standby

[scisco]

i have a macbook pro with leopard installed.

if i'm working without the computer plugged it (so just using battery power) what happens when it enters the standby mode?

does it continue to carrying out the operations it was processing or does it just "pause" everything? i'm referring to cd burning, data copying, renders, etc...

 

[macworks]

Your question is sort of an oxymoron. How could a computer continue operations while in standby mode?

Perhaps you need to define what you mean by "standby mode" and/or "carrying out the operations".

There are two sleep modes on the computer -- one for the screen, and one for the computer itself (the processor, RAM, HD, logic board, etc). Usually, the screen is set to go out before the computer does. So in a sense, the computer could continue to "carry out the operations" while "in standby mode" if your definition of standby mode only applies to the screen.

But you mentioned running on battery. So at some point the entire computer WILL go to sleep when the battery runs out. The computer essentially "pauses" or goes into "standby mode" when this occurs. In other words, if you plug in a power source and wake the computer ... your unsaved documents are still open and you can continue to edit them. As for burning disks, it's likely that the disk burn would fail if the computer was in the middle of burning when it went to sleep. It sure would be interesting to test, though.

 

[scisco]

By "standby mode" I mean when there is still battery power left, but the screen goes black because the keyboard has been left untouched for a few minutes.

I sometimes find myself transferring data from an external drive or burning cd's even when my computer is not plugged in. I just wonder if I have to keep tapping the touchpad now and again to keep the computer "awake" in order to ensure these operations are concluded successfully...

 

[nixgeek]

Sounds like you're asking if the screen will blank out after a couple of minutes on battery. OS X will do that but you can disable that option in System Preferences under the Energy Saver pane. However, if by standby you mean that not only the screen goes black but the system goes into a low power mode, then yeah it will affect certain apps that would require active use of the hardware (like disc burning software or anything requiring network access unless the latter was configured not to do that). However, if you're working on a word processing document for example then it should still be active when you activate the Mac out of its low power mode.

 

[symphonix]

With the computer lid closed it enters a sleep mode and will not continue processing. For instance, scheduled tasks won't run and calendar alarms won't go off until it is re-opened.

The processor and devices are drawing a minimal amount of power: enough to detect if a USB device is plugged in, for instance. In sleep mode, it will be able to last for days without charging the battery, so sleep mode is certainly suitable for - for instance - shutting your Mac laptop and moving it to another room or building.

When transferring data or burning CDs, the computer won't allow itself to go to sleep until after the task is finished. The screen may turn off to save power, but the processing continues until the task is done.

In fact, clearly a lot of thought has gone into designing all of the applications to allow this to work smoothly - Just try importing several thousand photos into iPhoto and walk away from the computer; when you get back it will have finished the job and gone to sleep. So, no worries!