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calvintosh · Apr 22, 2003, 09:43 AM

Will this hurt your powerbook t run it for 24hr's for like one day?

xylon · Apr 22, 2003, 09:46 AM

Nope. I haven't shut down my computer in a week. I do put it to sleep though... But running it all night shouldn't be a problem.

AssassyN · Apr 22, 2003, 09:48 AM

Nope, it's made to last, and run as long as you need it to. I haven't shut my 17" PB down since I got it on April 3, 2003. Every night when I'm done I simply put it to sleep, and in the morning wake it up to go again. Not a single shut down or restart since the day I got it.

parsec_kadets · Apr 22, 2003, 11:44 AM

It's fine. I ran mine all last night. The sky didn't fall.

forcelite · Apr 22, 2003, 11:49 AM

I know this is off topic but I just saw a 17" at the new houston apple store and WOW. It is a great looking machine. The screen is huge compared to my 12"albook.

AssassyN · Apr 22, 2003, 12:09 PM

Originally posted by forcelite:
I know this is off topic but I just saw a 17" at the new houston apple store and WOW. It is a great looking machine. The screen is huge compared to my 12"albook.

Ain't it though?!

Maneki Neko · Apr 22, 2003, 03:32 PM

I ran my Powerbook G4 500 24 hours a day for over 2 years. No problems, still worked as well as the day I got it.

Treat it well, and it will last.

dialo · Apr 22, 2003, 03:37 PM

I frequently render my 3D animations at night. I also never shut down the machine. It goes everywhere with me, and it naps when I'm not using it.

djjava · Apr 22, 2003, 04:13 PM

Originally posted by AssassyN:
Nope, it's made to last, and run as long as you need it to. I haven't shut my 17" PB down since I got it on April 3, 2003. Every night when I'm done I simply put it to sleep, and in the morning wake it up to go again. Not a single shut down or restart since the day I got it.

silly to ask, as i have just spent $3500 like the rest of you, what kind of jump in your electric bill (if any) have you notice while keeping the machine on/asleep all the time?

i stil haven't been brave enough to sleep it all night... should I just get over it and do it?

<you all say, "Yes!!!">

klinux · Apr 22, 2003, 04:16 PM

Originally posted by xylon:
Nope. I haven't shut down my computer in a week. I do put it to sleep though... But running it all night shouldn't be a problem.

Wrong answer. He asked whether people are running it 24/7. By putting it to sleep you are not running it 24/7.

AssassyN · Apr 22, 2003, 04:28 PM

Originally posted by klinux:
Wrong answer. He asked whether people are running it 24/7. By putting it to sleep you are not running it 24/7.

I beg to differ, it's running. When you turn your car off, guess what? The clock in it is still running, although you car's "asleep". Running = sucking down electricty one way or another.

Too, it consumes a TON less juice while in sleep mode, so little that when running it off battery power, it only loses 1% charge PER HOUR! So yeah, leave it on all night in sleep mode, you won't notice an energy usage increase that's anything to worry about.

parsec_kadets · Apr 22, 2003, 04:38 PM

Originally posted by djjava:
silly to ask, as i have just spent $3500 like the rest of you, what kind of jump in your electric bill (if any) have you notice while keeping the machine on/asleep all the time?

i stil haven't been brave enough to sleep it all night... should I just get over it and do it?

<you all say, "Yes!!!">

I seriously doubt you would notice a difference in your electric bill by sleeping your PB over night. While it's asleep the computer uses hardly any power at all. So little it can go weeks without being plugged in. As for actually running it all night, you MIGHT see an increase of a few pennies.

mcs37 · Apr 22, 2003, 05:14 PM

Originally posted by dialo:
I frequently render my 3D animations at night. I also never shut down the machine. It goes everywhere with me, and it naps when I'm not using it.

