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#1
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Shutting down the PC
I own a Dell 2400. I'm somewhat leery of re-starting a tired old
thread, but I'd appreciate some feedback. In all the years I've owned a computer, I always turned it on in the morning, and turned it off at night. I didn't see any point in leaving the computer on and wasting electricity. Yet in recent threads here, many have speculated that leaving the PC on 24/7 actually saves wear and tear on the computer. Is that correct? I'm somewhat tempted to leave the PC on 24/7 because I recently enabled the automatic updates for Norton and Windows. Example: Norton had a scheduled update at 10:30pm Saturday, but I turned off the computer at 10pm. When I turned on the machines this morning and checked, the next update wasn't scheduled until 10:30pm this evening....so Norton is still waiting to do the 10:30pm check. That is too long to check for updates. I know how to reset the LiveUpdate schedule, but having to do so every day is too tedious. Finally, if I do leave the PC on 24/7, should I make any changes to the Power Options? Currently everything is set to NEVER. I want to make sure the update programs can operate freely. |
#2
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I leave mine on 7x24. Thge only power option I've set is to shut the
monitor off after 20 minutes of non-use. I don't even log out (WinXP Home). The Norton updates get loaded and I get notified on any MS critical updates. I have wondered about having the disk spin down after NN minutes of in-activity. On a previosu Win98SE that was sporadic at best, sometimes the disk would stay running for days. I don't if you would save any disk life anyway I thought the disks run on air bearings and there is actually less wear when they are running?? I do have an APC UPS with power moderation/control that seems to catch glitches and brownouts. I think I once fried a previosu computer without a UPS unit. Just my ovbservations and thoughts over the years... "HistoryFan" wrote in message ... I own a Dell 2400. I'm somewhat leery of re-starting a tired old thread, but I'd appreciate some feedback. In all the years I've owned a computer, I always turned it on in the morning, and turned it off at night. I didn't see any point in leaving the computer on and wasting electricity. Yet in recent threads here, many have speculated that leaving the PC on 24/7 actually saves wear and tear on the computer. Is that correct? I'm somewhat tempted to leave the PC on 24/7 because I recently enabled the automatic updates for Norton and Windows. Example: Norton had a scheduled update at 10:30pm Saturday, but I turned off the computer at 10pm. When I turned on the machines this morning and checked, the next update wasn't scheduled until 10:30pm this evening....so Norton is still waiting to do the 10:30pm check. That is too long to check for updates. I know how to reset the LiveUpdate schedule, but having to do so every day is too tedious. Finally, if I do leave the PC on 24/7, should I make any changes to the Power Options? Currently everything is set to NEVER. I want to make sure the update programs can operate freely. |
#3
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HistoryFan wrote:
I own a Dell 2400. I'm somewhat leery of re-starting a tired old thread, but I'd appreciate some feedback. In all the years I've owned a computer, I always turned it on in the morning, and turned it off at night. I didn't see any point in leaving the computer on and wasting electricity. Yet in recent threads here, many have speculated that leaving the PC on 24/7 actually saves wear and tear on the computer. Is that correct? I'm somewhat tempted to leave the PC on 24/7 because I recently enabled the automatic updates for Norton and Windows. Example: Norton had a scheduled update at 10:30pm Saturday, but I turned off the computer at 10pm. When I turned on the machines this morning and checked, the next update wasn't scheduled until 10:30pm this evening....so Norton is still waiting to do the 10:30pm check. That is too long to check for updates. I know how to reset the LiveUpdate schedule, but having to do so every day is too tedious. Finally, if I do leave the PC on 24/7, should I make any changes to the Power Options? Currently everything is set to NEVER. I want to make sure the update programs can operate freely. Either way the computer will last you as long as you need, however, I belong to the leave it on club. Although I've never read anything that confirms the fatigue argument, it does make since that the heating and cooling of components could weakening connections. I started this habit years ago with old 286/386 ISA PCs where I found that after time the ISA cards would work them selves loose. I found that if I left the PCs on the problem went away. With better cooling in today's PCs, I don't think this is much of an issue anymore. -- Rob |
#4
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"HistoryFan" wrote in message ... I own a Dell 2400. I'm somewhat leery of re-starting a tired old thread, but I'd appreciate some feedback. In all the years I've owned a computer, I always turned it on in the morning, and turned it off at night. I didn't see any point in leaving the computer on and wasting electricity. Yet in recent threads here, many have speculated that leaving the PC on 24/7 actually saves wear and tear on the computer. Is that correct? I'm somewhat tempted to leave the PC on 24/7 because I recently enabled the automatic updates for Norton and Windows. Example: Norton had a scheduled update at 10:30pm Saturday, but I turned off the computer at 10pm. When I turned on the machines this morning and checked, the next update wasn't scheduled until 10:30pm this evening....so Norton is still waiting to do the 10:30pm check. That is too long to