How ofton do you have to shut down the ibook?

[CaptainCaveMann]

Can i just leave an ibook on all the time? How ofton should i turn it off and give it a break to cool or soemthing?

[jxyama]

you can pretty much leave it on as long as you want. just to save the backlight, i'd shut the lid and put the machine to sleep, but there's no great harm in leaving it on...

[blodwyn]

Since i bought it in June I've only ever turned my powerbook off once - to upgrade the memory. I just close the lid to put it to sleep at the end of the day and open it again the next morning. It stays cool when sleeping as power consumption is minimal.

My experience is you just use it and don't worry about it

[AoWolf]

I also close the lid to make it sleep I think I have turned my iBook off a total of oh maybe 3 times.

[Simon Liquid]

Once after my Powerbook had been on a month, it stopped fully recognizing my firewire disk when I turned it on. I could get to the files, but it didn't show on the desktop and find file couldn't see anything on it. Restarting fixed me up-though it may be that logging out and back in would do the trick I don't recall if I tried that or not.

[Capt Underpants]

This isn't totally on topic, but it isn't worth posting a new thread for, either.

Does anyone remember the terminal command for uptime? I've never done it, so i don't even know what it could be, but I now it exists. Forgive my newbishness,

[tdhurst]

This isn't totally on topic, but it isn't worth posting a new thread for, either.

Does anyone remember the terminal command for uptime? I've never done it, so i don't even know what it could be, but I now it exists. Forgive my newbishness,

Yeah, type in U P T I M E

[abc123]

i turn my powerbook off only when i do an update that requires a restart. aside from that i think i've turned it off once since april to give it a bit of a wipe down.

[Capt Underpants]

Yeah, type in U P T I M E

Thanks....for making me look like an idiot. You could've PM'd it to me ;)!

Not a bad uptime... 34 days...

[rdowns]

Thanks....for making me look like an idiot. You could've PM'd it to me ;)!

Not a bad uptime... 34 days...

Nah, if he had told you to leave out the spaces, then you could accuse him of making you look like an idiot. :D

[CaptainCaveMann]

i turn my powerbook off only when i do an update that requires a restart. aside from that i think i've turned it off once since april to give it a bit of a wipe down.How do you know when to do an update?? Does the ibook automaticly prompt you for an update?

[Capt Underpants]

Go to the apple menu and click software update. If there's anything you need, it will be automatically selected. Just hit install.

[noel4r]

Any disadvantages of shutting it down every day? I only use my iBook once on weekdays for about 15 mins to check email or surf the web from the bed.

[JeDiBoYTJ]

I only restart if im forced to after a software update or application install, or if freezes... which rarely happens anyway, lol.

my powerbook has been up for 3 days now, the max ive had it on was I think 22days, before the new update was released.

[MoparShaha]

My PowerBook has been OFF for only a few hours over the past year. I just let it sleep the rest of the time. It keeps the machine ready to use anytime, and supposedly helps OS X run better, something to do with caches. Anyways, I really don't see a point to turning any machine off when you can just let it sleep/standby.

[wdlove]

I have had our iBook on 24/7 for several over six months now with now problem. The back light goes off to save energy. Being a G3 model the heat doesn't seem to be problem. It is only restarted with an update.

[Colonel Panik]

Only when you have to install memory, or upgrade the OS. We leave ours on the whole time, just sleeping at night, like the rest of us.

[AmigoMac]

Turn off? I hope you're kidding ;) ...

Since I got it in may, it hasn't been off a single minute, I got my second RAM stick before the iBook, so, everything was done before turning it on for the first and single time ... Nice, eh?

Just close the lid and feel free to have your apps as soon as you open it...

[Jsmit]

Here is an article on why you should turn off you computer as often as possible: CNN Article (http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/ptech/07/28/good.question.ap/) .

[Gherkin]

I don't even put my PB to sleep at night. I turn down the brightness on the screen all the way, and keep it on so my instant messenger stays on all night.

[ricebag]

On my old iBook - 500 mhz dual usb - I was playing a game on a SNES emulator and wasn't sure if the saving functions worked and didn't want to lose my hard-won progress, so I left it on for months with the game running the whole time. With that program open the whole time, the performance did degrade a little, but heck, not much, and that was two years ago, with one program running nonstop.

(For those who are curious about the outcome, I "accidentally" installed a software update one day and had to restart... and it turned out the save function did work.)

[mcadam]

I also never turn off my powerbook, just close the lid and let it sleep... and that sbility is really a thing that distinguishes mac from other laptops - i can't believe that pc laptops can't do that... they take several seconds to wake up, a mac does it in just a moment! It's so cool...:)

[AliensAreFuzzy]

On my old iBook - 500 mhz dual usb - I was playing a game on a SNES emulator and wasn't sure if the saving functions worked and didn't want to lose my hard-won progress, so I left it on for months with the game running the whole time.
What game was it?

[abc123]

Here is an article on why you should turn off you computer as often as possible: CNN Article (http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/ptech/07/28/good.question.ap/) .
an ibook/powerbook is a little different, that article says that it is the "green" thing to do because while a computer is idle it uses heaps of power. i don't know exactly how long they can last but i've left my powerbook asleep for days, not connected to a power supply and the battery has hardly drained at all.
if you are worried about saving power, just disconnect the computer from the power supply when you put it to sleep :)

[Zardoz]

In fact, turning off your iBook may be dangerous. I once turned my AlBook off for a week during vacation, and here's what I came home to. Only a week! WHY!

http://www.zvis.com/images/nuks/grabble.jpg

[PlaceofDis]

I dont see anything Zardoz

but yeah, i never turn off my powerbook, although i should set it to wake with a password needed to access the comp. just to be safe because of the roomies :D

[maxterpiece]

http://www.macalester.edu/cit/faq/power_usage.html

interesting to note: 1.6ghz G5 uses 6 watts when asleep, powerbook G4 uses 1.5 watts. These systems use 120 and 18 watts respectively when they are powered on. Let's assume a 30-60 second startup time and 70% increased power usage when starting up... that's 204 watts compared to 6 watts while sleeping - that means you would have to have your computer off for between 17 and 34 minutes for it to be worth the power you saved for the G5. the powerbook - 30.6 watts divided by 1.5 is about 20... that means it is worth it to turn your computer off if you are going to not use it for between 10 and 20 minutes.
This test, however, ignores several factors. When you put a computer to sleep, not only is it already booted up when you wake it up, but it also has all the programs still running. You don't have to take the time (or waste extra power because the system isn't just idling) starting the applications that you need. This can take an additional minute or two, which increases the startup power consumption by 200% to 600%. That means the G5 wastes more power starting up than sleeping if you aren't using it for between 34 and 102 minutes. The powerbook, 20 minutes to an hour. Suddenly it seems more practically to just sleep your computer. Add to this the fact that you have to waste several minutes of your life starting up and shutting down your computer - if your time is worth $20/hour - 5 minutes is about $1 worth of your time that you just wasted waiting for your computer to startup. 1000 watt-hours of electricity is only about 10 cents.
Now maybe you understand why a lot of people consider it silly to turn off their computer. It just doesn't make sense in terms of overall productivity. I only turn off my computer when I know i am going to be away for more than 24 hours.