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Help. Is it bad for you computer to shut it down everyday?
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Timoe:
Help,

Someone told my wife that it is bad for your computer to shut it down everyday.  I may be wrong, I dont know that much about computers but this seems silly.

It would seem that shutting your computer down and the allowing it to "restart" would be a good thing.  Is there anyone out there that can clear this up for me?

The only reason I can think of that her computer guy at her office told her not to turn off her office computer would be things like auto updates and such.  Am I right?

Thanks.
SirPeale:
They're probably thinking of thermal expansion/contraction issues.  Don't worry about it.  With regular maintenance, it won't be an issue.
Timoe:
What are these "thermal expansion/contraction issues" and does that mean that I should or shouldnt turn it off?

FYI, its a 2005 Dell running XP and its used for online banking, excel spreadsheets, web browsing and the occasional video game.
danny_galaga:


an engine lasts longer too if its never shut down. but we do. theyre designed that way. i bet people in the power- generating industries spread these rumours around so we all use more electricity!

businesses often keep them running all the time. maybe it dates back to when you realy DID have to keep them on forever. i know at one place i worked we used to keep everything on all the time. yet  EVERY year we would have stuff die during the wet season because of lightning strikes/ power surges (the type of surge CAUSED by lightning strikes). so to me it would have been better to be in the habit of shutting everything down...
screaming:
No, it's not bad to shut down your computer every day, as long as you're using the standard shutdown procedure (in Windows, Start -> Shutdown).  A lot of people compare starting up your computer to starting up your car and use that as an argument why you should leave it on all the time INSTEAD of shutting it down, but I think that's a little unfair.  Starting up your car does a lot more damage to your car than starting up your computer does to your computer.

When you start your computer:
- There's a teeny tiny bit more electricity being used to get everything going, specifically when your bios and Windows polls all your devices during boot up.
- Your power supply probably gets the most wear-and-tear from the starting up and shutting down.  If that's a concern for you, make sure your power supply is decent. You'd know if it wasn't because people on the Dell BBS would be all up in Dell's ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- otherwise.
- A particular section of your hard drive is getting read from and written to, which could wear it down after a very long time (decades, with today's hardware). However, this is no different than working on one Excel spreadsheet every day, for example.

These issues are so minor though, that most people don't even need to consider them. In short, unless you're turning it on and off all day long say, once every couple hours for years on end, you have nothing to worry about.  Your computer will be stuck on Windows XP SP10 since you can't upgrade because your CPU is too slow before your computer will break from turning it on and off every day. Then you'll be turning it into an arcade computer running MAME .175 (fortunately that will be when Golden Tee 2005 finally comes out in MAME) and unable to upgrade beyond that.

I did a quick search on Google and came up with this post that does a pretty good job of describing what the best practice is if you're concerned about it.

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