Solved Does powering down your computer wear it down?

abseh1

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This is back to the old argument do I shut down or leave it run...form your own opinion

Personally...I think heat is your enemy...abs

HowStuffWorks "Does powering down your computer wear it down?"

For a modern computer, frequent shutdown and startup has a minimal effect on the computer's overall life. The truth is that computers aren't meant to last forever. The average lifespan of a PC is five to seven years, at which point it succumbs to any number of hardware glitches, software viruses, or is rendered obsolete by technological advances. Modern PCs are built to handle 40,000 on-off cycles before failure [source: EnergyStar.gov]. If you shut down your computer at night and start it back up in the morning, you should be good for the next 109 years.

If anything wears down your computer, it's leaving the machine on. Computers build up heat when they are actively processing data and running software. Heat itself can damage internal components, but it also causes your computer's fan to run longer [source: Greenemeier]. The more the fan runs, the quicker it will wear out its bearings [source: Gwinn].

CREDITS: by Dave Roos
 

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The equipment is unlikely to fail due to heat-related issues for as long as you're likely to own it. Here's the common-sense way to handle it.

1) Make regular backups of important data in case it breaks.
2) Use the machine until it breaks.

Beyond that, quit micromanaging everything.

-Max
 

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    Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit
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OP, just use your computers the way it feels good. No need to worry about the issue. I restart every so often to "clear the cobwebs" or otherwise when necessary. MS thinks you need to restart only very infrequently.
 

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micromanaging...nope, I am on old fart retiree

Nah...just enjoying the discussion thread @ Win 8 Forums

I get the question often and I do not believe there is a right answer

You may be correct...I guess the post was boring to some

I will post less often...my bad
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    MS Windows 8.1 Pro 64-bit with WMC
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Custom
    CPU
    Intel Core i5 650 @ 3.20GHz X4
    Motherboard
    H57M01
    Memory
    8.00 GB Dual-Channel DDR3 @ 665MHz
    Graphics Card(s)
    Nvidia GeForce GTX 550TI Superclocked
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    1920 x 1080
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    2 ...1T each
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    750 Corsair
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    wireless
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    wireless
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    60Mbps tested @ 68.92Mbps/5.87Mbpsbps
I have a server I keep on all the time. The only thing I've replaced in the last several years is the power supply. And I occasionally upgrade other things for performance reasons, not due to failure.

It's a good question, but in general I don't think you need to worry about it unless you are going one extreme or the other. My daily use machine (laptop) I do turn off once in awhile. But it has a sleep mode so, even if I don't turn it off, it goes to sleep and consumes less power and generates less heat. If you use good sense in keeping things ventilated (e.g. don't keep your laptop on a cushy pillow and block the vent holes when you use it) then having it on for days at a time is of no harm.
 

My Computer

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  • OS
    Win 7 / Win 8
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    Lenovo T510 / HP ProBook 4540S
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    Intel i5-510m / Intel i3-3110m
    Memory
    4GB / 8GB
    Monitor(s) Displays
    15.6"
I have a server I keep on all the time. The only thing I've replaced in the last several years is the power supply. And I occasionally upgrade other things for performance reasons, not due to failure.

Thanks ...I believe all posting have made a good point
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    MS Windows 8.1 Pro 64-bit with WMC
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Custom
    CPU
    Intel Core i5 650 @ 3.20GHz X4
    Motherboard
    H57M01
    Memory
    8.00 GB Dual-Channel DDR3 @ 665MHz
    Graphics Card(s)
    Nvidia GeForce GTX 550TI Superclocked
    Screen Resolution
    1920 x 1080
    Hard Drives
    2 ...1T each
    PSU
    750 Corsair
    Keyboard
    wireless
    Mouse
    wireless
    Internet Speed
    60Mbps tested @ 68.92Mbps/5.87Mbpsbps
I use my desktop for recording security camera video so is on 24/7. They seem to last as long as others I own. I shut it down only when updates require it for the most part. I used to shut down at night and up in the morning and I see little difference, in fact I lost couple hard drives on those computers as opposed to the 24/7 one.

I put the monitor to sleep or shut it off so there isn't a glare in the area but that is about it.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    win 8
hi Abs,

the only advantage of shutting down is .... you save energy, so money in the pocket, although not that much.

I never have shut down our computers for about some 15 or more years and never will.

If having regular hard drives, my feeling is that shutting down every day can hurt them in the long run.

Anyway, i think most of us have at least one SSD for there OS.

