Is it good to turn off the computer every night when sleep

[vrosa]

You Can turn on the pc everynight if u wanted to download movies,or use games and host servers otherwise i give u suggestion to turn the pc off bcz first thing= if u using pc then it will be waste of electricity
2nd.many pcs become soo much hot and if u dont close it,it can be Destroyed

Fair Winds,
Jary Zaidi

Mine is water cooled and runs cool even at full throttle.

 

[XweAponX]

A computer or monitor, old or new, will require more current during startup than at any other time. But this period will be very short, generally less than one second. If the computer is on even for a short time the power consumed during startup will be an insignificant fraction of the total.

One second? Try about a minute for my old Asus motherboard. My Media PC which is an old HP Pavilion boots a lot quicker, so I guess what you say applies to that one. But that machine, I keep it on all the time because at night I always have movies running to help me sleep. The noise lulls me to sleep. I actually prefer it, I have terrible insomnia. I used to have to take sleeping pills and I was addicted to them, so keeping a PC on all the time is better and actually a cheaper solution, the sleeping pills I used to take were over 100 bucks for 30 of them. I did that for 20 years- Then one day a guy gave me a broken down HP box, It was dead, I revived it, made it into a Media Machine. One night, I loaded up a bunch of moovies. I fell asleep watching them and woke up 9 hours later. So I kept doing that, and I haven't taken the sleeping pills since.

 

[XweAponX]

It's not so much about power but the stresses components going thru stop and star routines are under. Just while loading windows a HDD works more than few hours of normal activity. Then there is something called "Startup count" for HDDs that you can plainly see if you look at SMART in it with let's say HDD Sentinel and that count goes into the it's overall health score. An example of what I'm talking about. Right now, I have an 3 year old, WD 750GB Green HDD, (that are notorious for failure rate) that is in perfect shape and health tha came out an security camera recorder, never shut down for few if not all 3 years. Startup count was 10 by the time I installed it in my machine. Now is up to few hundred in couple of month and I almost never shut my computer down except to change something .
Then there's constant warming up and cooling down of components which puts stress on components as they constantly change shape because of it. CRT monitors are particularly vulnerable at the time of starting up as higher voltages are applied at that time so they show the picture faster. Some of them have electro mechanical relay to switch between stand by and normal mode that wears and fails after so many cycles, those are the parts I often had to change when repairing CRT monitors. Also, color monitors, CRT or otherwise, do not need a screen saver because they can not etch a static picture on the screen and constantly changing picture makes the work just as much as in normal use. The best thing for them is just to send blank signal to them when not in use.
Those are just couple of examples of what is going on when systems are put thru start an shut routines an there's larger bunch of components there that go thru the same thing.
On the other hand, all the transistors have a finite number of cycles that they can do with each Hz , so stretching a computer's life would actually be quite an balancing act.

That's the best reply yet, Gold Star time! You have said everything I wanted to say all on one concise statement. I went to ITT Tech for 3 years so I learned all of this well back then, I just had forgotten the exact technical language.

All of your PC components, from the Power Supply to the Monitor, the Hard Drives, the Optical Drives, the Motherboard in particular, are HEAVILY stressed during startup and shutdown ops. And you pointed out Start Count - Each time you start your PC is one less time you can start it forever.

So I prefer to not have to reboot every day - I keep the machines on forever. The longest time I have gone without a reboot on my Main PC was almost a year under Windows 7. Under Windows 8, it had stayed on for 3 months straight barring reboots for updates.

This is also a good argument to NOT allow your system to do automatic updates! Most updates force a reboot, so I always do it once a month, maybe once every 3 months, and I am very selective on which updates I will allow, I read every detail about every update and if I don't feel I need it, I hide the update. I only allow those updates which promise increased productivity for me.

This has been interrupted by my Main PC locking up every 2 days or so. But I think I got rid of the Rootkit which was causing this. I'll know by tomorrow AM if it is still locking up, right now it's been 2 Days 13 hours. I keep an Uptime Monitor on my desktop.

 

[XweAponX]

Dead wrong about PCs getting hot when on idle, that's actually when they are cooler than when running a program or something. Many systems can have power states when they throttle down processor and video card when not required to do any or heavy work. AMDs Cool & Quiet is an example of that Also "C" states in the BIOS can provide the same thing. Typical AMD Phenom II x4 965 will fall down from 3.4 GHz, the normal speed, down to 860 MHz at idle and scale up the speed when and how much is required. Same goes for a video card and those two are typically the biggest users of electricity in a system.
Power supply also does not draw full current all the time but just as much as required at the time. One example, typically they are over rated by 25% or more of what they might see in use, 500W PSU will be required to push no more than 450W in a well balanced system. At computer on idle the draw will drop to maybe 100W on such a system.

I have two PCs that use Cool and Quiet, it is part of the motherboard settings. It's the first thing I activate. This is why I am an AMD man, because of this feature. If I open AIDA64, it shows me the iterations in CPU speed, which goes from 1 GHz to 2.5 GHz. I have this system, overclocked 5%. This motherboard is one of the best I have bought, I've had it over 5 years. I wish I had bought more than one, and they were only 60 bucks. Thats another reason why I do AMD, processors don't cost 600 bucks. I have two Athlon 4400+'s which normally run at 2.2 GHz OC'd to 2.5. But that speed is not used all the time.

