iBook sleep problems

I don't think it sleeps when I close the lid.
Alan Spitz wrote on :

I've got an iBook running 10.3.9.

I don't think it sleeps when I close the lid. I've been in the habit of closing the lid and unplugging the power supply at bed-time. I noticed that when I opened the lid the next afternoon it had something less than 90% of charge. Today I was sitting there with the lid closed and I heard the familiar new mail chime.

It seems to me that when the unit sleeps everyting is more or less dead and I shouldn't hear new mail's arrival. Maybe there is some sort of mechanical problem with the switch?

The other puzzle is that sometimes when the lid is closed a hear what sounds like the disk spinning.

If anybody has any ideas that might help me I'd appreciate it.

Bob Harris replied on :

In article 2005072420481716807%spitz@redacted.invalid, Alan Spitz spitz@redacted.invalid wrote:

I've got an iBook running 10.3.9.

I don't think it sleeps when I close the lid. I've been in the habit of closing the lid and unplugging the power supply at bed-time. I noticed that when I opened the lid the next afternoon it had something less than 90% of charge. Today I was sitting there with the lid closed and I heard the familiar new mail chime.

It seems to me that when the unit sleeps everyting is more or less dead and I shouldn't hear new mail's arrival. Maybe there is some sort of mechanical problem with the switch?

The other puzzle is that sometimes when the lid is closed a hear what sounds like the disk spinning.

If anybody has any ideas that might help me I'd appreciate it.

does the white light next to the latch release button pulse? If it does that is suppose to indicate you are asleep. If it does not pulse, then this is a strong indication that the iBook is not asleep.

                                    Bob Harris
Alan Spitz replied on :

On 2005-07-25 21:46:06 -0400, Bob Harris nospam.News.Bob@redacted.invalid said:

In article 2005072420481716807%spitz@redacted.invalid, Alan Spitz spitz@redacted.invalid wrote:

I've got an iBook running 10.3.9.

I don't think it sleeps when I close the lid. I've been in the habit of closing the lid and unplugging the power supply at bed-time. I noticed that when I opened the lid the next afternoon it had something less than 90% of charge. Today I was sitting there with the lid closed and I heard the familiar new mail chime.

It seems to me that when the unit sleeps everyting is more or less dead and I shouldn't hear new mail's arrival. Maybe there is some sort of mechanical problem with the switch?

The other puzzle is that sometimes when the lid is closed a hear what sounds like the disk spinning.

If anybody has any ideas that might help me I'd appreciate it.

does the white light next to the latch release button pulse? If it does that is suppose to indicate you are asleep. If it does not pulse, then this is a strong indication that the iBook is not asleep.

                                    Bob Harris

Yes, the white light near the latch release button pulses. Today when I got home from work there was 76% of charge left. Tonight at bedtimje I plan to put it to sleep via the selection on the Apple menu. We'll see if that helps at all.

Alan Spitz replied on :

On 2005-07-26 16:58:58 -0400, Alan Spitz spitz@redacted.invalid said:

On 2005-07-25 21:46:06 -0400, Bob Harris nospam.News.Bob@redacted.invalid said:

In article 2005072420481716807%spitz@redacted.invalid, Alan Spitz spitz@redacted.invalid wrote:

I've got an iBook running 10.3.9.

I don't think it sleeps when I close the lid. I've been in the habit of closing the lid and unplugging the power supply at bed-time. I noticed that when I opened the lid the next afternoon it had something less than 90% of charge. Today I was sitting there with the lid closed and I heard the familiar new mail chime.

It seems to me that when the unit sleeps everyting is more or less dead and I shouldn't hear new mail's arrival. Maybe there is some sort of mechanical problem with the switch?

The other puzzle is that sometimes when the lid is closed a hear what sounds like the disk spinning.

If anybody has any ideas that might help me I'd appreciate it.

does the white light next to the latch release button pulse? If it does that is suppose to indicate you are asleep. If it does not pulse, then this is a strong indication that the iBook is not asleep.

                                    Bob Harris

Yes, the white light near the latch release button pulses. Today when I got home from work there was 76% of charge left. Tonight at bedtimje I plan to put it to sleep via the selection on the Apple menu. We'll see if that helps at all.

Well, I put it to sleep last night via the Apple menu and today after work it showed 93% charge left. Last night it was at 100% charge. So, it still lost 7% of its charge. It seems to me it should not loose anything. Could there be some process running that prevents it from sleeping?

