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Dr. J

macrumors member
Original poster
Jan 9, 2006
56
0
I made the switch awhile ago and love my PB. I have read this forum for along time, and came across a few posts that I have a question about. I have read that alot of you do not turn of your computer but leave it in sleep mode. I was wondering if I should do this with my new PB??? I have turned it off when I am not using it for the past few weeks. What are the advantages of sleep mode other than a very fast start up time?? Thanks for all of your help.
 
Well, as you say there's a much faster start time.

Plus, sleep mode keeps the RAM powered (and therefore active) meaning that commonly used processes will be faster from the start rather than taking the time of being transferred to the RAM before use. Did that make sense? Probably not. :eek:
 
There are a few threads about this. The general consensus is that sleep is the way to go unless you are not going to use the computer for a while (a day or more).
 
ive found sleep mode doesnt use that much power anyway...so i only turn it off at the end of the day. The amount of power used from having it in sleep mode for a few hours would probably be equal to the amount of power needed to boot the computer anyways.
 
grapes911 said:
There are a few threads about this. The general consensus is that sleep is the way to go unless you are not going to use the computer for a while (a day or more).

I push that to about 2 days... but I often forget :D. My friend tested his Mac by leaving it asleep for a week, no power, while on a trip. It still had ~10% batter, IIRC. (15" PowerBook)

Sleep is great. If it is plugged in, let it sleep. If you will be away from the A/C for a few days, shut it down to save power.
 
Mechcozmo said:
I push that to about 2 days... but I often forget :D. My friend tested his Mac by leaving it asleep for a week, no power, while on a trip. It still had ~10% batter, IIRC. (15" PowerBook)

Sleep is great. If it is plugged in, let it sleep. If you will be away from the A/C for a few days, shut it down to save power.


was that from full charge or from a lower one.

I been trying to figure out about what the power loss per day is in sleep mode.

I know the more ram you have the greater it is going to be (but that is not the largest draw of power during sleep mode)

I trying to figure out if it should be maybe 1% per hour or like 5-10% per day.

Mostly so I can have a good guess at the power loose over time in sleep mode for computers.

Shamus said:
ive found sleep mode doesnt use that much power anyway...so i only turn it off at the end of the day. The amount of power used from having it in sleep mode for a few hours would probably be equal to the amount of power needed to boot the computer anyways.

True. I want to say booting up a computer sucks bettween 1-3% of the battery any how.
 
I shut down at the end of the day. I rarely reboot it at all during the day. But overall it isn't a huge issue, I don't imagine there is anything that would be extending the life, or shortening it by turning it off at the end of the day.
The way I do it is a remnant of the early day's of computing methods. So go figure.
 
I keep my desktop always on, don't use either sleep or shutdown. But my laptops are ALWAYS off unless in use. I don't mind the slow startup as long as I know I'm not damaging the computer.
 
Sleep is great. I use it all the time hardly ever shut my iBook down. It's just that it's so quick open the lid and bamm it's there. It is even safe to carry your book around while in sleep mode. It's just a great feature use it.
 
I know this is a noob question but with Apple laptops when the lid is closed does it go into sleep? Can this be changed in Expose? Thanks!

Chris
 
ChrisG said:
I know this is a noob question but with Apple laptops when the lid is closed does it go into sleep? Can this be changed in Expose? Thanks!

1. Expose has nothing to do with sleep.

2. On a PB (and I assume a MPB), if you plug in a keyboard, mouse, AC adapter, and monitor, the computer can be woken from sleep and used in "clamshell" mode.

3. There are firmware hacks for iBooks, but I highly recommend staying away from hacks.
 
I didn't reboot in the last 17 days

Just let it sleep overnight. I only reboot when some OS update forces me to. (Or when I know that I'm not going to use the iBook for some days.)
 
Timepass said:
was that from full charge or from a lower one.

I been trying to figure out about what the power loss per day is in sleep mode.

I know the more ram you have the greater it is going to be (but that is not the largest draw of power during sleep mode)

I trying to figure out if it should be maybe 1% per hour or like 5-10% per day.

Mostly so I can have a good guess at the power loose over time in sleep mode for computers.


True. I want to say booting up a computer sucks bettween 1-3% of the battery any how.

1. Full charge. (He had 512MB RAM at that time, but now he has 1.25GB. Bastard. :p)
2. I've been trying to do that, too.
3. What IS the largest draw of power during sleep? I thought that RAM was the only component that stayed active and powered during sleep.
4. I have no idea
5. You've said that... ;)

ScottB said:
I keep my desktop always on, don't use either sleep or shutdown. But my laptops are ALWAYS off unless in use. I don't mind the slow startup as long as I know I'm not damaging the computer.

You aren't damaging your laptop when it is in sleep. After the white light comes on, it means that the hard drive is spun down, optical drive is spun down, CPU is off, wireless is off, screen is off. I move around dozens of time each day and just close the lid between each movement. It is awesome how well it works. Seamless.

Although there is some evidence to the 'damage electronics on startup' the actual fact is... so little 'damage' is done by the heating that nothing happens. In fact, your computer can withstand much higher temperatures than will be encountered on startup. I'd just say that for a laptop, having enough RAM so your hard drive doesn't need to spin up all the time is a must.
 
alexstein said:
Sleep is great. I use it all the time hardly ever shut my iBook down. It's just that it's so quick open the lid and bamm it's there. It is even safe to carry your book around while in sleep mode. It's just a great feature use it.

same thing for my ibook. sleep is the best. there really is no reason to turn the book off unless you arent going to be near power outlets for days.
 
My iBook sleeps at all times. The only time I shut down is on installs (when required).
 
Mechcozmo said:
1. Full charge. (He had 512MB RAM at that time, but now he has 1.25GB. Bastard. :p)
2. I've been trying to do that, too.
3. What IS the largest draw of power during sleep? I thought that RAM was the only component that stayed active and powered during sleep.
4. I have no idea
5. You've said that... ;)


well the ram stays powered plus several key peice of the mother board have to say powered. and several compasitors. Also the monitor is kept in standby mode which will eat some power.

What I been trying to figure out for the longest time is how Apple is able to wake from USB with out using the CPU and keeping it powered to process the USB port infomation.
One nice think about ps2 ports is they dont use any from the CPU and can run at a higher frequnicy.

What I learn from building my own computer and reading manual the power draw off a desktop in standy/sleep mode and full shut down draws the same amount of power and cost the same since it is drawing of the stand by power.

That being said based off your friends test it looking like it around .5-1% per hour in standby. Thinking about that does make since since across quite a few different laptop (both PC and macs) that would seem to fall in the range. Never really though about it or had hard numbers to work with to test. But it does seem to be reasonable to assume it.

Still wish that apple would add in a deep sleep hibernation to there laptops because it only takes like 2% of the batter to power up and it still quicker than a full restarted and draws less power. (plus has a unlimited sleep time on it compared to sleep mode with the time is limited)
 
I never shut down my new iMac. I either put it to sleep or let it do itself once it reaches the time that i have set in energy saver ( I think I have it at 1 hour)
 
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