On my Laptops, I always setup the CPU to run from 5% to 80% max speed on Battery, 25% to 100% on AC power.

When it comes to Laptops, well in those cases, you have to set up your power options for the least use of resources when on Battery. It's like using my iPhone, I have to shut off all kinds of hidden processes, and now I have 380 MB free out of 512mb. But I had to do research in to what Launch Daemons I could safely shut off. OTA Updates, Wiebo Support, Chinese WLAN, shut them all off and now get almost 3 whole days between recharge cycles.

 

[kmint]

Modern computers don't need to be turned off. It's like TVs, you just suspend them. The cost of power consumption is so small that it is insignificant. They don't get wasted at all and they are not more vulnerable to attacks by night, specially because they are suspended.

New laptops come with the suspend function in the power button by default. Instead of turning it off we are just suspending them. In the Asus ones, waking from suspension takes 2 seconds, so it's fantastic and modern not needing to wait anymore for the booting.

I personally turn off the laptop and the TV by night, but just because I prefer to have everything off by night. I even turn off the router and the cell phone. Just a habit but I prefer it.

 

[Frank1]

I don't shut mine down during the day; I just put it insleep mode. I do shut it down at night time just before I go to bed. One of thereasons is that because we get some thunder storms in our area and I think it'spossible to get it zapped by lightening when it is running.

 

[XweAponX]

Modern computers don't need to be turned off. It's like TVs, you just suspend them. The cost of power consumption is so small that it is insignificant. They don't get wasted at all and they are not more vulnerable to attacks by night, specially because they are suspended.

New laptops come with the suspend function in the power button by default. Instead of turning it off we are just suspending them. In the Asus ones, waking from suspension takes 2 seconds, so it's fantastic and modern not needing to wait anymore for the booting.

I personally turn off the laptop and the TV by night, but just because I prefer to have everything off by night. I even turn off the router and the cell phone. Just a habit but I prefer it.

Well, I have an iPhone that has "Do Not Distoib" so nobody distoib's me. I also have extra apps that make it so the damn thing won't ring or allow messages even until I tell it to. The only thing I leave on at night is my Media PC which is always streaming something. Thats' cos my Main PC is always crashing heh. I'll know after tonight if it is still locking up.

Yah, the best Laptops now so far are Asus. it just boots instantly. even from a complete shutdown it boots in about 20 seconds or less. It takes less than a second to shut off which is also great.

 

[kmint]

Yah, the best Laptops now so far are Asus.

Well, I received yesterday from Amazon the 3rd replacement of my "new" Asus X501A, meaning this is the 4th one. The 3 previous ones were faulty with all sort of defects. Hard disk failure, overheating, epileptic attacks of the cursor and bad PSU and touchpad...

And for what I see in the netbooks forums, I am not the only one, those problems seem to be generalized among owners of Asus laptops.

I like this one because it is very cheap, powerful enough for me, and it's the only one at this price which is slim, lighter and more beautiful (to me), but this is the worst quality laptop I've ever seen. Absent quality control.

 

[Win8PcTech]

You Can turn on the pc everynight if u wanted to download movies,or use games and host servers otherwise i give u suggestion to turn the pc off bcz first thing= if u using pc then it will be waste of electricity
2nd.many pcs become soo much hot and if u dont close it,it can be Destroyed

Fair Winds,
Jary Zaidi

Mine is water cooled and runs cool even at full throttle.

Nice

 

[XweAponX]

Yah, the best Laptops now so far are Asus.

Well, I received yesterday from Amazon the 3rd replacement of my "new" Asus X501A, meaning this is the 4th one. The 3 previous ones were faulty with all sort of defects. Hard disk failure, overheating, epileptic attacks of the cursor and bad PSU and touchpad...

And for what I see in the netbooks forums, I am not the only one, those problems seem to be generalized among owners of Asus laptops.

I like this one because it is very cheap, powerful enough for me, and it's the only one at this price which is slim, lighter and more beautiful (to me), but this is the worst quality laptop I've ever seen. Absent quality control.

The Cursor is neurotic due to the Asus Smart Gesture thing which is a quick-learn. Now that I know how it works, I can avoid doing gestures when I don't want to. I like the Pad, it's a huge square area and I've been able to do some pretty fine manipulation in Photoshop. Here is the one I got:

Amazon.com: ASUS A55A-AH51-RD 15.6-Inch LED Laptop ( Red ): Computers & Accessories

So far, I have not had any overheating or anything. But I'll keep these things in mind and I'll pass your observations over to the owner of it when I ship it later today.

 

[kmint]

Sure, the touchpad is wonderful, one of the main reasons why I keep buying the same one. I only use the touchpad, never the mouse, and need a big and soft surface on it, now that many brands make touchpads that feel like sand paper.

But I need Smart Gestures too. I want to scroll with two fingers. If the epilectic behavior goes if I uninstall Smart Gestures, then I will live with it.

