Leaving your computer on: good/bad?

  • Thread starter Dougboy
  • 52 comments
  • 2,157 views
I have 3 PCs. My laptop gets turned off whenever it isn't in use, my dual-boot sektop is rebooted whenever I need to switch operating system (about once every 8 months I find somthing that I need to leave Ubuntu for) and my gaming PC is almost never out of action.

As a general rule leave your computer on unless you have a reason to want it off. In most cases the best thing to do is just switch the monitor off. In Windows most updates require you to reboot but otherwise it makes sense to just leaveyour PC running.
 
If you want to get nick-picky, it's worse for the hardware if you turn it off and on.. The hard-drive spinning up is far worse for it than leaving it running. The other damaging effect, as previously mentioned, is the heat-cycle created by turning the computer on and off; in the most extreme of cases, you could run into a chip unseating itself from it's socket.

Thing is though, it really isn't going to hurt your PC either way these days. Unless you plan on keeping your computer for the next fifteen years, you'll far replace it before it dies from turning it off and on, or from leaving it running 24/7.
 
You should only leave you're computer on overnight if it is doing any of this stuff:

Downloading big files, which may take over night or a couple of days, depending on you're connection.

Benchmarking, any of the components, to see if they are reliable.

If you're doing all of this together with over 500GB+ of storage:

Virus scanning and cleaning them out.
Spyware and Adware scan followed by cleaning them out.
Defragmenting and cleaning up all of the Hard Drives at once.
 
I'm viewing this, and damn, I'm seeing that the environmental/Fossil fuel conservation message isn't reaching alot of people. And just so you know, I don't believe that we're teh cause for global warming, I think we're just helping it a bit.

Anyway. Alot of you seem to say that it's better to leave your computer on 24/7 because that way your computer doesn't damage itself with the hot cold cycles and powering up shocks. Thus, you won't have to replace your computer, because it costs money and it does take quite alot of energy (and apparantley water) to make a computer.

But how many of you will actually keep your computer long enough for these 'damaging' effects to take place? Most people don't keep their computer more than 5 years, a lot of people for even less. And does the cost of electrical power saved outweight that of replacing a computer early?
 
When I say my computer is “on” 24/7, that means it’s “on” for most of the day, and in Sleep mode at night – Sleep uses almost no power whatsoever (just enough to keep the RAM’s contents), and in fact, it’s much more power-efficient to Sleep a machine than to boot it up in the morning, because booting requires far more power than the machine uses all night in Sleep.
 
I always hibernate my PC. I think it works better than StandBy and Shut Down combined. I always hibernate at the end of the day and then restart the PC after it has been up for about 60 hours. Though, I want to ask something. Is my practice good for the PC?

PC stays on for about 8-10 hours a day, depending on whether if I have school.
I hibernate before I go to sleep.
After perhaps three or four days, I restart the PC.
The process continues in a cycle.

And is Stand By in XP better than Hibernate?
 
I used Standby last night instead of just staying logged in and using Switch User, then shutting the monitor off.

I think I'm going to do it from now on just because it's quick and painless.
 
my pc has a problem with stand by....for some reason, it always goes back to normal after 10 seconds of so. i don't touch the mouse or anything. i also haven't tried hibernate. (someone can help me with this if they want :))

anyways, i just turn off my pc before i go to bed. my machine stays on about 10 hours average per day.
 
go to POWER OPTIONS/HIBERNATE(to the left of UPS) check the box click apply
now you should have hibernate active


to use it you can do 1 of 3
1.use the power saveing options & set computer to hibernate after a certin time
2. use keyboard options & asign a button to hibernate
3.when on the shut down/reset screen press SHIFT and the yellow stand by should change to hibernate
 
I tried Stand By yesterday night...the green LED of my PC kept flashing and it was annoying as hell. I think I'm just going to stick with Hibernate 👍
 
Lately, because my computer's start-up and shut-down processes have become ridiculously long, I have been turning my computer on when I first use it in the morning, whenever that might be, and when I don't use it during the day, just turn off the monitor and leave it going. I've never actually tried the sleep button. But after viewing this thread, I'll definately give it a second thought 👍
 
I'd put this computer in sleep mode, but right now for some reason it is using Windows 2000 logons.

From,
Chris.
 
I've always just left my computer running 24/7. I just put my LCD on sleep after an hour of inactive. Pretty much the only time it isn't running is if: theres a power outage, I'm cleaning the inside of the computer, changing parts, etc. I think the only things that ever die on me are prolly fans.
 
I used to let my desktops run 24/7 back when I used to have mass download sprees. Now that I have my pc in my own room, I turn it off at when I go to bed since I'm a light sleeper and can't stand the fan noise despite how low it is compared to the average pc.

My laptop never gets shutdown. I just put it into sleep mode when I don't need it and have it set to hibernate if the battery goes below a certain percentage. I get uptime of over 2-3 weeks at a time without any real slowdown.

I'd have my desktop go to sleep during the day but I'm generally downloading something or other so that wouldn't be much help. Nighttime sleep is just stupid since it still takes a trickle of energy. Hibernate still has the high speed spin of the hard drives on startup so even that is pointless for a desktop unless you want to continue exactly where you left off. Since I use mine primarily as a graphics workstation, I'd rather wait the minute or two to boot it up from zero each morning.
 
I guess from now on, i'll always leave it on but put it on stand-by when its not in use. But my comp havent been tuned off or put into stand-by for the last week due to continuous downloading :)
 
I always shut down my computer if i think i'm not going to use it i the next hours.
Otherwise i just put it in standby and shut off my screens and speakers.
At night i shut down the pc because it makes to much noise and my external hard drive would be on all night. Now i can shut down everything with the switch on the extension cord.
My pc also starts up automatically when i put on the power on the extension cord.
 
When I'm home, I turn mine on when I wake up, and turn it off when I go to sleep. this way I don't have to wait for boot up when I want to use it, and It's not wasting electricity at night.
 
So in short, other than PC parts lasting longer, what are other benefit(s) of not turning off too often? I'm trying to decide.

 

Latest Posts

Back