dsc106 Posted March 18, 2008 Share Posted March 18, 2008 I've had my MBP on, with screen lid lifted up, no sleep mode, downloading for days on end. Is this bad for it as a laptop? Will it overheat? Or is it made to be fully "on" and plugged in, screen up, for days at a time? Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/94292-is-it-bad-to-leave-mbp-on-with-screen-up-no-sleep-for-long-periods-of-time/ Share on other sites More sharing options...
sarahbau Posted March 18, 2008 Share Posted March 18, 2008 You can keep it running in that state for days, weeks, months, or even years at a time. It's fine. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/94292-is-it-bad-to-leave-mbp-on-with-screen-up-no-sleep-for-long-periods-of-time/#findComment-671976 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ongeloof Posted March 18, 2008 Share Posted March 18, 2008 I wouldn't have thought so.. i leave an old advent on for days at a time, and it sleeps most of the day now..... saying that, the battery is {censored}ed lol Think Mark Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/94292-is-it-bad-to-leave-mbp-on-with-screen-up-no-sleep-for-long-periods-of-time/#findComment-671987 Share on other sites More sharing options...
hecker Posted March 18, 2008 Share Posted March 18, 2008 It should be OK, unless the screen is on all of the time. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/94292-is-it-bad-to-leave-mbp-on-with-screen-up-no-sleep-for-long-periods-of-time/#findComment-672034 Share on other sites More sharing options...
hp4life Posted March 18, 2008 Share Posted March 18, 2008 yeah i would at least put the display to sleep or the screen saver on, if anything youre doing damage to the display. otherwise you should be fine. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/94292-is-it-bad-to-leave-mbp-on-with-screen-up-no-sleep-for-long-periods-of-time/#findComment-672099 Share on other sites More sharing options...
skyhighmac Posted March 18, 2008 Share Posted March 18, 2008 It should be fine. The bottom will get hot unless you have a cooler - those help a lot. I would lower the brightness to the lowest setting. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/94292-is-it-bad-to-leave-mbp-on-with-screen-up-no-sleep-for-long-periods-of-time/#findComment-672724 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Falcon351 Posted March 19, 2008 Share Posted March 19, 2008 I'd suggest using no screen saver and a sleep timer for the display. A screen saver would create more work for the CPU and/or GPU, causing them to dissipate more heat or take away cycles which other processes could use (although I wouldn't expect downloading to be CPU/GPU intensive). Putting the display to sleep should turn off the backlight, reducing power consumption, heat output and wear. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/94292-is-it-bad-to-leave-mbp-on-with-screen-up-no-sleep-for-long-periods-of-time/#findComment-673068 Share on other sites More sharing options...
U.C. Posted March 19, 2008 Share Posted March 19, 2008 or if you are a geek. Here is what I did 1) Bought a Linksys WRTSL54GS 2) Bought a 40GB HDD + USB Casing 3) Flashed WRTSL54GS with x-wrt (OpenWRT Derivative with built in Web Interface) 4) Installed cTorrent on it 5) Now my router does torrents !!! Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/94292-is-it-bad-to-leave-mbp-on-with-screen-up-no-sleep-for-long-periods-of-time/#findComment-673276 Share on other sites More sharing options...
hp4life Posted March 21, 2008 Share Posted March 21, 2008 or if you are a geek. Here is what I did1) Bought a Linksys WRTSL54GS 2) Bought a 40GB HDD + USB Casing 3) Flashed WRTSL54GS with x-wrt (OpenWRT Derivative with built in Web Interface) 4) Installed cTorrent on it 5) Now my router does torrents !!! thats awesome, if i had the money i would buy a cheap powermac g4 as a pure torrent machine that is never turned off, but alas im broke . @Falcon351 All im saying is that a screen saver would be better than leaving the screen a little dimmed for hours on end. On a Macbook Pro, the screen saver would use no CPU, maybe a little GPU, but youre right it wouldnt affect downloading at all. But your best bet is to put the screen to sleep. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/94292-is-it-bad-to-leave-mbp-on-with-screen-up-no-sleep-for-long-periods-of-time/#findComment-675951 Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigboss Posted March 21, 2008 Share Posted March 21, 2008 I'd suggest using no screen saver and a sleep timer for the display. A screen saver would create more work for the CPU and/or GPU, causing them to dissipate more heat or take away cycles which other processes could use (although I wouldn't expect downloading to be CPU/GPU intensive). Putting the display to sleep should turn off the backlight, reducing power consumption, heat output and wear. Agreed, a screen saver is just battery eating and heat generating activity. LCD screens dont even suffer any permanent screen burn so really a screen saver is just artwork and doesnt serve a practical purpose. Better to just turn the display off after a set time (mine is 10 minutes) Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/94292-is-it-bad-to-leave-mbp-on-with-screen-up-no-sleep-for-long-periods-of-time/#findComment-675987 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Falcon351 Posted March 21, 2008 Share Posted March 21, 2008 @Falcon351 All im saying is that a screen saver would be better than leaving the screen a little dimmed for hours on end. I agree with that. What I was saying was that it would be even better to ditch the screen saver and use the display sleep timer. An LCD displaying all black (well, as dark as possible) would still have the backlight switched on. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/94292-is-it-bad-to-leave-mbp-on-with-screen-up-no-sleep-for-long-periods-of-time/#findComment-676014 Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpeedfreaK Posted March 26, 2008 Share Posted March 26, 2008 my neighbour has a laptop that is never shut off since they booted it up for the first time. it's like running almost a year! and they have no problems at all (and it's a cheap ass laptop, so less quality than the mbp). Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/94292-is-it-bad-to-leave-mbp-on-with-screen-up-no-sleep-for-long-periods-of-time/#findComment-683983 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skwerl23 Posted April 28, 2009 Share Posted April 28, 2009 I've had my MBP on, with screen lid lifted up, no sleep mode, downloading for days on end. Is this bad for it as a laptop? Will it overheat? Or is it made to be fully "on" and plugged in, screen up, for days at a time? LCD's and TFT's etc... have a life span, not sure what MBP uses, but in a sense you are slowly killing your monitor. now the avg person who uses a screen 8 hours a day, will get something like 5 years out of it. so not really. Also when turning an LCD on, it uses a balast or small energy burst to trigger it, (not sure exactly) but if you frequently turn them on and off your causing damage. Think of a screen like a car engine. ON OFF ON OFF ON OFF, bad never off is bad. but you can get many years out of it, and i would only worry if you plan to never buy another monitor/mac. (you could buy an external monitor to use for home to even guarantee its survival Most LCD's don't burn in, so there is no screen damage, unlike plasma's which you can get rid of by watching a fast paced film. I would just shut it off to save power, if it goes off, your graphic card goes off. and most computers power through the battery. so i don't know how smart mac made hte system, but it might be pulling amps in your battery, which shortens that life too. now mind you your only doing 2-3 times the power pull most users do, so you shoudl still get 3-4 years of non stop use out of it. but you could make it last up to 10 years with better care. Hard drive's go too, and eventually your not gonna have room for more random {censored}, so there is that. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/94292-is-it-bad-to-leave-mbp-on-with-screen-up-no-sleep-for-long-periods-of-time/#findComment-1143435 Share on other sites More sharing options...
A Nonny Moose Posted May 3, 2009 Share Posted May 3, 2009 thats awesome, if i had the money i would buy a cheap powermac g4 as a pure torrent machine that is never turned off, but alas im broke . $79. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/94292-is-it-bad-to-leave-mbp-on-with-screen-up-no-sleep-for-long-periods-of-time/#findComment-1147445 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts