Standby Mode Windows XP

Chomeur

Is there anything wrong with putting a home computer in standby mode every night rather than turning it off fully? My computer takes SO long to crank up and down when I turn it on and off. Going into and out of standby mode is almost immediate by comparison.

Taffybiker

Many PC's are left running 24/7. Standby shouldn't hurt but it's not very "green". You would be better off finding out why the machine is taking so long.

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1807875

fwor

A good compromise would probably be to choose Hibernate instead of Standby. It will take a bit longer to load up, but the PC will use a negligible amount of power compared to standby.

MJLawson1

This advice depends on the spec of your computer...

But if its good enough i would recommend you considering upgrading the Operating system to Windows 7. They are claiming the boot up speed it going to be the best its ever been.

Windows XP has a lot of unused software loading when booting up.

If your computer is too slow for W7 i would recommend plugging your monitor, speakers, router and printer in to a separate multi adaptor to your computer box so you can switch them off at the wall when you are not using the computer so that should save you a few pounds a year.

regards,

Matthew

andrewrimmer

If you put your computer into standby mode everything is turned off except the memory. If there is a power cut you will lose the memory and this can damaged your system software, hibernation is better as it saves the memory to the hard drive.
Servers are designed to run all the time normal PC's are not.
But, anyway not restarting your computer can corrupt the memory and create problems, slowness in starting is one of them.
It would be better to use something like tuneup utilities to fix the problem, they have a 30 day trial.
tune-up.com/download/

Quasar

I also have XP on two lappies - an old and slow one and the most recent, fastish one. To keep both lappies at their best, I do the following:

Keep as little as possible on the hard drive - all my work documents, pictures and whatnot I store in USB sticks, and very important stuff is stored on two different ones just in case.

Once every couple of months I delete all but the most recent restore points, as these can take up quite a bit of space.

I run ccleaner every couple of days and get it to check the registry as well.

My lappy is therefore clean and light, so to speak, and it boots up and down in very little time.

Strider590

Entirely upto you, although I agree with hibernation over standby just in case of a power cut.

When you say standby though, what exactly do you mean? actual standby mode or just leaving the mains socket on?

PC power supplies are designed to be left plugged into the mains outlet permanently, it's mostly the daily on/off cycle that eventually ruins the PSU and runs down the CMOS battery.
A lot of people unplug them at the wall every time they're not in use (like my paranoid ex GF), not really a great idea though.

Chomeur

Thanks for all the helpful replies. I have quite a few programs which I've added under StartUp to ensure that they run on startup, and I think this is the main reason why my computer takes a long time (5 minutes) to boot up. Closing down is not so bad.

By standby I mean going Start/Turn Off Computer/Standby. I wasn't aware previously that there was a Hibernate option. I have enabled Hibernation in the Power Options dialog and the combo box for Hibernation now appears on the Power Schemes tab of the Power Options dialog. But no button for Hibernation appears when I go Start/Turn Off Computer. So I'm not sure how to put the computer into Hibernation manually. Maybe it will show up next time I boot up.

In relation to this, is there any way to bring the computer out of hibernation/standby automatically at a set time? There seem to be some programmes available for download on the Internet although I'd rather write any such programme myself if it's not too complicated (I know Visual Basic).

Taffybiker

When you go to Turn Off Computer, press the Shift button and the Standby icon will change to Hibernate

Taffybiker

Chomeur wrote: »

In relation to this, is there any way to bring the computer out of hibernation/standby automatically at a set time? There seem to be some programmes available for download on the Internet although I'd rather write any such programme myself if it's not too complicated (I know Visual Basic).

If your comp has a Wake-On-Lan feature in the BIOS, what you ask should be possible, but how to implement it is another thing.

fitzroy

Strider590 wrote: »

PC power supplies are designed to be left plugged into the mains outlet permanently, it's mostly the daily on/off cycle that eventually ruins the PSU and runs down the CMOS battery.
A lot of people unplug them at the wall every time they're not in use (like my paranoid ex GF), not really a great idea though.

The above quote refers to a PC - would it also apply to a laptop? I switch my laptop off overnight and leave it to hibernate during day. The router runs 24/7 but would I do any harm if I switched that off overnight? My reason would be to save on electricity.

I'm not at all "techie" knowledgable.