Which is better for the battery? Sleep mode or powering off?

[thebassoonist]

Is it better when it is in sleep mode to have it plugged in or not? And this is from the stand point of wanting LONG battery life when I take it out and about.

And, when in use, is it better to have it plugged in, or to let the battery drain and then recharge, drain and recharge.

 

[Jiddick ExRex]

That is a good point that I have forgot about. Scripts do not run in sleep mode. This is why I have set both my iMac and the MBP to be awake every morning between 3 and 6.

My macbook is never on between 3am and 6am. Could someone tell me how to run the maintanance scripts?

When in sleep mode, a script that should have run at 3 am will run when the computer is awakened again, so need to speculate about that or scheduling it to turn on by itself (unless you actually shut it down).

What about the near constant spinning as the OS is loaded at boot time? Would this not cause more wear and tear on the HD than the RAM dump/refresh when the computer goes to sleep?

If you're not too concerned about work/data retention (i.e. you save often and never sleep your computer without saving your work) you can save the RAM dump (plus some HD space) if you use the older Mac sleep mode which only kept the RAM powered and didn't dump anything to the HD. I swear my 3.5 year old PBG4 could make it a week on a battery just sleeping, I almost never shut it down.

Instructions on how to verify which sleepmode and how to change it are here.

Is it better when it is in sleep mode to have it plugged in or not? And this is from the stand point of wanting LONG battery life when I take it out and about.

And, when in use, is it better to have it plugged in, or to let the battery drain and then recharge, drain and recharge.

Sleep is preferable if you need to use your laptop/desktop more than once every two days.

Spinning up the hd at boot times, accessing and writing a lot will definitely wear it off quicker than simply sleeping it.

Lithium-ion batteries have a sort of dynamically battery cycle, meaning that the battery will excercise different cells depending on how you use it. Basically you don't have to wear it all down. Plugging in and outplugging doesn't make a difference as long as you remember to calibrate once a month.

 

[tangledweb16]

Thanks everyone, especially the person above me. I'll probably have my MacBook plugged in 80% of the time unless I'm calibrating my battery, taking it in another room, etc.

It sounds like the safest thing to do is just put it in sleep mode, and calibrate the battery once a month.

 

[Crow47]

On a slightly different tack - how long will a MB last on sleep mode?

I take mine to work most days 7.30am, in sleep mode, use it several times throughout the day and still have 89-90% charge when I get home at 5.30pm.

I think that is very impressive, no need to bother with the adapter.

I tried it once on my dad's Macbook Pro, and after four days, it was still alive.

 

[Devvyn-cat]

battery charge cycles

When requesting warranty replacement of your battery, if it exhibits signs of running under manufacturing specs, Apple draws the line of normal depletion at 300 cycles. Anything more than that and unless your battery is bloated or not functioning at all, it's just "worn out". Battery charge cycles are calculated in terms of amperage flowing in or out over time. The battery has a microprocessor of its own, so even when your computer is asleep or off, the battery is still monitoring its own use, and tallying its charge cycles, which can be added up as many partial cycles over time.

Therefore, if your goal is to keep your battery within specs as long as possible, you'd want to avoid flowing power in or out whenever it's unnecessary. As some have said, calibrate it every month or so, but other than that, I think there's no doubt that the battery will theoretically last longer (and in Apple's eyes be under the 300 cycle count) if you shut your computer down instead of sleeping it most of the time.

But really, how much value would one gain from this practice, given that the trade-off is having to boot up and re-launch your apps instead of just waiting three seconds and getting back to work? Will a couple dozen extra cycles in a year really break your battery? No, because it will gradually weaken over time, not suddenly stop working altogether when it reaches 300.

 

[goose1873]

overall less ware-n-tare will occur in sleep mode. It's more of a shock to the entire system to keep charging with current from the off position. Think of it like a light bulb. If you dim the light for periods of non-use it will last longer then cooling completely and reheating (flicking on and off) over time.

As far as the battery...leave it plugged in when sleeping and you'll avoid your "300 cycles"...my .02

 

[Techsavyfreak]

also, i carry it about with me quite abit and always shut it down when i do this. this might sound like a stupid question, but is it safe to carry it around in a bag when sleeping? i don't see why not, but i have some crazy theory that i shouldn't.

thanks

well, i know on the macbook pro the light on the latch button indicates when the computer can be moved(solid light means its writing RAM contents to the hard drive[safe sleep] and once the light starts pulsing the hard drive has stopped spinning and you can move it

 

[eXan]

well, i know on the macbook pro the light on the latch button indicates when the computer can be moved(solid light means its writing RAM contents to the hard drive[safe sleep] and once the light starts pulsing the hard drive has stopped spinning and you can move it

Solid light indicates that the machine is running, but the screen is off.

 

[thebassoonist]

Sleep is preferable if you need to use your laptop/desktop more than once every two days.

Spinning up the hd at boot times, accessing and writing a lot will definitely wear it off quicker than simply sleeping it.

Lithium-ion batteries have a sort of dynamically battery cycle, meaning that the battery will excercise different cells depending on how you use it. Basically you don't have to wear it all down. Plugging in and outplugging doesn't make a difference as long as you remember to calibrate once a month.

Is it safe, then, to move it while in sleep mode?

 

[ntrigue]

I was under the impression that if these were not run the OS would just run them later.

Not true. There are daily, weekly, monthly scripts. If your computer is SHUTDOWN when the weekly script is scheduled it will not run until Week 2. If SHUTDOWN for the monthly script you miss out on a month of maintenance that should have been performed.

I use ONYX to ensure it runs when I determine.

 

[Jiddick ExRex]

Is it safe, then, to move it while in sleep mode?

Entirely safe.

Remember that the only things that actually has moving parts in a computer nowadays are the optical drive (the disc spins in order to be read) and the hard drive (which is made up of platters that spin up and down depending on read/write status).

When the mac is sleeping, the only thing that is powered is the RAM, thus hard drive and optical drive is not powered, not moving and it's entirely safe to do whatever you want with the mac while in sleep mode.

Think of it as you're giving a little battery to the laptop in order for it to get you up and running the second you open the lid again.

 

[eXan]

Is it safe, then, to move it while in sleep mode?

Of course it is...

In sleep NO moving parts of the computer are powered.

 

[Jiddick ExRex]

Of course it is...

In sleep NO moving parts of the computer are powered.

Hah, I beat you.

Btw: I have written a small wiki page about sleep here which is entirely up for edit.

It might be a good idea to have this shown in the guides tab somehow, seeing as sleep is discussed approximately once a week?

 

[thebassoonist]

Entirely safe.

Remember that the only things that actually has moving parts in a computer nowadays are the optical drive (the disc spins in order to be read) and the hard drive (which is made up of platters that spin up and down depending on read/write status).

When the mac is sleeping, the only thing that is powered is the RAM, thus hard drive and optical drive is not powered, not moving and it's entirely safe to do whatever you want with the mac while in sleep mode.

Think of it as you're giving a little battery to the laptop in order for it to get you up and running the second you open the lid again.

Alright, thanks for the answer!

 

[thebassoonist]

After doing this for a few days (almost always plugged in, and when not in use, in sleep mode) my battery health has decreased 4 points! It was at 97 and now is at 93.

93% with 64 cycles???

Now it is down to 87% health. I'm going back to the way I used it before.