I think I would be crunching SETI@home packets all night when I got my PB. Love that RISC processor!

ngrundy · Apr 22, 2003, 05:38 PM

My Ti has spent a few night running overnight to do some video composites and random downloads.

when i wake up in the morning (or afternoon

) it's usualy sitting there idling.

wulf · Apr 22, 2003, 06:58 PM

Originally posted by calvintosh:
Will this hurt your powerbook t run it for 24hr's for like one day?

ooh, I hope not. I've been running mine 24/7 since I got it (crunching dFold proteins). It only restarts for updates, and only sleeps when it's travelling

Mobile Mod · Apr 22, 2003, 08:07 PM

Originally posted by mcs37:
I think I would be crunching SETI@home packets all night when I got my PB. Love that RISC processor!

I crunch seti packets all night and my PB IS HOLDING UP (17")

Justin

Vond · Apr 22, 2003, 09:07 PM

Originally posted by calvintosh:
Will this hurt your powerbook t run it for 24hr's for like one day?

Do it all the time with my Ghz TiBook. I did the kernel hack so that I could close the lid too. By the way the instructions for doing this are now out of date - the CVS repository where it used to be is gone, now you can just download .tar.gz files of the appropriate branches from kernel 6.5. I love this OS!

chrisutley · Apr 22, 2003, 09:30 PM

That's funny ... my PB crunches SETI data all night too.

However, I do keep it up on an iCurve. I think I would feel guilty if I weren't doing something to help cool it a bit.

hsvgoku · Apr 22, 2003, 11:59 PM

Hmm...running the PB all night won't cause any dramas but i am not quite sure whether it will hurt the screen/display. I know that plasma screen have a short life span of 4-5 years. I am not quite sure about the screen on the PB if you run it 24/7 without shutting down/ restart or putting it to sleep ( If you put High Performance in the energy saver). What do u think guys?

7Macfreak · Apr 23, 2003, 12:08 AM

haha, people still do that SETI 'crunching'??

chrisutley · Apr 23, 2003, 12:12 AM

What? Do you know something we don't? Abducted for anal probing were you?

Originally posted by 7Macfreak:
haha, people still do that SETI 'crunching'??

Mithras · Apr 23, 2003, 06:24 AM

My G3 Wallstreet has been on 24/7 for the last 18 months, with only occasional breaks.

It's still holding up great as my webserver. Make sure you set the screen light to turn off after a few minutes, though.

solagratia1600 · Apr 23, 2003, 08:25 AM

Hi Dialo,

what 3d software are you using, and what is your powerbook specs? How does your rendering performance go when you are on the job? Just curious, because I am a 3d animation rookie.

cheers
Solagratia1600

Originally posted by dialo:
I frequently render my 3D animations at night. I also never shut down the machine. It goes everywhere with me, and it naps when I'm not using it.

solagratia1600 · Apr 23, 2003, 08:46 AM

Calvintosh=(Calvin and Hobbs' Calvin fan)+(Macintosh fan)?

Originally posted by calvintosh:
Will this hurt your powerbook t run it for 24hr's for like one day?

Finrock · Apr 23, 2003, 09:44 AM

I've also run my PowerBook G4/500 non-stop since I purchased it back in 2/2001. However, when I go to sleep at night I ususally dim the screen all the way down so the backlight turns off. This saves energy and increases the lifespan of the backlight.

I currently do the same with my 17" PowerBook.

-Finrock

djjava · Apr 23, 2003, 09:55 AM

Originally posted by djjava:
silly to ask, as i have just spent $3500 like the rest of you, what kind of jump in your electric bill (if any) have you notice while keeping the machine on/asleep all the time?

i stil haven't been brave enough to sleep it all night... should I just get over it and do it?

<you all say, "Yes!!!">

I was brave last nigh.t. i didn't shut down my PB, just like me.. it went to sleep. I amlooking forward to going home and just lifting the lid to get back going...

Buck_W · Apr 23, 2003, 09:55 AM

Originally posted by AssassyN:
IToo, it consumes a TON less juice while in sleep mode, so little that when running it off battery power, it only loses 1% charge PER HOUR!

