Leaving Computer on overnight

Toxteth_OGrady

Lengthy discussion on this topic a year ago. See here.

Amazing what you can find if you use Search.

:cool:

TOG

cwoodham

Apart from the electicity savings and fire prevention mentioned above, its probably worth shutting down at night to make sure your PC isnt carrying a boot-up problem (or maybe that's an argument for leaving it on). Giving it a fresh start each day also flushes the memory.

SnapFish_2

Also consider using the Hibernate option on your PC, it copies anything your're currently working on to the hard drive, then switches itself off. When you turn it back on it restores everything. You can be in the middle of writing a word document, you don't even need to save it, hibernate - turn on days,weeks,months even years later and it will be as if you hadn't turned the PC off. This uses no power and works for desktops as well as Laptops but you may have to enable the feature.

I use this all the time, the PC boots up a LOT faster as well, and you can leave all your work, websites etc open ready for your return.

For Windows XP, check out http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/mobility/getstarted/hibernate.mspx

Hope this Helps.
SnapFish

tigermatt

SnapFish wrote:

Also consider using the Hibernate option on your PC, it copies anything your're currently working on to the hard drive, then switches itself off. When you turn it back on it restores everything. You can be in the middle of writing a word document, you don't even need to save it, hibernate - turn on days,weeks,months even years later and it will be as if you hadn't turned the PC off. This uses no power and works for desktops as well as Laptops but you may have to enable the feature.

I use this all the time, the PC boots up a LOT faster as well, and you can leave all your work, websites etc open ready for your return.

For Windows XP, check out http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/mobility/getstarted/hibernate.mspx

Hope this Helps.
SnapFish

I believe this has already been discussed in post 11 above.

charlieheard

The shock to any cold system is real. Most ordinary lightbulbs go when you first turn them on (simple but boring physics). Similarly the most wear on a car engine is when it is warming up for the first 10 miles or so (again simple physics)

Heating and cooling any object puts stresses into it, so turning PCs on and off WILL shorten the life of the part. However, you've got to weigh that up against wear in the bearings and the cost of running it. And as mentioned above, PCs are designed to be turned off and on. Which mechanical parts have failed for posters here? Would turning off or leaving on have helped?

I've seen no mention of Standby mode in the thread, and have no experience of it as an old WPS printer driver stops my XP using it. Anyone used it? (BTW, a 400W PSU can supply anything up to 400W, but may only supply 10W if the PC is in standby.)

intel

charlieheard wrote:

The shock to any cold system is real. Most ordinary lightbulbs go when you first turn them on (simple but boring physics). Similarly the most wear on a car engine is when it is warming up for the first 10 miles or so (again simple physics)

Heating and cooling any object puts stresses into it, so turning PCs on and off WILL shorten the life of the part. However, you've got to weigh that up against wear in the bearings and the cost of running it. And as mentioned above, PCs are designed to be turned off and on. Which mechanical parts have failed for posters here? Would turning off or leaving on have helped?

I've seen no mention of Standby mode in the thread, and have no experience of it as an old WPS printer driver stops my XP using it. Anyone used it? (BTW, a 400W PSU can supply anything up to 400W, but may only supply 10W if the PC is in standby.)

Er doesnt happen on Electrical only mechanical so a PC being turned on
and off has NO effect, electricity isnt hot from the wire, unlike
combustable gases in a car, im afraid thats a load of baloney.

But thanks C_H and dont take it personally. :beer:

Ember999

Thanks for that info Intel, I'll do that over the next few days.

Ember x

albertross_2

The answer to your question is no.

Ember999

tigermatt wrote:

Why not just hibernate your PC (if using XP) It saves all of your currently opened programs and stuff in memory to disk then you can power off. Next time you turn on it not only turns on quicker, it means all your programs are open again and you are back running just as before. You may need to turn it on in Screen Saver > Power > Hibernate options. Then when you shut down either hold down ctrl I think, could be alt or shift though, then select hibernate or pick hibernate from menu.

Hi

I have just been into my control panel and set the hibernate option. I have never used this before so have set it at 30 mins (to hibernate after 30 mins) is this a good amount of time or should I do something else?

Thanks for the info guys, my PC will use a lot less power now :T

tigermatt

Ember999 wrote:

Hi

I have just been into my control panel and set the hibernate option. I have never used this before so have set it at 30 mins (to hibernate after 30 mins) is this a good amount of time or should I do something else?

Thanks for the info guys, my PC will use a lot less power now :T

Auto hibernate at 30 minutes idle should be OK. Don't forget you can also hibernate your PC manually, I can't remember which you press but you either press and hold ctrl, shift or alt at the shut down box and standby changes to hibernate you then click this then let go of the keyboard key. (That's when your using the welcome screen) if using classic login just pick hibernate from shutdown list.