sleep or shutdown when carrying

[buckuxc]

hey all,

I've been shutting down my powerbook everytime I put it in m backpack and carry it somewhere. Is that necessary? If it's in a laptop sleeve, can it be kept in sleep mode? It's not a big deal either way, but I'm curious what others recommend/do. Thanks.

sps

[latergator116]

I always sleep mine when I carry it. I doubt you could do any damage to it either way (sleep or shutdown).

[virividox]

just close the lid and it will sleep automatically, my pbook has been up for 2 weeks now, no problems. i keep it sleeping when i take flights and everything as well. sleep allows you access ur computer faster, great time saver

[mactastic]

Sleep! There is no need whatsoever to shut down for transport, unless it will be more than a couple days before you use it again. That was always the nice thing about taking my PB to school and now to work. I show up, open my laptop, and I'm ready to work. Whilst others are waiting through a long bootup process, I'm already connected to the projector and ready to show.

[buckuxc]

Well I'm glad I asked. How silly and over-cautions I have been...

[James Craner]

I use my powerbook in the office, I just close the lid and put it to sleep when I take it to meetings. It is amusing watching the people with windows laptops waiting for the boot sequence to complete. Most windows laptops can sleep as well, but it is oftern not used.

[blvdeast]

Just had a thought, how long does the battery last in the PB. I am waiting for my iBook, and it claims to go for 6 hours working, what about sleeping? a whole day???

[mactastic]

Originally posted by blvdeast
Just had a thought, how long does the battery last in the PB. I am waiting for my iBook, and it claims to go for 6 hours working, what about sleeping? a whole day???
I get about 3 hours of normal use from my TiBook on battery. More if I turn off the Airport and dim the screen. Less if I'm watching DVDs or burning/importing music.

My wife's iBook gets over 4 hours of normal use, and as high as 5.5 with the power saving features I mentioned above. Of course she has a slower processor, and a smaller screen to power.

[Powerbook G5]

My PowerBook can sleep for a few days while sleeping with no problem, it is a really low power mode. Just realize that the longer it sleeps, the lower your battery life with be in the long run since it still does use it up. Sleeping for a few hours won't do much, but when it is sleeping for a day, it can use up a good portion of the battery.

[buckuxc]

While this topic is still going, can someone tell me if processes you set in the background effect the computer's sleep. Say I want to set the desktop background to change every 30 minutes or hour. If my PB is asleep when that time hits, does that wake it up? Or does wait til it is woken up to perform that? Thanks.

sps

[Powerbook G5]

It'd wait until you wake up. The only things I know of that could wake up your PowerBook are if you went into energy saver and check one of those boxes saying "Wake when modem detects ring" or "wake for ethernet" or under bluetooth when there are options to wake when a device is detected. Besides that, once it is in sleep mode, it's there until you open the lid, push a button, or the battery is removed for more than 20 seconds or however long that grace period is that you have to change batteries before it loses power.

[hulugu]

Originally posted by mactastic
I get about 3 hours of normal use from my TiBook on battery. More if I turn off the Airport and dim the screen. Less if I'm watching DVDs or burning/importing music.

My wife's iBook gets over 4 hours of normal use, and as high as 5.5 with the power saving features I mentioned above. Of course she has a slower processor, and a smaller screen to power.

[hulugu]

Originally posted by mactastic
I get about 3 hours of normal use from my TiBook on battery. More if I turn off the Airport and dim the screen. Less if I'm watching DVDs or burning/importing music.

My wife's iBook gets over 4 hours of normal use, and as high as 5.5 with the power saving features I mentioned above. Of course she has a slower processor, and a smaller screen to power.

I have one of the older Powerbooks, so I'm not sure how useful this information is, but I've gotten almost 7 hours using the above mentioned power savings features, and my PB has slept for 24 hours without using the entire battery, but I think that's extreme. I carry mine around all day and shut it down at night.

