iMac sleep light slowly driving me mad...

[adav]

Hello, this is my first Macrumors post YAY :cool: . I've been a longtime lurker.

Anyways, I've recently got myself a new 24" iMac and it's wonderful! However, I have one gripe - the sleep light slowly pulsating in my room at night is turning me into a madman!

I like having my imac on sleep so that it turns on instantly, therefore atm i have to open my laptop screen in front of it - although light spills out around it. I know it gets slightly dimmer when it's dark.

Is there anyway to disable the light or make it very very dim to prevent my clicking finger from getting close to the shutdown button every evening.. and we wouldn't want that!

Many thanks

[aaron.lee2006]

cover it with like a cloth when you go to bed or even thick paper. That's what I'd do.

[EricNau]

The built in Ambient Light Sensor should dim the light automatically in a dark room - so it really shouldn't be that bright.

...But if you find that it's too bright, just stick a post-it over it.

[adav]

:eek: 2 replies in 3 mins

a post-it note is an idea worth trying.

I just was hoping (or hopping, can't remember which is the spelling not for jumping on one leg) that an amazing Mac-lord would reveal an amazing secret that makes the sleep light please me:( :p .

[ero87]

here's what i do with my iMac:

instead of sleeping it at night, i just put the display to sleep. That way...

1. No pulsating light.
2. Internet (iChat) stays on, so i can keep receiving messages.
3. Computer starts up instantly & quietly when I wake up and use it.

There's no way to instantly put the display to sleep, but you can use Energy Saving preferences and make the display sleep in 1 minute. That's what i do, i hope you like my method!

[adav]

here's what i do with my iMac:

instead of sleeping it at night, i just put the display to sleep. That way...

1. No pulsating light.
2. Internet (iChat) stays on, so i can keep receiving messages.
3. Computer starts up instantly & quietly when I wake up and use it.

There's no way to instantly put the display to sleep, but you can use Energy Saving preferences and make the display sleep in 1 minute. That's what i do, i hope you like my method!

i like this idea very much, i shall try tonight! Thanks

[xli_ne]

Do these lights mean anything?

On my Macbook it pulsates at a nice rate but on my gf macbook it turns on and off a lot more quickly?

Does it have to do with the power settings?

[mad jew]

Just accept madness.

[Aperture]

The built in Ambient Light Sensor should dim the light automatically in a dark room - so it really shouldn't be that bright.

...But if you find that it's too bright, just stick a post-it over it.

Really? I have the ALS (Ambient Light Sensor) iMac G5 and I didn't know it did that. You learn something new every day!

[GreenWing]

Is there anyway to disable the light or make it very very dim to prevent my clicking finger from getting close to the shutdown button every evening.. and we wouldn't want that!

Many thanks

At the risk of sounding like an eco-warrior why don't you just turn it off at night and save cash and electricity? How long does it really take to boot up?

Edit: I hope this doesn't sound aggressive - its not meant that way!

[QuarterSwede]

At the risk of sounding like an eco-warrior why don't you just turn it off at night and save cash and electricity? How long does it really take to boot up?

Edit: I hope this doesn't sound aggressive - its not meant that way!
Putting a Mac in Sleep Mode turns the power off to everything except the RAM. It therefore uses maybe a few pennies of power (if that) at night. I have to admit, there is nothing like sitting down at the computer and have it be instantly on.

Personally I would either drape a heavy blanket over the entire machine or have the display turn off. You could probably setup a hotkey for that. It's too bad Apple doesn't allow the pulsating light to be disabled ... maybe in a future release (OS X 10.5?).

[GreenWing]

Putting a Mac in Sleep Mode turns the power off to everything except the RAM. It therefore uses maybe a few pennies of power (if that) at night. I have to admit, there is nothing like sitting down at the computer and have it be instantly on.

Personally I would either drape a heavy blanket over the entire machine or have the display turn off. You could probably setup a hotkey for that.