Jeff
 

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  • OS
    WINDOWS 8.1 x64
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    PC/Desktop
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    INTEL CORE I--3770K LGA1155
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    ASUS P8Z77-V
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    KINGSTON 2400 MHZ KHX24C11K4 16GB
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    INTEL HD GRAFICS 4000
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Philip BDL3245€ 32 inch
    Screen Resolution
    1920 x 1080
    Hard Drives
    2 SAMSUNG 840 PRO RAID 0 ON BOARD 2 x 128 GB
    Keyboard
    LOGITEC MX™ 5500
    Mouse
    LOGITEC MX 5500
    Internet Speed
    120 Mbps
I don't know how high of low the energyprices in the USA are, but here in The Netherlands they are HIGH! Leaving the computer on 24/7 will eventually account for 20-30% of my total electricity usage.

So by shutting down the pc during the night and the workhours I have won al least €150 (that's $200) EACH YEAR!

For me this is more important then the lifespan of my pc.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro x64 Media Center Edition
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Custom Made
    CPU
    Intel Core i5 750
    Memory
    6 GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    AMD HD 7750
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Iiyama ProLite B2481HS-B1
    Screen Resolution
    1920x1080
    Hard Drives
    1x 120 GB SSD Samsung 830;
    1x 1.5 TB HDD Seagate;
    1x 2 TB HDD Western Digital;
    1x 3 TB HDD Seagate
    1x 80 GB SSD Vertex 2
    PSU
    Corsair CX 600
    Case
    Corsair Carbide 300R with Side Window
    Cooling
    Intel RTS2011 LC
    Keyboard
    DasKeyboard (blue switches)
    Mouse
    Wacom Baboo Tablet Pen & Touch
    Internet Speed
    50 Mbit FullDuplex Fiberglass
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    IE11
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    Windows Defender
    Other Info
    I also own the following Microsoft devices:
    * Surface Pro 2 128 GB
    * Windows Phone HTC 8X
micromanaging...nope, I am on old fart retiree

Nah...just enjoying the discussion thread @ Win 8 Forums

I get the question often and I do not believe there is a right answer

You may be correct...I guess the post was boring to some

I will post less often...my bad

From one "old fart" to another ...

Your post wasn't boring. Don't post less over this ... that's what these forums are for. We're here as a sounding board for stuff you might be thinking about. Post away!

-Max :cool:
 

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  • OS
    Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Dell Inspiron 17R / Dell XPS 8300
    CPU
    Intel i5 (17R) / Intel i7 (XPS)
    Memory
    8GB / 8GB
Ouch! Ours runs around 7-8 cents a KWH so not much overall, though every bit counts if a budget is important.

Wish it were true...... here it's about €0,25 per KWH, that's around $0,32 per KWH. The worst part is, 80% of this is taxes......
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro x64 Media Center Edition
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Custom Made
    CPU
    Intel Core i5 750
    Memory
    6 GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    AMD HD 7750
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Iiyama ProLite B2481HS-B1
    Screen Resolution
    1920x1080
    Hard Drives
    1x 120 GB SSD Samsung 830;
    1x 1.5 TB HDD Seagate;
    1x 2 TB HDD Western Digital;
    1x 3 TB HDD Seagate
    1x 80 GB SSD Vertex 2
    PSU
    Corsair CX 600
    Case
    Corsair Carbide 300R with Side Window
    Cooling
    Intel RTS2011 LC
    Keyboard
    DasKeyboard (blue switches)
    Mouse
    Wacom Baboo Tablet Pen & Touch
    Internet Speed
    50 Mbit FullDuplex Fiberglass
    Browser
    IE11
    Antivirus
    Windows Defender
    Other Info
    I also own the following Microsoft devices:
    * Surface Pro 2 128 GB
    * Windows Phone HTC 8X
I am in the northwest where they have tons of hydro power. The federal and state governments have helped finance building wind generators. Now the companies are having money trouble so they are getting money from both governments to help them keep going. Well this year the wind farms were generating more power than was needed so the government made the hydro power companies buy the excess energy from wind that they had no use for.

My guess is we will be paying more in your cost range soon :-( thanks to the "efficiency" of government.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    win 8
If I'm not using it I turn it off.
I do this to save wear and tear on the mechanical parts, to save power and to keep out the dust.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8 Pro & Linux Mint
Wish it were true...... here it's about €0,25 per KWH, that's around $0,32 per KWH. The worst part is, 80% of this is taxes......
The US is on a political trajectory to achieve this.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Win 7 / Win 8
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Lenovo T510 / HP ProBook 4540S
    CPU
    Intel i5-510m / Intel i3-3110m
    Memory
    4GB / 8GB
    Monitor(s) Displays
    15.6"
My guess is we will be paying more in your cost range soon :-( thanks to the "efficiency" of government.

In South Australia, energy prices have sky-rocketed, since the Government power company was sold to the "more efficient Private Sector".
 

