Just curious

[BFD Deadeye]

What is the general feeling of you people? Is it better to shut down a computer every night or on a day you don't use it much? Or is it better to let em run all the time? People ask me this question a lot. I tell them shutting it down at night will double the life of the machines moving hardware (fans, etc). I tell them to think of it as a TV, most people shut those down at night. Am I steering people in the wrong direction?

[a|acr|ty]

From what i know, the starting up of computers use up more power then keeping it on for the whole day.

Also, i've heard that leaving the computers on is actually better for the computer (i'm not sure why), except for the monitor.

[HAL9000]

I see it as just the opposite. On the systems I have at home and the systems that I have sold to businesses that run 24 hours a day, things like fans seem to last much longer. A good friend in the TV repair business also insists that a TV that is on all day lasts much longer than one that is turned on and off all the time. The theory being that as you heat up and cool down a system, you put stress on solder joints and parts as they expand and contract due to temperature variations.

Realistically, it's an arguement that seems to have no answer. I run all three of my home systems including the monitors 24/7. I have never had a hardware failure other than an occasional fan that as I mentioned above, seem to last longer than if I turn everything off at night.

[BFD Eyegore]

I have heard similar thing to what HAL9000 posted.

I work offshore and we must have 200 systems onboard. Our systems are on 24 hours a day since we are in prodution and we dont have any hardware problems to speak of. Some of the systems are old as **** (ie P2 266) and get rplaced before anything real major happens to 'em. I turn my moitor on and off a few times a day to deguass it.

My 6 systems at home are on all the time as well. At least when I am there.

[freptide]

I would leave it on, for both convenience and longevity reasons. I dont use screensavers or any of the useless power features which muck your computer up.
They really dont use that much electricity. Leave the computer on but shut the monitor off, and your computer will last. On top of that the cmos battery will also last longer.

[Michael]

The same is recommended for audio receivers/amplifiers...leave 'em on 24/7. The turning on of a system stresses the components due to electrical surging and cold to heat issues. That's why monitors and most audio receivers today have a standby mode when turned "off" that keeps a bit of juice flowing thus reducing the stress that occurs during a "cold power on".

[SARGE]

Old argument around my house. She turns it off everytime she's through with it, maybe 10-15 times a day.

I compare it to a light bulb. When do you notice it burns out? As soon as you flip the switch it goes out. It's already weakened and the surge zaps it. As for pc components, I'm assuming the cooling/reheating/cooling/reheating isn't good for them, but arguments go both ways. I was always taught that if something isn't being used, turn it off. Hard to break the habit.

[whr2206]

i woud eave mine on al day, but for 1 reason, its in my bed room, tis amd, and I have fans, plus a golbal win cak38 on it, i cant go to sleep with it on.

[BFD Deadeye]

To the people that say "leave them on", do you think 40 or 50 degrees really puts that much stress on solder joints/printed circuit boards? Maybe it does, but if you leave a computer off, it sits at room temperature (70), and when it runs, the system rarely goes over 100 FH, and the proc rarely goes over 120 FH. That is 40 maybe 50 degrees, does it really stress it out that bad? What about laptops? Similar components, WAY more variation in temps due to the transporting. I don't think there is a "right" answer to this question...to each there own I guess. Anywho, Merry Christmas all!

[Michael]

Well, there actually is a right answer,(imho),it's just that it goes against conventional wisdom, (as one of the above posts put it, and I'm paraphrasing: "We have been programmed to turn electrical devices off when not in use"). How many times have you gone to turn on a lamp and..pow!....the bulb blows out (frequently)? How many times have you had a lamp on and all of a sudden the bulb went out (rarely)? There are stories of light bulbs on back porches burning for years on end that were never turned off. It's not so much solder and joints that take the load, but resistors, capacitors, fans, hdd's, etc, etc.

[mojavemax]

I can understand the advantages of leaving the system on 24 hours a day, but how much electricity am I wasting? Does anyone know of a meter which I can get that would tell me exactly how much electricity an appliance requires? Maybe something that plugs-in between the receptacle and the object-being-tested's plug. It would be nice to know about the TV, home theatre, computer, etc.

[Toaster]

Howdy folks,
This question has been haunting computers and their users from the beginning.
I look on this as follows.

The most wear occurs during the time when the system warms to operating temps.
Electronics have a tendency to fail during initial start or during the time the equipment stabilizes to operating temps.
Initial "turn-on" is the point at which electonics tend to fail.
I use the following approach:

If the system will be used on and off during the day, I leave the system off until the time to retire. Then the system is shut down and upon need, the cycle then repeats. I feel it causes undue wear to power the system up when needed and then power down only to power up again 1-2 hours later.
When to leave the system on depends on a number of things. The cost of the electric service and the equipment "class". By class, I mean the intended tasks that the equipment was designed for. Some workstations should not be powered up and down several times but rather left to run.
My SGI Octane for example was designed for Audio/video production and performs best when at operating temps. The video system it uses is quite expensive and actually actually performs best when running for better then about an hour.
Its not the hardware actually but the software and disk caches that "train" during the time the app runs.
Another thing to consider is what it costs to run the equipment. If the system has a rather heavy electrical demand, one would have to weigh the cost of that and mantinence.
There is no hard rule. One way works when one may not.
It is advisable to run the system if its going to be used on and off through the day and then power down at the close of the day.
The next rule of thought is if the system will be in use within 4 hours of power down, leave it on.
If the system is connected to unstable power or a locale subject to brownouts or other power anomolies, both a UPS and a power conditioner are suggested.

