[doolally]

Hiya,

I'm returning to school and got a great deal on a 3 week old G4 PB. I have two questions:

1) Is MS Word a big resource hog? Would I get better battery use if I used Open Office, or some other, smaller word processing app?
2) What is the power drain from starting the machine? Does it make more sense to just close it, and let it sit in my backpack, sleeping? Or shut it down whenever I put it away?

advTHANKSance

[edit: for sme ltters left out.]

[Dr.Michael]

Originally Posted by doolally

Hiya,

I'm returning to school and got a great deal on a 3 week old G4 PB. I have two questions:

1) Is MS Word a big resource hog? Would I get better battery use if I used Open Office, or a some other, smaller word processing app?
2) What is the power drain from starting the machine? Does it make more sense to just close it, and let it sit in my backpack, sleeping? Or shut it down whenever I put it away?

advTHANKSance

Word is a big resource hog but thats more than true also for OO. If you only type text you can use a texteditor. But on the other hand, every powerbook can handle word. Would be a joke otherwise, wouldn't it?

A sleeping powerbook should not go into a backpack. Powerbooks occasionally wake up and that would be very bad because the hd spins up then.

If battery life is a big deal for you get a (used) iBook and buy a new nu power battery from newertech. This will last 5-6 hours and you won't have to worry about word or not word.

[Ω]

Originally Posted by Dr.Michael

A sleeping powerbook should not go into a backpack. Powerbooks occasionally wake up and that would be very bad because the hd spins up then.

Well **** me if I have not been doing this for 4 years with no issues. Please explain in more detail under what circumstances this may happen.

Stop spreading FUD.

Doolally, just close the machine and it is good to travel. It is one of the things I like about my machine. A long uptime, where I just close and go. Restarts are reserved for software updates only.

[Dr.Michael]

Originally Posted by Ω

Well **** me if I have not been doing this for 4 years with no issues. Please explain in more detail under what circumstances this may happen.

Stop spreading FUD.

This has been discussed here quiet often. Most of the time this happens if the lid button is accidentially pressed in your bag. To avoid this problem you have to manually switch off lidwake.

Some machines also wake up without pressing the button in the case the lid jitters a little bit. The wake up signal is transmitted by a magnetic field that induces a flux through a coil. Jitter changes the flux and can induce lidwake, Mr super-smart.

[chabig]

Even if the machine wakes up, nothing bad should happen to it. I never worry about this and I've been carrying my laptops around for 4 years too.

Chris

[mrmister]

I concur that this phenomenon exists primarily on forums--in actual, real-world usage, I still have never actually had a PB wake accidentally in transit, much less have an problem happen from such waking.

Apple seems comfortable telling people they can use their computers in this manner, and in fact many millions do--so if you want to be extra-safe, just be sure it's impossible for something to depress your lid button in your case.

[Dr.Michael]

Originally Posted by mrmister

I concur that this phenomenon exists primarily on forums--in actual, real-world usage, I still have never actually had a PB wake accidentally in transit, much less have an problem happen from such waking.

Apple seems comfortable telling people they can use their computers in this manner, and in fact many millions do--so if you want to be extra-safe, just be sure it's impossible for something to depress your lid button in your case.

Yes, I agree that even if wake up happens, it is unlikely that something gets damaged. Modern hds can take a beating.

But - the op is going to use the machine at school. I would be more careful in that case.

[CorpITGuy]

I would think that a much greater risk to carrying a notebook around in a backpack while asleep would not be the hard drive but the battery. I had one of the original Aluminum G4s that would wake-up from sleep because the lid (latch) had a flaw. Apple eventually fixed it for me but I ran my battery down at some inconvenient times!

My advice: you're fine to put it to sleep and throw it in your bag unless you have a presentation in your next class with no way to plug it in. Just use common sense. The risk is minimal but an F because of a latch malfunction would SUCK.

As to your other question, install Word.... too many documents are formatted for Word these days not to have it, even if you don't use it for everyday stuff and prefer TextEdit or OO. Your PB can handle having every Office app open at once and probably not even hiccup.

[doolally]

Grand! Thanks all for your input.

(I love this little machine! It's like the BMW of laptops )

[romeosc]

I have been carrying Powerbooks sleeping for 15 years! Since Powerbook 100! Never had a problem(in fact one of my original PB 100s is still working on AC. Battery is not worth replacing!)

Airport security wants you to power up a PB to show that it works!

[Dr.Michael]

Originally Posted by romeosc

I have been carrying Powerbooks sleeping for 15 years! Since Powerbook 100! Never had a problem(in fact one of my original PB 100s is still working on AC. Battery is not worth replacing!)

Airport security wants you to power up a PB to show that it works!

Since many of you have different experience than me concerning the depth of the portables sleep let me report my experiences.

I have used 5 Macintosh portables so far. An iBook blueberry, Powerbook Pismo 500, TiBook 500, TiBook 1GHz and AluBook 12 inch/1Ghz. My GF currently uses a 15 inch Powerbook 1 GHz. I usually send the powerbooks to sleep over night and this happened:

The iBook blueberry slept without snoring and without interruption. Great machine (though the lid was not secured).

The Pismo and the 500 MHz TiBook woke up from time to time (yes also in the middle of the night) and only for a few seconds. They were usually not network connected but often had a usb mouse connected.

The 12 inch AluBook woke up regularly when a isdn usb modem was connected. Without the modem it slept well. The 15 inch Alubook wakes up from time to time (this has been discussed here in the forum extensively for that model and many people have reported this problem).

The 1Ghz TiBook seems to sleep well. But I don't have it in my bedroom any more so I cannot say for sure.

The wake ups can of course be related to the usb mouse. If it shakes, usb wakes the portable. But in the middle of the night? We don't have earthquakes here and also no tanks or trucks in the vicinity who could shake the mouse.

So you may understand why I don't fully trust a sleeping portable in a backpack. I am sure they don't wake without any external trigger. But the threshhold for the trigger can obviously be low with some models. And I don't want a shock applied to the portable in the same moment when the hd spins up. I appreciate your experieces: if a spin up happens it obviously does no harm. Good to know!

The new models are more solid in this case because of the sudden motion sensor apple inserts now.

Oh yes, except the 1Ghz Tibook my portables did not have airport.

[john h]

Originally Posted by Ω

Well **** me if I have not been doing this for 4 years with no issues. Please explain in more detail under what circumstances this may happen.

Stop spreading FUD.

Doolally, just close the machine and it is good to travel. It is one of the things I like about my machine. A long uptime, where I just close and go. Restarts are reserved for software updates only.

My G4 PB woke up on one occasion for unknown reasons and was on for 24 hours. Lid was closed (I think).

[iREZ]

just get a sleeve and voila...no accidental lid opening.

[Ω]

Originally Posted by john h

My G4 PB woke up on one occasion for unknown reasons and was on for 24 hours. Lid was closed (I think).

Please tell me where to get that brand of battery because even when new my TiBook only got 6 hours with screen turned down.......