Question: Leave computer on, standby or turn off...

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[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Question: Leave computer on, standby or turn off...

Posted: 6/27/2003 7:07:01 PM EDT

i heard diff. things on this subject. i usually turn it off at night. when im gone all day i leave it on standby..does it even matter..i have heard ppl say they have left their computer on for 24/7 for like 2-3 years..only time it was off, was to change HD. jus curious as to what the thoughts are on this. thanks

Posted: 6/27/2003 7:13:13 PM EDT

[#1]

From a purely technical standpoint, components are stressed the most during the warm up and cool down period of operation. If you have a hardware problem, it's likely to materialize after a powerdown and restart. The additional stress isn't a ton, but it can add up over time.

For all intents and purposes however, it really doesn't matter a whole lot.

I rarely powerdown my PC just because it's more convenient for me to have it on all the time.

Posted: 6/27/2003 7:13:26 PM EDT

[#2]

I turn mine off when I'm not using it.

Posted: 6/27/2003 7:17:08 PM EDT

[#3]

We leave ours on at work, except when the generators go down for a really long time. Most of them have been up for about 4 years.

I just replaced a power supply fan with bad bearings on one of those computers - one of about 6 that run 24/7.

Posted: 6/27/2003 7:21:56 PM EDT

[#4]

Rebooting never hurt anything... but provided you're running a stable OS, your uptime need only be affected by upgrades, burned out fans, or your power bill.

Posted: 6/27/2003 7:22:26 PM EDT

[#5]

If you have a reason to leave it on, then leave it on. I have a webserver running on my machine, and it's on a cable modem, so I leave it on. I set the power management to turn off the monitor and HDD after a short period when I'm away from the machine so as not to consume too much power.

You're only looking at maybe 100-200W of power consumption. 1KW/H = 1000 watts used for one hour. And 1KW/H costs what, a penny? So running your computer all day might cost you a couple bucks more on your utilities.

If you have no reason to leave it on, then standby is a good option, because resuming from standby is quicker than a cold boot. If you're going to be away from it for a long time, shut it down. If you DO just put it in standby or hibernate, you will want to reboot it after a few suspend/resume cycles.

Posted: 6/27/2003 7:29:14 PM EDT

[#6]

Quoted:
Rebooting never hurt anything...

View Quote

oh man, I could tell you stories... but in my line of work, I see all the things that can go wrong. hehehe

Posted: 6/27/2003 7:42:12 PM EDT

[#7]

Depends on the os... When you install windows there is a hidden clock somewhere that counts down until the system is unusable.

Linux, BSD, Solaris... have no such clock.

Posted: 6/27/2003 8:28:07 PM EDT

[#8]

Matthew_Q, A kw/h of electricity will cost more like between 5 to 8 cents, depending on where you live and what time of the year it is at the time. My last bill was 112$ for 1404 kw/hrs.

Posted: 6/27/2003 8:31:28 PM EDT

[#9]

I never turn mine off only because I want the instant gratification of using it right away when I have the urge. I also belong to a couple of IRC channels so I like to read whats going on during the day.

Posted: 6/27/2003 8:34:04 PM EDT

[#10]

Just make sure your set your OS is set to shut down hard drives in X time.

If you have a constant on connection. Make sure you have triple back up against attacks. Hardware firewall built into router, Software Firewall, and up to date antivirus definitions and scan regularly at the bare minimun, once a week.

finally have lots and lots of cooling available for your computer. Mine has 7 ultra quiet fans.

Been running XP pro consistently and shut down completely maybe once a month (if that much) just to "refresh" everything.

Posted: 6/27/2003 8:36:20 PM EDT

[#11]

I'm still using Win98 which has a 1/2 @ss memory management. To reclaim memory I will reboot throughout a day. Especially after a game has been run. The Computer is also is shut down daily, which I have been doing since the beginning of computers.

I tend to differ on the most stressfull part of any component, which is heat or long periods of being on. Another reason to power down. If a computer is left on, verify airflow and enough fans.

Always been inpressed with computers that have been on for a few years [:D]

Posted: 6/27/2003 8:40:32 PM EDT

[#12]

I asked my Dad a similar question not too long ago. He is a computer programmer who does work for the International Space Station at KSC. He said that they always leave their computers on.

Posted: 6/27/2003 8:48:00 PM EDT

[#13]

I shut mine off at night and turn it on during the day. Nothing like getting woke up in the middle of the night by three screaming UPS units when the utility desides to do some maintenance on the power lines [rolleyes]

Posted: 6/27/2003 8:48:22 PM EDT

[#14]

i usually leave mine running all the time, just reboot every 6-7 days

Posted: 6/27/2003 8:50:16 PM EDT

[#15]

I turn mine off every time I'm done surfing,which is probably 2-3 times a day.

Then again I don't know what the hell I'm doing either sooo..... take it for what its worth.

Posted: 6/27/2003 8:55:58 PM EDT

[#16]

Depending upon all the applications running, they all will dwindle your computers resources, even if you close the program(s). Once the systems resources reach a low of around 30%-, it is time to reboot. Failure to do so will generally cause a lockup.

Posted: 6/27/2003 8:59:16 PM EDT

[#17]

I turn mine off if I'm not going to use it for a few hours.

