[Nobody]

Aloha,
After receiving and returning two 12" 900mhz combo drive ibooks because of dead pixels, I said the heck with it, and ordered a 14" model instead. I liked the 12" display, but at times it was small. My plan was to buy a 17" crt to use for those times. However, I had received two defective 12" models in a row, thus took that as a sign from the heavens to stop being cheap /forums/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif and go ahead and get the 14" 900 mhz combo drive model. C'est la vie!
It arrived yesterday, paid $1444 from Amazon with free UPS 2nd day air, no tax. It wasn't double boxed with the inner box surrounded by peanuts, like the other unit, however, so far, this 14" model appears to be in perfect working condition. No dead pixels (yeah!), and the CD burner works fine, just need to test out the modem this afternoon.
Despite my complete novice-ness, I even successfully installed 512MB of Crucial memory, no problems whatsoever, took 12 minutes.
Initial impressions are that the 14" display is just a hair, I do mean slightly, less sharp than the 12" display. However, I find the 14" display overall easier on the eyes. With the 12 incher I had to sit right up against the display to see everything. The larger display affords a more relaxed viewing perspective, allowing me to sit back a bit.
What's the word on sleep mode? For overnight, is it better to shut the unit down or put it in sleep mode? I don't really care about the extra few seconds it takes to start up from scratch vs. sleep mode. However, is there some other advantage to sleep mode? Is it better for the longevity of the computer? Does it run overnight maintenance stuff while sleeping but not when shut down?
Thanks again for all of your patient help!

[CrecenS]

I never shut my computers down unless:
- I am away for days
- routine service restarts
- I am desperate to save battery power
I do put them to sleep regularly though.
You'll spend more time waiting if you always start and shut off your computer, and being on all the time really doesn't hurt them. With your laptop, however, make sure the computer has good ventilation if you leave it on - you don't want to melt it!
The computer will only run its night jobs if its actually on, not asleep. Sleep uses minimal power, and battery time really is not effected unless you are powerless for days.

[lkalliance]

It used to be an issue that turning on and off the computer was bad for it in general, due to the constant heating and cooling down of the components, but that's not such a big deal any more.
I put my computer to sleep each night only. It only uses minimal power. Once a week I shut it down completely, so that it can run through the diagnostic sequences of startup once in a while.

[serpico]

I myself do the same with my iBook, it sleeps as night and maybe once a week I'll restart or shutdown. Run Cocktail if you don't let the maintenance scripts happen at night. You can find that app over at Versiontracker.com.

[Nobody]

Quick question: Last night when I put the ibook to sleep a white pulsating light on the front outside of the case pulsated all night. Tonight when I put it to sleep, no such light.
What does the light mean, and why would it be on one night, and not the other?
The only difference I can think of is that last night the unit was plugged in, and tonight it's not.......

[CrecenS]

The pulsating light is Apple' sleep thing - a pulse means that the computer is on but asleep. No pulse means that the computer is off. If your computer really was asleep but not pulsing, you may have a problem - are you sureyour computer was on last night?

[Skybolt]

On a similar note - I notice that when I close the iBook cover, the light pulses, but if I leave the cover open and the screen goes blank, and it seems to go to sleep, no pulsing light. I have the Energy Saver set to sleep when possible and for the screen to go dark after so many minutes (I forget how many, not at the mac now). What am I doing wrong? Thanks in advance!

[CrecenS]

Well, if you set your screen to go dark before the computer goes to sleep, the screen will be blank, but the computer will be on. Eventually, you will see the light start to throb, as the computer finally goes to sleep.
You are not doing anything wrong, its just your settings.