My Computer

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  • OS
    Windows 7 Ultimate SP1 (64 bit), Linux Mint 18.3 MATE (64 bit)
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    n/a
    CPU
    AMD Phenom II x6 1055T, 2.8 GHz
    Motherboard
    ASRock 880GMH-LE/USB3
    Memory
    8GB DDR3 1333 G-Skill Ares F3-1333C9D-8GAO (4GB x 2)
    Graphics Card(s)
    ATI Radeon HD6450
    Sound Card
    Realtek?
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    Samsung S23B350
    Screen Resolution
    1920x1080
    Hard Drives
    Western Digital 1.5 TB (SATA), Western Digital 2 TB (SATA), Western Digital 3 TB (SATA)
    Case
    Tower
    Mouse
    Wired Optical
    Other Info
    Linux Mint 16 MATE (64 bit) replaced with Linux Mint 17 MATE (64 bit) - 2014-05-17
    Linux Mint 14 MATE (64 bit) replaced with Linux Mint 16 MATE (64 bit) - 2013-11-13
    Ubuntu 10.04 (64 bit) replaced with Linux Mint 14 MATE (64 bit) - 2013-01-14
    RAM & Graphics Card Upgraded - 2013-01-13
    Monitor Upgraded - 2012-04-20
    System Upgraded - 2011-05-21, 2010-07-14
    HDD Upgraded - 2010-08-11, 2011-08-24,
This is back to the old argument do I shut down or leave it run...form your own opinion

Personally...I think heat is your enemy...abs

HowStuffWorks "Does powering down your computer wear it down?"
CREDITS: by Dave Roos

Anything that's making heat and not doing anything useful is simply wasting energy, which you're paying for, and creating unnecessary carbon dioxide through the wastage of power generation at the plant. Mightn't seem like much, but it sure adds up over time. I *always* either suspend/sleep (e.g. overnight) or hibernate (over the weekends or holidays) the PC when I'm leaving it for more than a few hours.

Also, anything that's sucking air is also sucking dust, which gets deposited in the guts of the PC and on the blades of the fan too. This leads to moisture absorption which can lead to premature failure over the longer term. It can also lead to annoying fan wind or bearing noise. If the noise doesn't bother you it's probably not a problem. If you have a laptop, the dust might become an additional problem due to additional heat buildup from the confined spaces having their air flow further restricted. If you're in a non-air-conditioned environment, the dust can be significant. If you're in a hot and/or dusty environment, well you work it out - good luck with that!

I replaced my HDD with an SSD, so I don't have to worry about wearing out bearings and heads and and stuff (not to mention the 10-fold increase in PC performance as well, from 10 minute cold boots reducing to 30 seconds!). So the fan is now the only moving part in my machine (when I'm not using the now rarely-used DVD/CD drive).

Also, if you have a laptop you don't have to worry about power brownouts too much because the battery carries you across that, but with a PC, a brownout can kill a disk write and cause you grief to restore your data.

And if you do have a laptop or battery operated device, if you don't hibernate or sleep the machine when not using ac mains, your battery's gonna go flat. The more often you deep-discharge modern batteries: the less life you're going to get out of it, and they can be expensive to replace.

But it's up to you. What would I know... I'm just a professional ICT hardware specialist.
 

My Computer

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  • OS
    Windows 8 Pro (64 bit)
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    Laptop
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    Lenovo ThinkPad Twist
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    Intel Core i7
    Motherboard
    Lenovo
    Memory
    8 GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    Intel HD Graphics 4000
    Sound Card
    Realtek High Definition Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Native laptop display
    Screen Resolution
    1366x768
    Hard Drives
    256 GB OPAL SSD (System) and
    256 GB mSATA SSD (Data)
    Mouse
    trackpad & MS Arc Touch Mouse
    Internet Speed
    12 MB/1.5 MB ADSL2+
    Browser
    IE 10 and Firefox 20+
    Antivirus
    Trend Micro Titanium Maximum Security (2013)
I leave my PC's on and turn the monitor off when I'm not using it. Lots of tasks get done when you're not using your PC, especially the background tasks that run when the PC is idle.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Win 10 Pro 64bit
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Home built Intel i7-3770k-based system
    CPU
    Intel i7-3770k, Overclocked to 4.6GHz (46x100) with Corsair H110i GT cooler
    Motherboard
    ASRock Z77 OC Formula 2.30 BIOS
    Memory
    32GB DDR3 2133 Corsair Vengeance Pro
    Graphics Card(s)
    GeForce GTX 980ti SC ACS 6GB DDR5 by EVGA
    Sound Card
    Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium HD, Corsair SP2500 speakers and subwoofer
    Monitor(s) Displays
    LG 27EA33 [Monitor] (27.2"vis) HDMI
    Screen Resolution
    1920x1080
    Hard Drives
    Samsung SSD 850 EVO 250GB (system drive)
    WD 6TB Red NAS hard drives x 2 in Storage Spaces (redundancy)
    PSU
    Corsair 750ax fully modular power supply with sleeved cables
    Case
    Corsair Air 540 with 7 x 140mm fans on front, rear and top panels
    Cooling
    Corsair H110i GT liquid cooled CPU with 4 x 140" Corsair SP "push-pull" and 3 x 140mm fans
    Keyboard
    Thermaltake Poseidon Z illuminated keyboard
    Mouse
    Corsair M65 wired
    Internet Speed
    85MBps DSL
    Browser
    Chrome and Edge
    Antivirus
    Windows Defender, MalwareBytes Pro and CCleaner Pro
    Other Info
    Client of Windows Server 2012 R2 10 PC's, laptops and smartphones on the WLAN.

