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Letting a Powerbook Sleep in its Bag

D

dotnina

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Aug 19, 2004
856
0
Hi all,

What kind of experiences do you have letting a Powerbook sleep in your bag while you travel around on foot? Would it be better to turn it off? What if it's a 20-minute walk vs. a 60-minute walk?

I'm principally concerned whether or not I should be worried about my Powerbook overheating when it's asleep, packed in a thick neoprene sleeve (Marware Sportfolio), in a messenger bag. Also, might there be any chance of the hard disk spinning while it's asleep? I don't think so, but I know that spinning hard drives generally don't comingle well with bumpy rides.

I love my Powie, and I would be devastated if anything ever happened to him. Just trying to keep him safe. :)
 
dotnina said:
Hi all,

What kind of experiences do you have letting a Powerbook sleep in your bag while you travel around on foot? Would it be better to turn it off? What if it's a 20-minute walk vs. a 60-minute walk?

I'm principally concerned whether or not I should be worried about my Powerbook overheating when it's asleep, packed in a thick neoprene sleeve (Marware Sportfolio), in a messenger bag. Also, might there be any chance of the hard disk spinning while it's asleep? I don't think so, but I know that spinning hard drives generally don't comingle well with bumpy rides.

I love my Powie, and I would be devastated if anything ever happened to him. Just trying to keep him safe. :)
Click to expand...

I have a neoprene sleeve for my 12" rev c and Ive had it sleeping in my backpack walking long distances and biking to and from work. Never had any troubles. I would never worry about a powrbook overheating while asleep, at least from internal heat. Never leave your powerbook - sleeved or not - in extreme heat for a long time.

I dont know for sure, but I think that when you put your pb to sleep the hard drive locks so it will not spin when youre moving it around. In any case, Ii would not be worried. That kind of portability is what the 12" pb is all about!

Charlie
 
I have my PowerBook sleep in the bag on a half mile bike ride to campus daily. I don't have any problems with it at all. Simply powering up my laptop takes about as much battery as sleeping for 3 or so hours. When it goes into sleep mode everything powers down except that it keeps a tiny bit of juice flowing through RAM so that it retains it's memory. It generates little or no heat in sleep mode.
 
I travel extensively with my powerbook - planes, trains, cars, walking, etc. I've had no problems having it asleep in my bag on any of these trips (I seldom shut down my Mac). Heck, it slept peacefully all the way back from Germany a couple of months back (which is more than I can say for myself).

In addition, I've used my Powerbook while on jittery train rides, turbulent flights, etc., and have had no problems with the hard drive. Now, I wouldn't want to throw it around too much, but I don't think you'll have anything to worry about.
 
Separate but related question. I have a TiBook, which I regularly put to sleep for short trips, and even a long weekend when I don't want to bother with an AC adapter--I just put it to sleep and the battery hardly drains at all.

My wife has a new AlBook (1.5, I think), and her battery drains quite rapidly. Sleep it for more than an hour or two and the battery's down to half capacity. Anyone else have such performance issues with the AlBook, or is my wife's computer messed up?
 
wordmunger said:
Separate but related question. I have a TiBook, which I regularly put to sleep for short trips, and even a long weekend when I don't want to bother with an AC adapter--I just put it to sleep and the battery hardly drains at all.

My wife has a new AlBook (1.5, I think), and her battery drains quite rapidly. Sleep it for more than an hour or two and the battery's down to half capacity. Anyone else have such performance issues with the AlBook, or is my wife's computer messed up?
Click to expand...


My 17AL is fien sleeping for an hour or two at a time and shows no significant battery loss. I should perhaps experiment and let it sleep for a day (if I can keep of it that long) and see what it does from a full charge.

Does Apple publish anything about how long the PBs can sleep for per charge?
 
dotnina said:
Hi all,

What kind of experiences do you have letting a Powerbook sleep in your bag while you travel around on foot? Would it be better to turn it off? What if it's a 20-minute walk vs. a 60-minute walk?

I'm principally concerned whether or not I should be worried about my Powerbook overheating when it's asleep, packed in a thick neoprene sleeve (Marware Sportfolio), in a messenger bag. Also, might there be any chance of the hard disk spinning while it's asleep? I don't think so, but I know that spinning hard drives generally don't comingle well with bumpy rides.

I love my Powie, and I would be devastated if anything ever happened to him. Just trying to keep him safe. :)
Click to expand...

I'll jump in with everyone else who says sleeping their PB and moving it around doesn't cause any problems. I never turn my Rev C 12" PowerBook off...only sleep. I carry it in an STM neoprene sleeve, inside an STM laptop backpack, walk to the bus, take on the bus, walk around campus, and home again...and then in the car when I'm on my way to my part-time job. All while sleeping, and never a problem. Everything shuts down while the system is sleeping and only a trickle of power is used to preserve RAM contents, so there isn't anything moving, like a hard drive, which could be damaged, or generating any heat.