[Christoph]

I have to shut 'em down at night because of the 'noise' level - my office is is just on the other side of the hallway very close to my bedroom. I do not like closed doors ...! Once I have my basement finished all the computer equipment will go down there and can run forever.

Christoph

[bosco]

If you were to leave your PC on all the time would it be wise to use the energy saving features?
Turn off monitor after xx minutes
Turn off hard disks after xx minutes

[highrisemech]

I've recently changed my thinking from leaving it on all the time to shutting down at night. Only because I think it is a safety issue. The last thing I want is for something to go terribly wrong and have it catch fire while I'm fast asleep. Although I do agree it is less wear and tear by leaving the computer on.
during the day it stays on...

[Gintaras]

Light bulbs: how much is cost of light bulb compare to electicity bills you might get?

TV's: it's know- leaving TV on- may catch on fire.

PC's: I leave PC on untill I go to bed.
My settings:

Turn off monitor after xx minutes- never Turn off hard disks after xx minutes- never

Toaster's post about most likely failure of electronics is very good.
That's why I'm not afraid to purchase used or refurbished equipment.
Haven't had any failure with such purchases.

[HAL9000]

Originally posted by Christoph I have to shut 'em down at night because of the 'noise' level - my office is is just on the other side of the hallway very close to my bedroom. Christoph

LOL, all three of my machines are in the room next to my bedroom and the day before my place was repainted, I had to shut everything down to move it out of the way. I couldn't sleep that night without that wonderful hum coming from the other room.

[Christoph]

Originally posted by HAL9000 LOL, all three of my machines are in the room next to my bedroom and the day before my place was repainted, I had to shut everything down to move it out of the way. I couldn't sleep that night without that wonderful hum coming from the other room.

See - I would not mind leaving my computers on at night but my wife would complain big time. At least it makes it easier for me pushing to have my basement finished so that I can 'mess around' down there all by myself.

Christoph

[Gintaras]

Originally posted by HAL9000 LOL, all three of my machines are in the room next to my bedroom and the day before my place was repainted, I had to shut everything down to move it out of the way. I couldn't sleep that night without that wonderful hum coming from the other room.

HAL,
witout PCs at night running, you would be taking pills in order to get asleep

[Orcmonkey]

Ehhh.... I leave mine on all day but power down when I go to bed. By the time the parts go out due to this, I'm sure all be planning (or running) my next system!

[Lord Prism]

I asked this same question months ago and got many different answers from different people.

On and off again causes heating up then cooling down and surges etc....decreasing the life of your components. However, you're likely to exchange your computer or get a new one long before your components wear out because of this!!

Leaving it on uses minimal energy. Using a surge protector or back-up power suppply can ease worries of electrical hazards. It is VERY convenient to have the pc ready for use when you need it. Noise issues will make the decision to turn it off come clearly to you.

My power settings are NEVER, NEVER, NEVER.


In the end, what it boils down to is what is CONVENIENT for YOU:

1. If you hate having to wait to turn it on and power up before you use it, then leave it on.
2. If you hate the noise or have a fear of electrical danger or even loud noises, then turn it off.

Personally, I like to leave it on at night so that it's really quick and easy to check my email with my morning bowl of cereal before I go to work. HOWEVER, sometimes I turn it off at night IF I feel like it!!

Good Luck,

[HAL9000]

Originally posted by Lord Prism [Personally, I like to leave it on at night so that it's really quick and easy to check my email with my morning bowl of cereal before I go to work. HOWEVER, sometimes I turn it off at night IF I feel like it!!

I personally like to keep my machines quite busy at night. Scandisk, defrag, disk cleanup, run ad-aware, update the virus scanner, perform a virus scan, run the distributed.net client, update the Guide+ TV guide, automated backup, all finished with an automated reboot.

[azscary]

I work as Tech support for a very large ISP and there are hundreds of computers in our building and we leave our machines on 24/7 even on our days off.

I leave my personal machine on 24/7, and most LAN people I know say leave them on, but at the end of the day do a restart to refresh the cache.

The last LAN guy I worked with also shut them down once a month and powered them off and unplugged them and then held the power button in for 20 seconds to completely drain the motherboard. He claimed that reset everything on the board and in the processor to a neutral state, whatever the &^*( that meant. We never had any failures of any kind in the 3 years I was there.

[Lord Prism]

Good Call, HAL!

The nights I leave the pc on it WILL be doing something: defrag, scandisk, backup, virus scan, etc.