I didn't realize that. I've wondered how many days (on a full battery charge) I could go in sleep mode before needing to plug back in. Has anyone tried it?

If the battery only loses 1% charge per hour in sleep mode, you should be able to go several days.

dialo · Apr 23, 2003, 12:15 PM

Originally posted by solagratia1600:
Hi Dialo,

what 3d software are you using, and what is your powerbook specs? How does your rendering performance go when you are on the job? Just curious, because I am a 3d animation rookie.

cheers
Solagratia1600

Cinema 4D on a Ghz powerbook with 1Gig of RAM.

It runs nicely. In terms of just modeling, it performs well, but the thing I really like is that I can have a render going, minimize it into the dock and work on anything else wihtout much of a performance hit. In fact, sometimes I will just start a twelve hour render and throw it into the dock and forget about it. I can then surf the web, work on my websites, even edit video without noticing much if any degredation in performance. I don't think I have another program that renders in the background nearly as well (I do a lot of video, as well).

Jacket · Apr 23, 2003, 12:21 PM

a friend of mine always said that the wear and tear on your hard disk booting up everyday is worse than leaving the machine on.

i'm now starting to leave the PB17 in sleep mode during the day. i'm not too concerned about it.

icruise · Apr 23, 2003, 12:46 PM

I think we need to make a distinction between putting your computer to sleep and leaving it on all the time. I interpreted the original question to mean "on" (ie running) all the time -- not asleep at night. I don't think either one is going to cause any real problems, but certainly leaving it running all the time causes a bit more wear and tear on the computer than sleeping. If you're not actually doing anything with the computer, I would say it is preferable to put it to sleep. But I often leave my computer on all night (screen set to turn off after a while) to process video or to burn DVDs or whatever.

I see no need to ever turn off the computer unless you are going to be storing it for several days or something.

dialo · Apr 23, 2003, 01:35 PM

What Icruise said.

I should add that when I leave it rendering all night, I turn the screen brightness to off, too.

legionare · Apr 23, 2003, 03:40 PM

The ordinary 2.5" IBM/Hitachi hard drives are designed to be powered on for ~8 hours a day, according to a blurb I saw a few months ago on xlr8yourmac. I imagine Toshiba drives are the same. There're much more expensive business-class 2.5" drives that have significantly longer power-on specifications.

dialo · Apr 23, 2003, 06:21 PM

Originally posted by legionare:
The ordinary 2.5" IBM/Hitachi hard drives are designed to be powered on for ~8 hours a day, according to a blurb I saw a few months ago on xlr8yourmac. I imagine Toshiba drives are the same. There're much more expensive business-class 2.5" drives that have significantly longer power-on specifications.

It would make sense then that just setting you drive so it goes to sleep when not in use should be fine.

solagratia1600 · Apr 23, 2003, 08:18 PM

Hi Dialo,

thanks for the response. Its good to know about your workflow on the TiPbook 1ghz. I am running a TiPbook 550mhz 512ram, with Maya. I want to build character animation, I am quite new to Maya. I only started learning the package since last year. I have touched a bit on Cinema 4d while I was working with a multimedia/internet company a few years back, neat package. We used it mainly for corporate stuff, eg. logo and typo animation. I only dwell on it on a shallow level. I mainly use After Effects for motion graphics creation. Haven't done much on my TiBook with motion graphics, but I have tested out the rendering of Maya with my powerbook. Yup, with 3d stuff it takes longer to render. I leave it overnight as well, while networked to another machine for network rendering. Usually I leave my powerbook to sleep mode, occasionally restarting it.

Dialo, what sort of modelling do you do?

thanks.

Originally posted by dialo:
Cinema 4D on a Ghz powerbook with 1Gig of RAM.