Thanks for the info - I didn't know this. However the point still holds - you gain 40 seconds of time (in which you could do something like have a pee in the morning anyway) vs. using electricity and still having the few seconds of lagging as it wakes up.

[StealthRider]

In sleep mode, the iMac draws 1/50th the power of a standard lightbulb - and shutdown/startup is harder on the components.

[Father Jack]

Hello, this is my first Macrumors post YAY :cool: . I've been a longtime lurker.

Anyways, I've recently got myself a new 24" iMac and it's wonderful! However, I have one gripe - the sleep light slowly pulsating in my room at night is turning me into a madman!

I like having my imac on sleep so that it turns on instantly, therefore atm i have to open my laptop screen in front of it - although light spills out around it. I know it gets slightly dimmer when it's dark.

Is there anyway to disable the light or make it very very dim to prevent my clicking finger from getting close to the shutdown button every evening.. and we wouldn't want that!

Many thanks

Turn it off. People had to do that before computers went to sleep.

If you really don't want to turn it off, turn it round to face the other way.


FJ

[spork183]

hoping that an amazing Mac-lord would reveal an amazing secret that makes the sleep light please me:( :p .

Unless your sleep light has much more amazing functionality than mine, it ain't gonna happen.

You could however just pop the back off the imac and disconnect the thing, but then you lose the opportunity to ever have it please you...

[simontarr]

I'm surpised someone hasn't made a hack to change that.
My iMac doesn't bother me really- it's so dim when your eyes are closed you can't tell it's even on.

[ronokenneally]

here's what i do with my iMac:

instead of sleeping it at night, i just put the display to sleep. That way...

1. No pulsating light.
2. Internet (iChat) stays on, so i can keep receiving messages.
3. Computer starts up instantly & quietly when I wake up and use it.

There's no way to instantly put the display to sleep, but you can use Energy Saving preferences and make the display sleep in 1 minute. That's what i do, i hope you like my method!



I know it new in leopard that you can set one of your expose corners as a sleep display but there is an app called sleep display which will turn off ur screen for you. just to let you know

[minik]

wow.... bumping.

The current iMac's sleep light is much more improved. It hides under the right speaker and it's highly unnoticeable.

[eXan]

wow.... bumping.

The current iMac's sleep light is much more improved. It hides under the right speaker and it's highly unnoticeable.

Can you make a pic showing its location on alu iMacs?

[bluedoggiant]

wow.... bumping.

The current iMac's sleep light is much more improved. It hides under the right speaker and it's highly unnoticeable.

Can you make a pic showing its location on alu iMacs?

LMAO!!!!!

LMAO!!!!!

That is waaaaay to funny. I posted a thread a couple months ago about a green light shining from below my iMac's right speaker!

TURNS OUT IT WAS THE MOTHER BOARD :p:p:p:p

Nothing special here, old white imacs had the green light too.

EDIT: I found the thread : http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=404908

[hydrokayak]

I shut off my display on demand with an Active Screen Corner.

To access this feature:
1. Open System Preferences.
2. Click Expose & Spaces.
3. Choose a corner, and assign a function under the Expose tab.

It works really well, I have the top right corner assigned to sleep the display, and the bottom left assigned to the screen saver. The screen saver locks the computer as well, so when I leave the computer, it's basically logged out.

[bluedoggiant]

I shut off my display on demand with an Active Screen Corner.

To access this feature:
1. Open System Preferences.
2. Click Expose & Spaces.
3. Choose a corner, and assign a function under the Expose tab.

It works really well, I have the top right corner assigned to sleep the display, and the bottom left assigned to the screen saver. The screen saver locks the computer as well, so when I leave the computer, it's basically logged out.

Shift+Control+Eject Key

[Fudgedoodle]

What I did is enable password protection after it goes into sleep in system preferences, then I put it to sleep and then wake it up again to get to the password window. Then, I hide the window. Technically it's still on, with a black screen.