Shutting off the screen but still remain "awak" (MacbooK)

[Vrbas]

I was curious about the whole "Can i close the lid w/o putting it to sleep" issue. I know i've searched around alot for em. But i'd like to ask a similar question:

Is it possible for you to somehow turn the display off and close the lid while still allowing the computer to "work" in the background? You know how even when it's open the display turns off after a certain amount of time right? Well it doesn't make any sense why it would REQUIRE the screen to be on for it 2 perform actions.

Say i'm renderring something in final cut and i'd like to go somewhere w/ my laptop. Could i somehow put the DISPLAY ITSELF to sleep w/o the computer falling asleep, in doing so closing the monitor and folding my laptop to fit in my backpack (i know its a bad idea cause of exhaust but for the sake of making a point). Is this possible and or safe to do? I don't see why it isn't since the screen isn't "on", just working in the background. Thank you.

 

[emw]

I haven't actually tried doing real work this way, but if you close the lid, and then unplug a USB device, your laptop will wake up. Don't know if it would stay awake and work applications or not, though.

 

[EricNau]

I haven't actually tried doing real work this way, but if you close the lid, and then unplug a USB device, your laptop will wake up. Don't know if it would stay awake and work applications or not, though.

It goes back to sleep within about 1 minute.

 

[emw]

So you'd need to fool it into thinking you're running in clamshell mode with an external monitor. I've seen where people have done this to try and run "headless" Macs and such. Not sure how you'd pull it off, though, or really even if you'd want to, now that I'm thinking about it.

While laptops are designed to be carried about, I don't know if I'd want mine jostling around inside my backpack too much while the hard drive is spinning around churning on data. Seems like it could be asking for trouble.

 

[rockstarjoe]

The thing I still don't understand is that according to many posters here it is "bad" to run your Macbook closed because of the heat. But then why does Apple allow you to run it with the lid closed in "clamshell" mode? What is the difference? I would like to run my Macbook with the lid closed but not if it is going to do damage to the machine.

 

[emw]

I run my MBP closed fairly often, and haven't had problems. Venting is out the back, although I suppose you get some flow through the speaker grills as well.

 

[apunkrockmonk]

There is absolutely nothing wrong with running a Macbook in clamshell mode. Only iBooks had this problem. I too was reading that thread. I actually ended up trying out sleepless. I liked it so much that I bought it, although I felt the price was rather steep.

If you wanted to, you could use sleepless to run it headless on battery power if you wanted.

Running it in a backpack you would probably damage the hard drive as well as overheat the laptop.