It runs nicely. In terms of just modeling, it performs well, but the thing I really like is that I can have a render going, minimize it into the dock and work on anything else wihtout much of a performance hit. In fact, sometimes I will just start a twelve hour render and throw it into the dock and forget about it. I can then surf the web, work on my websites, even edit video without noticing much if any degredation in performance. I don't think I have another program that renders in the background nearly as well (I do a lot of video, as well).

swsteckly · Apr 23, 2003, 10:30 PM

I almost always let mine run (not sleep) 24/7. That way it's always ready for use, not to mention that it usually plays music through my stereo. The hard drive is a mechanical device, and has a Mean Time Before Failure rating, but it's quite some time. I also set 'Spin Down Hard Drive When Possible' in Energy Saver control panel.

The power adapter draws 65W of power maximum. Just think that you're running a 60W light bulb continuously. Not that big of a deal, especially compared to some desktop PCs that draw well over 400 watts.

In the interest of energy conservation (not powerbook life), I put it to sleep whenever possible, which is not that much. I never shut down unless a software update requires it.

As for the screen, it uses a fluorescent backlight that will burn out eventually, like any light. It's a good idea to turn the brightness all the way down, effectively switching off the backlight at night or during other periods of unsupervised operation. There's no use leaving that light burning when you're in bed. The actual pixels in the screen will remain functional, but they really have an indefinite lifespan.

So, to sum up, it's fine to leave your powerbook running at night. Put it to sleep if you can in the name of HD life, but it's really not a big deal at all. Also, turn off the backlight (or set Energy Saver to do it) when you're going to be away for a while.

klinux · Apr 24, 2003, 04:06 AM

Originally posted by AssassyN:
I beg to differ, it's running. When you turn your car off, guess what? The clock in it is still running, although you car's "asleep". Running = sucking down electricty one way or another.

Too, it consumes a TON less juice while in sleep mode, so little that when running it off battery power, it only loses 1% charge PER HOUR! So yeah, leave it on all night in sleep mode, you won't notice an energy usage increase that's anything to worry about.

Uh, thanks for the education in energy usage.

And by your definition, I am also running my car 24/7 then?

nobitacu · Apr 24, 2003, 06:51 AM

Yea... I'm starting to let my PB to sleep now, before if I had it plug in, I turn sleep mod off. But now I let do some sleeping at night.

Ming

jsiburt · Apr 24, 2003, 07:55 AM

OK I see there is a difference in what is considered on and sleeping. I sleep my PB every night. I just close the screen (less dust) and the next morning what I was working on is ready to go.

But, do the utilities in OS X that are scheduled to run at night only run if your computer is awake or do they run when it is sleeping? There are shareware utilities (Janitor?) that allow you run the utilities when you choose, but is this app even needed?

Just some more thoughts for the campfire chat!

<---- misguided weeney roaster.

solagratia1600 · Apr 24, 2003, 10:29 AM

I read that OS X (unix) runs the cleanup that are scheduled in the early morning hours. This can only be done if your computer is awake. Some people may find their HD space become less because of accumulated temp files that didn't get managed because of the sleep mode. That's where MacJanitor comes in. You can run the clean up schedule manually. I was told by the guy who created the software that up to 10.2, Apple has not included a solution for this matter, so MacJanitor is still needed for the job. I could be wrong, does anyone else know whether 10.2.5 still needs MacJanitor?

But, do the utilities in OS X that are scheduled to run at night only run if your computer is awake or do they run when it is sleeping? There are shareware utilities (Janitor?) that allow you run the utilities when you choose, but is this app even needed?

Just some more thoughts for the campfire chat!

<---- misguided weeney roaster. [/B][/QUOTE]

solagratia1600 · Apr 24, 2003, 10:35 AM

Here's the page on MacJanitor:

http://personalpages.tds.net/~brian_...acjanitor.html

Duffy · Jun 2, 2003, 09:39 PM

I leave my Powebook on 24/7

is it safe for the battery to leave the power cord connected also ??

