We leave ours on all the time. The only time we turn them off is when we are on the road. Some people say you should leave your computer on because the act of turning the computer on and off will actually shorten it’s life. Others say you should turn your computer off when not in use because it uses too much power.
Do you turn your computer off? Leave a comment below.
There is a middle road, and it’s called ‘Sleep.’ With Vista, that is the preferred state. For Macintosh, here’s an article about Sleep. If you put your computer to sleep in between sessions it won’t take so long to boot up the next time. It will just pop right up to where you left off. If you put it to sleep overnight, and you are plugged in to power, it will wake itself up to do scheduled tasks like backups and scans. My computer does this every night while I’m asleep so it doesn’t slow down operations during the day when I want to work.
Watch the video below for an excerpt of our Geeks on Tour Show-Me-How topic about Vista and the Sleep option.
If you take my advice and leave your computer on all the time (in Sleep mode when you’re not using it) then, be sure to Restart every day or two so your computer gets to clean out its memory and get a clean start once in a while.
Chris Guld, www.GeeksOnTour.com
C.J.
I am a certified PC/Mac technician. I can tell you that leaving any computer on full
time is a bad idea unless it’s a server. You should turn it off every night. I suggest never using sleep, hibernate or any other features like that. Just turn it off. This clears the resident memory and any background applications running. There is no extra wear and tear on your hardware, that’s a myth. PC’s will actually begin to loose time on the clock if left on for long periods of time. They were never designed to be left on for days at a time and they operate much better from a clean boot up, assuming the system is healthy.
Hope this helps clear up the confusion.
Happy computing!
Kay
I turn my computer off anytime I am not going to use it for any length of time. Ialso turn it off every night. I was told by the representative at Dell that it was best to turn it off at night or any time you were not going to use it for long periods of time.
Ray O
One if your system is a laptop do NOT use sleep mode and transport the laptop anywhere. Hibernate actually turns it all off and will come back up almost as fast as sleep.
By the way at HP we now harp on everyone to shutdown their monitor and system along with the lights before going home. The power savings in an office full of people with computers is substantial.
Ed
I was once the Government Customer Rep at Zenith Computer Factory. They were asked about that issue; better to turn off or leave on. Their reply was that they had done long term experiments both ways. It did not make any measurable difference in the life of the computer.
Lila
If everyone left their computers on, even in sleep or hibernate mode, the minimal amount of electricity would add up to a considerable amount of fossil fuel being burned in order for us to have the convenience of quick on/off. The amount of time it takes for any harm to be realized by the computer probably equals the amount of time the computer will stay current before needing to be totally upgraded. I turn mine off every night.
rag
On my home systems I have a tendency to shut them down when tey are not in use for the sole reason that an electrial storm with one lightening strike can do ir-repairable damage to any system.
It hs been my experience that any time a lightening strike occurs it allows all the smoke to escape from my system and believe me once the smoke escapes from any electronic equipment it will not work again!
rag
Eric
Hi!
I’ve been working professionally with computers since 1992. In my experience shutting off a computer and turning it on again do not significantly shorten its life.
The most dangerous things for computers on the hardware side of things are voltage spikes and brownouts (lack of voltage). The best way to protect from voltage spikes is with a simple protector strip that will automatically shutoff in the case of a voltage spike.
Brownout low power is more difficult to protect your computer from. To afford that kind of protection you need a battery backup system that automatically conditions the power that your computer is receiving and if power level drops the battery kicks in and protects your computer. Most people I know do not own a battery backup system, they tend to be expensive.
I always turn off my computer if I’m going to not use it for awhile.
I also Always turn off my LCD monitor if I’ll be away more than 10-15 minutes. Those bulbs behind the screen, called a back light source I think (this is different than the little lcd pixels you see on the face of the screen) they only work a certain number of hours usually around 50,000 before they fail.
Best Regards, Eric
Dan Rambow
I have been a computer tech for over 30 years and have seen this argument back and forth since the beginning. On a desktop system, to leave it on, yes there is a tiny bit more wear and tear on the fans, hard disk and power supply that off-sets the thermal shock when turning one on from a powerdown state. For the vast majority of systems, it really doesn’t make much difference. And yes, standby or sleep mode will save some power use.
But with laptops, there are more considerations. First, know the different modes: Off, means off, all systems down, all ram cleared, and all will have to be restarted from scratch. Uses no power.
Hibernation means, save a snapshot of all current computer activities to a file on the hard disk, then a power off state. When rebooting, nothing is reset, the computer just reloads that file and continues where you left off. A pretty speedy reboot that way. Uses no power.
