Smudge

I am in the market for a new laptop. My current laptop, a Dell Inspiron, I have always kept on and restart about once every two weeks. I have had to replace two hard drives in the 5 years that I have had it. I currently have it set to shut off the hard drive after 40 minutes of no activity. I am home most of the day and work evenings, so I use my laptop usually between the house of 7 a.m. and 2 p.m. Then I go to work and do not usually use my machine to the following morning.

1. Should I continue, with the new machine, to keep the laptop on continuously or should I power it off before I go to work? If it is recommended to keep it on always, at what settings (HD shut off, ect)?


2. When I am using my machine, should I keep it plugged in or use the battery? Is it possible to keep it plugged in all of the time without using the battery? My current machine is always plugged in with the battery connected, and as a result my battery only lasts about 30 minutes with the machine running strictly on battery power (I am guessing that this has damaged my battery).

THANKS

tobywuk

Windows Computers or laptops like to be turned off or restarted so havinf to restart your laptop every two weeks is normal and you are going to have to do this with any windows computer...

If you had an apple computer you wouldent have to do this and you can leave it on as long as you like. (i highly recommend an apple macbook, i have just bought one!)

1. If you get a new windows laptop it is probably a good idea just to turn it off over night. this way you wont have to worrie about restarting it and it will just generaly run smoother. You will also save on your electricity bill!

2.Every time you charge and then run the laptop off the battery it counts as a cycle and laptops have X amounts of cycles till they start loosing power. With most modorn laptops, while you have the AV connected it will charge the battery to 100% then it will stop charging the battery and just use power to run the laptop. This stopes you burning the battery and so this is probably the best thing to do

__________________
My Personal Website & Blog

luckyedboy66

i would say at least sleep/hybernate your computer every night. that will reduce wear on parts like HD, CPU, fans, ect. i personally would tell it to sleep after 1hr and shutdown at night.

__________________

Laptop: HP DV9000z

CPU: AMD Turion64x2 2.0 Ghz

GPU: nVidia GeForce go7600

RAM: 2048Mb, HDD: 2.5" 120Gb,

OS: Windows Vista

____________________''''!____.
|------- [hp] -------- | ![=|[ ]\___
|_...__...____________| ![ |_| ///.]|
"(@)'(@)'''''''''''''''''''''''''''(@)(@)***(@ )

OvenMaster

What I do with every new electronic component is to leave it running as long as possible during the period where you can return defective gear, anywhere from 10 days to 90, depending on the store. That way, if it fails somehow, you can return it and get a new one, all on their dime.

If a machine passes that test, after the return period is up, I switch my machine off when I go to bed or leave the house. Other than that, it's running.
Tom

__________________

Frankenbox III:
CPU: AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ *** MOBO: Biostar K8M800 Micro AM2 *** RAM: 2x1GB Kingston DDR2 667
HDD: WD 80GB Master, Seagate 320GB Slave *** OPT: two Pioneer DVR-115DBK DVD burners
PSU: Antec Basiq 500W *** GPU: PNY GeForce FX5200 256MB AGP 8x *** MON: ViewSonic LCD VA721
CASE: EvTek minitower *** SND: Diamond Xtreme 5.1 *** OS: XP Home SP2 *** ROUTER: Linksys BEFSR41