Robert Peirce replied on :

In article 2005072716484616807%spitz@redacted.invalid, Alan Spitz spitz@redacted.invalid wrote:

On 2005-07-26 16:58:58 -0400, Alan Spitz spitz@redacted.invalid said:

Well, I put it to sleep last night via the Apple menu and today after work it showed 93% charge left. Last night it was at 100% charge. So, it still lost 7% of its charge. It seems to me it should not loose anything. Could there be some process running that prevents it from sleeping?

It is still running, just at a very low level; ie, it is asleep! If you don't want any battery drain, shut it down. Actually, if you are mostly running off battery and only use it in the evening, you probably should shut it down. That's what my daughter does. My PowerBook is on the charger most of the time so I don't even put it to sleep.

Alan Spitz replied on :

On 2005-07-28 11:05:55 -0400, Robert Peirce bob@redacted.invalid said:

In article 2005072716484616807%spitz@redacted.invalid, Alan Spitz spitz@redacted.invalid wrote:

On 2005-07-26 16:58:58 -0400, Alan Spitz spitz@redacted.invalid said:

Well, I put it to sleep last night via the Apple menu and today after work it showed 93% charge left. Last night it was at 100% charge. So, it still lost 7% of its charge. It seems to me it should not loose anything. Could there be some process running that prevents it from sleeping?

It is still running, just at a very low level; ie, it is asleep! If you don't want any battery drain, shut it down. Actually, if you are mostly running off battery and only use it in the evening, you probably should shut it down. That's what my daughter does. My PowerBook is on the charger most of the time so I don't even put it to sleep.

Well, today after work it was down to 85% - a loss of 15%. I put it to sleep last night via the Apple menu. I don't believe it was sleeping. When it gets down to around 5% or 10% it tells me it is going to go to sleep until I plug it into my charger. I've never let it go to sleep at that point but presumably it will not loose any data while it is sleeping. I had been under the impression that when it is sleeping the power drain is minimal - certainly a lot less than 15%!

Peter Renzland replied on :

On 2005-07-29 Alan Spitz spitz@redacted.invalid wrote:

On 2005-07-28 11:05:55 -0400, Robert Peirce bob@redacted.invalid said:

In article 2005072716484616807%spitz@redacted.invalid, Alan Spitz spitz@redacted.invalid wrote:

On 2005-07-26 16:58:58 -0400, Alan Spitz spitz@redacted.invalid said:

Well, I put it to sleep last night via the Apple menu and today after work it showed 93% charge left. Last night it was at 100% charge. So, it still lost 7% of its charge. It seems to me it should not loose anything. Could there be some process running that prevents it from sleeping?

It is still running, just at a very low level; ie, it is asleep! If you don't want any battery drain, shut it down. Actually, if you are mostly running off battery and only use it in the evening, you probably should shut it down. That's what my daughter does. My PowerBook is on the charger most of the time so I don't even put it to sleep.

Well, today after work it was down to 85% - a loss of 15%. I put it to sleep last night via the Apple menu. I don't believe it was sleeping. When it gets down to around 5% or 10% it tells me it is going to go to sleep until I plug it into my charger. I've never let it go to sleep at that point but presumably it will not loose any data while it is sleeping. I had been under the impression that when it is sleeping the power drain is minimal - certainly a lot less than 15%!

The load while sleeping is about 15 mA, depending on how much RAM you have. This is to keep your RAM memory alive. During operation it may use 50-75 times as much current. Your battery capacity is 4000 mAh when new, and drops with use.

Thus, a brand new iBook can sleep about 4000 / 15 = 266 hours = 11 days on a full charge before it's dead. Depending on how well calibrated your battery is it may or may not be charged anywhere near its current capacity, even it it says 100%.

You say you lost 7% from "last night to today after work"? What's that? 18 hours? If your battery is brand new, in 18 hours you'd expect to drain 18 * 15 mAh = 270 mAh. And that just happens to be 6.75% of 4000 mAh.

Amazing, eh? Looks like the universe is unfolding as it should. :-)

May I suggest that you leave it plugged in while sleeping? This will be better for your battery. Don't forget to calibrate your battery every couple of months or so, if you use it.

You can trust the pulsating sleep light, and you should also find that your computer is cool when sleeping. But if that's not enough for you, look in /var/log/system.log for System Sleep and System Wake.

-- Peter in Toronto (I don't read sympatico mail)