Computer - Better to Turn Off or Leave On?

esuhl

Definitely switch it off. There's no point wasting electricity. And, with it on all the time, it'll be sucking in more dust which (if you don't clean it out regularly) will eventually cause the temperatures to increase, increasing the chance of failure.

techno12

Try putting it to sleep.

Mine uses about 2w when asleep, and around 100w when on. The big plus is one tap of the space bar and it's instantly back on, and everything is where I left it.

I do a complete reboot maybe once a month - normally after grabbing the latest Windows updates.

It's an absolute pain to reopen all my programs and explorer windows across several desktops after a reboot (also entering Truecrypt drive passwords etc), and seems to take ages, hence why I prefer to let it sleep.

ARandomMiser

I think the advice about turning off and on dates back to the 80's when computers were power hungry and drives were built differently. I believe now that your work practice is more of a consideration than possible equipment failure.

Strider590

stator wrote: »

Not a PC :A

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Watt_Initiative

Strider590

Who here has had a TV or monitor fail with the symptoms of not coming out of standby or powering up and then off again?

90% chance it was a bunch 1000uF electrolytic capacitors in the power supply and 100% chance that the failure of these was caused by power cycling.

I've also had a PC power supply throw out blue sparks and take out my mains circuit breaker, because the MOV couldn't handle the initial power spike when being turned on at the mains...... It wasn't even a cheap PSU and it ended up in the bin.

esuhl

Strider590 wrote: »

Who here has had a TV or monitor fail with the symptoms of not coming out of standby or powering up and then off again?

90% chance it was a bunch 1000uF electrolytic capacitors in the power supply and 100% chance that the failure of these was caused by power cycling.

I've also had a PC power supply throw out blue sparks and take out my mains circuit breaker, because the MOV couldn't handle the initial power spike when being turned on at the mains...... It wasn't even a cheap PSU and it ended up in the bin.

That happened once with a 10 year old monitor I had; never to a PC. I replaced the monitor with a very similar second hand one for £50. But I must have saved hundreds in electricity costs by turning it off when I'm not using it.

mart44

I always turn the mains off at night. Owned a number of computers over a 20 year period and haven't had any faults caused by doing this.

Each computer left on might only use 2-3 watts when they go to sleep but on a countrywide or worldwide scale, this must add up to a huge amount of energy usage that could be avoided.

Along with most other items that can turned of at the mains when not in use, just my small contribution to energy-saving.

stator

Strider590 wrote: »

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Watt_Initiative

A turned on PC can not use less than 1 Watt.
All PCs should be turned off when not in use.

ChiefGrasscutter

esuhl wrote: »

That happened once with a 10 year old monitor I had; never to a PC. I replaced the monitor with a very similar second hand one for £50. But I must have saved hundreds in electricity costs by turning it off when I'm not using it.

Happened to my work computer a fair while ago.
Came in one Monday and switched on - Woomph bang went the power supply.
end of computer.....kaput
I leave mine on a home.

esuhl

ChiefGrasscutter wrote: »

Happened to my work computer a fair while ago.
Came in one Monday and switched on - Woomph bang went the power supply.
end of computer.....kaput
I leave mine on a home.

I just buy decent quality power supplies for my machines!

I'm amazed at the number of people who leave their machines on -- nationally, that's a lot of wasted energy and pollution.