To Turn Off or Not to Turn Off

  • Thread starter Thread starter Natasha
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Natasha

What is the best way to maintain our office computers -
is it better to turn the computers off every night or to
leave them constantly running?
 
In
Natasha said:
What is the best way to maintain our office computers -
is it better to turn the computers off every night or to
leave them constantly running?
Click to expand...


This question is asked periodically and usually garners all sorts
of fervent responses, on both sides of the question. Some people
never turn off their computers, claiming turning them off can
cause the hardware to fail sooner. Others turn them on and off
multiple times each day, to save electricity.

My view is that it doesn't matter very much either way, and you
should do what works best for you. Personally I power on once a
day, when I get up in the morning, and power off once a day, when
I go to bed at night.
 
There are people who will argue each point. I think it is a matter of
personal preference except for two considerations. If the computer's
environment is less than clean, i.e., dust or other contaminants in the air,
it is best to shut-down, that is that much less time for the fans to suck it
in. The other consideration is the possibility of fire while the computer is
unintended. ...(I think!) The idea of leaving them run is remnant of the
early days of computers, when they used vacuum tubes, etc. That is not say
that expansion and contraction cannot be a problem but, it is a minimal
issue

LOL, JAX
 
Ditto
-----Original Message-----
In


This question is asked periodically and usually garners all sorts
of fervent responses, on both sides of the question. Some people
never turn off their computers, claiming turning them off can
cause the hardware to fail sooner. Others turn them on and off
multiple times each day, to save electricity.

My view is that it doesn't matter very much either way, and you
should do what works best for you. Personally I power on once a
day, when I get up in the morning, and power off once a day, when
I go to bed at night.

--
Ken Blake - Microsoft MVP Windows: Shell/User
Please reply to the


.
Click to expand...
 
Natasha said:
What is the best way to maintain our office computers -
is it better to turn the computers off every night or to
leave them constantly running?
Click to expand...

Toss a coin.

Turning a computer on and off once has about the same long term effect
on the life expectancy of the computer as does leaving it running for
24 hours.

The really dangerous situation is where a computer is turned on and
off multiple times during a day. That can really have an adverse
effect on the life expectancy of the components.

Another consideration might be energy consumption, especially in these
days of increasing energy costs. Even if a computer + monitor is
only consuming 20 watts or so of power in standby mode if you multiply
that by 100 or 1,000 (or more) computers you do get a fairly
significant amount of electrical consumption.


Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--
Microsoft MVP
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca

"The reason computer chips are so small is computers don't eat much."
 
What is the best way to maintain our office computers -
is it better to turn the computers off every night or to
leave them constantly running?
Click to expand...

Please leave the computers running all the time.

Thank You,
Your Electric Company
 
Hi Natasha;

For many (many) years, I always kept my computers on 24/7/365... I
never had significant problems with early failure of any components,
as the computers more or less maintained a constant temperature,
etc...

However..... With the advent of these latest, more powerful
computers, and huge harddrives, I think that heat problems can be
very significant.. So I now power my computers up in the morning, and
then shut them down at night, or when I am going to be away from them
for significant periods of time (4 hours or more)..

This is not terribly scientific, but I fear the heat generated by this
newest generation of CPUs, vidoe cards, harddrives, etc. can take an
early toll if the machines were to be left on 24/7/365... I fear a
critical fan failing when no one is around to hear it and shut the
machine down, thereby losing a machine due to that failure...

This is definitely a personal decision, imho.

ymmv,

JM
 
Thank you all for your advice. The reason I am asking is
that my computer often gives me problems when trying to
start it in the morning, like a lot of times it will
start halfway through the process of starting up and just
never actually get up and running, it will run the memory
test and whatever else and then the screen will just go
blank and I will have to restart it. And then last
weekend I left it on over the long weekend and when I got
back it was all flipped out and we ended up having to do
a paralell install of the operating system. But now even
though we did that still this morning it would not start
up all the way on the first try. I personally have never
had any problems with a computer that I left on
frequently for long periods of time and I was under the
impression that starting the computer took as much energy
as leaving it running over night. But someone told my
boss that it's bad for the computer to leave it running.
Does anyone know what computer manufacturers usually
reccomend about this situation? It's kind of hard to
decide what to do when everyone is saying it's a matter
of personal choice!
 
....
Does anyone know what computer manufacturers usually
reccomend about this situation? It's kind of hard to
decide what to do when everyone is saying it's a matter
of personal choice!
Click to expand...
They recommend what you just read. Personally, I use a
common sense approach. If the house is going to be empty, I
turn it off. Don't need an unattended fire. Stuff happens.
Otherwise it's on most of the time. I also turn it off when
there are people around I don't want to use it, or people I
don't know. Or the weather's too hot & I don't wnat the few
degree temp rise it causes in my small, well insulated room.
Or lightning storms. Or ... .

The "normal" length of the life of a computer these days is
such that it won't matter an iota one way or another. For
every arguement one way there's an arguement the other way.
They're obsolete before they hit your doorstep these days.
Now, if a computer were planned to be used for, say, ten
years, then yeah, I think you'd find a concensus. Heck,
these days most people don't have a pc long enough for it to
even get good and dusty inside. A sign of hte times I
guess.

Pop
 
If the computer(s) can connect to the Internet, you have to turn them off
for security reasons. Of course, depends on your networking system and
capabilities. Don't forget that with ACPI capabilities, a computer can be
turned on from the modem or other devices, though.
Michael
 
Natasha, I'm no expert, but I have read before that the cause of your
problems might be your hard drive beginning to fail - it isn't getting
up to speed enough in the boot process where the computer can read it
correctly. Something like that anyway. Is your computer newer or
older? Hard drives can slowly fade away rather than just fail all at
once, especially if they're getting old.

But that doesn't say why your computer went batty after leaving it on
for a weekend.

I'd have to agree with the turn it on in the morning/off at night
theory, of course with your monitor powering down after 15 or 20
minutes of non-use. There are at least two lines of thinking - you
pick: Some people say that leaving it on all of the time might
contribute to a hard drive failing earlier in it's life than if you
turned it off - but then there are those who say leaving it on all of
the time doesn't put a start-up strain on it & it lasts longer.

I am not sure what they say about any strain on a CPU or memory -
these are non-mechanical & it shouldn't make a difference, unless heat
can get to them, or the other way around is that powering-on puts a
strain on them with a surge of electricity.

Big Mac
 
Excellent advice. Applies esp to DSL, ASDL, ISDN, Cable,
Satellite, etc. etc.. HOW you're connected isn't important;
being connected is what's important and what could
compromise security. These days spammers are out looking
for those machines to use as robots too, so one might eben
become a spammer without knowing it.

Pop
 
-----Original Message-----
What is the best way to maintain our office computers -
is it better to turn the computers off every night or to
leave them constantly running?
.
put them into sleep mode rather than turn off otherwise
Click to expand...
you have to perform a 'coldstart' every day if you switch
off comuters are sensitive to temperature changes and it
limits their life span
 
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