mac sleep

[saladiro]

Hi there. I have a few questions about the sleep function.

1 how is it different from turning off the mac

2 does it waste batter power?

3 can I leave it in "sleep" for extended periods of time

 

[GStreakT]

I'll try my best to answer this.

1. You don't have to wait for it to reboot when you have to work on something. Instead just moving the mouse around or pushing a few keys will "wake" it up and you can get to work.

2. I'm assuming sleep is like the Standby mode you find in XP. I know that sleep saves on battery power so it should also save on electricity =P

3. The longest my MacBook has gone on sleep is for 5 days. I know that if it's inactive for a while (for maybe 10 minutes depending on your preferences) it defaults to darkening the display and then sleeping.

 

[heatmiser]

2 does it waste batter power?

If you're unplugged, then yes; maybe 15% per day.

3 can I leave it in "sleep" for extended periods of time

If you're plugged, no problem. If you're unplugged, you'll slowly drain the battery.

 

[Consultant]

2. Sleep is MUCH MORE POWER EFFICIENT than Standby mode in windows. Wakes up faster than windows too.

Put both a fully charged Mac and Wintel laptop to sleep / stand by, The laptop running windows will deplete its battery at a much faster rate than the Mac.