Is it safe to walk around/put laptop in a bag while it is on or in standby mode?

[nanyangview]

I am ordering my T40 on monday YAY!!..i will be using it for work at HP and may need to put it in my bag or walk around with it while it is on. So is it is safe to do so? Will it damage the HD?

LMK guys and thanks alot!

 

[Utterman]

Trying to advoid being a traitor to HP huh? 😀

I wouldn't see a problem having a laptop in standby since all that is getting power is the system memory. You can also use hiberation if you are using XP so the whole system shuts down, but it doesn't take that long to get it back up and running since it saves everything to the HD, then shutdown.

 

[fr]

I wouldn't do it. It still generates some heat while in standby and it is technically still on.

 

[Spicedaddy]

If it's on, it might not be a good idea to put it in a bag since it'll heat up. In standby, there's no problem.

 

[andrewjm]

Originally posted by: Spicedaddy
If it's on, it might not be a good idea to put it in a bag since it'll heat up. In standby, there's no problem.

I think you mean there is no problem in hibernation mode...

hibernation = saves ram to hdd and turns off
standby = shuts everything down except still having power to the ram (still running)

 

[Spicedaddy]

Originally posted by: andrewjm

Originally posted by: Spicedaddy
If it's on, it might not be a good idea to put it in a bag since it'll heat up. In standby, there's no problem.

I think you mean there is no problem in hibernation mode...

hibernation = saves ram to hdd and turns off
standby = shuts everything down except still having power to the ram (still running)

Nope, I mean Standby. The heat produced is so small it doesn't matter IMO...


BTW, while we're on the subject, does anyone know why Hibernate mode uses power? It's only like 2-3% of the battery for a day, but it's still using power unlike when you shut down completely.

 

[Shivatron]

Originally posted by: Spicedaddy
Nope, I mean Standby. The heat produced is so small it doesn't matter IMO...

I agree. In fact, for me, it would defeat the purpose of having a laptop if I couldn't just whip it out of the bag and have it on. (The Apple portables are the best for this, I hear, because OS X lets them "awake" instantly.) YMMV, of course.

 

[Steve Guilliot]

Hibernation uses "0" battery. What makes you think it uses 2-3%?

Prove it to yourself by removing the battery for as long as you like while in hibernate mode. It will boot back up fine.

 

[Spicedaddy]

Originally posted by: Steve Guilliot
Hibernation uses "0" battery. What makes you think it uses 2-3%?

Prove it to yourself by removing the battery for as long as you like while in hibernate mode. It will boot back up fine.

If I shut it down for 12 hours, it stays exactly the same. If I put it in Hibernation for 12 hours, battery drops a few percents.

I've seen other people post about this before, I'm not the only one.

 

[substance12]

Is one (standby or hib) better than the other?

 

[Spoooon]

Originally posted by: Spicedaddy

Originally posted by: Steve Guilliot
Hibernation uses "0" battery. What makes you think it uses 2-3%?

Prove it to yourself by removing the battery for as long as you like while in hibernate mode. It will boot back up fine.

If I shut it down for 12 hours, it stays exactly the same. If I put it in Hibernation for 12 hours, battery drops a few percents.

I've seen other people post about this before, I'm not the only one.

But won't power slowly leak out of the battery anyway? Maybe that explains the loss in power.

 

[dnuggett]

You can walk around all day with your laptop on standby. It will not heat up or damage any of the components just because standby is used. I do this everyday 5 days a week.

 

[JackHawksmoor]

Sleep works well on Apple's systems (better than standby on most Windows systems), but I wish they still had hibernate support. I prefer that, and it dosen't take much longer to start back up than from sleep.

 

[chuckieland]

so i put it on standby and put my laptop into my laptop bag
and i can travel no problem at all?
what's difference between doing that and do a completed shut down?
my IBM T40 boot up very fast, i would say it's about the same as coming off standby time

 

[RichieZ]

Originally posted by: Spoooon

Originally posted by: Spicedaddy

Originally posted by: Steve Guilliot
Hibernation uses "0" battery. What makes you think it uses 2-3%?

Prove it to yourself by removing the battery for as long as you like while in hibernate mode. It will boot back up fine.

If I shut it down for 12 hours, it stays exactly the same. If I put it in Hibernation for 12 hours, battery drops a few percents.

I've seen other people post about this before, I'm not the only one.

But won't power slowly leak out of the battery anyway? Maybe that explains the loss in power.

