Sleep or Power Off

[Chad H]

Hey guys,
Well I finally got my Macbook Air and Apple TV hooked this weekend. My Time Capsule hasn't shipped yet so I just went and bout a Airport extreme for the time being and I'll return it when my Time Capsule comes in. Anyway, I was wondering if ya'll think its better to let the MBA sleep or just to power it off when not in use? I powered it down last night but didn't know if mattered if I just closed it and let it be in sleep mode all night or all the time for that matter or completely power it off when not in use? But on the side, this thing rocks. Its my first Mac and I can tell you that I will NEVER return to a PC.

Thanks,
Chad

 

[ayeying]

I don't have a MacBook Air yet... but on my MacBook, I almost never turn it off. I usually just leave it on 24/7 too and whenever I need to carry it to another place, say, to work, I just close the lid, put it to sleep (so harsh, I know) and resume from there. I've done that with all my laptops (mac and PCs) and never really had a problem. (Except my Tablet PC, it's 60GB hdd was damaged so I couldn't leave it on for more then 7 days or the hdd starts clicking... dunno why)

The only time I actually turn it off is when I'm away for more then 2 days, hardware upgrades, or cleaning the unit.

 

[matthewHUB]

never turn it off. restart for updates. sleep always

 

[joegomolski]

I am uncomfortable with the the idea of buying an airport extreme to use, and then return when the Time Capsule arrives.

 

[robby818]

What happens if in Sleep mode your battery runs out of power? Sleep seems to use very little power, but it still draws some power from the battery, right?

I have always used shut down but that is probably because sleep mode didn't work that great in Windows XP and that's my background in computing.

 

[TxMacAddict]

I always sleep...although these Intel processors don't sleep as well as the old PPC processors. It seems like to sleep overnight with my MBA it takes about 10% of my battery. My old 12" PB could sleep for days and not even use 10%.

 

[Chad H]

I am uncomfortable with the the idea of buying an airport extreme to use, and then return when the Time Capsule arrives.

Why is that?

 

[bjdraw]

You can turn the MBA off?

Seriously, I never shut it down, I just close the lid and let it sleep. This is one of my fav features of Macs, as the few Windows laptops I've used have never resumed from sleep reliably.

 

[BryanLyle]

Sleep. Nothing better than having a computer instantly come on when you open the lid.

 

[ayeying]

What happens if in Sleep mode your battery runs out of power? Sleep seems to use very little power, but it still draws some power from the battery, right?

It hibernates. Similar to the feature on Windows. Writes everything from RAM to Disk.

 

[joepunk]

I mostly sleep my PB but on occasions (such as for travel, longer than a day, or it needs to reorganize itself for some reason) I shut it down/restart.

FYI there's probably many threads like this.

 

[andy.barron]

Macs run periodic maintenance so should be left on unless you have specific boot times to run & shut down.

 

[chickenninja]

the only time ive ever had problems with my "macbook" sleeping is that it gets lazzy. lol, sometimes when i have allot of tabs in multiple windows in safari and i havent turned my mac off in a week or so safari will crash. but in general there is no problem what so ever with just closing the lid and walking away ah the glorry or simplicity. but make sure it gets enough sleep to enter those deep stages of R.E.M. sleep otherwise it wont dream.

 

[danish1542]

I turn it off overnight, because i dont see a point in leaving it on if im not going to be using it. Also, the thing boots up so fast, turning it on isnt even an issue.

 

[ROB2246]

I just put it to sleep most of the time if I am not using it. I have found out that turning off the Airport saves some og the battery drain. I understand that even while it sleeps and the airport is on it is searching for signals.

 

[kanon14]

I usually turn off my notebook if I know I won't be using it for more than an hour. With my older notebooks I use hibernate in between class (when I was still in college 3 years ago) because at the boot times of those old, Windows machines were horrible (they still are now). Mac tends to boot faster and with the SSD in the Air the boot time is just awesome. SO I don't worry much about leaving it to sleep or shutting it off. Of course if I know I'm gonne be using it in 10 minutes then I'll just close the lid.

 

[Terwal]

Sleep dangerous when travelling ?

Could travelling around (going to the office, taking a plane,...) with my MBA asleep in my bag cause any trouble to the MBA ? Like hard drive accident or other ?

Has anybody had any such accident in the past with a MB ?

 

[fdot]

i shut mine off... even with my recently sold macbookpro 17inch, i found that if i left it asleep for a couple days, i would find a dead battery... didnt try this yet with the AIR

 

[dibara2003]

i sleep mine unless there's an update that needs a restart. did it with every apple i owned. instant on with a led screen is good too

 

[Tosser]

I used to just sleep mine. But since being introduced to leopards bugs I usually turn it off every other day. It prevents things getting slow.

 

[Chad H]

Well personally I have left it on the last couple of days and have had no problems so I think that will be my course of action. The reason I asked in the first place was because my PC was buggy and it didn't like sleeping a long time.

 

[hotsauce]

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