Energy Saver

The Energy Saver preference pane (Figures 49 and 52) enables you to specify settings for automatic system, display, and hard disk sleep. These settings can reduce the amount of power your computer uses when idle.

Figure 49. The Sleep pane of the Energy Saver preferences pane.

Figure 52. The Options pane of the Energy Saver preferences pane.

Tips

• Energy Saver settings are especially important for PowerBook and iBook users running on battery power.

• To wake a sleeping display, press any key. A sleeping hard disk wakes automatically when it needs to.

• Display sleep is a better way to protect flat panel displays and displays on PowerBooks and iBooks than a screen saver. Mac OS X's built-in screen saver is covered earlier in this chapter.

To set Energy Saver sleep options

1.	In the Energy Saver preferences pane, click the Sleep button to display its options (Figure 49).
2.	Set options as desired: To set the computer sleep timing, drag the top slider to the left or right. To set different display sleep timing, drag the second slider to the left or right. (You cannot set display sleep for longer than computer sleep.) To tell your computer to put the hard disk to sleep when it isn't needed, turn on the check box.

To schedule start up & shut down

1.	In the Energy Saver preferences pane, click the Schedule button to display its options (Figure 50). Figure 50. The Schedule options for the Energy Saver preferences pane.
2.	To start the computer automatically, turn on the top check box. Then choose an option from the pop-up menu (Figure 51) and enter a time beside it. Figure 51. Use this pop-up menu to specify the days you want to start up or shut down the computer automatically.
3.	To shut down the computer automatically, turn on the second check box, choose an option from the second pop-up menu in that line (Figure 51), and enter a time beside it.

Tip

• To set the computer to sleep rather than shut down, after step 3, choose Sleep from the first pop-up menu in the second line.

To set Energy Saver waking & restarting options

1.

In the Energy Saver preferences pane, click the Options button (Figure 52).

2.

Set wake and other options as desired: Wake when the modem detects a ring wakes the computer from System sleep when the modem detects an incoming call. Wake for Ethernet network administrator access wakes the computer from computer sleep when it detects a Wake-on-LAN packet. Allow power button to sleep the computer puts the computer to sleep when you press the power button. This option does not appear for all computers. Restart automatically after a power failure automatically restarts the computer when power is restored after a power failure.

Tip

• If your computer is being used as a server, it's important to turn on the Restart automatically check box. This ensures that the computer is running whenever possible.