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Thread: PC Idle State: Shutting Down vs. Leaving On ? |
    
Andy Hart Unregistered guest |
| Posted on Friday, April 08, 2005 - 12:30 pm: |
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Ok, I'm sure this question has been asked a million times, but I'm wondering the proper state to leave my computer in when I'm not using it? I basically use it every day between 7-midnight.
My concern is to NOT decrease the life of my computer or operating system. (win xp)
I know there are 2 opposing schools of thought on this topic? Any general or specific comments ?
Thanks !! |
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Silver Member Username: James_the_god
Doncaster,
South Yorkshire
England
Post Number: 105
Registered: Jan-05
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| Posted on Friday, April 08, 2005 - 02:10 pm: |
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Well it depends how much you use it between the 5 hours you're 'on it' really. |
Bronze Member Username: G3nocd3
San Jose,
Ca
USA
Post Number: 58
Registered: May-05
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| Posted on Monday, May 09, 2005 - 02:31 am: |
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Actually it is better to leave a computer on. It is harmful on the drive everytime it boots up.. its a surge of power booting the drive up to thousands of rpm's. I leave my comp on 24/7. No hibernate. I do turn off my monitors. Also relatives that are engineers at Lockheed Martin, and friendsworkin at intel. They all agree wiuth me. If you can afford the power it wont hurt to leave it on 24/7. Turn off monitor tho. |
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| Posted on Friday, June 10, 2005 - 06:22 am: |
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I had a Gateway computer that lasted me five years. I turned it on for about 5 to 6 hours average daily and shut it down every night, five years straight. Sometimes I would turn it on and shut it down twice in a day, mostly for energy saving reasons. The computer eventually crapped out but that was due to me beating it with a crow bar. |
Unregistered guest |
| Posted on Thursday, November 17, 2005 - 12:18 pm: |
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hi my question is sometimes we cut off the power for our computers without shutting them down properly. do you think " not shutting down" can hram your computer hardware, installed software, or your data on the computer? why and why not? |
Silver Member Username: James_the_god
Doncaster,
South Yorkshire
England
Post Number: 200
Registered: Jan-05
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| Posted on Friday, November 18, 2005 - 09:14 am: |
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There are many arguments to what can happen by just turning your computer off. Yes, it can harm your computer. It can ruin whats on your hard disk because the head arm which reads data of the platter could be doing something when you press the button on your pc. If you click 'turn off' the computer and get impatient with waiting then pressing the off button is going to increase the chance of corrupting some files of some kind, possibly the os files and important registry files. I would always recommend turning off a computer the proper way, otherwise why have the feature to turn off a computer from the desktop!
When you turn off a computer it deletes all memory allocations in the ram and if you disrupt this process it can cause memory errors.
Power supply damage? Not sure about this one, but no, dont turn off computeres the 'illegal' way.
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Gold Member Username: Samijubal
Post Number: 1900
Registered: Jul-04
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| Posted on Saturday, November 19, 2005 - 12:25 pm: |
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Is it worth the extra heat and power supply wear, along with the power consumption, over a hard drive that you can get for $20 for 80 gigs these days, to leave a PC on? My burners get seriously hot when the PC is left on for over an hour or so, severely shortening their life span if they are used when hot. It's definitely not worth it leaving it on for me. |
Silver Member Username: James_the_god
Doncaster,
South Yorkshire
England
Post Number: 201
Registered: Jan-05
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| Posted on Sunday, November 20, 2005 - 05:47 am: |
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David. It's a good point but if something went wrong with your hdd then it'd cause you hassle, having to reinstall windows by the sounds of what you said, installing the actual hdd etc...
What do you mean by your 'burners' getting seriously hot?
There are other risks of leaving your computer on, like electrical surges and dialers. |
Gold Member Username: Samijubal
Post Number: 1907
Registered: Jul-04
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| Posted on Sunday, November 20, 2005 - 11:39 am: |
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I do a lot of DVD burning, and the burners are hot after an hour or so wheather being used or not, just from the PC heat. Using the burners when they are that hot shortens the laser and spindle motor life. I have installed 2 hard drives within the past 6 months, it's pretty easy. Here's a program that will let you know if there's any problems with your hard drives. I was able to transfer everything off the old drive before it went thanks to this program. Transfering everything from one drive to another is easy. If you buy a retail drive, it comes with the needed software.
http://www.hdtune.com/ |
Gold Member Username: Samijubal
Post Number: 1909
Registered: Jul-04
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| Posted on Sunday, November 20, 2005 - 12:30 pm: |
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BTW, that's a free program. |
Silver Member Username: James_the_god
Doncaster,
South Yorkshire
England
Post Number: 202
Registered: Jan-05
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| Posted on Sunday, November 20, 2005 - 04:09 pm: |
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Sounds like a nifty program. If your burning for hours then obviously they'll get v hot but im not familiar with drive temperatures. You said the pc heat makes the dvd burner hotter, thats surprising-how hot does your processor and motherboard run? |
Gold Member Username: Samijubal
Post Number: 1916
Registered: Jul-04
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| Posted on Tuesday, November 22, 2005 - 05:24 pm: |
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I don't know how to tell the processor and board heat. I know how hot the burners are by how hot the discs are when I take them out. I don't burn for hours. I burn a few, then open the case and set a small fan there till everything's cool again and burn a few more, then repeat till I'm done. |
New member Username: Mrmikelazott
Independence,
Oregon
This one
Post Number: 8
Registered: Dec-05
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| Posted on Tuesday, December 06, 2005 - 12:09 am: |
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sounds like you have some serious issues with cooling. i have a very high end computer and ive never had a problem with overheating. maybe you need some more fans. i only have two, but they're in a good spot. do you have a fan for input air and a fan blowing your hot air out? |
Gold Member Username: Samijubal
Post Number: 1953
Registered: Jul-04
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| Posted on Tuesday, December 06, 2005 - 03:18 pm: |
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Yes, it's got 2 fans. They don't keep the burners from getting hot. Do you use DVD burners for extended periods of time? |
anthonybib Unregistered guest |
| Posted on Sunday, January 08, 2006 - 02:04 pm: |
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the thing about fans. is that if ur blowing one in and one out it creats a tunnel and notheing gets removed...id try some heat sinks..and have both fans blowing out of the PC cause its not airtight. also the bigger the fan the better |
Gold Member Username: Samijubal
Post Number: 2089
Registered: Jul-04
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| Posted on Tuesday, January 10, 2006 - 04:08 pm: |
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Burners get hot, even with an extra fan. They spin the discs VERY fast and the spindle motor gets hot. Not much can be done about it except cooling every hour or so. |
