Sleep Deprive Your Macbook With InsomniaX

1:08 pm, January 16th, 2009, Dean Putney

As a student, one of the main advantages of having a laptop is that you can study in quieter places with fewer distractions. As a photographer, you’re probably excited about using your laptop for tethered shooting on the go.

Here’s the paradox: if you try to shut the lid to focus on your term paper while you’re listening to music, or want to put your laptop in your backpack while you’re shooting, everything turns off.

Thanks to InsomniaX, you can get complete control over the system’s sleep cycle in a neat little menu item. To get this functionality on my old iBook I completely disassembled it and removed the bits that detect when the lid is closed. You don’t want to do that!

Download InsomniaX! Go ahead and listen to your music! Fill your hard drive with photos direct from your camera! The world is your oyster.

Posted by Dean Putney in Software | Comment on this article

If you enjoyed this article:
Subscribe via RSS or email, or follow us on Facebook and Twitter

About the author

Email the author | Read more posts by Dean Putney.

10 comments

I don’t think this works on leopard

Check comments list – works for like no1 :/

I was never able to get it working properly on an intel MBP running tiger

Josh, on January 16th, 2009 at 1:30 pm

For the record, this is something to be extremely careful with. Laptops can get hot, especially when crammed, closed into a bag with everything still running.

Bob, on January 16th, 2009 at 1:46 pm

This sounds cool and would solve one of my biggest annoyances w/ my mac since switching over from a thinkpad. however, since the MPB’s cooling system is not all that efficient and releases a fair amount of heat from the speakers in addition to the slot on the back under the screen, some MBP users who had found clever ways to force their computer to stay awake were reporting inadvertent discoloration of the screen due to the heat escaping through the speaker grills. This was a year or two ago, so it may not be an issue anymore, but sounds like you’d probably wanna use this one sparingly….

RMC, on January 16th, 2009 at 2:06 pm

I like the idea of this functionality, but reading the comments on their site it sounds like this thing can cause a lot of bugs and headaches.

Camperton, on January 16th, 2009 at 2:40 pm

I’ve been using InsomniaX for quite some time now, and it’s great!

I’ve got it set as a login item, so it’s always ready!

Rob Lawton, on January 16th, 2009 at 4:03 pm

I’ve only been using it since yesterday, and definitely sparingly. I’m running Leopard, so I can tell you that the function I talked about works correctly in Leopard.

Dean Putney, on January 16th, 2009 at 7:18 pm

Try caffeine – http://caffeine.en.softonic.com/mac, it does the same and park itself at the menu bar for you to easily turn it on or off .

AdamC, on January 16th, 2009 at 8:30 pm

This works even if you don’t use it to run in clamshell mode. It can sleep the screen on demand, including the backlight keyboard! It does wonders in 10.5 I’ve only used it with my 2008 MBP.

jrabbit, on January 17th, 2009 at 4:41 pm

You took apart your iBook!! You must be a geek!