Standby or sleep mode, means taking a snapshot of everything that is going on, save to a file in RAM, and power down to a low power state. When rebooting, nothing is reset, the computer just reloads that file from RAM and continues where you left off. This is the fastest reboot with this mode. A very small amount of power is used.
But the problem with laptops are that they move from place to place. If you have network connections or printers, that change from place to place, (wi-fi at different campgrounds for example), coming out of hibernation or sleep can really cause problems trying to re-establish connections. In those cases, a full shutdown is best.
And as a final thought, many LCD screens, even in their own sleep modes, do not power down the internal back-lights. My rule of thumb, has been, if you aren’t going to use the screen for a few hours or more, then turn it off. Of course this only becomes an issue after several years of use, so it may take a long while to actually burn out those backlights or power circuit boards. (5-6 years constant use ??)
GMAs
Chris
we are having a disucssion about video cables over on the other blog. Why do you need computer cables which have chokes on them and why not… expensive and cheap ones… why do some manufactures want choked cables and others not?
HDMI or hd 15 cable?
could you comment over their on this subject?
Thanks for the great blog… I read both your and Seans L L HM
we leave our computer off until we need it… laptop with solid state… doesn’t make sense to just leave it on.. however the big’n we leave on… but can see it in the power bill… about 300 watts draw…
GMAs
Chris .. could you come over to the web site here on RV… and comment as to why one needs the expensive cable with the chokes on it and why not… go with the cheaper ones…
thanks
With the recent switch to digital broadcast signals and the dropping price of HDTV sets, many of us are upgrading our RV media centers. The best cable connection for HDTV sets is called HDMI.
If you walk into any electronics store, you’ll find HDMI cables are expensive, with some selling for $50 or more. Quite frankly, these high-priced HDMI cables are a RIP-OFF.
Don’t get suckered into overpaying for an HDMI cable. Digital signals consist of ones and zeros – there’s no discernible difference in signal quality between a $50 cable and a $5 cable. It either works or it doesn’t.
HDMI cables deliver pure digital goodness, but that doesn’t mean they should be expensive. You can buy a nice HDMI cable for less than $5.
If you check out the reputable site Monoprice.com, you can pick up a nice 6-foot cable for $3.56.
Still too pricey for you? Here’s one on Amazon for $0.70. That’s SEVENTY PENNIES (plus shipping).
Repeat: EXPENSIVE HDMI CABLES ARE A RIP-OFF.
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This public service announcement has been brought to you by the “5th Best RV blog” on the Internet: LongLongHoneymoon
GMAs
Chris…
could you come over and help out in this area… its on the blog here… value your comments and take on the subject… why do they have the chokes on some and not others… are they necessary??? etc… etc…
thanks G.M>
With the recent switch to digital broadcast signals and the dropping price of HDTV sets, many of us are upgrading our RV media centers. The best cable connection for HDTV sets is called HDMI.
If you walk into any electronics store, you’ll find HDMI cables are expensive, with some selling for $50 or more. Quite frankly, these high-priced HDMI cables are a RIP-OFF.
Don’t get suckered into overpaying for an HDMI cable. Digital signals consist of ones and zeros – there’s no discernible difference in signal quality between a $50 cable and a $5 cable. It either works or it doesn’t.
HDMI cables deliver pure digital goodness, but that doesn’t mean they should be expensive. You can buy a nice HDMI cable for less than $5.
If you check out the reputable site Monoprice.com, you can pick up a nice 6-foot cable for $3.56.
http://www.monoprice.com/products/subdepartment.asp?c_id=102&cp_id=10240
Still too pricey for you? Here’s one on Amazon for $0.70. That’s SEVENTY PENNIES (plus shipping).
http://www.amazon.com/Super-Resolution-Cable-DVI-Gear/dp/B0002L5R78/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1204150160&sr=8-1
Repeat: EXPENSIVE HDMI CABLES ARE A RIP-OFF.
—-
This public service announcement has been brought to you by the “5th Best RV blog” on the Internet: LongLongHoneymoon.com.
Carolyn
Before I went full time I had a desktop computer and we lived in an area that seemed to have an inordinate amount of power outages, so I started turning it off at night. Did have a battery back up for it, but it was only good for 20 minutes and in the middle of the night it was not nice to wake up to the back up whining to tell us that the battery needed to kick in. So everything got turned off at night – & unplugged.
Now I have two laptops that work off a router with an aircard and I turn them off when not in use…maybe it’s habit from the past, but I just feel they work good when they are able to re-set themselves each day. One has XP the other is Vista (not my fave).