At work (NT4.0), if you don't reboot once a day, you're just asking for trouble.

Posted: 6/27/2003 9:04:49 PM EDT

[#18]

Very good question... I wish I knew the "for sure and certain" answer.

I'm an EE, at work I leave my computer on 24/7.
At home I turn it off every night after I'm done with "take home" work or surfing...

As an EE I know that all the digital logic components in the computer will either want to be ON all the time of OFF all the time - they don't like the stress of power ON/OFF cycles.

On the other hand - the fans, hard drives, and power supply have to work very hard all the time if power is on, they prefer to be shut down if they are not needed.

Personal experience for me?
Well at work over the last 10 years I've experienced: One hard drive failure, One monitor failure (went up in smoke - quite spectacular), and One power supply failure. My home compuater has still yet to fail.

Since I don't have to pay to replace the stuff at work I guess I'll just leave it on 24/7, but I'll continue to shut my home computer off when I'm done with it.

My experience FWIW....

Posted: 6/27/2003 9:06:22 PM EDT

[#19]

Yeah - gotta reboot once per day with windows 98.... Nothing like chugging away on spreadsheets to have your computer lock up on you.

I toured a smelter in Canada in 1994 or so. They paid about 6 cents per MEGAWATT hour. We corrected our guide with KILOwatt hour, and he emphasised MW hour.

Damn! That is what hydro power costs.

Posted: 6/27/2003 9:15:22 PM EDT

[#20]

I leave mine on 24/7 have done so for the last 3 or 4 years. Computer processors get really hot, and the change from hot to cool over time stresses the components

Posted: 6/27/2003 9:32:27 PM EDT

[#21]

I just checked the uptime on my server (Win2k3). 32 days (I installed the thing 33 days ago).

The PC I'm using has only been up for 13 days, but I had swapped a hard drive around a couple weeks ago. WinXP.

-Troy

Posted: 6/27/2003 10:04:02 PM EDT

[#22]

I leave mine on usually 24/7, with occasional rebooting when things start acting funny.
Im running Windows 2000 pro which has been nothing but stable, and in the dorms I dont pay for utilites so it can run all night.

Posted: 6/28/2003 1:55:51 AM EDT

[#23]

I'm no expert but, it stands to reason that continual heating (expanding) and cooling (contracting) of the on/off cycles are not good for the computer components. I am upgrading my OS in the next day or so to XP Office Pro, I will use the standby or hibernate mode (which locks me up on Windows ME).

Posted: 6/28/2003 2:15:40 AM EDT

[#24]

Hibernation should not be used except on laptops.

Posted: 6/28/2003 5:24:27 AM EDT

[#25]

thanks guys. (alth0ugh i still dont now what to do. lol). ive been turning mine off at the end of the day, when im gone all day , i use standby. so i dunno. Im using ME os , which sux anyhow, the most unstable OS i have ever seen.

Posted: 6/28/2003 6:30:26 AM EDT

[#26]

My computer is always on unless I'm going away for a few days. The monitor and HDs are set to Power down\standby.

Posted: 6/28/2003 6:38:27 AM EDT

[#27]

As a Telecom tech in a School District with 120 Schools (all with varying degrees of Computer literacy/technical nature) I have seen servers that have been on since 1990 (other than software repairs and patchs and the occasional hard drive). This is on an old Netware 3.11 server....386 motherboard I think.

Still at home I turn mine off most times, unless I'm kazaa'ing something that I really want. Lately its cheesy Buck Rogers episodes and still trying to get some V episodes...

My opinion is if your not using it....why waste the power....bootup only takes a few seconds to a few minutes....I can wait.

If it wasn't my electricity and it wasn't my repair/replace budget, I'd leave it on.

YMMV

Posted: 6/28/2003 11:20:13 AM EDT

[#28]

If it's unix, no need to:

[mercury:2:/export/home/peterf] psrinfo -v
Status of processor 0 as of: 06/28/2003 14:17:54
Processor has been on-line since 11/03/2002 16:30:29.
The sparcv9 processor operates at 400 MHz,
and has a sparcv9 floating point processor.
[mercury:3:/export/home/peterf]

Posted: 6/28/2003 2:54:20 PM EDT

[#29]

Quoted:
thanks guys. (alth0ugh i still dont now what to do. lol). ive been turning mine off at the end of the day, when im gone all day , i use standby. so i dunno. Im using ME os , which sux anyhow, the most unstable OS i have ever seen.

View Quote

Seems how you're in FL I'd say turn it off considering the lightning strikes and/or frequent power interruptions. A few weeks back I lost two surge protectors, a modem on one pc and a PS2 port & mouse on another pc.

Posted: 6/28/2003 4:05:24 PM EDT

[#30]

As someone who worked for a major computer corp as warranty tech support I have a few observations.

If running 24/7 - W98 needs to be rebooted about three times a day. (If a workstation, at the start of the shift, after returning from lunch, and as you leave.)

Thermal cycles - this has not been a real issue [i] on properly made/matched components [/i] since the CPU cache ram was socketed... and it would cause something called chip creep. Thermal issues still exist - but the parts will fail from other issues or become obsolete long before thermal cycles would have a measureable effect.

That said I always power off systems not in use. I don't care to heat my house via computer if not needed.

[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Question: Leave computer on, standby or turn off...

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