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Desktops: "turning off PC" = Good/Bad
Re:Leave it on!
by jrsimmo - 4/19/04 4:21 AM In reply to: "turning off PC" = Good/Bad by tyrantigerI always leave mine on. Protected of course with a UPS and firewall software.
-Jim
Re: off/ on
by heretothere - 4/19/04 4:32 AM In reply to: "turning off PC" = Good/Bad by tyrantigerI leave my system on.
only on a "add-on" or download need,which is actually a restart, do I shut system down..
Do not know reason for or against.But do vary screensavers, to prevent "pattern burn-in".
Re:
by bobfrye - 4/19/04 4:49 AM In reply to: "turning off PC" = Good/Bad by tyrantigerThere are two things to consider when deciding on whether or not to leave your computer on. The first is Windows related... that the Windows Operating Systems need to be shut off to recover 'misplaced' memory. Software programs, if not well written, will reserve memory space for their operations and will not release that reserved memory when the program terminates. The only way to recover this memory space is to restart Windows.
On the other side is physical. Everytime you shut down your computer, you allow it to cool. When you start the computer, it heats up. This heating and cooling causes stress on the computer's components. When a metal heats up it expands and conversely contracts when cooled.
Computers are engineered to take this effect into consideration, and typically are designed to take thousands of these cyclic stresses. BUT...no matter how you look at it, there are only so many cycles of heating and cooling that a computer can sucessfully survive. My point is that you damage your computer everytime you turn it on and off allowing it to cool.
What I recommend is to leave the computer on, and restart the computer once per week without allowing it to cool.
The only component of a madern PC that uses measureable electrical energy is the monitor. Set the monitor to automatically shut off after 30 minutes. This should satisfy all the 'green' people. Don't leave a screen saver on. That is a waste...
Hope this helps.
Bob
Re:On in the AM and off at nite for me...nt
by Mary Kay - 4/19/04 4:56 AM In reply to: "turning off PC" = Good/Bad by tyrantiger.
Like, its always on dude
by techrolla - 4/19/04 5:05 AM In reply to: "turning off PC" = Good/Bad by tyrantigerI have a server w/ linux and I will tell you, for running a personal server, I keep it on 24/7. The thing is though, it actually stays on and comes to w/o crashing, so don't try that with Windows.
Turn it Off/Leave it ON
by HoweHowse - 4/19/04 5:06 AM In reply to: "turning off PC" = Good/Bad by tyrantigerWith all Windows Pre-XP a system left on would eventually hang and need to be turned off. I've since heard that Win ME is one that only has a 48-72 hour time frame before it needs to be turned off. (on another forum?)
We now have Win XP and all maintenance programs and updates are set to run while we sleep - Only time it's off is when a storm rolls through or cleaning up some game The Child downloaded.
Re:
by Answerman1000 - 4/19/04 5:10 AM In reply to: "turning off PC" = Good/Bad by tyrantigerI did a little research and found the following link. It has some interesting information and leads me to say, turn them off. Here is the link:
http://www.lbl.gov/ehs/wastemin/green_team/compenergy.html
I hope that this is useful to you and to the other readers.
Re:
by dylan830 - 4/19/04 5:10 AM In reply to: "turning off PC" = Good/Bad by tyrantigerUsually, I turn my computer on hibernation mode, instead of turning it off. Hibernation mode is just like shutting down the comptuer except that all the data that is on the RAM is placed on a section of your hard disk, then turning power off to your computer. It means that all power is shut off to your computer, however it lets you start your computer up directly to where you were. This is important if you have alot of startup-processes, or if you are just wanting a much faster startup. The only time that i personally turn off my computer is when Windows requires a restart.
Re:
by raw41 - 4/19/04 5:23 AM In reply to: "turning off PC" = Good/Bad by tyrantigerIt will do no harm to leave your PC on and will lengthen the life of your hard drive. This limits the thrashing the hard drive will have to do on power ups. Most PC's sold now,and for the last 10 years are okay to have this done. And it is also a good idea, if you want to conserve electricity to have your PC go into hibernation or sleep mode after a certain amount of time and also have it connected to a UPS or surge protector.
Re:
by jscott - 4/19/04 5:26 AM In reply to: "turning off PC" = Good/Bad by tyrantigerI can't tell you how many times I've had light bulbs blow-out when I've gone to turn on a light. Sure, I've had bulbs that have been on awhile flicker and burn out, but those are generally cycled on and off a couple times a day, which appears to weaken the filament.
FWIW, my computers -- desktops, servers and laptops, both at home and at work -- are on 24/7 but go into low-power sleep mode (exc. the servers ;)) and I can't tell you the last time I had a machine suffer a serious failure other than hard drives (and even those are rare.
Re:
by stu-eyris - 4/19/04 5:27 AM In reply to: "turning off PC" = Good/Bad by tyrantigerif you have the right cooling in your pc its not a problem leaving it on 247, but you may find that your system slows down after long periods, asdl conectins may also time out and a re boot will be needed to get a conectin agian
Re:turning off PC
by wesrawle - 4/19/04 5:34 AM In reply to: "turning off PC" = Good/Bad by tyrantigerI belive that if you are going to come back and use it in the next 2 hours leave it on. If not turn it off. The hard drive is spinning constantaly unless you use power saver to stop that. I have had to much trouble waking up computers that use that feature. Do you leave your car running till you use it again or most any other device.
Re: turning off PC" = Good/Bad
by storm36 - 4/19/04 5:38 AM In reply to: "turning off PC" = Good/Bad by tyrantigerleaving it on wont hurt anything .. I ran a PenII 350 mhz with win98se for 4 yrs without turning it off except to reboot once every other day or to clean it. .. I am now running Pen 4 2.6 ghz with win xp and only turn it off to reboot .. My 2 children and I share the PC so I have all my scheduled tasks ie; defrag, virus scans etc run while I am sleeping that way we dont lose any computer time. the only precaution that needs to be taken is the need to have more then just a good firewall if you are using a braodband connection to keep out hackers and other little nastys from invading your machine
Re: turning off PC" = Good/Bad
by minang - 11/26/04 7:48 AM In reply to: Re: turning off PC" = Good/Bad by storm36Do you have it on 'Hibernate' when you leave it on?
Re: PC On/Off
by PC911Biz - 4/19/04 5:44 AM In reply to: "turning off PC" = Good/Bad by tyrantigerIn the beginning (1981) PC's had no constantly moving parts. No hard drives, CPU fans, etc. Therefore the theory was to treat it like a light bulb, the less times you turn it on the longer it would last. Today's PCs have many moving parts like hard drives, CPU fans, etc. These parts wear and dust is sucked into the PC while running. Leaving a PC on connected to broadband is never a good idea. PCs that are left ON are at much higher risks from electrical power failures and lightning. Not too many things can hurt a computer when it's OFF. Also PCs perform self check routines during startup that can lead to early detection of upcoming problems. All in all, unless there is a valid reason, sleep with your PC and your car turned off. Later=>Giorgio
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