putting eMac to sleep

Which is the best way to do it or does it matter.... just allowing it to go to sleep on it's own after no activity OR going up to the apple icon and hitting SLEEP?
I've always just let it go to sleep on its own but since I had that mishap of no power last week - now I'm not so sure...
Thanks

another question....

another question.... Every now and then the eMac upon waking, it will bring up a small screen with strange symbols on it (like chinese or japaneese writing) and it tells me to hold down power button and re-start computer.
Why is this happening?

scaredpoet said:

That's a kernel panic (the equivalent of a crash). This article explains a variety of possibilities on what could be causing this.

Does it happen when you're running specific programs?

Click to expand...

It never happens when I'm on the computer ONLY upon waking. I wake it up and I automatically get that little screen. It's been happening every single time now.
read the article. The only thing I could really see was in my login items. there was something else in there which I got rid of. Repaired permissions and re-started.
Strange thing.... I LONG ago dumped items that I would never need or use like itunes and imovie. Well, they are back. Safari is also back which I didn't have before. Those items had to be put on at the repair shop. What the hell??? What else should I look for?
I'm looking for any third party programs -- that was something else they suggested in the article but so far I'm not finding any.

mad jew said:

What was the Login Item? What third party app(s) are you looking for? If you open up Console after one of these kernel panics, does it say anything helpful in the crash logs?

Click to expand...

If you go to my other thread on this kernel panic specifically, I went into detail. I'm about 99.9% sure I fixed it
I never looked in the crash log. But after I did a archive re-install with my own disks that came with the computer - it seems to be fine.
But I'm still looking for that archive folder.... can't find it anywhere.