Are laptops "made" to run all night ?

[rh71]

Some of you may know about my CPU fan problem and because of that, I can't keep my desktop on all night... but I do need to finish some downloads by tomorrow... it's an IBM Thinkpad if that matters.

Think it'll be okay as long as the screen isn't on (lid closed) ... ?

 

[Pepsi90919]

no, only all day.

 

[Walleye]

Originally posted by: rh71
Some of you may know about my CPU fan problem and because of that, I can't keep my desktop on all night... but I do need to finish some downloads by tomorrow... it's an IBM Thinkpad if that matters.

Think it'll be okay as long as the screen isn't on (lid closed) ... ?

i used to defrag mine at night. i dont see why not


personally i dont like laptops. i just use a desktop. NOW, that is. I got rid of my laptop when i got my desktop. hmm, 133 mhz p1 to 2.66 ghz p4... pretty big jump.

 

[Zim Hosein]

I've left a Dell lappy running for days w/o turning it off running SETI and haven't had any issues w/ it rh71

As for your desktop rig, what's the issue

 

[rh71]

Originally posted by: Pepsi90919
no, only all day.

Well if you must know, it's already been on all day. I need to know if these things can handle the heat, etc. when left on for many consecutive hours because the design may not be the same as a desktop/server. Good enough ?

 

[Zenmervolt]

Let's put it this way; the server that hosts "pics.bbzzdd.com" is an IBM ThinkPad. I think they can handle being on all night.

ZV

 

[rh71]

Originally posted by: Zim Hosein
I've left a Dell lappy running for days w/o turning it off running SETI and haven't had any issues w/ it rh71

As for your desktop rig, what's the issue

Thermaltake Chrome Orb been running 2 years straight... just acting up with bearing issues I guess... new Speeze fan from Newegg already on its way.
More details here...

 

[Choralone]

I have a Toshiba Portege 7200 in a DVD docking station that's been happily chugging along 24/7 running various distributed computing projects for over 2 years. It's safe to leave a laptop on overnight or for several days.

 

[Looney]

I use to have my laptop running 24/7 for weeks at a time during my freshman year... and that laptop lasted about 4 years before i sold it.

 

[MazerRackham]

The only concern is that I think you should leave the screen open, since many laptop dissipate heat through the upper edge/keyboard area. At least this is the case with my Powerbook G4. Just set your screen to turn off after xx minutes, and you'll be fine

I think the MTBF (minimum time before failure) is slightly shorter for laptop disk drives, but I could be wrong about that...

 

[Looney]

Originally posted by: MazerRackham
The only concern is that I think you should leave the screen open, since many laptop dissipate heat through the upper edge/keyboard area. At least this is the case with my Powerbook G4. Just set your screen to turn off after xx minutes, and you'll be fine

I think the MTBF (minimum time before failure) is slightly shorter for laptop disk drives, but I could be wrong about that...

Yeah, i was going to mention that... my notebook hdd failed twice in the 4-5 years that i had it. But Hitachi had a 4 year warranty back then, so it wasn't a problem getting the stuff replaced. But with hdds so cheap nowadays, even notebook hdds, that shouldn't be a problem.

 

[ultimatebob]

The hard drive is one of the most common parts to fail on a ThinkPad, and they were designed to operate for 300,000 hours before failing. That's over 25 years of continous operation.

 

[FoBoT]

i have run laptops 24/7 for several weeks straight, no problems

 

[axelfox]

I'm not "sure."

 

[hdeck]

eh, i only turn my laptop off when i am going out of town and need to bring it with me. it stays on sometimes up to 2 weeks.

 

[minendo]

My laptop has been running for the past 57 days non stop crunching SETI.

 

[yoda291]

My firewall used to be a laptop, ran 24/7 easily. I raised it tho, just in case.

 

[Angrymarshmello]

Mine used to stay on all the time

 

[UglyCasanova]

I had an 8200 that I would leave on for a week straight sometimes without any problems. My friend was playing MOH on it one time and it fried the video card, but the good ol Dell guys came out and gave me another one and a keyboard for free! (well not free because I payed for the warranty, but it has already payed for itself.

 

[rgwalt]

I left a laptop on for 30 days straight once... Then again it almost lost a fan, or a bearing, or something due to overheating... I doubt that one night would do it much harm.

Ryan

 

[Shawn]

they tend to get very hot... one night probably wouldn't hurt it but for any longer than that I wouldn't do it.

 

[CraigRT]

my friend told me tonight has laptop has a 30 day up-time.

 

[Jmman]

I used to run my Thinkpad 24/7, but it failed and I had to send it in for service. It got way too hot I running all the time, but the newer models might be better.....

 

[ChefJoe]

My old P 150 MHz Thinkpad 380D used to be able to run all night, but now it will mysteriously crash (well, I see a blank cursor on the screen when I bring the screen from sleep) during the night if I leave it on overnight. It's had this bug for at least a year now, but I really don't remember it happening when it was first purchased.

 

[Soybomb]

I leave my thinkpad on almost 24/7. Probably have to replace the cpu fan sooner, and it wouldn't hurt to check the mtbf on your HD, although as was already mentioned many like the travelstars have 300k mtbf ratings. I have my HD set to spin down after like 45 minutes of inactivity or something so that shouldn't hurt either.

Anyway if the cpu is cooking you might leave the lid up (I heard on ibooks you can't close the lid without them suspending??). You can also set the display to shut off after a period too.

Leave it on, nothing will happen