cMBP mid 2012 and Hibernation. Need help.

[sneak3]

Hey!

I wanted to check with the pros whether the mid 2012 macbook pro non-retina can make use of standby or autopoweroff so it will hibernate after some time sleeping.

I'm not concerned about making it hibernate while charging, but rather on battery.

Can anyone please enlighten me to whether my macbook pro model can perform such task?

Secondly, what should my PMSET be so everything goes smoothly?

Thanks!

 

[snaky69]

Hey!

I wanted to check with the pros whether the mid 2012 macbook pro non-retina can make use of standby or autopoweroff so it will hibernate after some time sleeping.

I'm not concerned about making it hibernate while charging, but rather on battery.

Can anyone please enlighten me to whether my macbook pro model can perform such task?

Secondly, what should my PMSET be so everything goes smoothly?

Thanks!

The default behaviour (which is PMSET 3) means it'll sleep but write a hibernation image before doing so. If the computer runs out of juice, it'll go into hibernation automatically preventing data loss.

Is that behaviour the one you want?

 

[sneak3]

Nope. I want the ram to power off and hibernate after a couple of hours, not only when the juice is running out.

At the same time one might suggest instant hibernate when lid is closed, but that wont work either. I usually close the lid, take a break and return to work later. I dont want to wait for it to come back from hibernating throughout my day. Max one time when I wake up or when I dont use it for a very long time.

 

[JTToft]

Nope. I want the ram to power off and hibernate after a couple of hours, not only when the juice is running out.

- I don't have a solution for you, but do you mind if I ask why you want that?
What benefit does that bring over the standard behaviour? Apart perhaps from slightly lower power consumption.

 

[sneak3]

- I don't have a solution for you, but do you mind if I ask why you want that?
What benefit does that bring over the standard behaviour? Apart perhaps from slightly lower power consumption.

RAM powered on drains the battery significantly for my needs. I just dont want to waste battery if Im not using the notebook.

And that behavior is standard on newer macs by the way, people want their batteries to last.

 

[scaredpoet]

Then it would appear your only options are to upgrade, or to consider replacing your hard drive with an SSD to speed up the restore-from-hibernate process, so you can hibernate by default.

Is the power consumption on RAM during sleep THAT much though? Batteries can typically last days on standby. If yours doesn't, maybe a replacement battery is in order.

 

[sneak3]

Then it would appear your only options are to upgrade, or to consider replacing your hard drive with an SSD to speed up the restore-from-hibernate process, so you can hibernate by default.

Is the power consumption on RAM during sleep THAT much though? Batteries can typically last days on standby. If yours doesn't, maybe a replacement battery is in order.

The thing is that I'm not sure if my macbook pro doesn't support that dual-behavior at all or if it's something I could manage by tweaking the settings.

I've read statements on both sides, saying it's not support and also saying their older macbook pros do hibernate after X time sleeping.

If I charge mine to 100% and leave it sleeping for a day, I lose 50% battery. I've upgraded my RAM though, and since it stays powered on, it might be the culprit. And I know that batteries should last days on standby, that's why I'm after a way to make it work in my system.

 

[JTToft]

RAM powered on drains the battery significantly for my needs. I just dont want to waste battery if Im not using the notebook.

- Not a very elegant solution, I admit, but you could hibernate it manually when you know you won't be using it for a while. Other times, just put it to sleep.

SmartSleep may do some of what you want.

Another way to achieve your goal would be to change the battery level threshold for when it hibernates to one that matches the amount of time you want. I don't know if that can be done, though.

If I charge mine to 100% and leave it sleeping for a day, I lose 50% battery. I've upgraded my RAM though, and since it stays powered on, it might be the culprit.

- That's definitely not normal, regardless of what type of RAM you use. Do you have any sort of peripherals connected that may draw power while it sleeps?
Also, what's the remaining capacity of your battery compared to the full capacity in mAh [EDIT: see post below]?

 

[sneak3]

- Not a very elegant solution, I admit, but you could hibernate it manually when you know you won't be using it for a while. Other times, just put it to sleep.

SmartSleep may do some of what you want.

Another way to achieve your goal would be to change the battery level threshold for when it hibernates to one that matches the amount of time you want. I don't know if that can be done, though.


- That's definitely not normal, regardless of what type of RAM you use. Do you have any sort of peripherals connected that may draw power while it sleeps?
Also, what's the remaining capacity of your battery compared to the full capacity in mAh (see below)?

That's a great idea! Changing the threshold so it hibernate earlier, that would be awesome, but HOW?

