Apple makes it easy to optimize the power consumption settings on your Macintosh laptop computer. UIT recommends that you change the power settings on your laptop to match the following recommendations.

- Put the monitor to sleep after no more than 20 minutes of inactivity

- Don't use a screensaver instead of sleep (you can still use a screensaver for those 20 minutes). If the screensaver is running there are no power savings.

- Put the hard drive(s) to sleep after no more than 30 minutes of inactivity.

- Put the system in standby or hibernation mode after no more than 90 minutes of inactivity.

To verify and or change your laptop's power settings to comply with UH IT recommendations, please do the following:

- Click on the Apple Menu, located in the upper-left corner of your screen and select System Preferences.

- In the System Preferences window that appears, there will be an Energy Saver icon on the second article. Click on the Energy Saver icon to proceed.

- Once in the Energy Saver window, you will see a tab for Battery and a tab for Power Adapter. Under each tab, there will be two sliders for Computer Sleep and Display Sleep. Move the Computer Sleep slider to 1 hour 30 minutes (90 minutes). Move the Display Sleep slider to 20 minutes. Beneath the slider are checkboxes for additional features. Select the checkbox that says Put the hard disk(s) to sleep when possible. The operating system will sleep the hard drive automatically, as needed. Be sure to apply these settings for both the Battery and Power Adapter tabs.

- To change the screen saver settings, click on the Show All button in the upper-left corner of the window. This will take you back to the main System Preferences window. Click on the Desktop & Screen Saver icon on the first article. Once the Desktop & Screen Saver window, click on the Screen Saver tab and you will see towards the bottom of the window a slider that says Start Screen Saver. Set the slider to any time 20 minutes or less.

- Now that all of the settings are changed, click on the red 'X' in the upper-left corner of the screen to close the Energy Settings window.

***NOTE: These settings are for a Mac running Mac OS X 10.6 "Snow Leopard" or greater. Older versions of Mac OS X have similar Energy Saver settings.

For more information about Apple's environmental efforts, please visit their website, located at http://www.apple.com/environment/ .