[cmx08]

I read this somewhere on the net that says the whiter the wallpaper, the less energy it consumses.

therefore, a 100% black wallpaper will drain the battery faster then a 100% white wallpaper.

I tried it and it's true. It is wierd since the whiter the lighter the LCD will be and we usually take lighter as more energy consuming.

it says that white pixels take lets energy to generate.

Thought it will be handy for those who do not know and want to have the longest battery life.

[tdhurst]

if you are not going to use your powerbook for more than 24 hours, turn it off, it less than that, just close it or put it to sleep. PERIOD.

[bubbamac]

My PB uses about 10% of the battery for 24 hours of sleep.

I travel a lot (it's my job), and never turn it off, it's always sleeping.

It is fun to watch the windows world boot their computers while I just open the lid.

It's even more fun to watch them reboot several times during a meeting, or every time they want to connect/disconnect from the network.

[pdrayton]

I typically let my PB sleep when carrying it around. BUT, with these super cold temps and just plain cold Winter weather, I shut down now before going outside. In the past week it's been -11F degrees here in Boston.

The "operating temperature" is 50F - 95F degrees. I don't put my PB to sleep if it will be in temperatures outside that range. "Storage temperatures", however, range from -52F to 117F degrees.

I give my 12" PB lots of protection from the cold (in a sleeve in a bag), and let it warm up before firing up.

Cold weather adversely impacts the battery life, too.

[cpjakes]

My TiBook battery is just about on its way out. In the beginning, I would get about four hours of use out of it, now it's probably down to an hour, but I never disable WiFi, dim the screen, or anything. It used to lose 2% of battery life overnight, now maybe about 5-10%. So it might be time for a new battery as this one is going on three years of hard usage.

cpjakes

[7on]

lol, if you want to know what happens when when you sleep a power and try to wake when it's clearly below 0ºF, here you go...

I left my powerbook out in a car for like 3-4 hours and it was mostly below 0. When leaving I thought I'd move some pictures from my camera to the book to save me from having to do it at home. I opened my powerbook, the LCD came on, and my desktop looked normal. However my cursor wouldn't move and no buttons worked. I listened but couldn't hear the HD... so the powerbook wakes up, but the Harddrive can't.

BTW, it's fine now.

[pdrayton]

And Apple warns that the two biggest dangers of freezing temperatures on a PowerBook are:

1). Frozen hard drive (Going quickly from warm to cold creates condensation which then freezes). Hard drive can be successfully thawed.

2). Frozen LCD screen. Apparently, once that happens you've ruined your screen.

Wooohooo... up to 19F today!

[flahiker]

The LCD is a positive emission device. Meaning it is continuously backlit. The colored or black pixels are created by turning on a sort of filter that restrices the bandwidth of the light. Sooo, everytimt you turn on a color on a pixel, it takes more energy than just leaving it white.

[michaelrjohnson]

i would honestly have to say that this is the most informative powerbook thread that i have read in a VERY long time. i will be purchasing a 15in PB as soon as the next revision comes out (as in, same-day).

thanks all of you for some GREAT info.

[agreenster]

Originally posted by cmx08
I read this somewhere on the net that says the whiter the wallpaper, the less energy it consumses.

therefore, a 100% black wallpaper will drain the battery faster then a 100% white wallpaper.

I tried it and it's true. It is wierd since the whiter the lighter the LCD will be and we usually take lighter as more energy consuming.

it says that white pixels take lets energy to generate.

Thought it will be handy for those who do not know and want to have the longest battery life.

I have a hrd time believing that. Can you back it up? I always have a dark desktop, thinking it will lead to longer LCD life. (plus, I just prefer it) I really dont like light desktops--hard on the ol eyeballs.

[Powerbook G5]

My desktop is full of bright colors but I still get incredible battery life, but then again, I never have an all white background on to compare it to.

[Mantat]

Originally posted by michaelrjohnson
i will be purchasing a 15in PB as soon as the next revision comes out (as in, same-day).



