Leaving your system on.

K

Kidblinks

New Member
This is just a really small question. Should I be leaving my computer on 24/7? When I researched it on the net I found mixed answers. I use it every single day so I'm not really sure. Does it reduce your computer's life in any way? Thanks a lot for any input.
 
Computers nowadays are fairly reliable and tough, so apart from helping causing global warming you're not doing much harm. I believe (i'm not sure if this is correct) that the first thing ot wear down if you left a comp on long enough would be your HDD. I say this becasue, where i went on work experience they had an old PII PC which had been on from the day they bought it (they used it as a backup for tele communications or somat like that), and the only component they had changed in it was the HDD because it had failed.

salman.
 
yeah restart (or maybe shutdown for 30 secs) every now and then, because once a computer is on for a long time, it will start to slow down.
 
The computer will eventually start to wear down because the electricity running through the components creates heat from electrical resistance and eventually wears down the circuitry.
 
Just go to power options and set the PC to hibernate after a reasonable amount of time. Full hibernation mode uses zero, or almost zero power and enables extremely fast startups.
 
mmm try and shutdown once a week. Thats what I do, I use my comp all the time and I found that the more you do, the more it slows. Shutting it down once in a while is a good thing
 
I only turn off my pc when I have to for softare (un)installs or whatever. I have no problems. My computer does hibernate though.
 
just have cooling for hdd and ram. is slowing down because one of them is getting really hot so is degrading performance or clocking down speed.
 
there have been so many studies done to see if turning the PC off when not in use increases the life of hardware and every one i have ever come across has been inconclusive. some say that the 100% CPU, HDD, and MOBO usage needed for a windows cold start (meaning the computer hasnt been on for a while) hurts it more than just leaving it on, others say the opposite. i have always left every computer that i have ever owned on all the time and i have never seen what i would consider excessive wear and tear because of it
 
Over the years I,ve left some on most of the time and turn some off when not in use and never really noticed any difference in failure rate between them, but if you leave them runnning you need to keep up more with keeping them cleaned out, dust and so on.
 
On my old Dell of almost 6 years (and my old Gateway before it), I have the habit of shutting it down when I go to bed. Once I start it up in the morning I leave it on all day. Sometimes it stays on for more than a day at a time, like if I'm doing a scheduled weekly overnight virus scan that takes a long time.

I think it is good to "exercise" the computer this way. Here is why: As you know when metal heats up it expands and contracts when it cools. Particularly the hard drive(s) which get very hot.

I had a buddy of mine 10 years ago after we bought identical Gateway desktops at the same time. I turned mine off every night while he left his on all the time. Well that Summer after buying it he went on a family vacation and decided to turn it off while they were gone, in case of storm related power failures and stuff. When he got back after a week and turned it on it wouldn't boot! The hard drives were so hot running all the time that being off a week caused the metal parts inside to over-contract and warp!

Plus, from my own experience before that, I had a computer that I did run 24 hours a day to host a dial-up BBS before the Internet days. I remember going through several hard drives along the way.

Maybe there were just crappier unreliable components back then though. Now I guess with modern computers having powersave modes, that may help some.

But I'll be getting my new gaming PC tomorrow and plan to do as I have always done.
 
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