Leaving computer on 24/7

[kornpone]

So I guess there's a big debate going on about this - whether it's okay, or even beneficial, to leave a computer on 24/7. My common sense would tell me that this is insane, that a computer would need to be shut off and rested, but on the other hand I've read a lot of experts (the author of PC's for Dummies comes to mind) who say they leave their computers on 24/7.

I'm on a laptop which, as you probably know, can get very hot after being on for a long time. I would think that that alone would justify shutting it down if I'm not using for a long while. That's the main reason I will put my computer into hibernate mode if I'm not using it for an hour or more. (BTW, my laptop is usually plugged into an AC outlet -- I rarely run on batteries.)

Maybe I'm anthropomorphizing too much, but I tend to think that my computer is going to be more healthy if I let it get some decent sleep, which is why I'll give it a nap during the day (hibernate) and let it get a good night's sleep at night (complete shut down and boot-up in the morning). I'm just wondering if I'm being over-cautious here.

Another consideration is environmental. I really don't like the idea of wasting all that power for a utility that I'm not using.

So, anyone with persuasive arguments for leaving a computer on 24/7? Or anyone to back up the argument that it's better to shut it off when not using it?

 

[Paws]

If you say "computer", I think of a desktop one. Leaving a laptop on for more than 5 hours is probably a very stupid idea.

If you have a desktop and download a lot, you probably won't have any problems with keeping it on during night. All that can happen is that you won't be able to sleep due to the noise, your harddrive might crash or your computer get set on fire.

 

[Orlandude]

I know there are a couple of schools of thought on this but I usually power down my desktop at night before I go to bed. Also during any lightning storms. I don't trust ANY surge supressors. I already lost one computer to a lightning storm and it had a so-called "best" surge supressor attached to it. At home, I power off and unplug the computer and the attachment to the cable modem. I don't want another "fried" computer. Even at work, if there is a terrible storm approaching they will announce a "screen erase, power down" order, which means all computers are to be powered down until an "all clear" is issued. Technically, I know of no reason why a computer needs to "rest". Like a car, it is a machine built to run, not sit unused. Then again, I am no computer expert. The main reason I like shutting down at night is that with all that I put the computer through, I think it is good to do a "hard boot" at least once a day. I also have maintenance software that runs at prescribed times to keep the computer running efficiently.

 

[closetkeis]

My argument has always been to turn it off. Think about this; Inside the computer there are moving parts (fan, hard drive etc..) eventually they are going to burn out. Keep the computer on all the time and you will burn out the equipment a lot quicker. I also always find it to be a good idea to reset the computer. When ever you have something wrong with it don't you usually restart. It is like puzzle pieces. Restarting puts all the pieces back together. I find the computer last longer and has less problems when it is shut down every day. I have a ton of computers at work. Some people tend to leave them on all the time and some turn off every night. Those that leave them on I am always having to do something to them to fix something. Coincidence, maybe but I say turn it off every night. Hey you will be doing something good for the environment saving energy. That should make you feel good! Right!

 

[trawler69]

Well I run a laptop as well and I alays use the standby option. Reasons being: It minimises hard drive use and is the fastest way to turn your computer back on. I feel the hard drive is the weak point in any computer because it is mechanical and anything I can do to reduce its use is beneficial. Rebooting is very hard drive intensive so I keep it to a minimum. Hibernate is also hard drive intensive as it stores a copy of your ram to it which it has to recover. Standby keeps all your settings etc in RAM: solid state memory, no moving parts. It requires power but not a lot and if you are always on ac power should not be a problem. My work laptop I hibernate, it takes a bit longer but is is unplugged for long perfiods of time. I have always found that the magority of problems with computers are when you reboot so I keep those to a minimum. Just a muppet's thoughts but I hope it helps.

 

[1st love ron]

I turn mine off at night strictly because I pay for the electricity. I put it on stand by during the day and when I'm doing something else.

 

[Snickers52]

A very wise IT man told me years ago that it's better to leave desktop computers on 24/7. He said when you buy a new computer if none of the chips fail in the first 30 days they are most likely never going to fail as they are built to last for centuries basically. He said the power up cycle is the most taxing on a computer because of the surge of electricity through the machine and with all the cooling elements built into most computers it's completely safe to leave them running. He also suggested not using screensavers and instead setting your power settings to simply turn your monitor off after 15 minutes of inactivity. I've been doing this for years and have yet to have a problem and I'm on my 14th computer since my first in 1986.

 

[metalwhere]

Leaving a computer on 24/7 is fine, so is turning it off. It's really up to you, unless you want to do cost benefit analyses.

The price for leaving it on electricity, if you have a laptop and run it from the wall with out removing the battery you run the risk of ruining the battery life, noise but you could have your computer do all those little maintains things by itself at night.

What the computer experts are talking about with not shutting down and extending the life, is mechanical failure, something physical (hardware) actually breaking down due to it being suddenly powered on, think of a light bulb when you flick the switch and it pops same thing yet millions of places that can 'pop' and all it takes sometimes is for one of those transistors, or circuits to break and suddenly you computer can be toast, but more then likely if that were to happen it is something far less drastic, ie. like a USB port not working, or the sound.