check for updates. I know how to reset the LiveUpdate schedule, but having to do so every day is too tedious. Finally, if I do leave the PC on 24/7, should I make any changes to the Power Options? Currently everything is set to NEVER. I want to make sure the update programs can operate freely. This is my humble opinion. I agree that shutting a computer on and off is not good for it. However, I don't agree that leaving it on all the time is a also a good idea. Heat is generated by computers and laptops (which I own), get fairly warm. I don't think the perpetual heat is good for it. I generally shut down a computer when I'm not going to use it for a couple of hours or if I turn on another one. I never leave it on all night. I could be all wrong with what I do but my computers seem to last without many problems and I will keep doing it this way. I have a Compaq laptop that is 6 years old and still running and 3 Dells, one of which is 4 years old. I have all the power options to "never" as I don't run the computers on batteries and feel that having the hard drive shutting off and on isn't good for it. Carol |
#5
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"HistoryFan" wrote in message
... | I own a Dell 2400. I'm somewhat leery of re-starting a tired old | thread, but I'd appreciate some feedback. I would be too :-) | | In all the years I've owned a computer, I always turned it on in the | morning, and turned it off at night. I didn't see any point in leaving the | computer on and wasting electricity. Yet in recent threads here, many have | speculated that leaving the PC on 24/7 actually saves wear and tear on the | computer. Is that correct? But seriously, I'll place one vote from the "leave it on" camp. My reasoning being that the greatest stress to electronic components comes with the initial surge of electricity when powered on and from expansion and contraction of the components heating and cooling. I've seen used the "lightbulb" analogy. (I didn't make it up I'm just repeating it) When does a light bulb fail? We're all familiar with that flash and pop when the light is first turned on. A surge of current a sudden expansion and failure. It's also convenient for me to leave mine on as I frequently want to pull up a file from a different computer elsewhere in the house and it would defeat the purpose if I had to stop what I was doing to go to another computer and turn it on. As far as power management I generally set the monitor and HDDs to power off after an hour. All my various updates seem to work fine. That's my story and I'm stickin' to it. g -- D I'm not an MVP a VIP nor do I have ESP. I was just trying to help. Please use your own best judgment before implementing any suggestions or advice herein. No warranty is expressed or implied. Your mileage may vary. See store for details. Remove shoes to E-mail. |
#6
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Carol, I agree with you. My oldest Dell is a P 233mmx, purchased in
1996. I just received it back from my nephew when I gave him a newer PC. This sweet old PC was on and off daily by him for years. Only replacement ever on this PC was a CD Rom drive. I got it back because it plays all my Dos Games perfectly. :-) At work our PC is an el cheapo, no name PIII which is almost 4 years old. It is turned off at the end of each day and nothing has been replaced so far. Joan Carol wrote: "HistoryFan" wrote in message ... I own a Dell 2400. I'm somewhat leery of re-starting a tired old thread, but I'd appreciate some feedback. In all the years I've owned a computer, I always turned it on in the morning, and turned it off at night. I didn't see any point in leaving the computer on and wasting electricity. Yet in recent threads here, many have speculated that leaving the PC on 24/7 actually saves wear and tear on the computer. Is that correct? I'm somewhat tempted to leave the PC on 24/7 because I recently enabled the automatic updates for Norton and Windows. Example: Norton had a scheduled update at 10:30pm Saturday, but I turned off the computer at 10pm. When I turned on the machines this morning and checked, the next update wasn't scheduled until 10:30pm this evening....so Norton is still waiting to do the 10:30pm check. That is too long to check for updates. I know how to reset the LiveUpdate schedule, but having to do so every day is too tedious. Finally, if I do leave the PC on 24/7, should I make any changes to the Power Options? Currently everything is set to NEVER. I want to make sure the update programs can operate freely. This is my humble opinion. I agree that shutting a computer on and off is not good for it. However, I don't agree that leaving it on all the time is a also a good idea. Heat is generated by computers and laptops (which I own), get fairly warm. I don't think the perpetual heat is good for it. I generally shut down a computer when I'm not going to use it for a couple of hours or if I turn on another one. I never leave it on all night. I could be all wrong with what I do but my computers seem to last without many problems and I will keep doing it this way. I have a Compaq laptop that is 6 years old and still running and 3 Dells, one of which is 4 years old. I have all the power options to "never" as I don't run the computers on batteries and feel that having the hard drive shutting off and on isn't good for it. Carol |
#7
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Oh, our Company Server, Win NT I think, stays on all night because it
