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#1
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leave on or turn off??
My father-in-law has a 5 year old computer and was told by
a technician that it is perfectly fine to leave the computer on 24/7 and there will be no risk of damage or other problems resulting from that. What do all of you think? I was taught that it is better on computer components if they are given an opportunity to cool down and that Windows was designed to be rebooted at least once every day. |
#2
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leave on or turn off??
Karla
My systems are generally left on 24/7 - and rebooted at need (i.e. when it starts behaving a little sluggishly, or shows signs of fatigue) With most older systems, the only thing in any danger is the monitor (from burn-in) - but turning the monitor off prevents that - and switching it back on again is a lot quicker than rebooting. With newer systems, the only danger is from overheating caused by fan failure or vent blocking - and regular maintenance can prevent that. The argument often comes from early PC's - where there were worries that turning the system OFF too often may lead to burnout of components during the reboot peaks - but more modern systems have very much better voltage/current control than was the case in the '80's, and this is no longer a problem. HTH -- Noel Paton (MS-MVP 2002-2004, Win9x) Nil Carborundum Illegitemi http://www.btinternet.com/~winnoel/millsrpch.htm http://tinyurl.com/6oztj Please read http://dts-l.org/goodpost.htm on how to post messages to NG's "Karla" wrote in message ... My father-in-law has a 5 year old computer and was told by a technician that it is perfectly fine to leave the computer on 24/7 and there will be no risk of damage or other problems resulting from that. What do all of you think? I was taught that it is better on computer components if they are given an opportunity to cool down and that Windows was designed to be rebooted at least once every day. |
#3
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leave on or turn off??
"Karla" wrote in message
... My father-in-law has a 5 year old computer and was told by a technician that it is perfectly fine to leave the computer on 24/7 and there will be no risk of damage or other problems resulting from that. What do all of you think? Mine's on most of the time. I've got it set to turn off the monitor and spin down the hard disks after an hour. I was taught that it is better on computer components if they are given an opportunity to cool down Not that I've heard, but your sources could be different I guess. I've worked in segments of the industry where we build things that are never turned off. I recently talked to some folks from my former company and they told me they were called in to fix a system which had been powered up since 1988. And even then they didn't turn it off to fix it (it was designed to hot-plug components). The owner checked his logs and said it was the first repair the machine had had in all that time. These were built using the same components you'd use in a PC, they were just double screened (checked twice, where normal parts are only checked once) before being put in the systems. and that Windows was designed to be rebooted at least once every day. Well, not designed. You just kinda end up having to. Seriously, I've had ME up for days at a time on (rare) occasions. I usually end up rebooting because something wedges or it gets sluggish. - Bill |
#4
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leave on or turn off??
"Karla" wrote in message ... My father-in-law has a 5 year old computer and was told by a technician that it is perfectly fine to leave the computer on 24/7 and there will be no risk of damage or other problems resulting from that. What do all of you think? I was taught that it is better on computer components if they are given an opportunity to cool down and that Windows was designed to be rebooted at least once every day. I leave mine on 24/7 and only reboot as required, i.e when Windows throws wobblies. Longest uptime 350 hours - I think that's pretty good going for WinMe. |
#5
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leave on or turn off??
"Karla" wrote in message ... My father-in-law has a 5 year old computer and was told by a technician that it is perfectly fine to leave the computer on 24/7 and there will be no risk of damage or other problems resulting from that. What do all of you think? I was taught that it is better on computer components if they are given an opportunity to cool down and that Windows was designed to be rebooted at least once every day. The majority of wear on any (properly maintained) system of moving parts occurs during stopping and starting/heating and cooling. If the computer was overheating then, yes, it needs turning off - but it then needs leaving off until the cause of overheating is found and eliminated. If the machine is running properly the least wear will occur if it's left running continuously. Windows ME certainly requires rebooting from time-to-time, but as to how often depends in part on what you have installed, so only you can know when yours needs rebooting. My feeling is that wear from stopping and starting is very, very minimal and what you save in time and money as a consequence doesn't by itself justify adding to the pollution problem. I'd say, if you put rubbish in litter bins rather than throw it in the street, turn the computer off when you're not using it. Shane |
#6
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leave on or turn off??
