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What's the deal with Instant On?

thejadedmonkey

thejadedmonkey

macrumors G3
Original poster
May 28, 2005
9,372
3,865
Pennsylvania
I just got a new Macbook Air, base 13" model, and instant on, well, isn't. It routinely takes over 2 seconds to resume, which is much slower than the 2006 Macbook Pro it replaces. I'd accept this if the battery life was better, but it loses a charge at the same rate as my 2006 MBP did, too.

Is this normal? Have mac's really gone this backwards in the past 6 years? :-\
 
thejadedmonkey said:
I just got a new Macbook Air, base 13" model, and instant on, well, isn't. It routinely takes over 2 seconds to resume, which is much slower than the 2006 Macbook Pro it replaces. I'd accept this if the battery life was better, but it loses a charge at the same rate as my 2006 MBP did, too.

Is this normal? Have mac's really gone this backwards in the past 6 years? :-\
Click to expand...

Mine usually takes about 3-4 seconds to resume and then about 5 seconds just for the mouse to begin to work:(
 
If the lid is closed for less than 70 minutes (or it is plugged in, or you have something inserted into one of the USB ports), it won't drop into "deep sleep." 2 seconds is about normal, particularly if you have FileVault2 enabled. After 70 minutes, it will drop into deep sleep, and take a few seconds more to wake up. However, it will usually lose only about 1-2% overnight, vs. 10% in Macs without this feature.

If you have a login screen, even though the key presses won't appear on screen for a second, they will still register when you type it in.
 
I have a MBA 11" 2010 model and it fires on as soon as the lid is open. Instantaneously. The only thing that takes up to 2-3 is picking the wireless signal.

I would try to reinstall Mac OS X. I had a problem with Lion on my Mac Mini needing 1+ min to shut down. The only thing that helped was reinstalling the OS and all was good again. Somewhat extreme measure, I know, but it helped.
 
I've had both revisions of the 11" MacBook Air and neither have woken from sleep any faster than any other MacBooks I've had.
 
KPOM said:
If you have a login screen, even though the key presses won't appear on screen for a second, they will still register when you type it in.
Click to expand...

Lame. But at least I'll be able to log in while I wait, thanks for that tip.

I'll have to look into why I lost 20% overnight, but at least it sounds like my issue is Lion took a few steps back from Tiger/Leopard/Snow Leopard. Oh well, thanks for the insights jb07, KPOM.

P.S. mabaker, I just saw what you said. If this continues to be an issue, I'll probably make a time machine backup and do just that. 2 seconds I can live with though, if I can still type my password in.
 
thejadedmonkey said:
I'll have to look into why I lost 20% overnight, but at least it sounds like my issue is Lion took a few steps back from Tiger/Leopard/Snow Leopard. Oh well, thanks for the insights jb07, KPOM.
Click to expand...

Try restarting, or make sure that there is nothing plugged into the USB port. Losing 20% overnight is definitely not normal, even if it does not drop into deep sleep.
 
Are people really complaining about a 2 second delay when opening their computer? By the time I have the thing positioned on my lap for use it's ready to go. That's good enough for me. How many people start typing before they have the lid all the way open?
 
I was the other day trying the airs in an Apple store and both 11 and 13 models resumed instantly the machines were on before fully opening the lid.

Check the apps you have in memory, I had the same problem in my iMac, it usually entered sleep mode instantaneously but some day it stopped doing it, I though it was some Lion issue but nop, it was an app I have in the background ( a screen streamer for my iPad)

Killed the app, solved the problem.

Try to test the machine creating a new user with no startup items and such to see if there is some app behaving bad.
 
Zetaprime said:
Are people really complaining about a 2 second delay when opening their computer? By the time I have the thing positioned on my lap for use it's ready to go. That's good enough for me. How many people start typing before they have the lid all the way open?
Click to expand...

I never got this either. There are SO MANY people ranting about this! Really, its like they like start typing WHILE opening up the display
 
The firmware update seemed to have solved the random slow resume I was experiencing.

Personally, I'm ok with waiting 2-4 seconds and it is leaps and bounds better than what my 07 15" mbp can offer. Just think back a few years - we were trained to turn off our computers every night or during times of non-use, then "suffer" through the minute or more wait while they re-booted.

It's not much different than complaining that the microwave isn't fast enough, or the minute timer needs to be faster.
 
I have to agree with the thread opener.
While I don't mind waiting a couple of seconds, I do find a little controversial the fact that Apple advertises its "instant on" as an INCREDIBLE and MAGIC MacBook Air's feature, while it's not instantaneous at all and not all that better compared to other Macs:

-MacBook Air 13" 2011, from sleep to login: 2,7s
-Mac Pro 2009, from sleep to login: 3,2s
(Both running Lion with no apps opened)
 
rk25123 said:
I have to agree with the thread opener.
While I don't mind waiting a couple of seconds, I do find a little controversial the fact that Apple advertises its "instant on" as an INCREDIBLE and MAGIC MacBook Air's feature, while it's not instantaneous at all and not all that better compared to other Macs:

-MacBook Air 13" 2011, from sleep to login: 2,7s
-Mac Pro 2009, from sleep to login: 3,2s
(Both running Lion with no apps opened)
Click to expand...

