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is ok to leave the latest MacBook Pro turned on 24/7?

C

callagga

macrumors member
Original poster
Mar 2, 2007
84
0
Hi,

Looking at purchasing the latest MacBook Pro. I wanted to use it as my main desktop & then have the flexibility to go mobile when I want.

Question - Can I leave it turned on 24x7 ok, in terms of no negative impacts on the battery? Say if I drain it down completely once a month or something. (I ask this noting that the battery is inbuilt I think in the recent models)

thanks
 
i do not see any issues? i have mine on all day but i do turn it off at night (dad would murder me if i left it on all night power consumption) why would you leave it on for weeks though? i understand the odd night or so to do backups or something but every day?
 
uhm...24/7?

I suppose..I mean your consumables would die eventually (fan, hard drive etc)...

will you really be utilizing it for 24 hours straight non stop daily? Or just during the day and sleep during the night.

As that's what most people around here do. Some people have uptimes of over a month (time between restart including sleep).
 
callagga said:
Hi,

Looking at purchasing the latest MacBook Pro. I wanted to use it as my main desktop & then have the flexibility to go mobile when I want.

Question - Can I leave it turned on 24x7 ok, in terms of no negative impacts on the battery? Say if I drain it down completely once a month or something. (I ask this noting that the battery is inbuilt I think in the recent models)

thanks
Click to expand...

close lid when not in use, simple as that, I romp all over with my MacBook, restart only for major updates and never shutdown (except for repairs)
 
@TopHatPlus - yes normally have backup jobs & stuff set-up for early hours of the morning

@Eddyisgreat / @CaoCao - was really targeting the battery life question - I assume I can't let it sleep as I have backup jobs that run - sleeping wouldn't make a difference from the point of view of battery life I assume

@GGJstudios - thanks for the link - having to run it down to 50% every 3 days would be a bit of an ask - I think I'd probably be forgetting to do this - but this bit of overhead shouldn't drive me to getting an iMac where I really would like the portability of a MacBook Pro I assume?

by the way - does anyone know whether it's possible to arrange so my cron jobs could be run in a way that "wakes" the MacBook up from sleep? If I could just close the lid at night & have it sleep, but with the knowledge that when my cronjob (or superduper backup, or chronosync jobs) can still trigger it to wakeup/complete/sleep again?
 
callagga said:
having to run it down to 50% every 3 days would be a bit of an ask - I think I'd probably be forgetting to do this
Click to expand...

Seriously? Is it too much to ask for you to unplug it and go and watch porn or play with it in front of the telly, twice a week?
 
callagga said:
by the way - does anyone know whether it's possible to arrange so my cron jobs could be run in a way that "wakes" the MacBook up from sleep? If I could just close the lid at night & have it sleep, but with the knowledge that when my cronjob (or superduper backup, or chronosync jobs) can still trigger it to wakeup/complete/sleep again?
Click to expand...

You can configure wake-up and sleep times in the "System Preferences". I think it was under "Energy" pane. If you don't really know the end of the sessions, include the sleep command in your scripts. Btw, I am not so sure, but didn't Apple phase out cronjob already? They definetly recommend launchd these days.
 
thanks - I'll check out the launchd option (I'm still using cron at the moment, seemingly ok)
 
I leave mine plugged in all the time, just put it to sleep when not using it. If I take it out of the house I generally let the battery run down before recharging. go to apple site and search batteries. I have iCal remind me every month to unplug my power cord and run the batteries down. You can set this reminder up through the apple site. Now mlnd you, I don't take my MBP with me everyday as a lot of people do. I have tons of access to computers through work locations. Of course, their all PCs, but my MBP is used at home or travel for personal use and when traveling and giving presentations or lectures.
 
I don't see why not. Perhaps over time you'd see the detrimental effects of caning it continually, but normal day use and sleep mode over night (with stuff going on in the background) should be fine.
 
However you will notice a dead battery inside a year if you forget to unplug it.
 
Pity apple couldn't include the intelligence in the MacBook Pro itself to cycle it's battery. You could leave it plugged in the whole time and the computer would take care of everything here for you re optimising for the battery
 
mulo said:
preferably you should drain your battery once a day.
Click to expand...

This is terrible advice! Thats a great way to quickly ruin a battery! Please don't give advice when you don't know what you're talking about, as it misleads those who come here looking for factual information.

Before you offer advice on batteries, read this: Apple Notebook Battery FAQ

callagga said:
Pity apple couldn't include the intelligence in the MacBook Pro itself to cycle it's battery. You could leave it plugged in the whole time and the computer would take care of everything here for you re optimising for the battery
Click to expand...

It's really not that difficult. Just plug in when you need to and run on battery for a few hours every few days. Calibrate every month or two. Simple! You can even set reminders in iCal, if you need to.
 
I never turn my computer off; don't even put it to sleep, since I always have some SSH connections in the background. It makes no noise, so I see no reason to do it.

My uptime is always "from and update to an update"; sigh, I wouldn't bother with installing updates so quickly, but I can swear that every time an update shows up and I just dismiss it, my system slowly stops working until I install it. LOL.
 
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