Forgive me if this a dumb question.
As I understand it, when a computer is in Windows 7 “sleep mode” it still consumes some power (although a reduced amount), and thus still produces some heat. In those circumstances, is it safe to have it in its carrying case (I am thinking of a padded shoulder-bag) for a moderately extended period, or will this cause overheating? In the case, the cooling vents will, to all intents, be blocked, and the case padding will be a fairly effective thermal insulator.
Yeah, it’s safe.
You’re talking about a very minimal amount of heat that can be readily dissipated by conduction. It wouldn’t matter much that the vents are blocked, because the fan isn’t turning anyway.
Though, depending on what you mean by a “moderately extended” period of time, you might just want to shutdown, since the battery will eventually run down.
I do this all the time. The laptop is cool when I take it out of the bag (if it’s been a while), not warm.
The only problem I ever encounter is not getting back to it soon enough, and it running out of power while sleeping. I’m on XP, though. Windows 7 has hybrid sleep mode, where it will switch from sleep to hibernate before that happens.
It’s not worth the risk. I take care of school issued student laptops. We get a few ruined every year because they “woke up” while they were closed up in the bag. Some of them have been so hot when the students brought them in that it was a wonder the bag didn’t ignite.
I’ve never had that problem, but I only do this with my work computer. I have to press the power button or a key to wake it up. Just lifting the cover won’t do anything. On my home laptop, briefly opening the cover even a little will wake it up, so Doug K.'s warning would make sense for that one.
I do it always. The batt would probably run down in 5-7 days, but I usually have it out and charging in 3-4. It is a Netbook, though, with an 8 hour (nominal) battery.
Thanks guys.
Here’s the thing, the computer in question has a problem in that it will not restart readily after being shut down. Since the problem first manifested, it has, in most cases, taken many, many attempts to restart it from off:
After many iterations of this, it eventually starts and runs normally. (So far, over the about three months since the problem started, I have done this successfully about six times, after shut downs for various reasons, ranging from my stupidity to software induced lock-ups. Of course, each time I have to do it, I am nervous that I will never get it going again.)
I had a repair guy look at it. He tested the hard drive and RAM, and said they are both fine. He flashed the BIOS in case that was corrupt. It didn’t help. He gave up.
Because of this, ever since I got it back from the repair guy I am keeping it plugged in and running 24/7. This means, however, that I can’t switch it off to carry it about. My current plan is to buy a new battery (old one doesn’t last very long) and carry it about always in sleep mode instead of turned off, and I wanted to know if this is safe (as my habit in the past has always been to turn it off while it is in its case). I don’t intend to keep it it sleeping in its case for days on end: probably an hour or two, tops while I am in transit somewhere. It will do a soft reboot OK, and I think it will wake up from sleep OK, it just won’t (readily) turn back on from being off. (I haven’t tried hibernate, but my intuition is that that will be as bad or worse than turning off.)
Any ideas on how what might actually be wrong with it, and how it might be fixed, are very welcome, but I did a thread before on that, several weeks ago (before it went to the repair guy), and nobody was able to solve it.
It sounds like a bad power supply or system board. If it’s still in warranty, I would contact the manufacturer. If not, you should consider getting a new computer.
Another thing you may want to try is the following (some system boards can build up a charge which causes all sorts of crazy problems):
It is out of warranty (just :rolleyes:). I got a new computer (when I thought the repair guy had failed and the laptop wold never run again), but it is a desktop. I can’t afford a new laptop, but anyway, as this one runs beautifully once you get it started, I would like to be able to use it occasionally like an actual laptop for as long as I can get it to last. From what others have said, I think the option of using sleep mode may be viable. Currently I have two two computers plugged in and running in my living room, which is a bit pointless with only me here.
Is there a “power supply” in a laptop, apart from the external thing and the battery? I don’t think it can be either of those. The behavior is the same whether it is plugged in or you try to start on battery power.
Yes. I have tried that one. Thanks anyway.
Besides the battery running down, you want to beware of it waking up unintentionally. If you have an external mouse, I think by default moving the mouse wakes up the computer.
Turn the mouse off. Saves two batteries.