Good luck, its probably going to be in a lot of months... Its a great seller as it is right now and doesnt need an power upgrade for a while. My guess is that we wont see it until the G5 PB or 8 months. Which ever come first...

Back to topic:
This is a great thread, I learned a few usefull thing!

[abhishekit]

i walk to school which is about 13 minutes. Outside temp is around 10F these days. So should i put my ibook to sleep or not? I almost never shut it down...
thanks

[cpjakes]

Originally posted by abhishekit
i walk to school which is about 13 minutes. Outside temp is around 10F these days. So should i put my ibook to sleep or not? I almost never shut it down...
thanks

Either way... I'd give it some warm up time though, just because of that screen. I don't usually leave mine in the car in the winter (or summer for that matter) but I always sleep it. It's in a neoprene bag inside another bag, but sometimes it's cold.

As long as there's no frost on the outside, the inside isn't as cold as the case. :-)

[michaelrjohnson]

Originally posted by Mantat
Good luck, its probably going to be in a lot of months... Its a great seller as it is right now and doesnt need an power upgrade for a while. My guess is that we wont see it until the G5 PB or 8 months. Which ever come first...

Back to topic:
This is a great thread, I learned a few usefull thing!


I would bet that there will be a new revision (i.e. small upgrade, speed bump, etc) before that machine is 1 year old. Apple has a 6-9 month revision cycle. I'm not holding out for G5, just the next revision.

[James Craner]

Originally posted by Mantat
Good luck, its probably going to be in a lot of months... Its a great seller as it is right now and doesnt need an power upgrade for a while. My guess is that we wont see it until the G5 PB or 8 months. Which ever come first...

Back to topic:
This is a great thread, I learned a few usefull thing!

Mantat, I think you are right that G5 Powerbook will not be available until September time. However we may see a final G4 speedbump in Feb/March. I have seen rumors suggesting Powerbooks could get speedbumped to 1.4 GHz. However no-one knows for sure outside Apple.

[johnnyjibbs]

Originally posted by michaelrjohnson
I would bet that there will be a new revision (i.e. small upgrade, speed bump, etc) before that machine is 1 year old. Apple has a 6-9 month revision cycle. I'm not holding out for G5, just the next revision.
Just remember that the next PowerBook revision will be the last G4 revision before the G5s (IMO)...

[Powerbook G5]

Either way, they are incredible machines. Once you do buy one, I am sure you will be pleased with your purchase. I got mine in September with the latest revision and had a few doubts since I was so eager for a G5, but I have to admit that despite what people say about the G4, it is a really impressive chip, and paired with the Radeon 9600, it's one wonderful package.

[cpjakes]

I think we're spoiled by the fact that OS X wakes up so fast on PowerBooks. OS 9 was awful, just about as fast to startup as it was to wake from sleep. The only thing I have to wait for (if you consider five seconds a wait) is my network connection to filter through my connections and find one.

So chuckle softly at our PC counterparts as they boot and wait while we just open and go.

cpjakes

[Powerbook G5]

Wake up on my PowerBook G3 400 MHz under OS 9.2 was instant. I kept a lean system folder, though, and disabled the extensions that I never used or needed. One thing that can increase wake up speed is disabling the ethernet if you are using dialup since it takes it time to check the port to see if there is a signal coming on it and waits for a few moments before moving on. If you are using ethernet, however, you shouldn't disable it and it'd be instant anyway since there will be a valid network signal for it to find.

[michaelrjohnson]

Originally posted by Powerbook G5
Wake up on my PowerBook G3 400 MHz under OS 9.2 was instant. I kept a lean system folder, though, and disabled the extensions that I never used or needed. One thing that can increase wake up speed is disabling the ethernet if you are using dialup since it takes it time to check the port to see if there is a signal coming on it and waits for a few moments before moving on. If you are using ethernet, however, you shouldn't disable it and it'd be instant anyway since there will be a valid network signal for it to find.

that i think is a key point, OS 9 boot times were fast, but they weren't GREAT unless you took the effort to keep a lean system folder.

thanks for the advice/encouragement regarding my future purchase. i feel that a rev. b 15 al Powerbook will suit my needs just fine (even though im a graphic designer) for a few years. then, when i can afford a new machine, i'll buy the mythical powerbook G5!

