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Screen shut off, without sleep?

iEugene

iEugene

macrumors regular
Original poster
Apr 18, 2006
137
0
AZ
Hi folks, my friend owns a MacBook Pro and he has been having troubles with his new computer. He loves it all in all, but finds it frustrating that he can't turn the screen off without putting the computer to sleep. He says it's cause he wants his Adium away message to stay up for his friends, but can't find a way to do so, everyone I've asked has no clue.

Has Apple made a way to do this? Or is it this, as of now, cannot be done?
 
Leave the lid open and turn the brightness all the way down to zero? Is that what he's after?
 
Chundles said:
Leave the lid open and turn the brightness all the way down to zero? Is that what he's after?
Click to expand...
No, he wants the screen to shut off (as if it were going to sleep) however without sleep. Like how a on a PC the monitor and tower are seperate and you can switch a button on the monitor to make that turn off. He wants the monitor to turn off but the computer to keep running as if nothing happened.
 
You can set the display sleep time interval in System Preferences, but I don't know of a way to turn of the display on command.

But he could set it to something like 5 minutes...that shouldn't interfere with his usage, but will shut off the screen relatively soon after he's done with it.
 
iEugene said:
No, he wants the screen to shut off (as if it were going to sleep) however without sleep. Like how a on a PC the monitor and tower are seperate and you can switch a button on the monitor to make that turn off. He wants the monitor to turn off but the computer to keep running as if nothing happened.
Click to expand...

You can't turn it off but you can put it to sleep. When the brightness is at zero it's not drawing any power - there is a distinct flicker as the screen turns back on when you turn the brightness up to even one little square.

It's a laptop, not a tower, the monitor is a highly integral part of the system. Turning the brightness to zero will accomplish what he wants - the screen will be "off" - there will be no light coming from it, you won't be able to see a thing.
 
Not sure it this is exactly what you are looking for, but just in case it is:

I've been using Sleepless (link below) to prevent my MacBook from going to sleep when I close the lid. Works nicely if I want to quickly transport my laptop from one part of the house to another, or if I leave the laptop on during the night (to download or render). I don't know if the LCD itself shuts down when I close the lid, but at least the backlight shut off (no glowing apple on the backside of the LCD).

It's shareware, so it pops a small textbox from time to time that basically says "register me and I won't bug you anymore", but I don't mind, as I only turn the app on before I close the lid and shut it down right after I open the lid, so don't really have a chance to see it :)

The air circulation seems to work nicely, while the lid is closed, too. Doesn't seem to overheat or anything. Still, YMMV.


http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/10564
 
System Preferences > Energysaver > Show Info > Set display to sleep after X minutes of inactivity. It is litteraly turned off.
 
To echo what others have said, either setting the display sleep timer or setting brightness to 0 stops powering the backlight; the screen is only receiving a minimal amount of power. But if you want it completely off, there is a workaround that works with the PowerBook; let me know if it works with the MacBook as well:

[Note: This workaround requires the computer to be plugged in.]
1) Close the lid to make the computer go to sleep.
2) Plug or unplug a USB device (such as a mouse). This will wake the computer up.

When you open the lid (after waiting a few moments), you'll find that the screen is completely blank. This works because, when the computer wakes up, it looks for all connected displays; since the screen is closed, the built-in screen isn't found. To make the screen come back on, unplug the computer from power, then close and open the lid.

This workaround isn't really useful for just saving power, though, because the difference between the screen being entirely off and the screen's backlight being off is miniscule. What it is useful for is using an external display plugged into the laptop as its only display.
 
Man, people are making this complicated. It's not.

System Preferences->Energy Saver->

Put computer to sleep when it is inactive for: Never (Move the slider all the way to the right where it says "never".)

Check the box that says "Put the display to sleep when the computer is inactive for:"

Move the slider to the number of minutes he wants to computer to wait before turning off the display.

Done.

For those who think this is the same as turning the brightness all the way down, it is not. The display is still running and being updated when the backlight is off. If you don't believe me, use the above method and leave the laptop running on battery power with the display off for 10 minutes or so. Then "wake up" the display and look at your remaining runtime. Then watch it recalculate from that big number back down to a more normal amount of time. That happens because the graphics system goes into sleep mode and greatly reduces the amount of power being used. I could run my old G3 ibook for 6 hours easy with the display in sleep mode when it was new.

If you have one of those kill-a-watt power meters, you can see the power consumption change immediately when the display goes into sleep mode. Significantly different than just turning off the backlight.
 
iEugene said:
Hi folks, my friend owns a MacBook Pro and he has been having troubles with his new computer. He loves it all in all, but finds it frustrating that he can't turn the screen off without putting the computer to sleep. He says it's cause he wants his Adium away message to stay up for his friends, but can't find a way to do so, everyone I've asked has no clue.

Has Apple made a way to do this? Or is it this, as of now, cannot be done?
Click to expand...

Control-Shift-Eject (⏏) puts your display to sleep.

and

System prefs, desktop, hot corners , select Put Display to sleep
 
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