I'll check the battery level and report back.

 

[JTToft]

That's a great idea! Changing the threshold so it hibernate earlier, that would be awesome, but HOW?

- That I don't know. I've been Googling a bit, but haven't found anything.

I'll check the battery level and report back.

- Thinking again, you need Coconut Battery for that. System Information will only give the remaining battery charge that you can also see in the menu bar, not the current capacity compared to design capacity (or "battery health").

 

[comics addict]

Do you have on your cMBP a SSD for it's internal boot drive? I have the last 13-inch cMBP from 2012 that they still have for sale. On new versions of OS X (for me the experienced was with 10.8 Mountain Lion onwards) when I switched my boot drive to an SSD at first I thought it was faulty because the documentation on apple's support site didn't mentioned that those models when running from flash storage would also take advantage of the standby mode that your mentioning.

In my case by default the OS has it to hibernate and poweroff after just 70 minutes of regular sleep mode. You could change that via a terminal command which I don't remember right now but you can google it by looking for modifying said standby on MacBook air's and rMBPs since for the cMBP isn't as well known.

Now I am not sure if all of the cMBP when paired to an SSD for booting will behave in the same way but my mid-2012 model was manufactured at the beginning of 2013.

I had tested this when I switched from my aftermarket SSD to the original HDD and the standby mode was turned off. It only exhibited the mode that snaky69 mentioned. Only when I booted from the SSD did it behaved in the way you want it to. Give it a try.

 

[RedRaven571]

I just got a reburb mid 2012 cMBP and it does exactly what (I think) you want.

It goes to sleep (light on front pulses on and off) when I close the lid (or leave it unattended for 15 min) but, after some amount of time, it goes into hibernation (light on front is off). When I open the lid, it takes an extra second or 2 to 'wake up'. The net effect is that I lose very little battery overnight, if unplugged.

This was its default behavior out of the box, the only power setting I see that is different from my old MBP, is that 'Put Hard Drives to Sleep When Possible' is checked for both battery and power adapter.

 

[snaky69]

.

If I charge mine to 100% and leave it sleeping for a day, I lose 50% battery. I've upgraded my RAM though, and since it stays powered on, it might be the culprit. And I know that batteries should last days on standby, that's why I'm after a way to make it work in my system.

That is definitely not normal, and has nothing to do with what RAM you have. I have the same computer with upgraded RAM and do not experience such a battery drain on sleep mode.

Normal battery drain on sleep mode should be about 1% per hour. Your computer isn't going to sleep properly.

 

[sneak3]

It goes to sleep (light on front pulses on and off) when I close the lid (or leave it unattended for 15 min) but, after some amount of time, it goes into hibernation (light on front is off). When I open the lid, it takes an extra second or 2 to 'wake up'. The net effect is that I lose very little battery overnight, if unplugged.

Do you have on your cMBP a SSD for it's internal boot drive? I have the last 13-inch cMBP from 2012 that they still have for sale. On new versions of OS X (for me the experienced was with 10.8 Mountain Lion onwards) when I switched my boot drive to an SSD at first I thought it was faulty because the documentation on apple's support site didn't mentioned that those models when running from flash storage would also take advantage of the standby mode that your mentioning.

In my case by default the OS has it to hibernate and poweroff after just 70 minutes of regular sleep mode. You could change that via a terminal command which I don't remember right now but you can google it by looking for modifying said standby on MacBook air's and rMBPs since for the cMBP isn't as well known.

Can you guys take a pic of your full PMSET -G (with AC on an another with Battery only) and post it here so I can see your settings?

I do have an SSD for booting my OSs.

 

[RedRaven571]

can you guys take a pic of your full pmset -g (with ac on an another with battery only) and post it here so i can see your settings?

I do have an ssd for booting my oss.

Battery:



AC Power:

 

[sneak3]

Thank you all, guys.

All good now.

Hibernating 30 mins after sleeping, no matter if it was the lid or idle.
Also it idle sleeps fine after 10 minutes even if I uncheck the "put drives to sleep as soon as possible" option.

So great to simply close the lid before going to bed, not having to worry about losing work, charging etc, and waking up with just 1% less battery on the next morning

 

[freeskier93]

- That I don't know. I've been Googling a bit, but haven't found anything.



- Thinking again, you need Coconut Battery for that. System Information will only give the remaining battery charge that you can also see in the menu bar, not the current capacity compared to design capacity (or "battery health").

System information tells you what the full charge capacity is, if one just wants to know battery health a quick search on Google will tell you what the original design capacity is for your model. Current capacity divided by original capacity gives you battery health.