Vulpine
Personally, I would recommend rebooting the computer once every two weeks or any time it seems to be getting unusually slow or glitchy (seems to just stop for a few moments before resuming at odd times.) Whether you are using Windows or some other OS, the longer you leave it on, the more applications start taking up paging space in memory and on the hard drives. This will cause the machine to start acting strangely. The reboot clears the RAM and paging spaces, allowing the machine to resume normal operations.
When it comes to scans for viruses, malware or other preventative maintenance, try scheduling them to run at shut down, letting them perform their process before automatically turning off the machine. Otherwise, be willing to permit a scan on boot-up (say, while you’re eating breakfast or drinking your morning coffee.)
Here’s the thing: When you leave the machine on full time, any applications you leave running will continue to cycle their data through automatic saves and simple pagination. By switching to ‘sleep’ mode, you essentially shut down the processor, display and hard drives, but leave a charge on the RAM to protect the memory state. On waking, the computer immediately recognizes the RAM and returns to whatever you were doing at shut down. The advantage, as described, is to reduce energy drain and can even help extend the life of some components. However, certain circumstances may occur which might corrupt the RAM or cause a total loss of memory. The only way out of this problem is a hard reboot.
Whichever you do, ensure that your scanners are kept fully up to date and try to verify any downloads you receive before allowing them to run in your machine. I have serviced some machines far too many times because the user simply accepted every ‘cookie’, link or image they received. There are others I’ve never had to touch once set up, because of the type of machine and the care taken by the user to protect themselves.
Remember, a computer is only as good as its operator. Fortunately, some machines make the operator look pretty good.
Wayne Moore
I always use “hibernate” when I turn my laptop off for the night. I doubt if it uses any electricity to speak of in that mode as the battery doesn’t seem to run down much. Guess I am just old fashioned and just like turning out the lights so goes the computor.
Jay
Mime is on all the time,no sleep mode.Never had a problem in over 5 years and it’s a HP.
Chris Guld
Phil,
You say you can watch your electric meter with both your computers on and off. I’d sure be curious to know the results of watching your meter with both computers in Sleep mode all night. It should be a lot closer to the ‘Off’ results than ‘On.’
Virgil Owen
Leaving it on allows my computer to do a virus scan and download updates without slowing me down during the day. The power usage is almost nothing in sleep mode. I have my network devices set to sleep when the cpu is sleeping. Hackers can not “break into” my computer that way. Hackers are not really that interested in breaking into computers anyway. They use trojans to do that. I am a computer tech and I can tell you that hackers are more interested in using your computer to send spam than they are in damaging your computer. Those days are gone. We have a 3g router that allows us to use our usb broadband router on more than one computer. I do unplug that when not in use. With the 5gb limit from Verizon I keep our laptops from downloading stuff we dont want. We have a wireless printer in the motorhome also. It is a good idea to change the IP range for the router so it does not butt heads with other routers set to default settings. We now are living in Alaska and have cut off service to the broadband card because it is so slow that dialup is faster.
Ann Krummel
I put my computer in Standby if I’m not going to be using it for an hour or more and turn it off at night to save electricity. That has lways worked for me and my computers seem to last forever. . .just get terribly outdated.
BD
ALL I CAN SAY IS IF YOU L EAVE IT ON AT ALL TIMES YOUR JUST ASKING TO BE HACKED INTO ! NOT TO SAY THAT IT CAN NOT HAPPEN AT ANY TIME, BUT WHEN YOUR AWAY THE HACKERS CAN PLAY. I CAN ATTEST TO THAT FACT AND MY COMPUTER IS OFF WHEN NOT IN USE PLUS I USE NORTON 360 FOR ADDITIONAL PROTECTION.
agesilaus
This argument has been going on from about a week after the first PC hit the store shelves. I was always in the leave them on camp but lately have been putting the computer in Standby when I’m away or at night. A reboot every week or two does seem to be a good idea in Windows.
The idea behind the leave it on theory is that hardware goes thru a real shock treatment when you start it up from a cold start and runs up to speed and operating temperatures. That was true in the past on older hardware but I’m not sure if it is as true today.
BK
Mike Hammer
Turn computer off about once a week, it helps to clean it up and resort everything.
Otherwise leave them on in sleep mode. It used to be hard on the old monitors to turn them on and off but do not think it matters with new LCD monitors.
Manuel Enos
According to all the savvy computer guys, you should leave it in sleep or standby. This will save all the unnecessary scanning it will do when you first start up. Plus it lets it auto download updates etc. etc…We put ours in standby per HP….
Phil
My wife and I each turn our computers off each night. To justify doing this, we watched our electric meter both with the machines on and with them off — believe me, there is a difference!!