    1GBps Ethernet ports
I just read the 1st post and so much of the referenced article was garbage... "Viruses" don't kill PC's and I change my fans out as they get dirty, make noise, etc...
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Win 10 Pro 64bit
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Home built Intel i7-3770k-based system
    CPU
    Intel i7-3770k, Overclocked to 4.6GHz (46x100) with Corsair H110i GT cooler
    Motherboard
    ASRock Z77 OC Formula 2.30 BIOS
    Memory
    32GB DDR3 2133 Corsair Vengeance Pro
    Graphics Card(s)
    GeForce GTX 980ti SC ACS 6GB DDR5 by EVGA
    Sound Card
    Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium HD, Corsair SP2500 speakers and subwoofer
    Monitor(s) Displays
    LG 27EA33 [Monitor] (27.2"vis) HDMI
    Screen Resolution
    1920x1080
    Hard Drives
    Samsung SSD 850 EVO 250GB (system drive)
    WD 6TB Red NAS hard drives x 2 in Storage Spaces (redundancy)
    PSU
    Corsair 750ax fully modular power supply with sleeved cables
    Case
    Corsair Air 540 with 7 x 140mm fans on front, rear and top panels
    Cooling
    Corsair H110i GT liquid cooled CPU with 4 x 140" Corsair SP "push-pull" and 3 x 140mm fans
    Keyboard
    Thermaltake Poseidon Z illuminated keyboard
    Mouse
    Corsair M65 wired
    Internet Speed
    85MBps DSL
    Browser
    Chrome and Edge
    Antivirus
    Windows Defender, MalwareBytes Pro and CCleaner Pro
    Other Info
    Client of Windows Server 2012 R2 10 PC's, laptops and smartphones on the WLAN.

    1GBps Ethernet ports
Not everyone is a self made geek

My wife hates email (She is almost 80) and uses Google for research before buying stuff....if it wasn't for Pogo she wouldn't own a puter...she uses Java too

Computers bore her...so do geeks

She leaves her computer on...because she can not find the charm button in Win 8 and could care less...where it is , anyway
(I shut it down for her)

BTW: I like Win 8....as they say in baseball...."it has been very very good to me"


It was an article for all continuum of end-users....not just self made experts

Changing fans works for some...but not all know how to open a case

The average end-user calls a Tower a CPU.....viruses cause some of them many dollars $$$, and some can not afford the cost to repair and recover data or to pay to have a fan installed

This was probable the wrong place/forum to post this....it was not a question....it was something to discuss in a civil manner ...
(No need to call a noted computer writer's work garbage... JMHO)

I have built more computers than the average bear....and I remember when a person knew how to upgrade a few MB's of RAM; he was not an expert he was a genius and had to go to computer school to learn how to do it....wow....did you see that he opened the case and added a few more MB's of RAM (Circa 1980)

I am use to user friendly forums that do not have a bunch of badges and Latin titles

I have been helping people for free with computing for 32 years...

I am still learning

I get the point....I am moving on

This is probably the best Website for Win 8 support....but not what I was expecting

I doubt telling a joke would even be acceptable to a few

I am a friendly old geezer...but I do not take crap from anyone with a self made title or badge

I thought this was a discussion forum...I was not asking for help...just having a social visit

Thanks to most who were not condescending and impressed with themselves

No need to ban me ...I quit

Mod no need to email me....I have several other help sites that keep me busy
 
Last edited:

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    MS Windows 8.1 Pro 64-bit with WMC
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Custom
    CPU
    Intel Core i5 650 @ 3.20GHz X4
    Motherboard
    H57M01
    Memory
    8.00 GB Dual-Channel DDR3 @ 665MHz
    Graphics Card(s)
    Nvidia GeForce GTX 550TI Superclocked
    Screen Resolution
    1920 x 1080
    Hard Drives
    2 ...1T each
    PSU
    750 Corsair
    Keyboard
    wireless
    Mouse
    wireless
    Internet Speed
    60Mbps tested @ 68.92Mbps/5.87Mbpsbps
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