Sleep, Shutdown?

[MyDesktopBroke]

I've heard that people have left their laptops on for months at a time, saying that putting the computer to sleep instead of shutting it down will prolong its life. Doesn't the computer still use a little battery power even while sleeping?

What is the best practice to use concerning a laptop? Sleep in between uses all the time? Shut down at night? Never shutdown? Put hard disk to sleep when possible? What are the differences?

 

[cababah]

I've heard that people have left their laptops on for months at a time, saying that putting the computer to sleep instead of shutting it down will prolong its life. Doesn't the computer still use a little battery power even while sleeping?

What is the best practice to use concerning a laptop? Sleep in between uses all the time? Shut down at night? Never shutdown? Put hard disk to sleep when possible? What are the differences?

Sleep uses some power, it is in a "low power" state. I read in the user manual that Apple recommends shutting down the computer when you are not planning to use it for a few days. Otherwise, sleeping the computer is recommended.

 

[incandenza]

Neither one is going to affect the life of the machine in a significant way.

Therefore, I just do what's more convenient, which is to always use sleep. I have almost no reason to ever shut down, unless for example I was upgrading the hardware, or for some reason I knew I wasn't going to use the machine for weeks or something like that.

Yes, being in sleep uses a tiny bit of battery power. However, the Mac laptops use something called "safe sleep", which means that the RAM is also written out to the hard drive (a la 'hibernate' on other computers), in addition to being refreshed by the battery (or AC). So, even if you manage to run the battery all the way down, the machine will still recover its state from the hard drive.

 

[pellets007]

Shutting down and sleeping, the difference between the two is negligible. It's been noted by some that sleeping may prolong the computer's lifespan by approximately five years after the computer reaches its twenty or thirty year mark. It should also be noted that these are theoretical and hypothetical numbers and ones that I do not recall the source to. Sleeping is easier.

 

[colourfastt]

As others have stated: six of one; half a dozen of the other. Personally, I use 'sleep' if I have items that I'm working on and I'm going to be away from the computer for a while. I use 'shutdown' if there's nothing to be done and I'm going to be away for a while (the 20 second boot time doesn't bother me).

 

[Smoothie]

There are some posts over the past couple of years where people have discovered their "sleeping" computer has awakened in a backpack or sleeve, causing it to get very hot. I'm not sure what would cause this, but I shut down the computer if I'm packing it. At home, I put it to sleep.

 

[MichelleAK]

I'm not the OP, but thanks for the replies re this. I was wondering the same thing, as I had gotten into the habit of not shutting off my iMac at night but letting it go to sleep, and I hoped I could do the same with my new MBP.