[Nobody]

Howdy,
Here's what happened, not sure what it means. Concerned about the lack of pulsating light, before going to bed I tried to wake the computer up from sleep. Nothing happened. Hit every key, nada. Plugged it in and hit the power key, nothing. Franticly began digging through my two OSX books for a solution. One suggested to hold down the power key for 5 seconds. Did that, fiddled some more, and eventually the unit restarted from scratch with the full login routine.
Once everything came up, I again put the computer to sleep. Same deal. The screen went black like it would for sleep. No pulsating light. Refused to either wake or turn on with the power button.
Yikes!
Read through the trouble shooting section of "OSX: Missing Manual". Eventually got the computer to come back on by holding down the power button for 5 second intervals. Followed Pogue's directions for running the hardware test CD. Eveything came up ok. Did the restart CMD-C routine to load the disk utilities off of the OSX install disc. Ran both "repair disk permissions" and the "repair disk" on the Mac HD. The repair disk said everything was fine. On the permissions front, a number of things were reported as "corrected".
Made it back to the OSX desktop and, with the computer plugged in, put it to sleep.
This time it went to sleep like normal, pulsating light and all. Awoke effortlessly. Let it sleep overnight, and just awoke it this morning, everything is ok dokey.
This morning I tried putting to sleep and waking both from battery power and from AC. It both went to sleep an awoke perfectly.
What does this mean?!?!
Without the Missing Manual, I would've never known how to run the disk utilities.
Should I do a reinstall of OSX or just leave it as it is and see how goes?
Thanks!

[CrecenS]

Well, the first thing I always do with a new HD is repartition it. I have learned to separate the OS from my data. Other than that, I wouldn't be too worried about your laptop's performance . . . yet.

[Matt_G]

In reply to:

---

Aloha,
After receiving and returning two 12" 900mhz combo drive ibooks because of dead pixels, I said the heck with it, and ordered a 14" model instead. I liked the 12" display, but at times it was small. My plan was to buy a 17" crt to use for those times. However, I had received two defective 12" models in a row, thus took that as a sign from the heavens to stop being cheap and go ahead and get the 14" 900 mhz combo drive model. C'est la vie!

---

Sorry, guess I haven't been paying much attention lately...
You received TWO bad iBooks in a row? I'm sorry to hear that /forums/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif
Well, hope you're enjoying the 14". I had one for a while and I really liked it.
As for sleep mode, I guess it depends on what your usage will be like. More or less, the way it works for me is like this: If I'm home, the computer is either on, or sleeping. If it's the weekend, whether I'm home or not, it's on or sleeping. On weekdays, when I leave for the day (school, work, whatever), I turn it off. I imagine it's good to shut it down and get a fresh reboot once in a while anyway.
I would be interested to find out how long I could go without rebooting; I've never tried it. Never really could I guess, with all of the applications I add and install that require reboots.

[Peter]

Any sleep issue would not be hardware related, but software. When you told us you were receiving your new iBook I recommended that you wipe your drive and do a clean install, with updates. I still advise that. I don't think you need to partition your drive, and I think you should not install OS9. Also by doing a clean installation, you learn more about your computer and how to do things with it. Go ahead and and do this before you get into major use. This way you don't have to back up if you have nothing on it.

[Nobody]

Hi Peter,
I remember that you suggested the clean install, I've just been too timid /forums/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif I'll read through the Missing Manual's directions for that and see what I'm looking at.
To utterly and further complicate matters, I've spend the day using the 14" ibook. It's a great machine. But after hours of use, I'm starting to find that the display feels a good bit more blurry than the 12". I can handle the 14" ok, but my housemate and computer partner finds it much much more blurry than the 12".
I've done the turn off font smoothing for below 12 pt, and have fooled around with the display calibration.
With the 12" my impression remained over the several days it was here was, "wow, this is a really clear screen." The 14" has now become, "nice and big, but where's the focus dial, if I just adjust the focus a little bit......"
I'm thinking about sending the 14" back, will only cost $33 to do so, even though it pains me to send a perfectly working machine back to HQ. Go ahead and wait for WWDC, then order another 12" ibook, or maybe the 12" Powerbook given the recent price drop.
Peter, now that you've had your powerbook for awhile, what do you think of it? Is the heat that bad? Did you have the warping problem? That's the one that has steered me away. How does the PB compare to your old 800mhz ibook?
In what situations do you find the 12" display to be too small (ie. text to small to read, etc.) and what do you do to get around it?
Fuzzyly,
John

[Peter]

Hi John,
I love my Powerbook now. I still wish for less heat but it really isn't a problem for me at all anymore. I also use a CoolPad. No warping no problems in any way. If you feel it's right for you then do it. You will love the keyboard and the G4 aspect. I just want you to get something this time and keep it. It's time for you to move away from the purchase experience to the joy of usage.