Computers have far more enemies then the 'light bulb' effect, virus, surges, brown outs, data corruption, are far more common 'killers.' You could try putting the computer in stand-by (suspend to ram, etc.) save power, and cut your risk, or do what I do, suspend-to-disk, nearly instant on, no power consumption, and not worry about it, more then likely something else is going to get it before it 'pops', and if it does make it that long you will be more then glad it did so you can upgrade. (Remember back-up and double back-up, your data that is)

 

[VICTORIADON]

I left my old PC on 24/7 and it has finally gone to computer heaven but that was after 9 years! I have a new PC and I am leaving it on 24/7 and don't see any problems with that, however, I live in an area that rarely ever has a lightning storm.
I also have a laptop that is 8 months old that I do turn off...and it has had to go in for repair once already. The techs say that it ran into a problem with a software download, Windows defender decided to terminate the instalation of something and everything was ok until I shut it down, then the crap happened, lost some critial .dll files needed to run the computer.
I will still shut down my laptop just for the fact it is a laptop and I am mobile with it and with some bumps and jarring in everyday comutes it is safer to have things shut down. Once a week I run on batteries until the warning beeps because of low battery then I plug back in just to keep the battery up to par.

 

[Corny]

apart from all the philosophic discussion - keep in mind that still many IDE harddrives are not designed to be running 24/7 and the manufactorers don't give you any warranty for that ..

 

[mike_n_herrin]

AND lets not forget, as kornpone said, it's a WASTE of electricity if you not using the damn thing.

 

[teadrinker]

If you keep your computer on 24/7, and if you have a broadband internet conection, you can use your computer for some of the distributed computing projects now available:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_distributed_computing_projects

-T.

 

[mike_n_herrin]

it kinda bothers me that so many people appear to leave their PC's on all the time. does it not bother folks about the amount of electricity you are wasting?

 

[me12121]

I'll usually leave mine on, but only because I'm usually downloading things at night. At my university, the network is very busy in the day, so I'm downloading on bittorrent at dialup speeds. At night when everyone gets off the network, my speeds jump dramatically to 400+kB/s so I download at night.

I'm not bothered about leaving my laptop on because it doesn't get that hot. I can't believe how cool this Core Duo chip is, and it's faster than my 3ghz P4 desktop. The fan stays off most of the time anyway since it's cool enough to run without the fan. It doesn't use a lot of power either. The power adapter is 65W compared to my desktop power supply which was 380W.

When I was at home with my desktop, I also left it on most of the time since I was seeding things on bittorrent. The only time I turned it off was when the computer wasn't doing a thing at night, but most of the time it was doing something.

Although hard drives and fans don't have an unlimited life, their life is probably long enough that even if you run it 24/7, you will replace the computer because it's outdated before the hard drives or fans fail.

 

[kornpone]

i dont pay the bill i have a loaded landlord all i pay is my phone bill lol

Okay, I'm tempted to say this is typical JUB dumbs**t, but I guess that wouldn't be fair. Maybe typical for citizens of the good old US of A, which is one of the reasons why we're in an energy crisis -- bottom line is that most people don't give a flying f**k.

 

[kornpone]

It was the cavalier attitude that got to me more than any practical considerations. I see this apathy around so much that I get extremely frustrated.

 

[ANDORYUU]

I have 2 computers on all the time. Only reboot them every 10-20 days or so. I have Boinc Programmes running so, they are doing some good. Also, my Mac does its' daily, weekly and monthly things over night. And not only that turning them on and off all the time can do them harm.

 

[OptimalOptimus]

Ok, This is what i do. I have a Computer desktop i leave runing 24/7 Here's why.

When the computer is on for a time it heats up. & that heat reamains about stable. If i shut it off at night Then it would be cold the next day. This would cause the cards to heat up & expand & cool down and contract. This expansion & contracting is what would pull the memory cars out of there slots, pop the cards out of the pci slots, warp the motherboard, loosed up teh cables & so on & so farth. SO, either leave your computer running 24/7 or risk a card moving out halfway of it's slot & shorting out the computer Over time. DUST is a Bigger killer of computers. Mine alost died last week. It took me 2 days of cleaning every part with a vacuum cleaner to remove all the dust form it to get it to work again. SO there you have it. & MAKE sure your computer is Enery Star otherwise you'll be burning alot of engery to run your computer.

 

[mike_n_herrin]

It was the cavalier attitude that got to me more than any practical considerations. I see this apathy around so much that I get extremely frustrated.

you are not the only one.

tbe bottomline is if someone's computer is on (or anything for that matter) when they are not usuing it, it's consuming electricity and is a WASTE of energy. It's a waste of natural resources, it's contributing to increased pollution, and YOU are contributing to the problem. If your computer is doing something like contributing to research or something when your not using it, i can at least see that. but the rest of the folks who are leaving it on for no reason are just making things worse. just like the old saying "every little bit helps" well in this case every little bit hurts.

 

[closetkeis]

you are not the only one.

tbe bottomline is if someone's computer is on (or anything for that matter) when they are not usuing it, it's consuming electricity and is a WASTE of energy. It's a waste of natural resources, it's contributing to increased pollution, and YOU are contributing to the problem. If your computer is doing something like contributing to research or something when your not using it, i can at least see that. but the rest of the folks who are leaving it on for no reason are just making things worse. just like the old saying "every little bit helps" well in this case every little bit hurts.

Well said Mike. I guess I didn't want to be that blunt.
I am in total agreement.