when I leave the computer, it's basically logged out.
 
hydrokayak said:
I shut off my display on demand with an Active Screen Corner.

To access this feature:
1. Open System Preferences.
2. Click Expose & Spaces.
3. Choose a corner, and assign a function under the Expose tab.

It works really well, I have the top right corner assigned to sleep the display, and the bottom left assigned to the screen saver. The screen saver locks the computer as well, so when I leave the computer, it's basically logged out.
Click to expand...

Shift+Control+Eject Key
 
What I did is enable password protection after it goes into sleep in system preferences, then I put it to sleep and then wake it up again to get to the password window. Then, I hide the window. Technically it's still on, with a black screen.
 
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