MacNStein · Jun 2, 2003, 10:08 PM

Originally posted by Duffy:
I leave my Powebook on 24/7

is it safe for the battery to leave the power cord connected also ??

Yep, that's what it's designed to do.

mosch · Jun 4, 2003, 09:58 AM

Originally posted by djjava:
silly to ask, as i have just spent $3500 like the rest of you, what kind of jump in your electric bill (if any) have you notice while keeping the machine on/asleep all the time?

i stil haven't been brave enough to sleep it all night... should I just get over it and do it?

<you all say, "Yes!!!">

For the first part of your question, a PB17 has a maximum draw of 65 watts. So, assuming a cost of $0.10 per kilowatt-hour, running a PB17 at maximum draw (never sleeping, full brightness, burning a dvd while scribbling on the hard drive, and powering firewire and usb accessories) continuously for a 31 day month, you'd have a monthly cost of about $4.80. Realistically, you'd be hard-pressed to spend half of that.

As far as letting it sleep all night, there's absolutely nothing to worry about. I almost never shut mine down, as it's so satisfying to open the lid and have a computer that's ready to go.

mosch · Jun 4, 2003, 10:05 AM

Originally posted by solagratia1600:
I could be wrong, does anyone else know whether 10.2.5 still needs MacJanitor?

It still needs something, though personally I recommend XJanitor.pl over MacJanitor, simply because it runs itself on a regular basis. I'm not sure why Apple hasn't switched to a cron daemon that's designed for selectively available machines, but until they do, you really should use one of these scripts.

But, do the utilities in OS X that are scheduled to run at night only run if your computer is awake or do they run when it is sleeping?

They only run if the computer is awake.

SubGeniux · Jun 6, 2003, 05:40 AM

what you could do is set the cron jobs to ru nwhen you know that the computer is o, or when you normally use it. I did tit so they run in the morning at 11ish.

SubGeniux · Jun 6, 2003, 05:42 AM

damn, my typos in that last post.

beanman · Jun 6, 2003, 04:27 PM

I just want to chime in that I too run my 17" nearly all day and then either leave it idle or sleeping during the overnight depending on my mood.

If I have it setup on my desk, I'll leave it on all night. But if I'm lying in bed, I'll close the lid, set it on my (sturdy) night stand and go to sleep. But I've had no problems with doing so at all...except some kernal panics with 10.2.5, but since upgrading to 10.2.6, life is good.

poboy · Jun 7, 2003, 01:35 PM

This is an interesting thread! I recently purchased a powerbook after being a windows user for all my life. An additional question regarding putting the powerbook to sleep. Do you all leave it in sleep mode when transporting it? Sorry if its a stupid question but i'm used to shutting of my laptop while transfering it from home to work but from what I have been reading, it seems that you could just put it in sleep mode to transfer it. Is that safe? Thanks!!!!
By the way, the powerbook rocks!!!! I owned a vaio and while I was happy with it, that was because I didn't know what I was missing!

cpac · Jun 7, 2003, 03:27 PM

Originally posted by poboy:
Do you all leave it in sleep mode when transporting it?

Absolutely.

OS X is unix at heart. There is absolutely no need to shut it down unless you need to install a system update, or aren't going to be using it for an extended (several day long) period of time.

DekuDekuplex · Jun 12, 2003, 05:29 PM

Originally posted by mosch:
It still needs something, though personally I recommend XJanitor.pl over MacJanitor, simply because it runs itself on a regular basis. I'm not sure why Apple hasn't switched to a cron daemon that's designed for selectively available machines, but until they do, you really should use one of these scripts.

They only run if the computer is awake.

XJanitor.pl is highly recommended at MacOSXHints.com, but they also recommend CronniX for easy crontab editing. To quote CronniX's Web site,

--
CronniX is a Aqua frontend to the powerful Unix tool "cron". Cron is a Unix system service that allows scheduled execution of scripts, programs, applications - in short anything that can be started from the command line. This includes OSX applications and AppleScripts.
--

DekuDekuplex