How often should I shut down my Powerbook?

[Bacong]

My personal view is that desktops should be left on most of the time, because of how much wear a cold boot puts on a system...but I'm wondering, should I do the same for my powerbook? I usually shut it down 5 nights a week or so.

 

[Benguitar]

Once a week for 20 minutes or more. That way it will clear its system cashes.

That is what one of the Apple Technical Support Agents told me. Supposedly it helps your computer run smoother and "healthier". 😉

 

[pinoyplaya]

I would say once a week give it a fresh start. Sometimes the amount of RAM used gets too high and it needs applications to restart. But better to restart the computer itself.

My only worry is how much should I connect my MacBook to the power. I've heard that it doesnt hurt the battery as it used to before (like ten years ago) when the technology wasnt as great as it is right now. Maybe once a week Ill do a battery drain and full recharge and a calibration once every 2 months.

 

[MarkMS]

As others have said, once a week is good enough. Personally, I just do it anytime an update comes that requires me to restart.

It's okay to keep your machines, whether desktop or laptop, running all the time unless you want to conserve energy. It's actually better for you to keep Macs on overnight, since OS X likes to run maintenance scripts to keep everything in check. If you do want to shut it down, you can always run these scripts manually with software like OnyX.

My only worry is how much should I connect my MacBook to the power. I've heard that it doesnt hurt the battery as it used to before (like ten years ago) when the technology wasnt as great as it is right now. Maybe once a week Ill do a battery drain and full recharge and a calibration once every 2 months.

As for the battery, it's still a good idea not to keep a laptop tethered to its power supply for more than a week or so at a time. But you got it right about draining the battery to around 5-10% then recharging every week and then letting the battery fully die every month or two for calibration purposes.

 

[Bacong]

Thanks guys.

 

[hayduke]

No reason to reboot unless you need to. I only reboot after a system update or if things seem buggy. Probably about once every two to three weeks.

 

[Bacong]

Those scripts that OS X runs, when exactly do those run? And it's something automatic?

 

[MarkMS]

The daily ones run at 3:15AM local time.
The weekly ones run on every Saturday at 3:15AM as well.
The monthly ones run on the first of the month at 5:30AM.

More info can be found here.

 

[Bacong]

Thank you.

 

[IJ Reilly]

Given the amount of RAM you have in your PowerBook, I'd probably restart it every few days, or more often if you think it's slowing down. A restart deletes the virtual memory swap files that build up when OSX borrows disk space. You don't have shut it down for any period of time; just a restart will do nicely.

 

[KingYaba]

I would say once a week give it a fresh start. Sometimes the amount of RAM used gets too high and it needs applications to restart. But better to restart the computer itself.

If that's the case then open Disk Utility and verify permissions. That's it. No restart needed.

 

[pinoyplaya]

If that's the case then open Disk Utility and verify permissions. That's it. No restart needed.

Give it permission to do what?

 

[IJ Reilly]

If that's the case then open Disk Utility and verify permissions. That's it. No restart needed.

Disk Utility can't delete the VM swap files, and certainly verifying permissions doesn't do that. For that, a restart is required (logging out gets some of them, but not all).