Basically, the only time I even reboot my PowerBook is when I apply a major system update (like the Airport Extreme driver released a few days ago). Apart from that, it goes happily for weeks and weeks, only going to sleep and waking up. It's one of the best things about owning a PowerBook :)

Similarly, my 1.6GHz G5 never gets turned off either...I just put it to sleep when I'm not using it. No problems there either (at least there hasn't been since I got the dodgy original Radeon 9600 Pro card replaced).
 
wordmunger said:
Separate but related question. I have a TiBook, which I regularly put to sleep for short trips, and even a long weekend when I don't want to bother with an AC adapter--I just put it to sleep and the battery hardly drains at all.

My wife has a new AlBook (1.5, I think), and her battery drains quite rapidly. Sleep it for more than an hour or two and the battery's down to half capacity. Anyone else have such performance issues with the AlBook, or is my wife's computer messed up?
Click to expand...

is it under the powerbook battery recall? i don't know much about it, but that may have something to do with it?
 
One of the best features of the PB is the sleep mode and instant wake-up. I bought the 12" back in April and have turned it off perhaps two or three times - it sleeps better than my cat.

However - I was on the phone with AppleCare recently. When the tech asked me to "restart your PowerBook" i made the comment that it had been weeks since i'd seen the gray screen. He suggested that it was a good idea to restart the PowerBook "once a week."

Seeing a grey screen once a week is OK with me - with my old WIN machines I saw the blue screen at least once a DAY.
 
iBooks too?

I made a 1/4 mile walk with my iBook asleep in my backpack this past weekend, and I didn't realize I had loaded it up that way until I got to my destination. Of course it was fine.

All these comments are about PBs, but I assume the iBook travels just as well.

comments???
 
another ibook Q

so i now understand that it's cool to leave your laptop on and just put it to sleep but the one thing that i'm not so sure about is leaving it plugged-in.

i'm not moving my ibook about much at the moment so it mainly stays plugged in, but should i be taking the plug out overnight while it's asleep?

or should i perhaps remove the battery? :confused:

i'm unplugging it and giving it a full drain/charge at least once every fortnight.

i'm just worried about killing my battery.
 
jhomayne said:
so i now understand that it's cool to leave your laptop on and just put it to sleep but the one thing that i'm not so sure about is leaving it plugged-in.

i'm not moving my ibook about much at the moment so it mainly stays plugged in, but should i be taking the plug out overnight while it's asleep?

or should i perhaps remove the battery? :confused:

i'm unplugging it and giving it a full drain/charge at least once every fortnight.

i'm just worried about killing my battery.
Click to expand...

From what I've read, it's a good idea to run down the battery 2-4 times per month. I don't know why, exactly, because I thought the batteries don't suffer from memory problems ... maybe someone can shed some light on this.
 
jhomayne said:
so i now understand that it's cool to leave your laptop on and just put it to sleep but the one thing that i'm not so sure about is leaving it plugged-in.

i'm not moving my ibook about much at the moment so it mainly stays plugged in, but should i be taking the plug out overnight while it's asleep?

or should i perhaps remove the battery? :confused:

i'm unplugging it and giving it a full drain/charge at least once every fortnight.

i'm just worried about killing my battery.
Click to expand...

From what I've gathered, it is not good for your battery to consistently be charging (iBook/Powerbook/iPod, etc.). I run my TiBook and my g-friend's iBook almost exclusively on battery. I used to constantly charge my TiBook and now it occasionally powers out even when the gauge reads anywhere between 20%-40%. As a result, I will need to buy a new battery soon.

You can put iBooks and Powerbooks to sleep for days unplugged and you'll still have plenty of juice left when you wake them.

I'm not saying you have to fully drain the battery between charges. Take it down to 20-30% when possible and take it even further every month or so to keep it seasoned.
 
The only time I shut down or restart is when Software Update needs to.

I NEVER shut down my powerbook and never had any problems with doing so.
 
rfenik said:
The only time I shut down or restart is when Software Update needs to.

I NEVER shut down my powerbook and never had any problems with doing so.
Click to expand...

Same here, I also run MacJanitor every Saturday morning to do the System cleaning tasks.

I have a G4 MDD and it stays on 24/7 the only time it restarts is after a system update and an unfortunate power out.


aussie_geek
 
wordmunger said:
Separate but related question. I have a TiBook, which I regularly put to sleep for short trips, and even a long weekend when I don't want to bother with an AC adapter--I just put it to sleep and the battery hardly drains at all.

My wife has a new AlBook (1.5, I think), and her battery drains quite rapidly. Sleep it for more than an hour or two and the battery's down to half capacity. Anyone else have such performance issues with the AlBook, or is my wife's computer messed up?
Click to expand...

Based on what people are saying about the mouse and sleep in this thread, I wonder if my wife's bluetooth mouse is the culprit. I think she usually turns the mouse off, but I wonder if the mac still "looks for" the mouse when it's asleep.
 
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