"Shane" wrote in message ... "Karla" wrote in message ... My father-in-law has a 5 year old computer and was told by a technician that it is perfectly fine to leave the computer on 24/7 and there will be no risk of damage or other problems resulting from that. What do all of you think? I was taught that it is better on computer components if they are given an opportunity to cool down and that Windows was designed to be rebooted at least once every day. The majority of wear on any (properly maintained) system of moving parts occurs during stopping and starting/heating and cooling. If the computer was overheating then, yes, it needs turning off - but it then needs leaving off until the cause of overheating is found and eliminated. If the machine is running properly the least wear will occur if it's left running continuously. Windows ME certainly requires rebooting from time-to-time, but as to how often depends in part on what you have installed, so only you can know when yours needs rebooting. My feeling is that wear from stopping and starting is very, very minimal and what you save in time and money as a consequence doesn't by itself justify adding to the pollution problem. I'd say, if you put rubbish in litter bins rather than throw it in the street, turn the computer off when you're not using it. Shane That's exactly the way I see it and handle it accordingly. But in Karla's case its a matter of preference, I presume. Harry. --- Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.727 / Virus Database: 482 - Release Date: 7/26/2004 |
#7
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leave on or turn off??
I use an elegant, high-tech solution: I turn it off when I go to bed.
-- Walter Donavan, Author Revelation: The Seven Stages of the Journey Back to God www.revelation7stages.com www.1stbooks.com/bookview/15479 |
#8
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leave on or turn off??
"Walter Donavan" wrote in message
... I use an elegant, high-tech solution: I turn it off when I go to bed. When I do turn it off, that's usually when I do it too. - Bill |
#9
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leave on or turn off??
"Shane" wrote in message
... "Karla" wrote in message ... My father-in-law has a 5 year old computer and was told by a technician that it is perfectly fine to leave the computer on 24/7 and there will be no risk of damage or other problems resulting from that. What do all of you think? I was taught that it is better on computer components if they are given an opportunity to cool down and that Windows was designed to be rebooted at least once every day. The majority of wear on any (properly maintained) system of moving parts occurs during stopping and starting/heating and cooling. If the computer was overheating then, yes, it needs turning off - but it then needs leaving off until the cause of overheating is found and eliminated. If the machine is running properly the least wear will occur if it's left running continuously. Windows ME certainly requires rebooting from time-to-time, but as to how often depends in part on what you have installed, so only you can know when yours needs rebooting. My feeling is that wear from stopping and starting is very, very minimal and what you save in time and money as a consequence doesn't by itself justify adding to the pollution problem. I'd say, if you put rubbish in litter bins rather than throw it in the street, turn the computer off when you're not using it. Well said...great analogy! -- Nomad |
#10
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leave on or turn off??
Your question is a timely one and was just raised on an AP news website,
from which I have extracted the text and deleted the pictures and ads. ============================================== Q. I've heard that frequently turning my computer on and off can hurt the performance of internal parts. But I don't want to leave it on all the time either and waste power. What's the best course? A. While it once might have been true that computer hard drives or power-supply systems could be degraded over time by turning the machines on and off, there's little reason now not to go the green (and money-saving) route: Shut things completely down if you're not going to be using your PC for many hours. Recent tests at Canada's University of Waterloo found that computers with Pentium 4 processors running at 1.7 gigahertz drew 110 watts of electricity while booting up and 60 watts when they were on but idle. A 17-inch cathode-ray tube (CRT) monitor added an additional 75 watts. Newer, flat-screen LCD monitors use about half as much juice as CRTs. In a sense, then, the PC isn't a big juice hog. A microwave oven devours electricity at a rate of 750 to 1,100 watts, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. PCs in power-saving standby or sleep mode have even less of a presence. In the Waterloo tests, they were draining 35 watts. That's roughly equivalent to three clock radios. But add up hours of standby time, and multiply that by the millions of computers in the world, and it is some serious electricity. In fact, microchip maker Infineon Technologies AG (IFX http://money.excite.com/jsp/qt/full.jsp?time=0&symbol_search_text=IFX), which is working on making electronics' sleep modes more energy-efficient, estimates that a mere 1 percent decrease in standby power consumption would save the nation 360 megawatts - the equivalent of a medium-sized power plant. Put another way, 10 percent of an average home's electricity consumption comes from machines of some kind sitting on standby, said Infineon spokesman Saswato Das. Dell Inc., the world's leading seller of PCs, has no official position on whether its customers should leave the machines running or not. Leaving computers on all the time doesn't erode their performance, but it doesn't appear that turning them off and on does either, because the reliability of key parts has improved significantly, spokesman Lionel Menchaca said. "There used to be a bigger difference in terms of wear and tear when you power up your PC, but it's not as much of an issue now," Menchaca said. After the tests at Waterloo, Manfred Grisebach of the university's information systems and technology group pointed out that hard drives that never get shut down seem to live a long time. But, he said, so do drives that get shut off all the time. "What we can't say is which last longer," he said. ============================================== Ken Bland |
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