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| Help. Is it bad for you computer to shut it down everyday? |
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| screaming:
Okay, now that I realized I didn't really address your post and pretty much wdent off on my own tangent, here is my real response :P --- Quote from: timoe on February 28, 2006, 07:37:56 am ---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? --- End quote --- Technically speaking, there should be no reason to restart your computer "just because". If you feel like you need to because it's sluggish or programs are crashing, then you have a software issue that should be addressed. Memory mismanagement is the primary cause of "sluggishness", which is IMO the main reason people restart thier computer "just because". A fully patched Windows XP machine does a pretty good job of managing memory and most of the time the issue is with individual software packages, like FireFox, MS Office, etc. If one of these applications seems unresponsive or sluggish, restart that program. You have to be careful though because some programs, like Outlook, LOOK like thier closed but if you view your task list in Task Manager (right click on your task bar, click Task Manager, then click the Processes tab), you'll see OUTLOOK right there taunting you. In that case, you need to click "End Process" to really kill it. DO NOT GO KILLING PROCESSES UNLESS YOU KNOW YOU WANT TO KILL IT! Clicking that End Process button can be dangerous to the stability of your computer! Most of the time you won't permanently damage your Windows XP and a simple retstart will cure it, but generally speaking, go easy on the process killing. --- Quote from: timoe on February 28, 2006, 07:37:56 am ---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? --- End quote --- If you have Auto Updates turned on, yes, keeping your computer on all the time will make sure the latest and greatest security exploits are patched as soon as MS has a patch available. However, the next time you turn on your computer, Auto Updates will resume and take care of whatever it missed so really you're not doing yourself a disservice by shutting down your computer if all you care about is Auto Update. In fact, I would argue that getting yourself a firewall, or one of these Home/Broadband routers that do NAT is better for the security of your computer than keeping itpowered on all the time just so it can get the Updates. |
| Minwah:
Shutting down will help make your fans last longer! I always shut down my PC's. My thinking is pretty much why have something on if you're not using it...I know most people waste power but that's no excuse to do it on purpose. Anyway, I've never had any problems, and I've had PC's at work which have been used like this for years and years with no maintenance/repairs whatsoever. |
| Fat_Trucker:
Yup, I think you have to be fairly unlucky to have a PC die because you turned it on and off too often. My Old original 1Ghz AMD Athlon PC (that now belongs to my Dad) has been powered on and off at least once a day for the last 5 or 6 years without mishap. All my PC's get turned off when not in use and I've never had a problem with any of them. (that wasn't related to a 3 year old pouring jam into the DVDRom drive anyway). The moral: Always turn your PC off but keep young children at least 300 yards away from it at all times. |
| leapinlew:
This is the age old electronics question... I think the idea of shutting it down and starting it causing damage is related to the idea that when you turn a computer on there could be a surge that could cause a problem. Such as lightbulbs - yes, they'll just burn out if left on, but more often they pop when the lightswitch is switched to on. I personally leave everything on. Mainly because when I want a quick donkey kong, or pengo game - I don't want to wait for the computer to boot up. Thats me - your mileage may vary. If you live in Florida a.k.a. lightning capital of the world, you may want to shut down/unplug computers. Minwah also brings up another point - your fans will last longer. This is true. I built my mame computer with just 1 fan in the power supply just for this issue. No fans on the mobo, proc or video card. |
| Howard_Casto:
There are benefits and drawbacks to either philosophy. All things considered, it's best to leave a pc on all the time. Why? Back to the car analogy. When you start a car a sudden surge of power goes through the car, the engine cranks harder and the starter motor, which really isn't designed to handle that much abuse, is put into overdrive to generate enough juice to start your car. The less you start your car, the longer it'll last. Unfortuantely for cars, we don't have this option to leave it running. We eventually run out of gas. Computers, on the other hand can be left on 24/7. The only wear it'll cause on the computer is moving parts that are constantly running... namely fans. But fans are like 5-20 bucks so just replace them every few years and you are good to go. Aside from the extra strain put on your powersupply, silmilar to the car starter, extra strain is put on every single electrical component in your pc, including cards, your motherboard, and especially your harddrives/ cd drives. You see to detect hardware your pc sends full voltage through it for a period of time as opposed to signal pulses it gets in normal operation. Harddrives and optical drives need full power sent you their motors upon startup for them to be detected as well. Basically every boot strains any resistors and caps on a circuit board and strains any motors on a disc drive. If you have an energy star compliant pc then keep it running 24/7. If you have the monitor set to shutdown after an extended period then the power consumed by the average desktop pc is less than a 60 watt lightbulb. You can further conservation by having your harddisks power down when idle for several minutes. I wouldn't reccomend sleep mode though as it never works right. My pc has been up for about a month now. I do power it down about once a month though to save the fans a little. With that being said when it is powered down, it's down for the whole day. A rest means a rest. Which brings me to my final point: By once a day do you truely mean ONCE a day? Even if you don't agree with me, a pc should never be turned on/off more than maybe twice a day. Because that's hard on the computer AND wastes power. It's be like driving a block in your car, stopping at a store and turning it off, starting it agai 5 minutes later, going another block and stopping... ect for hours at a time. Moderation is the key regardless of if you wish to keeep it on or off in it's resting state. Just don't switch between them constantly. :) |
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