My mid 2010 MBP, for example, has a full charge capacity of 4046 mAh. The original design capacity was 5500-5800 mAh. So at the worst that's 70% battery health, which is exactly what iStat says.

 

[JTToft]

Hibernating 30 mins after sleeping, no matter if it was the lid or idle.
Also it idle sleeps fine after 10 minutes even if I uncheck the "put drives to sleep as soon as possible" option.

- Just for future reference, I stumbled upon this article that has commands for doing what I speculated on about the hibernation delay.
In case it's of interest...

 

[sneak3]

it would be nice if you posted it here. might help more people in the future.

 

[JTToft]

it would be nice if you posted it here. might help more people in the future.

- Well, presumably, people can just click the link... If not, here's a copy/paste:

Improve “Wake from Sleep” Speed on Retina MacBook Pro
by ROB PICKERING on MARCH 24, 2013
If you have a new MacBook Pro w/Retina Display, congratulations! I love mine too!

However, while these things boot incredibly fast, I’ve noticed that after leaving mine asleep all night (lid closed, no shutdown), it takes a while to wake it back up (8-10 seconds at least).

Seems there is a new “Standby” mode on these systems. Per Apple the new mode is available on the following models:

MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Late 2012 and later)
MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Early 2013 and later)
MacBook Pro (Retina, Mid 2012)
MacBook Air (Mid 2010) and later
The new mode activates by default after being asleep for an hour. When that happens, the contents of RAM are written out to disk and then power to the whole system is deactivated. When you wake it up, it has to read all of that RAM (16GB on my system) back into RAM in order to come back to where you left off. That login screen you see is fake, it’s just a snapshot of your desktop at the time the system was put to sleep (check out your clock in the upper right corner if your computer has been asleep more than an hour).

The new mode also only activates if certain criteria are met:

Be running on battery power.
Have no USB devices attached.
Have no SD card inserted.
Have no Bluetooth devices currently paired.
Have no external display attached.
Have Power Nap disabled (if it is supported on your Mac).
If your system actually goes into Standby mode, Apple claims, “A computer with a fully charged battery can remain in standby for up to thirty days without being plugged into an AC power source.”

The downside is of course waiting for the RAM to be read back up from disk. If you wish to disable this mode, you can. You’re sacrificing Power Efficiency to get Performance, but for me this is more than worth it. I don’t ever leave my system down for prolonged periods of time without AC power and expect to use it.

To see your current power settings, issue this command via Terminal:

1
pmset -g
You’ll notice that the default value for standbydelay is 4200 seconds, or 70 minutes.

To change the value, issue this command via Terminal:

1
sudo pmset -a standbydelay 86400
That command will set your standbydelay to 24 hours.

To change it back to the default, issue this command via Terminal:

1
sudo pmset -a standbydelay 4200
If you wish to completely disable this setting, issue this command via Terminal:

1
sudo pmset -a standbydelay 0
Hope this helps you make your MacBook Pro w/Retina Display operate even more quickly.

- http://knowit.net/2013/03/improve-wake-from-sleep-speed-on-retina-macbook-pro-124

 

[sneak3]

lol sorry. hyperlink wasnt showing up here, didnt mean for you to post the whole thing here but good job now that you did.

 

[comics addict]

I just got a reburb mid 2012 cMBP and it does exactly what (I think) you want.

It goes to sleep (light on front pulses on and off) when I close the lid (or leave it unattended for 15 min) but, after some amount of time, it goes into hibernation (light on front is off). When I open the lid, it takes an extra second or 2 to 'wake up'. The net effect is that I lose very little battery overnight, if unplugged.

This was its default behavior out of the box, the only power setting I see that is different from my old MBP, is that 'Put Hard Drives to Sleep When Possible' is checked for both battery and power adapter.

Did you order a cMBP with a SSD by default or is that behavior with the standard HDD? I'm curious. 'cause you say that behavior came out of the box.

 

[RedRaven571]

Did you order a cMBP with a SSD by default or is that behavior with the standard HDD? I'm curious. 'cause you say that behavior came out of the box.

Hmmm, interesting question. I never even turned on the 2012 with the HDD; I pulled the Crucial SSD from my 2008 MBP and dropped it in the 2012 right away (with the existing Mavericks install). However, my 2008 MBP never had that behavior, only the 2012.

 

[comics addict]

Probably because it was manufactured in tandem with the rMBP and Airs that featured that standby mode. Probably something to do with It's motherboard ...