does its backup and maintenance during the night, but I swear it goes down once a week. :-( not on purpose. :-) We have about 30 company PC's connecting to that server for our Yardi Program. All individual PCs are shut down each night. Joan Joan wrote: Carol, I agree with you. My oldest Dell is a P 233mmx, purchased in 1996. I just received it back from my nephew when I gave him a newer PC. This sweet old PC was on and off daily by him for years. Only replacement ever on this PC was a CD Rom drive. I got it back because it plays all my Dos Games perfectly. :-) At work our PC is an el cheapo, no name PIII which is almost 4 years old. It is turned off at the end of each day and nothing has been replaced so far. Joan Carol wrote: "HistoryFan" wrote in message ... I own a Dell 2400. I'm somewhat leery of re-starting a tired old thread, but I'd appreciate some feedback. In all the years I've owned a computer, I always turned it on in the morning, and turned it off at night. I didn't see any point in leaving the computer on and wasting electricity. Yet in recent threads here, many have speculated that leaving the PC on 24/7 actually saves wear and tear on the computer. Is that correct? I'm somewhat tempted to leave the PC on 24/7 because I recently enabled the automatic updates for Norton and Windows. Example: Norton had a scheduled update at 10:30pm Saturday, but I turned off the computer at 10pm. When I turned on the machines this morning and checked, the next update wasn't scheduled until 10:30pm this evening....so Norton is still waiting to do the 10:30pm check. That is too long to check for updates. I know how to reset the LiveUpdate schedule, but having to do so every day is too tedious. Finally, if I do leave the PC on 24/7, should I make any changes to the Power Options? Currently everything is set to NEVER. I want to make sure the update programs can operate freely. This is my humble opinion. I agree that shutting a computer on and off is not good for it. However, I don't agree that leaving it on all the time is a also a good idea. Heat is generated by computers and laptops (which I own), get fairly warm. I don't think the perpetual heat is good for it. I generally shut down a computer when I'm not going to use it for a couple of hours or if I turn on another one. I never leave it on all night. I could be all wrong with what I do but my computers seem to last without many problems and I will keep doing it this way. I have a Compaq laptop that is 6 years old and still running and 3 Dells, one of which is 4 years old. I have all the power options to "never" as I don't run the computers on batteries and feel that having the hard drive shutting off and on isn't good for it. Carol |
#8
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I use standby to conserve electricity and minimize wear and tear on the
components. I set the Power Options to put my monitor to sleep after 10 minutes, my hard drives after 15 minutes and my system to standby after 20 minutes. It wakes up quickly when I press any key. There is no definitive answer to your question. Just do what you are most comfortable with. "HistoryFan" wrote in message ... I own a Dell 2400. I'm somewhat leery of re-starting a tired old thread, but I'd appreciate some feedback. In all the years I've owned a computer, I always turned it on in the morning, and turned it off at night. I didn't see any point in leaving the computer on and wasting electricity. Yet in recent threads here, many have speculated that leaving the PC on 24/7 actually saves wear and tear on the computer. Is that correct? I'm somewhat tempted to leave the PC on 24/7 because I recently enabled the automatic updates for Norton and Windows. Example: Norton had a scheduled update at 10:30pm Saturday, but I turned off the computer at 10pm. When I turned on the machines this morning and checked, the next update wasn't scheduled until 10:30pm this evening....so Norton is still waiting to do the 10:30pm check. That is too long to check for updates. I know how to reset the LiveUpdate schedule, but having to do so every day is too tedious. Finally, if I do leave the PC on 24/7, should I make any changes to the Power Options? Currently everything is set to NEVER. I want to make sure the update programs can operate freely. |
#9
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"HistoryFan" wrote in
: I own a Dell 2400. I'm somewhat leery of re-starting a tired old thread, but I'd appreciate some feedback. In all the years I've owned a computer, I always turned it on in the morning, and turned it off at night. I didn't see any point in leaving the computer on and wasting electricity. Yet in recent threads here, many have speculated that leaving the PC on 24/7 actually saves wear and tear on the computer. Is that correct? I'm somewhat tempted to leave the PC on 24/7 because I recently enabled the automatic updates for Norton and Windows. Example: Norton had a scheduled update at 10:30pm Saturday, but I turned off the computer at 10pm. When I turned on the machines this morning and checked, the next update wasn't scheduled until 10:30pm this evening....so Norton is still waiting to do the 10:30pm check. That is too long to check for updates. I know how to reset the LiveUpdate schedule, but having to do so every day is too tedious. Finally, if I do leave the PC on 24/7, should I make any changes to the Power Options? Currently everything is set to NEVER. I want to make sure the update programs can operate freely. I keep mine on 24/7 but that's mostly because of the huge amount of e-mail I get and to keep my mailbox from becoming unmanagable. However even with standby settings the cost in power increases and it will add to the power bill. Since I run a an old GX1 system as a linux based server as well which is always on and does not go into standby (except the monitor output, which matters little since no monitor is attached actually.) You need to look at cost vs. need. Generally if you don't need the system on at night it really doesn't hurt to shut it down. The constant on and off in a course of a day does the damage but turning on in the morning and then shutting it down at night doesn't do that much. --Shaun |
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