Sleep mode safe for travel?

Carrying it around in a bag will cause heat to build up. Also, I'm not sure if the HD's read/write head will rest in a secure place that will prevent any scratching. Personally I wouldn't do it, but that doesn't mean that it can't be done.

Just be careful.

It should be just fine IMO. It will consume just a little of the battery charge sleeping for a few hours.

I've left my Apple laptops asleep for several days without any issues arising.

It is perfectly safe I think, as it is safe to remove the battery when the macbook is sleeping I guess.

Reason is <<safe sleep>> which is enabled by default on mac laptops... since... I don't remember when as the macbook is my first mac.

To understand what <<safe sleep>> is :

Open a terminal, and issue this command :
ls -al /var/vm

you'll see a sleepimage file whose size should reflect exactly your ram...

So, when you close the lid, don't be too surprised to have to wait a bit for the light to go blinking. The first 10 to 20 seconds are used to copy ram content to the harddrive...

So the worse that could happen when your macbook is sleeping, is that the macbook to completely shutdown when the battery is out... and when you plug again the macbook to power adapter, you'll see the macbook going awake where you left it, but the resuming, from disk, will be longer of course.

It happened twice to my macbook already, and I was quite surprised to see this behaviour the first time...

phjo

I have let my machines sleep for days at a time. I only turn them off when I do a system update or something else that needs a reboot.

Eventually, the battery will drain and the machine will shut off. That isn't a clean shutdown but it isn't too bad.

Just make sure that the light is pulsating. Until that happens, it's not sleeping. I have seen them not sleep due to some random system lockup. If it won't sleep, it needs to be rebooted anyway.

So I see that some of you leave you computer asleep
for a couple of days and its still fine. But while
it is sleeping, do you leave it sitting on a desk or
do you carry it around?

both

I was wondering if it is safe to carry it around
while it is sleeping?

absolutely

Also, I noticed a few times that when my Macbook went
into sleep mode, the front LED was not pulslating
(blinking), it was on constantly. Is this normal or
is it supposed to always be blinking when it is in
sleep mode?

some running software probably prevented it to go sleeping... Then I wouldn't carry it around too much... If for whatever reason it doesn't go to sleep and I have to move it, I'd rather shut it down...

No risk whatsoever (heat, damaging hd) if it is sleeping (blinking light).

phjo

So I see that some of you leave you computer asleep
for a couple of days and its still fine. But while
it is sleeping, do you leave it sitting on a desk or
do you carry it around?

It depends. If it is sleeping for days, it is probably in a bag, locked up. If it is sleeping overnight, it is probably sitting on the couch. If it sleeping for just a few hours, it is probably in a bag, being carried around.

I was wondering if it is safe to carry it around
while it is sleeping?

I always did. Part of the process for going into sleep mode is writing buffers and parking the hard disk.

Also, I noticed a few times that when my Macbook went
into sleep mode, the front LED was not pulslating
(blinking), it was on constantly. Is this normal or
is it supposed to always be blinking when it is in
sleep mode?

If the front LED is not pulsating, it is not sleeping. When I close the lid, I stand there and wait for the pulse. If I don't get it after 20-30 seconds, I will go ahead and shut it down.

I prefer not to shut down my MB, and I've travelled with it over 10 hours by plane, and have put it on the trunk of my car. No problem at all...

Be sure to wait like 30 seconds before moving it... to assure that anything that has to be written down to the HDD is written, and to allow for the movement sensors to start working and prevent damage to the hard disk; a little after the "snoring" lights have started. Besides that, there shouldn't be any problem at all with moving it while asleep.

Absolutely. And I check it every once in a while to make sure it didn't wake up.

The old arguments used to be whether it makes more sense to leave it on or turn it off.

It's perfectly safe to transport the computer in sleep mode. Wait for the pulsing sleep light before swinging the computer around, just to ensure that the hard drive has completely stopped. (This is just good sense.)

There will be virtually no heat buildup, nor battery drain, for a properly sleeping system. The battery will last for many days in sleep mode.

I have no experience with Safe Sleep, which is not supported on my PowerBook G4. Safe Sleep should allow you to remove the battery during sleep (but why would you?).

I was wrong. Based on all of the response, it's okay to carry your MacBook around while it is sleeping. Try it, you may like it.

At this point based on a few reported incidences of over heating whilst in a case it woiuld be prudent to at least look into case once in a while to make sure it's asleep and/or isn't too hot. If this aspect really bothers you then shutdown before placing in the case.

Hey G2K,

I carry my Macbook around when it's in Sleep Mode constantly. I'll even leave it on for days in its case in my bag, and its fine. Just make sure you verify that the sleep light is pulsating and not constant, if it's constant it will definitely overheat.

Tom

A man at the Apple store advised me not to carry my Sleeping MacBook around because it could cause hard drive damage. Although I carry mine sleeping around and never have had problems. I would try calling Apple Support and ask them. In general though it may not be a good idea for the insides of your Mac to be moved around excessively.

-Internet Wiz™