Can I leave the powerbook on 24/7 just like a desktop?

[5300cs]

Re: 24/7 powerbook?

Originally posted by Drako Millosovi
What happens if you don't leave it on 24/7 I hear d there are crons tasks and other things that are scheduled to be carried out at some crazy hour in the morning. Maintenance stuff, so if you switch it off at night or even let it sleep will this cause problems?

There's a specific version of cron that is meant for systems that are not on 24/7, though I can't remember the name of it. You could also use a program by the guy who did BrickHouse, that does cleaning of log files, and so on. I forgot the name of the app, so look for BrickHouse and go to his website, it's also there.

My Toshiba Pentium 100 (circa 1996) was my Debian linux server and it ran for 46days straight with out any sleep or anything. If an old clunker like that can do it, I'm pretty sure a TiBook or AluBook could too. (but don't quote me.)

 

[patrick0brien]

-urbanist

My 12PB has an uptime of 50 days 16:23.

'nuff said!

 

[rueyeet]

I think Cocktail is another utility that allows you to manually run the cron jobs, too--or set them to run the next time the machine is available, if it's asleep for their scheduled run time.

I'm another one that uses the TiBook primarily at home, and I just close the lid when I'm done with it. If it's doing something (rare) or if I want the cron stuff to run, I'll leave the lid up and let it just turn off the screen. Otherwise it's on all the time--I've only had to restart for Software Update (and trying to get my friend's XP laptop onto my AirPort network, but that's in another thread). I haven't noticed much effect on battery life, but then I don't use it unplugged as much as some people might.

I do know that it consumes very very little battery power in sleep mode. One night there was a thunderstorm right overhead, and I began to worry so I unplugged both the TiBook and iBook from the surge protector. (The board's resident physicists and electrical engineers may point and laugh now.) The storm ended, I went to sleep, and forgot to plug them back in for about a day. Both were still sleeping peacefully when I stuck their plugs back in.

It's really odd passing the computer room at night, as their little lights pulse gently in the darkness. I get the impression that they're snoring, somehow...

 

[Santiago]

My PowerBook is always on. (Current uptime, 36 days) I just put it to sleep when not using it. Shutting down and booting up is a complete waste of time compared to sleep mode, and it forces you to close all your apps and then reopen them. Wh travelling, it can sleep on battery power for three days to a week. It depends on how much RAM you have, among other things.