Well..it depends what you mean by instant on..Mine comes on just about instantly, It just takes a second or two for the cursor to become responsive. At any rate it's close enough to 'instant' for me.
 
Zetaprime said:
Well..it depends what you mean by instant on..Mine comes on just about instantly, It just takes a second or two for the cursor to become responsive. At any rate it's close enough to 'instant' for me.
Click to expand...


Same here, and I guess since I am coming from Win XP, where I would open the lid, and finish probably brushing my teeth and come back for the laptop to be awake, I am extremely happy with this.
 
Oh no, I find that under certain conditions it can take up to 10 seconds for the computer to wake from the moment I open it to the moment the login screen starts accepting text input.
 
Wife and I both have reasonably new 13" Airs, and never more than a couple of seconds from lifting the lid, to screen coming on and cursor becoming active.

Do you have all the software updates?
 
Zetaprime said:
Are people really complaining about a 2 second delay when opening their computer? By the time I have the thing positioned on my lap for use it's ready to go. That's good enough for me. How many people start typing before they have the lid all the way open?
Click to expand...

It's because on older macs, there wasn't any delay at all. To have something called "Instant On" that's actually slower than an older mac, just feels weird, like I'm missing something.

Here's an example. A late 2006 Macbook Pro (mine actually) takes 1.96 seconds to resume. I don't show it in the video, but the cursor works as soon as it's up. My 2012 Macbook Air, with "instant on", takes 5.38 seconds.

I won't compare it to my Windows 7 laptop as that's beating a dead horse, but compared to a 6 year old mac, I would expect "instant on" to be at least no slower.

Confuzzzed said:
You have a 2012 Macbook Air? What specs did they release? Is it the lesser spotted 15" variety?
Click to expand...

EDIT:
2011, purchased in 2012. My bad.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
thejadedmonkey said:
It's because on older macs, there wasn't any delay at all. To have something called "Instant On" that's actually slower than an older mac, just feels weird, like I'm missing something.

Here's an example. A late 2006 Macbook Pro (mine actually) takes 1.96 seconds to resume. I don't show it in the video, but the cursor works as soon as it's up. My 2012 Macbook Air, with "instant on", takes 5.38 seconds.

I won't compare it to my Windows 7 laptop as that's beating a dead horse, but compared to a 6 year old mac, I would expect "instant on" to be at least no slower.
Click to expand...

My 2011 Air comes on instantly with the cursor available in 2 seconds. That's equal to your 2006 Macbook Pro since the cursor works in the same amount of time.
 
Zetaprime said:
Well..it depends what you mean by instant on..Mine comes on just about instantly, It just takes a second or two for the cursor to become responsive. At any rate it's close enough to 'instant' for me.
Click to expand...
I'd say that anything under 0,5s can be advertised as instantaneous without being misleading.
 
I have not figured out why anyone needs instant on. So you have to wait 2 seconds, big deal.
 
deepakvrao said:
Same here, and I guess since I am coming from Win XP, where I would open the lid, and finish probably brushing my teeth and come back for the laptop to be awake, I am extremely happy with this.
Click to expand...

EXACTLY. I've used PC since the mid to late 90s when I was a kid. My most recent Dell Latitude D830 took a good 10-20 seconds to turn on when opening the lid. THEN it took another few minutes for the thing to be usable so I could open programs and do anything (hard drive furiously chugging).

My 2011 13' Macbook Air is instant on to me. I open the lid, and by the time my hands hit the keys, I can type my password - which is about 1-2 seconds.

But hey, it's people like you (original thread poster) that keep driving technology better and better. Keep complaining and they'll make it faster. :) Meanwhile, us old buggers (am I old at 26?) are constantly amazed every time we open our Macbooks.

That said - my co-worker bought an Asus Ultrabook and it still takes him 6+ seconds to do anything once the laptop lid is opened. Seems like an eternity from my Macbook Air. :D
 
I suspect it's lion slowly the whole thing down.

2 seconds is already quite fast. I was playing with the MBA at my local apple retailer, and it could take 3-5 seconds just to resume from sleep?!? :confused:
 
I think it's silly for people to complain about 2-5 secs for the Air to wake up. I also think its stupid and silly for Apple to advertise "instant on". It just causes disappointment.
 
Reminder:

Instant on means that you're computer and everything it was doing is resumed from closing the lid and essentially powering the computer down.

Even if it took 4-5 seconds to resume, you can have it on standby for a week, and when you open it again it will be just like you have it.

It's not supposed to be "instant", so much as it's supposed to come on very fast and resume where you left it.

And I'm ok with that.
 
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