7 replies to this topic

[SMELTN]

Ok so as some of you are probably doing yourself, I am using my 2012 MBP as my full on desktop now. I rarely take it anywhere and honestly I end up using the iPad, chromebook in the living room so I only use the MBP in my room "docked" to my 22" Acer monitor.

Now my question is, would it be ok to turn off sleep mode since its plugged in all the time? I would like to keep the setting as is for when I take it somewhere just so the battery will last longer, plus the having to sign in when it comes back on.

Is there any ill effects from doing this? What do you guys/gals suggest?

[SoupDragon]

Sorry, didn't read the post correctly - I suggested an app called Caffeine.

[Ambroos]

Just you know, your battery won't be worth a dime after about a year. Not using a battery and keeping it at 100% at all times is extremely bad. Other than that there doesn't seem to be a problem with what you intend to do!

(I don't now if it's possible on a Mac, but on my Sony Vaio I can choose to limit the charge to 50% or 80%. Doing that almost completely eradicates any form of capacity loss. I keep mine at 80% since I need it every day at school, but 50% is better if you never really discharge it.)

[Dan~]

Remove the battery, if you need it to be mobile, charge it up the night before.

I would never recommend a laptop has a full time desktop, it'll get extremely hot all the time, but depends if you'll have it 24/7 I suppose

[threetonesun]

Ambroos, on 07 October 2012 - 22:11, said:

Just you know, your battery won't be worth a dime after about a year. Not using a battery and keeping it at 100% at all times is extremely bad. Other than that there doesn't seem to be a problem with what you intend to do!

(I don't now if it's possible on a Mac, but on my Sony Vaio I can choose to limit the charge to 50% or 80%. Doing that almost completely eradicates any form of capacity loss. I keep mine at 80% since I need it every day at school, but 50% is better if you never really discharge it.)

This is not entirely true any more. It's a good idea to occasionally use the battery, but you could get away with only doing it once a month or so. Apple has a whole page on battery life here.

My old Macbook was primarily a desktop, and it didn't see any unusual battery wear for it.

[Ambroos]

threetonesun, on 08 October 2012 - 12:40, said:

This is not entirely true any more. It's a good idea to occasionally use the battery, but you could get away with only doing it once a month or so. Apple has a whole page on battery life here.

My old Macbook was primarily a desktop, and it didn't see any unusual battery wear for it.

Well sure the effect is far less noticeable with modern batteries, but battery life can still be reduced greatly. My uncle's kids have had a laptop for 2 years now, it used to last about 2h30 on one charge, now it's about 1h30, simply because they just always kept it plugged in...

[SMELTN]

laptops are different than Macbooks... just saying Also I did get the Applecare just in case, so if the battery dies in the next 3 years I can swap it out.. I hope..

I guess my question though is, if the macbook goes into sleep mode, does that stop it from charging and/or using the battery which means no drain on the battery and no charging right? Or am I wrong in thinking that?

[Ambroos]

SMELTN, on 08 October 2012 - 14:13, said:

laptops are different than Macbooks... just saying Also I did get the Applecare just in case, so if the battery dies in the next 3 years I can swap it out.. I hope..

I guess my question though is, if the macbook goes into sleep mode, does that stop it from charging and/or using the battery which means no drain on the battery and no charging right? Or am I wrong in thinking that?

Battery charging is usually done by stuff on a very low level (BIOS/EFI/special IC). It'll charge in the same way no matter what state your computer is in.