Is it good for a PC to be on at all times?

Mo125 · Post by **Mo125** » Sat Feb 24, 2001 11:39 pm

Is it safe for a computer to be on all the time? I have heard people say that it is better since turning the computer on and off quickly gives and removes power to the computer's components and that risks the delicate components to be surged or something. I have also heard many people worry about their processor burning out. So is it good, bad or does it make a difference for a computer if it is left on at all times?

YARDofSTUF · Post by **YARDofSTUF** » Sat Feb 24, 2001 11:41 pm

its better to leave it on, unless the heatsink fan goes out

Prey521 · Post by **Prey521** » Sun Feb 25, 2001 12:21 am

I leave all my PC's on 24/7, I only turn off the monitors when I'm not using them.

el bob · Post by **el bob** » Sun Feb 25, 2001 1:05 am

i hate to be the resources freak (i'm probably just as guilty), but doing stuff like this is probably causing the power shortages in california and the like

-.02

YARDofSTUF · Post by **YARDofSTUF** » Sun Feb 25, 2001 1:28 am

not to be mean to u el bob, but i pay for what i use, only with power and playstation 2s there seems to be a problem meeting the demand, only 2 businesses i know of that dont like to sell as much as they can, i paid for my toys and i use or waste them as i choose.

colour · Post by **colour** » Sun Feb 25, 2001 6:48 am

i dunno, ive always been conflicted on this subject. youd think something that has moving parts shouldnt be on all the time (they tend to break down the more you use them).

bug · Post by **bug** » Sun Feb 25, 2001 8:12 am

CPU should be OK if HSF fan keeps running. Get a APC Back-UPS if you are worried about power spikes/sags/outages.

64bit · Post by **64bit** » Sun Feb 25, 2001 8:16 am

Originally posted by colour:
i dunno, ive always been conflicted on this subject. youd think something that has moving parts shouldnt be on all the time (they tend to break down the more you use them).

The only "system device" with moving parts that is constantly running is the HDD. Now the fans on the case and in the PS of course will fail eventually but the most stress any component in a PC with moving parts "feels" is when you press the power button. Leave em on!!!

Mo125 · Post by **Mo125** » Sun Feb 25, 2001 10:20 am

Thanks a lot, I will leave my PC's on from now on.....well at least the good ones. But the idea of the fans failing worries me. Do they really fail? How long does it take for them to fail?

RoundEye · Post by **RoundEye** » Sun Feb 25, 2001 1:12 pm

I turn mine on in the morning and off at night. Don't see any need to have it running 24/7. Plus we have three computers in our home. Newer power supplies are manufactured to better standards then just a few years ago. Do you leave your TV, stereo, or DVD player on all the time? I used to repair consumer and industrial electronics, to the component level, for almost 12 years. I haven't seen any thing different in computers and the way they are manufactured to make me think the will "blow up" or "spike this or that", when turned on. Maybe older computers, I've only been building comps for about three years now.

Some components may fail under power on conditions, but these are probably weak to start with. Also hard drives and CD-ROM's have a MTBF (mean time between failure) the more you have it on, the quicker it will fail. The optical device (laser) in a CD-ROM is on the whole time your comp is on, just at a lower power state then when a CD is in the drive. I have replaced more optical devices in home and car audio then I care to think about. Most of these where on a lot and being used quite a bit. The last year before I quit repairing consumer electroncs I averaged about 6 pieces a day, that's almost 1500 units a year. I really feel the more you use something the quicker it will fail. Seems like I'm the only one here who feels this way though.

Storm90 · Post by **Storm90** » Sun Feb 25, 2001 4:59 pm

Its seems everyone has a different opinion on shutting them down or leaveing them on. I have always shut mine down and never had a problem. But if you want to run 24/7 . I have heard the best way to do this is let it powerdown the drives when there not in use. Plus set the moniter to power down to. I don't know if this makes any differance but most of the computers I have had or worked on made this suggestion in their manuls if you were going to leave it on 24/7.

[ 02-25-2001: Message edited by: Storm90 ]

[ 02-25-2001: Message edited by: Storm90 ]

cy · Post by cy » Mon Feb 26, 2001 12:55 am

erm...i've been playing computers for like 8 or 9 years....They never did fall on me.
But anyways, anyone have their fan die on them?

Sox · Post by **Sox** » Mon Feb 26, 2001 10:58 am

Turn it off at the end of the night.Your computers biggest enemy is heat,and they run hot even when at rest.
I built my system for gaming,so it has two additional slot fans to keep things cool,and I still turn it off.
Also,when left on for extremely long periods of time,windows tends to leak resources.I'm not sure why,but it does.

cy · Post by cy » Mon Feb 26, 2001 1:16 pm

oh well, if u are worry about the heat, just turn it off at night
I love my IBM i bought in the summer, it has a suspend button on the keyboard which i can simply press it and it goes into suspend mode and it'll awake when the mouse move or keyboard activites....so i don't have to restart it

nightowl · Post by **nightowl** » Wed Feb 28, 2001 12:53 am

i usualy keep my personal system on all the time...

keeper · Post by **keeper** » Wed Feb 28, 2001 5:54 pm

I keep my primary on 24/7, will shut it down if I am not going to use it for next 40 hours or so.

Also shut it down at night, 3x per week to restore memory leak & auto-run AV downlosd, disk cleaners, AdAware, etc.

Other 2 are shut down if not used for next 40 hrs.

Been like this about 6 yrs now, never had any prob with ones left on 24/7 or ones shutdown regularly.

So Primary is shutdown about 3 nights per week.

ON or OFF seems to be a 50/50 thing. [from my experience.]

Knine · Post by **Knine** » Thu Mar 01, 2001 1:21 am

When I was takeing an electronics and computer repair course in High School we were taught that the proccesor went through less extream temprature changes being left on 24/7 then if the computer was shut off. Also that power spikes occured most often during power up then any other time. If heat was a problem add aditional fans and always use a UPS and only shut the power off to upgrade. If there was a danger one way or another to the system from being powered down or left on 24/7 it would be in the first couple pages of the user manual when you purchased a mother board or new PC. Personaly I didn't ever think it made a diffrence one way or another if the PC was left on or not, my instructer felt it should and thats what he taught. I have one I shut off when I not useing and one I leave on 24/7 only because I am to lazy to turn it off when I not useing it and to lazy to wait for it to boot every time I want to use it.

cy · Post by cy » Thu Mar 01, 2001 1:24 am

KooL

icic now