By the way, it only happens when it is connected to the power and has the battery on at the same time. If I remove the battery, it stops shaking. And in some plugs in the house it gets worse than in others, so it is related to the power line. This happens to many other people, it's not just my home (which never gave me problems with older laptops or PCs).

EDIT: I wonder why laptops and electronics in general are much cheaper in Amazon USA than in Europe. Lucky you, you pay much less than us.

 

[jimbo45]

Hi there
Depends where you are -- I saw in the UK - even though they are sitting on TRILLIONS of Cubic Metres of Shale gas located in the poorer parts of the country - you've got the inevitable middle aged wealthy - usually women - protesting against using this resource (the "Pseudo Green Lobby") while people are almost paying MORE for energy per month than they are for their mortgages and the threat of Electricity Rationing in the next few years is very real.

Blackout alert: Electricity to be rationed: Power cuts in 2 years unless industry cuts back, warns regulator | Mail Online

The North of England has a chance to create enormous wealth for its citizens (finally) but I suppose wealthy people from S.E England and London wouldn't like that at all. Up to 50 years sufficient supply with current technology - and maybe much more later -- I'm sure most of the people in the UK would LOVE to see the Saudi's going back to their roots and learning to ride Camels again instead of Ferraris.

Shale gas | Energy | British Geological Survey (BGS)

So in the UK I'd suggest switching off computers -- however where energy is cheaper just leave them on (switch off the Screens though).

Cheers
jimbo

 

[Philgo]

Like every electrical appliance in my house if it's not in use it's turned off.

 

[fireberd]

Years ago, it was 'leave it on' as powering off and on was iffy on causing problems. I'm an old time computer tech (started working on them with an old discrete component custom military computer) and we would get nervous anytime something had to be powered off - and there was a specific sequence that had to be followed for powering down. Same way later on working on newer mainframes and later early model PC's.

Modern PC's and power supplies do not have this potential problem. Its safe to power down/up. I leave my PC on during the day, except if I'm going to be gone for an extended period (I'm retired). I usually power off the PC at night, except for when I run backups.

 

[Mystere]

All electrical devices are most likely to fail during the transition from off to on. This is because there is general a power surge and components that have weakened over time will be more likely to fail. Think about how most light bulbs blow when you flip on the switch. The same is true to some extent of everything from TV's, Computes, Hair Dryers, whatever..

However, most modern electronics no longer fully power off. Even when you shut down your computer (unless you disconnect the power, or flip the hard switch in back), there is a small amount of current that runs through it to enable the "soft" power on. Even so, the components within might still be stressed to a degree during power on.

For most people, you're probably just fine powering down your computer, or letting it hibernate or sleep. Some of us, however, may need to access our computers remotely at any given time, and thus want it running. It's also nice to leave it running to allow things like Windows Update to happen overnight, rather than having to wait for the updates when you're using it.

I also tend to run various software, like virtual machines. These do not recover as well from a hibernation/sleep. If you're not a power user, and you have no reason to leave your computer on, then it's probably a good idea to shut it down to save power.

 

[CountMike]

Most users can use simple 50 -50% rule when deciding what to do in the case of leaving computer running or turning it off. If used more than 50% of the time, than it could be better to leave it on, if more than 50% of the time computer would sit at idle than turn it off. That should be a nice "Middle Ground". Maybe there's a reason to leave it on so it would do some unattended work, than there would be no harmful effects if all the conditions are right, Ie. cooling is adequate, power doesn't surge suddenly at time etc. Conversely, if it is not required for anything for long time it could be switched of, without undue concern that it would suddenly develop a fault. It's only that in my experience most problems develop during start-up time while it is also possible that those problems did develop during shutdown or during the use but only showed up at start-up.

 

[XweAponX]

Philgo - My Computers ain't appliances, they are part of my mouth, part of my eyes, part of my arm, and part of my feet. I use it to see farther, to reach farther, to increase my buying power and reach, to even transport me in some ways.

If I had newer Hardware, I maybe would start hibernating or shutting off. But even with 8 it takes about 5 minutes for my Main PC to fully start. It takes my Media Machine about a minute to start, but I have USB drives and a Printer attached to my Main PC. But as I am always using them, even when I am not home, they stay on. If the "appliance" allegory is to be used, then my PCs are much like my Refrigerator, because it always has to stay on to do it's work.

I used to have 2 great Laptops, a Dell 6400 which was the the first Core Duo they ever made, and a Gateway 17". I had Windows Media Center on the Dell, but I was running 7 on the Gateway, upgraded from Vista. I had to use the Vista driver for the Video Card's HDMI slot because there was no Windows 7 driver for it. Other than that, it was great.

On both of those laptops I had them optimised for Battery use. But for about 6 months, I used the Gateway Laptop as my Media Machine, so it was on all the time. Maybe that's what caused the power block to go out, so now I need a new Adapter connector and a new fan. Eventually I'll fix this stuff.

But the main thing is my Main PC, being on an old motherboard, it is not as power friendly as a new desktop PC would be, so it is just easier to leave it on all the time.