Theoritically no, I believe hibernation writes everything in ram to the HD and then it basically shuts down. Suspend mode just puts the laptop to sleep but you still have to power the ram since its not static memory.

 

[stingbandel]

I wouldn't do it. I did that before and my IBM hdd now has bad sectors on it.

I don't know if it's because of the stand by thing but what I know is I have bad sectors. IBM hdd is really sensitive.

 

[JackHawksmoor]

so i put it on standby and put my laptop into my laptop bag
and i can travel no problem at all?
what's difference between doing that and do a completed shut down?
my IBM T40 boot up very fast, i would say it's about the same as coming off standby time

Standby/Sleep shuts down the hard drive and screen, and slows/puts most of the rest of the hardware in a low power state, but keeps main memory powered up with everything just left sitting there.

Hibernation writes the contents of RAM to the hard drive, and then completely shuts off the system. Next time you boot, the OS reads that file back into RAM, and you avoid the normal boot process.

 

[WobbleWobble]

Originally posted by: Spicedaddy

Originally posted by: Steve Guilliot
Hibernation uses "0" battery. What makes you think it uses 2-3%?

Prove it to yourself by removing the battery for as long as you like while in hibernate mode. It will boot back up fine.

If I shut it down for 12 hours, it stays exactly the same. If I put it in Hibernation for 12 hours, battery drops a few percents.

I've seen other people post about this before, I'm not the only one.

The battery drops a few percents because that's the nature of the Li-Ion batteries. They gradually discharge themselves.

To reaffirm other's answers, hibernation writes the RAM to the HDD and then shuts down using no power.
Suspend keeps just enough power to keep only the RAM on, but uses very little power.

The heat generated in Suspend mode isn't enough to damage the computer in a confined space.

But anyways, yes, it's safe to carry your laptop while it's in suspended mode. It's safe because in suspend mode the laptop will park the HDD head.

 

[WobbleWobble]

Originally posted by: Spicedaddy

Originally posted by: Steve Guilliot
Hibernation uses "0" battery. What makes you think it uses 2-3%?

Prove it to yourself by removing the battery for as long as you like while in hibernate mode. It will boot back up fine.

If I shut it down for 12 hours, it stays exactly the same. If I put it in Hibernation for 12 hours, battery drops a few percents.

I've seen other people post about this before, I'm not the only one.

Hibernate your computer, unplug the power, pull the battery out. I bet you it'll work no problem once you put either the power or battery back in and start using your computer again.

 

[Gnurb]

I do this with my 12 in powerbook all the time. Nothing bad so far..

 

[prosaic]

Placing a notebook in standby and then carrying it in a bag is usually safe. However, I have seen exceptions. The right system design coupled with the right bag in the right (hot) environmnt can cause enough heat to be generated to activate the cooling fan on some systems, depending upon the standby level invoked. If that happens the fan just contributes to the heat problem since it can't cause heat to be dissipated to the environment inside the confines of a tight-fitting, padded bag. I have seen situations where some of the old Inspiron 7000 / 7500 units would get too hot to handle when placed in a bag after being put into standby. Basically poor design and implementation by the manufacturer, but it does happen.

I suspect (strongly) that the T40 will have no such problem.

- prosaic

 

[azazello]

My T40 is never off - it is either on or sleeping (standby). (It will go to hibernation if sleeping with no AC after 6 hours, but that rarely happens.) I carry it in my backpack with no extra padding and all ventilation blocked for 10-12 hours a day, and I've never seen it so much as get hot to touch when sleeping. When on and in the backpack, it may get hot.

Concordantly, standby doesn't consume much power at all - I once let it sleep for 2 days on battery and it dropped by less than 50%. Also, waking up from standby is an order of magnitude faster than waking up from hibernation - 1~3 seconds versus close to 30.

Interestingly, I once let it overheat and shut down while on, because it was in a car under direct sunlight. Apparently the CPU temperature sensor was tripped. No lasting damage occurred. This is what will happen if overheating does occur; this was in the middle of a desert at noon in summer in a car with direct sunlight, A/C off and fans directed away from the laptop. I doubt any backpack will provide this kind of environment.

 

[Pandaren]

This is what will happen if overheating does occur; this was in the middle of a desert at noon in summer in a car with direct sunlight, A/C off and fans directed away from the laptop

Good to know the T40 is smart enough to save itself from thermal destruction, but what in the world were you doing in the middle of a desert with your T40? :Q 😀

I keep my T40 in standby much of the time. Overnight (7-8 hours) it looses between 8-10% of its battery charge if I don't leave it plugged in.