Gday guys,
im Tim. just got my macbook about 3 months ago and loving it.
its a Rev. B 2.16ghz 2gb ram 160gb HDD running Tiger... i will hopefully get leopard soon.

Im at uni at the moment doing engineering and use the mac for pretty much everything (i seem to have abandoned the desktop PC now) i have an Olympus E-500 DSLR and use that an awful lot for photos of various subjects.

since getting it, there have been a few things that i still havent quite liked.... one of which is, of course, the wireless dropping in and out. im not willing to post up a "help me" thread about that yet because our entire network is ridiculously unstable and really needs an overhaul. so i shall start from scratch with that after exams.

the other thing i have found is my macbook seems to go to sleep randomly. i can be doing nothing, or i can be doing a lot, and it will randomly go to sleep. i have since narrowed it down to it only EVER happening on my bed. this was happening from about day 3 of owning it. to be honest, it was worrying me (i havent had a mac for at least 10 years, but have always wanted one again).
anyway, about 3 days ago. lying on my bed, it felt awfully uncomfortable when i rested my elbow on certain parts. i always assumed it was the springs.... but then i remembered i had a 'therapeutic' mattress protector..... WITH MAGNETS!

i then established from that, that it was the magnets that was causing it to go to sleep (after having a bit of a panic about the magnets possibly ruining the hard drive as well) the magnets, when positioned a certain way, were affecting the magnetic latch that the macbook uses to determine when it was closed. as a result, it thought it was closed, and therefore going to sleep!
i couldnt believe that it took me that look to work it out!

i guess the moral of the story is to analyse every possible situation for a fault. i mean a magnetic mattress protector! causing all the problems. go figure.....

Interesting situation.

In the past, have had people with a lot of Powerbook G4 problems caused by it sitting on a bed.
Often, the blanket causes the Book to heat up as it gets hot from underneath, and the heat can't dissipate - it just builds up and gets hotter and hotter until the Book's max operating temperature causes it to shut-down.

I use my MacBook in exactly the same way! Typing on my bed, laying on my side, and resting on my right elbow - all the while trying to type with both hands (it really does hurt your shoulder, after a few hours, especially with the elbow being lodged between springs/coils!).

Wow, that magnet thing is pretty interesting - a good addition to the body of anecdotal knowledge. Magnets can trip the sleep reflex.

I don't believe there's any evidence that magnets have any theraputic value, so you can probably fix that one by simply removing them from the matress protector.

i reckon you are crazy if you use a laptop on a soft surface like a quilt or blanket for an extended period of time. It'll keep heating up and you will shorten its life considerably. Better to sit up with it on your lap and some sort of solidor perforated laptop shelf /tray arrangement that permits the flow of air all round to help it stay cool.
It also depends of course on the model involved as well. Some like my Pismo simply run very cool and I can't recall a time when the fan has ever come on. Others by all accounts run far hotter so take the necessary steps to keep it cool.

Stewie

What if I meet a girl who has a positive magnet attached to her bud, and then I attach a negative magnet to my winky? Would this not be theraputic?

(or would I wind up being torn out of her arms and attached to the closest public urinal ?)

see what happens when you close IW off

yeah i know exactly what you mean, it hurts after a while.

stewiesno1 - i can see where you're coming from, but the way the macbook is designed ensures that it isnt blocked by any soft surfaces..... the vents are facing up, so its ok... and i do it regularly and i havent had any problems with overheating (ive had it hotter while working with Aperture on a table!)

and yeah, i dont think its doing much in the way of 'therapy' either. i just thought i might as well post it up and say hi.