[Powerbook G5]

The PowerBook G5 is like the unicorn. Many seek to find this mythical beast of majesty, but no mortal can ever possess such a creature for it is allusive and beyond grasp. But, the PowerBook G4 is quite easy to come by at any local Apple reseller.

[michaelrjohnson]

well put PowerBook G5, well put

lol:D

[bankshot]

Originally posted by appleretailguy
if you are not going to use your powerbook for more than 24 hours, turn it off, it less than that, just close it or put it to sleep. PERIOD.

I'd say the threshold ought to be more than just 24 hours for most Mac notebooks. I've left my 15" AlBook sleeping for the better part of a week with some battery left. The 12" iBook G3 has slept for about 2 weeks without problems, but it also gets much better battery life in general. I can't honestly think of any time when the battery was completely drained due to sleep.

Rebooting is such a drag - not because of silly geek 'uptime' status, but simply because you have to quit everything you're doing instead of leaving things in progress. That's the biggest reason why I always sleep my laptops and never shutdown or sleep the desktop at all.

[abhishekit]

you can reduce the bootup times by typing this at the terminal
sudo ln -s /System/Library/Extensions/BootCache.kext/Contents/Resources/BootCacheControl /usr/sbin/BootCacheControl

i m sure most of you know it..but still for some who dont...

[Stelliform]

For the record I started using my TiBook in November 2002, I never shut down, always sleep. I usually use it all day, (Except the weekends it might sleep all weekend.) and charge it at night. Unless I forget or am lazy. Then I charge it a bit here or there throughout the day.

Sure my battery is getting weaker from all that abuse, but I still get over 2 hours out of it. (With everything on including airport.) I figure I will buy a replacement battery this summer.

[rendezvouscp]

about sleeping or shutting down, is there any way you can actually damage the hard drive if you move the powerbook while it is awake or asleep, as in the apple user manual? I can see what they are saying, but has this ever happened to anyone? thanks
–Chase

[mxpiazza]

i don't think i have had my 12" pb shut down since i've bought it in september when they came out with the new revision (traded in my 1.8 G5 with the 30-day money back guarentee, haven't regretted it for one second). when i take it to class, i just throw it in my bag, then open my lid and i'm ready to go. my astronomy teacher taught at berkley in CA last year, which, according to him, is a big mac campus. so from day 1 when he saw the 12" shining apple powerbook, i was a teacher's pet without even trying, it rocked.

back on topic, as i said above, i haven't shut my 12" down yet, but i would definitley reccomend shutting it down if you know it's going to be in below operating temperatures for an extended period of time, and give it some thaw time before you start her up again. you can never be too cautious when it comes to leaving a laptop in the cold, although to me it's like leaving a baby in the freezing cold :)

[mxpiazza]

Originally posted by rendezvouscp
about sleeping or shutting down, is there any way you can actually damage the hard drive if you move the powerbook while it is awake or asleep, as in the apple user manual? I can see what they are saying, but has this ever happened to anyone? thanks
–Chase
theoretically if you shake or move the hard drive while it is spinning, you can cause the drive heads to hit the disk, which could corrupt data or physically damage the disk itself.

when shut down, everything is obviously powered down, so no problems there. when on sleep, the computer stores active programs and such in the ram, so the hard drive isn't spinning; safe for transport, but i wouldn't use her as a hockey puck either :) i try not to move around the computer too much when it's up and running just because in the rare event something ever did happen to my baby, i'd never forgive myself :) like i said in my above post, way better to be safe than sorry.

[amberashby]

I would just like to add that when you close the lid on my iBook to put it to sleep Apple recommends that you wait until the sleep light starts pulsating before moving the computer around too much.