G5 Power Light Pulsing...???

[Cohiba]

I just noticed this for the first time last night. I was in bed and couldnt sleep, and was drawn by the power light pulsing (assuming the normal brightness is a 5, then I would say the low was a 2 and the high was a 8). My G5 was in "sleep" mode. As I look at it now, it doesnt seem to be pulsing...? Can this be normal?

 

[zagato27]

I just noticed this for the first time last night. I was in bed and couldnt sleep, and was drawn by the power light pulsing (assuming the normal brightness is a 5, then I would say the low was a 2 and the high was a 8). My G5 was in "sleep" mode. As I look at it now, it doesnt seem to be pulsing...? Can this be normal?

I completed one of the firmware updates where you had to remove non-Apple ram and then run it. Well, I had to remove all the ram to find out which was which and then but back only the Apple ram. When I started the Mac back up it wouldn't "go". Nothing on the screen. Boy was I in a panic! I noticed that the power light was blinking but nothing else was happening. Well, when in doubt read the manual. Found out that the blinking power light was an indication that the ram was not "seated". Popped open the G5 and reset the ram, cranked it back up and installed the firmware update. Shut back down and reinstalled the non-Apple ram and everything has been fine since. Is all your ram properly seated? Check the manual to see what it says. Cheers

 

[Cohiba]

I think its properly seated...? When I go to "about this Mac" it says "1.25 GB DDR SDRAM".

Do you think I should check the RAM?

 

[psycho bob]

The powerlight always pulses when a G5 or indeed any mac is asleep. It is perfectly normal. Amaze your friends put a PB to sleep in a dark room... oooohhh it breathes!

 

[Cohiba]

Well thats a relief, thanks Psycho bob.

 

[jared_kipe]

All modern macs do the pulsy thing. A powerbooks is really bright, not so much on a G5.

 

[Grimace]

The Powerbook pulse is brighter when the lid is closed versus when it is open and asleep.

 

[rendezvouscp]

The Cinema's (at least, the older ones) are really bright, probably worse than the PowerBook. I can actually see my way around my room when my Cinema's asleep.
–Chase

 

[rainman::|:|]

it's important to know the difference between pulsing (which all Macs have done for years) and blinking-- If your power light blinks, it's an indication that the hardware did not pass tests at startup... some models will actually blink in code (4 blinks/pause/4 blinks indicated processor fault, 3/pause/3 indicated bad RAM, etc). But Apple didn't seem to use this indicator in all models, and they did a poor job of explaining what it meant.

if you do a search, you'll actually find several members complaining about how bright the light is when they're trying to sleep... which, i suppose, could be annoying, but I moved my computer system into it's own room back in 2001, when i noticed i had about 16 glowing LED lights, from cell phones to PDAs to printer to speakers... looked like mini-Reno. so i just think the pulsing is cute now.

paul

 

[Sweetfeld28]

Most of the newer computers, when asleep do pulse the light, but when a program is running it goes into energy save mode. When your computer is running it useually indicates a solid(normal) glow. Sometimes if you have energy savings turned on in the system prefs. the monitor can fall asleep seperate from the computer thus giving you the monitor asleep/but computer still running state.

 

[BrianKonarsMac]

the pulse is normal. the G5 has a LED like a pin dot, no where near the size, or intensity of the previous G4 and monitor pulsing LEDs. i wish it could be turned off, because i can't sleep when my computer is sleeping, the glow literally lights up my room. does anyone know how to turn off the breathing LED function? also, does anyone know how to keep the powerbook AWAKE with the lid closed (i.e. d/ling massive WoW patch, want to set computer aside while it d/l's but don't want cat's walking on keyboard...but I can't close the lid or it will kill the d/l...stupid).

 

[Vector]

The light on my G4 and my cinema display are very bright. I can easily see everything in my room at night just from the light they put out. I can tell when the pulsing reaches its full intensity with my eyes closed. My new PB is much better, the light isn't nearly as intense.

 

[uberhamster]

the pulse is normal. the G5 has a LED like a pin dot, no where near the size, or intensity of the previous G4 and monitor pulsing LEDs. i wish it could be turned off, because i can't sleep when my computer is sleeping, the glow literally lights up my room. does anyone know how to turn off the breathing LED function? also, does anyone know how to keep the powerbook AWAKE with the lid closed (i.e. d/ling massive WoW patch, want to set computer aside while it d/l's but don't want cat's walking on keyboard...but I can't close the lid or it will kill the d/l...stupid).

Powerbooks operate in closed-lid mode if you have an external display and mouse to attach to.... don't know what you can do about the light except for putting your powerbook out of line of sight with where you sleep.

I kinda like the light from my mac at night though, personally..