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MacBook at Night

R

rs7

macrumors regular
Original poster
Oct 24, 2008
137
0
I know technically the computer should use almost no power, but I'm not comfortable leaving my magsafe plugged into my Aluminum MacBook and my outlet all night. I've been shutting the computer down and putting it in a case every night. I know I can just put it to sleep...but sleep uses power (I think I accidentally didn't shut it down one night, and with sleep it lost 10% of the battery). While I know the battery is meant for usage, I want to get it to last for the longest time possible. Is it bad to shut my MacBook down every night?

I wish there was something equivalent to Windows' hibernate.

Thanks
 
i guess you would just shut the lid and it would go to sleep. thats wot ive been doing and havnt turned the mb off for a few weeks now.dont know how much power it really uses tho,would be nice to know,since here in the uk we are on a meter stick that we have to top up every week or so
 
Sleep Mode doesn't use any battery power. I put it to sleep and leave it plugged into magsafe all night. Ive had it 2 years and I still have 96% health. I never turn it off. Ever.

EDIT: DARN IT, THIS FOURM MOVES TOO FAST!
 
I use mine to play music as i fall asleep and as an alarm to wake me up. I just leave it plugged in and on. It falls asleep after 15min and the itunes goes off. When the alarm goes off it wakes up. As long as you leave it plugged in the battery is fine and no worries.
 
rs7 said:
I wish there was something equivalent to Windows' hibernate.
Click to expand...

I think we call that "sleep".
As for me and Windows, hibernate is the one thing that never worked great. Somehow it always froze.
 
MacBooks are very good in terms of how much energy they draw, there should be no issue with leaving your MacBook plugged in via the MagSafe connector to the wall outlet overnight and just putting it to sleep.

If you really want to, you can change the setting for the power management system so that the system performs a "Safe Sleep" without leaving the actual computer on, in theory hibernating it. You need to use the Terminal and the pmset command in order to achieve this result.

http://www.geeked.info/make-my-macbook-pro-hibernate/ should have more information on that.
 
macbooker15 said:
Sleep Mode doesn't use any battery power. I put it to sleep and leave it plugged into magsafe all night. Ive had it 2 years and I still have 96% health. I never turn it off. Ever.
Click to expand...

It doesn't use battery power because you leave it plugged in. :p I don't want to leave it plugged into the wall.
 
there isn't a problem shutting it off every night, but i see no reason to.

there isn't a problem leaving it plugged in every night, but no reason you have to either.

in short, just sleep it if i were you and unplug it. the battery is there to be used and so letting sleep use it a bit every night won't hurt at all. never using the battery is much more detrimental to its health imo.
 
dukebound85 said:
then dont. why you dont want to though, i have no idea
Click to expand...

I know the chances of this are one in a million...but don't want to leave something in all night that could potentially cause a fire. And the MagSafe seems be getting pretty hot.

Also...with the link given before...I can't find that file it says to edit.
 
rs7 said:
I know the chances of this are one in a million...but don't want to leave something in all night that could potentially cause a fire. And the MagSafe seems be getting pretty hot.

Also...with the link given before...I can't find that file it says to edit.
Click to expand...
Run one of the following commands in your Terminal, it will take care of it for you.

Before setting the command, check your System Preferences > Security Preferences to see if Secure Virtual Memory is enabled, and then run the appropriate command below:

If Secure Virtual Memory is OFF:
sudo pmset -a hibernatemode 1

If Secure Virtual Memory is ON:
sudo pmset -a hibernatemode 5

You can find the Terminal in /Applications/Utilities. :)
 
magsafes really only get HOT when the computer is getting hot. when the computer is sleeping, the mag is cool.



and i think you just need to sit back and not worry about it so much. you are over worrying.
 
rs7 said:
I know the chances of this are one in a million...but don't want to leave something in all night that could potentially cause a fire.
Click to expand...

Exactly, I always disconnect all my appliances at night - i'm just a bit cautious as to leaving them in and then going up in flames - stupid mentality, I know.
 
The Samurai said:
Exactly, I always disconnect all my appliances at night - i'm just a bit cautious as to leaving them in and then going up in flames - stupid mentality, I know.
Click to expand...
I assume that you don't own a refrigerator? (or that, if you do, you don't keep perishable items in it)

I think seeing my microwave, stove, etc clocks flashing 12:00 all the time (or having to set the time on each of them every morning) would be a worse existence than actually dying of smoke inhalation in the middle of the night. :)
 
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