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Add Better Sleep to Your MacBook with SmartSleep
Posted by Adam Pash at 10:00 AM on February 28, 2008
Mac OS X only: Freeware application SmartSleep adds a preference pane to your Mac laptop's system preferences to enhance the usefulness of your Mac's sleep states. It does so by dynamically adjusting the type of sleep state your MacBook will use based on your battery life. For example, as long as your Mac's battery has more than a 20% charge or 20 minutes remaining, SmartSleep will tell your Mac to sleep but not hibernate. This will sleep your laptop very quickly, but it will also keep your data in your RAM, which means your battery will still be draining slightly while you're sleeping. Below 20% will switch to sleep and hibernate mode, which saves your system state to the hard drive, thereby preserving more battery. Last, if you're at under 5%, SmartSleep will hibernate only. SmartSleep is freeware, Mac OS X only.
Tags: battery | downloads | energy saving | featured mac download | hibernation | laptops | mac | mac os x | sleep | top
Comments (AU Comments · US Comments)
There are currently no AU comments for this post.
Josh
Posted 11:51 AM 28/2/08
I had just been reading about how the Hackintosh PCs were havin problems with sleep mode. I have not set up a Hackintosh of my own due to my laptop having an AMD processor, yet would this even work on a Hackintosh? Just a question that popped in my head.
Josh
5cents
Posted 12:41 PM 28/2/08
I've been using the DeepSleep widget which lets you manually control which behavior is used. I can't decide whether I like the control to myself or whether I'd prefer it automated by Smart Sleep. Deep Sleep would allow me to change batteries without losing my current work state on command which is nice...
5cents
Adam Pash
Posted 12:41 PM 28/2/08
@Josh: I'm guessing it depends on whether or not sleep initially works on your Hackintosh. Sleep works perfectly on my Hackintosh PC, but this is really just for laptops, so I couldn't say.
Adam Pash
pham
Posted 11:55 PM 28/2/08
I second the DeepSleep widget. Any time I'm traveling and I know my laptop will be "sleeping" for a significant amount of time, I'll hibernate it instead. Note that with some of the MacBook Pros, when you wake up from a hibernate, your keyboard won't respond for about 30 seconds.
pham
digitalhen
Posted 8:41 AM 29/2/08
Quality idea. Does something exist like this for Windows? It would be nice to have an app that controls what happens when i shut the lid based on various factors... AC connected, monitor connected, battery life left etc
digitalhen
wkuhtreiber
Posted 8:41 AM 29/2/08
Does somebody know whether this will also work with Leopard? Last week I upgraded my black MacBook (Core Duo --- not Core 2 Duo) from Tiger to Leopard, and since that time the sleep light does not come on anymore at all. The computer appears to sleep (no hard drive or fan running, display black), but you can't tell from the light. I have read that others have problems where the light stays on, and does not "breathe". It worked fine under Tiger.
I wonder if SmartSleep might fix some of that, but I'll hold off trying it until I know whether Leopard is OK.
wkuhtreiber
robot_kid
Posted 11:02 AM 29/2/08
"Below 20% will switch to sleep and hibernate mode, which saves your system state to the hard drive, thereby preserving more battery"
Umm.. no. The RAM will drain just as quickly whether its contents have been saved to the hard drive or not.
That said, this is a cool little utility.
robot_kid
digitalhen
Posted 3:41 AM 1/3/08
@robot_kid: in hibernate mode, your system is off. no battery drain.
digitalhen
weizilla
Posted 5:34 PM 1/3/08
has anyone tried this an confirm that all 3 modes work?
weizilla
Rosstafari
Posted 2:04 PM 7/3/08
I wouldn't recommend using this, at least not until it's out of beta. I downloaded it to my MacBook, turned on the smart sleep mode, and after doing some work, put my computer to sleep and stuck it in my bag.
When I took it back out about an hour and half later, it was burning hot -- apparently it had been on the entire time, but my somewhat-insulated bag had blocked the vents. Another half hour or so and it probably would've cooked my laptop (and maybe set my bag on fire...).
If you still try it out, make sure you keep an eye on it until you're sure that it works with your system the way it's intended to.
Rosstafari