Sleep and Go?

K

Kodafox

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Hello,
I'm new to mac, not only that I'm new to owning a notebook computer. I was wondering if when I put my powerbook in my bag and go to school should I shut it down or can I just sleep it? When it sleeps is the disk arm secured so i don't have to worry about jostling?
Thanks
 
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just close the lid and put it in the bag, thats it!
 
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heyclement

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i don't know, i would rather shut it down instead, but then again that's just me. and that's what i'm used to do with my pc laptop. i only leave it on when i set it on my desk. and i even turn it off at night when i go to bed... i don't know, is it bad to turn your computer (pc and mac) off too often?
 
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Do whatever you like. Sleep uses almost no power, and yes, the disk does spin down and the read/write heads are parked. It's perfectly "safe" to transport your laptop while it's asleep. (Yes, even through airport X-ray machines.) And it is, of course, much faster to wake up than to start up.

I've heard that starting up from scratch puts more wear on the hard disk, but I doubt it'd make much difference either way.
 
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I second that. Sleep mode uses almost no power (it can go weeks in sleep mode), and the hard drive spins down and parks the heads, so it's safe to move. I've taken mine, as you spoke of, through airport X-Ray machines while sleeping, with no problems.

Starting up and shutting down all the time will indeed put a bit more wear on your drive...and quite frankly, it's a pain in the ass. I only reboot my Powerbook whenever new updates are available...otherwise it always sleeps.
 
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M

m1k

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Sleep mode uses almost no power (it can go weeks in sleep mode)

Normally my PowerBook can go weeks, but once I left it with 20% battery charge for 3 days (camping trip), and when I got back it wouldn't wake up. The battery had completely drained. Very strange...

Yeah, sleeping is the way to go with Macs.
 
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C

Cloudane

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Yep, other than fitting RAM chips and whatnot, mine is always in sleep mode.

Coming from a PC laptop it *is* weird and goes against the grain of what you're used to (because sleep on PCs is crap?) but it's as natural as putting a TV on standby with the Mac. You also have a lot more assurance that it will wake up again when you open the lid (though I must admit there does seem to be a bug if you wake it up by plugging external keyboard/mouse/monitor in, in certain circumstances - otherwise completely reliable)
 
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J

jeffk

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I've been told it's a good idea to leave your mac computer on overnight because it does regular maintenance and such at night. I'm sure there's a way to change this, I'm fairly new to mac myself...
 
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Overnight the mac runs "crons" which are basic system cleaning things. You can run these yourself in the terminal by typing (going by memory so could be off here)

sudo sh /etc/daily

You can also just get MacJanitor/Cocktail/Onyx which run these all themselves
 
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i do believe it is best to wait for the hd and the fans to all turn off before you move your PB though....because that is when you have the opportunity to jostly the PB while the HD is spinning and can then cause damage

feel free to correct me if i am wrong
-chris
 
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C

Cloudane

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Absolutely. The throbbing white light on the front (open lid button) is an indicator that the HD+fans have stopped, and once that's lit it's safe to pretty much chuck it around as much as you please (as long as you don't treat it as a football or drop it, as if!)

It's safe to *carefully, slowly and at the correct angle* move it around whilst it's running, but if at all possible just close the lid and put it to sleep first.
 
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Yeah, it felt extremely unnatural to just sleep my powerbook all the time, but I've gotten used to it and I love having it always there, ready to go, but not running.
Sometimes I like to shut it down intermittently just to give it a "fresh start"...
But I doubt that's necessary... probably just some left-over PC mentality seeping through!

About the nighttime maintenance stuff... Do I need to set that up at all? Or should it have been set up automatically.
 
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Cloudane

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Since Powerbooks sleep overnight (unless you leave it open and set not to sleep), they don't get a chance to run the maintenance stuff so you have to do them manually once in a while with something like Onyx. Doesn't seem essential, but it's always recommended for smooth running.
 

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