I like to remote connect to my computers from school because it makes it easy for me to transfer my files to and fro and whatnot, as well as use my own learning tools without having to transport my expensive 1200$ computer to school. I use a combination of Splashtop and TeamViewer. I have both set up so I can log in over the internet. Now, I come from a battery that had about 1hr 30mins on my old laptop BEFORE the battery started to short out, and I want to preserve this battery (7 hours, in my eyes, is an extremely long time for a laptop battery) to keep it as fresh for as long as possible. If I leave my computer on, plugged in every few days or so, will that kill my battery? Should I just sleep it/shut down like usual? I don't mean to sound like a n00b, but this is my 2nd laptop I've ever owned, and considering my last one wasn't the most powerful experience (I mean, I've jumped from a 1.9GHz AMD Turion and 2GB of DDR2 RAM to a 2.4GHz Core i5 and 4GB of DDR3 RAM; this is a huge speed bump for me) so I want to try to keep it running as fresh as my desktop computers have (Got a Dell from 05 and STILL kicking strong)
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Safe to leave on all day?
- Thread starter 0000757
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
I leave my MBP on all day and sometimes on all night. I've been doing that for years. I have not had too much problems with the longevity nor the battery. I think after 3 years with a laptop the battery's longevity is going to be shorter then when it was new anyways.
I don't foresee any issues with that. Like others have said, just make sure that you use the battery from time to time to keep it alive and functioning correctly.
Mine is on pretty much all the time....Once a month I cycle the battery as per Apples advice.
No problems at all.
No problems at all.
No, shouldn't be a problem. However, if you connect your MBP on LAN (assuming you are using a MBP - didn't read full post), you can use something like LogMeIn to wake you computer from sleep (enable WOL under Sys Pref). This way, you can turn on the computer through the internet socket when needed and put it back to sleep right away.
Note:
You must enable WOL
You must be connected to lan (ethernet cable - wifi won't work)
You must use an app that supports WOL (AFAIK, neither Splash nor TV support it but LMI does)
Your computer must be in sleep (or on); just not shut down
Note:
You must enable WOL
You must be connected to lan (ethernet cable - wifi won't work)
You must use an app that supports WOL (AFAIK, neither Splash nor TV support it but LMI does)
Your computer must be in sleep (or on); just not shut down
You don't need to run the battery all the way down each time, unless there's no AC power available. Running on battery a few hours every few days is enough to put some cycles on it and keep it healthy. This should answer most, if not all, of your battery questions:
There's no reason why it wouldn't, as it's been the same for every MBP ever made.
I had a friend who was a hardware engineer and his take was its actually better to turn these things off-and-on less.
The only moving part on a laptop that sits all day is the disk drive that spins (unless you have an SSD), and the fan. The longer this stuff spins, since its mechanical, it will have some wear. But both are designed for that.
Aside from this, the enemy of electronics is: dirt, heat, vibration, moisture, and unstable power. Keep it safe from that stuff when its on all the time, and you are good for max life. A surge protector is a good idea if you leave your MBP plugged in all the time, as there is more chance for a surge to hit it simply because its always plugged in.
Temp is a biggie, one of the things that causes "wear" to these electronic components, is all of the heating and cooling and heating and cooling from turning a laptop on and off. This causes some expansion and contraction of components...within tolerance, but over time will cause things to break down eventually. Some will tell you that turning it off and on less is actually better. But letting it get too hot will ruin stuff as well.
But I am assuming your Mac is going to sleep mode when you are not using it, so its not actually fully powered up all day anyway and the disk drive is powering down too in sleep mode. Unless you have the thing set up to never go to sleep in any way when its plugged in.
Anyway, with it "on" all the time, even if not sleeping, as long as you have it in a place where it can ventilate as intended so it does not overheat (for example, don't have it sitting on a pillow or other cushy surface that would block the fan from doing its part to vent heat) and its dry, not vibrating, and not in a dusty environment, you should be fine provided you cycle the battery as mentioned above. Some possibility of shortened life of the HD if its spinning constantly so I would at least set your power management to shut down the HD after a certain period of time if you have not already. I would also have the screen go to sleep, it does not need to be on when you are away.
Wow, the fact that I could actually write this much about this question proves what a geek I am. Do I belong here or what? ;-)
The only moving part on a laptop that sits all day is the disk drive that spins (unless you have an SSD), and the fan. The longer this stuff spins, since its mechanical, it will have some wear. But both are designed for that.
Aside from this, the enemy of electronics is: dirt, heat, vibration, moisture, and unstable power. Keep it safe from that stuff when its on all the time, and you are good for max life. A surge protector is a good idea if you leave your MBP plugged in all the time, as there is more chance for a surge to hit it simply because its always plugged in.
Temp is a biggie, one of the things that causes "wear" to these electronic components, is all of the heating and cooling and heating and cooling from turning a laptop on and off. This causes some expansion and contraction of components...within tolerance, but over time will cause things to break down eventually. Some will tell you that turning it off and on less is actually better. But letting it get too hot will ruin stuff as well.
But I am assuming your Mac is going to sleep mode when you are not using it, so its not actually fully powered up all day anyway and the disk drive is powering down too in sleep mode. Unless you have the thing set up to never go to sleep in any way when its plugged in.
Anyway, with it "on" all the time, even if not sleeping, as long as you have it in a place where it can ventilate as intended so it does not overheat (for example, don't have it sitting on a pillow or other cushy surface that would block the fan from doing its part to vent heat) and its dry, not vibrating, and not in a dusty environment, you should be fine provided you cycle the battery as mentioned above. Some possibility of shortened life of the HD if its spinning constantly so I would at least set your power management to shut down the HD after a certain period of time if you have not already. I would also have the screen go to sleep, it does not need to be on when you are away.
Wow, the fact that I could actually write this much about this question proves what a geek I am. Do I belong here or what? ;-)
I run mine 24/7 and plug it in when I get down to 10% battery remaining and leave it plugged in until it's full, then I unplug it. I have only turned it off once since I have owned it. It still gives me HOURS of operation per single charge. Hope this helps. 
I've tended to leave my MBP plugged in and running pretty much all the time, especially now that I have a Henge dock for it. Only problem I have is that sporadically the machine hangs until the firewire drive is unplugged, which is pretty annoying, and I have no idea how to fix it. But it's pretty rare -- every few weeks maybe.
