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Does it really hurt the PC to power on and off alot?

S

Sniper82

Lifer
Or just mainly the HD? I am having problems getting my CPU to post at the speed I want it to. I think the setting maybe wrong or something. But of course I need to turn my PC on and off quite a bit to find the right setting. Anyway was wondering does this really hurt the mobo,video,ram,ect or just the HD?

Was thinking maybe I could pull the power plug from the HD still I fixed the problem? Also does anyone know what will remove defogger pen from the bridges on the CPU?
 
You will most likely hear both sides to this, but leaving a system on when nothing is being done on it is quite frankly a waste of electricity/money. Computers are meant to be turned on/off, but of course all electronics/mechanical devices will be stressed more this way. Some components will not be affected, others maybe.
 
Think about one of the most simple electric devices - a lightbulb. Turning the bulb on/off causes the metal to expand/contract. Metals can not expand and contract an infinite amount of times - they eventually fail. In the lightbulb case, a failure is the wire breaking and the bulb no longer works. Thus lightbulbs are often rated to last for a given number of times it is turned on/off. However constantly keeping the lightbulb wire hot also wears down the metal wire. It eventually gives out and breaks. Thus lightbulbs are often rated to last a given number of hours. The only good thing for a lightbulb is to keep it off forever (but then why buy the bulb?).

We need to compromise. Don't turn anything on/off repeatedly otherwise it will fail - and don't leave something on forever otherwise it will fail. I saw a study done a few years ago where some people tested a bunch of computers. Their result: if you leave a computer on for more than 1 hour when you aren't going to use it then you are doing more harm than good. If you turn the computer off when you are going to turn it back on in under an hour then you are doing more harm than good.

Computers are built to turn on and off. However don't just flip the power switch repeatedly for no reason. In your case, you have a good reason. But don't do this everyday.
 
I have far more problems with people that turn on and off their computers regularily with hardware failures, then people who leave them on. The heat issues with computers now are just making them worse.

When you use power saving settings, it doesn't use much power at all, just turn your monitor off. Turning a computer on and off 3 or 4 times a day is probably wasting power, it takes a lot of energy to get things moving, especially 7200 rpm HDs.
 
Well I don't turn my PC on and off 3-4 times a day. I was just wondering would this be safe? I always runmy PC most of the day unless I am gonna be away from it for 2-3 hours then I just shut it down. I turn it off every night when I go to bed.
 


<< I turn it off every night when I go to bed. >>



Same here, never had any problems over the last 8 years doing it that way ,also remember most people upgrade their parts within 2 or 3 years so wear and tear is really not an issue,I`ve yet to have a problem turning mine on and off .Mine is also in the bedroom and I do like some peace and quiet when I go to sleep & I`m sure it does save electricity especially over the 8 year period 😉.



🙂
 
I also turn my pc of before i got to bed and then I ushally turn it back on when I get home from work leaving it on for a total of 5 Hrs a day! In my case it would be a really big waste of electricity if I left it on 24/7.
 
What about servers? They are left on 24/7.... I leave my computer on a lot to download things and such and sometimes have left it on 5 days straight.
 
I use a Gateway G6-180 at work that has been turned on and off daily since it was new in '96 - still works fine. The only thing that has given up the ghost is the CDROM (last week).
 
Just use common sense, if you aren't going to use it, turn it off. If you know you will use it later in the day, leave it on or turn it off if you think it's going to be awhile. Turn off the monitor and you should be fine whenever you aren't using the computer.

I turn my computer off when I go to work in the morning(cause I'm usually dnloading something at night), or I turn it off before I go to bed. Hehe And I set my tv on a sleep timer so that it goes off shortly after I go to sleep too.

Too bad computers didn't have a sleep timer too. I'm sure that someone has a utility that will turn it off by software after a set time. Hmm I should look into that cause it would simplify things.
 
there are many little programs that you can use to turn off your computer when you want. Check downloads.com, I never use any but a lot of programs let you shut down when you're finished using them, like nero.
 
At home unless I know I will be using my PC in the next hour or so I turn it off. However, in work it would simply take far to much time to turn my machine on every morning and load all my apps and get back to where I was up to the previous evening so I switch my machine on Monday morning and turn it off Friday night - every evening I just Windows 2000 lock feature.

I seriously doubt that either leaving a PC 24/7 or turning it on/off 3 or four times a day would significantly decrease the hardwares lifespan.
 
AAO: that's cool, I expected as much cause I can remember using some program on my machine now that would let you shut down the machine after the download finished(hmm maybe some mp3 dnloader).

I would like a utility that would let me shut down my machine on a time frame.. hehe like if I estimate my dnload to take 1hr, then it could shut down in 1.5hrs and save me some $. I don't want to remotely do it cause then I could just use PCAnywhere to do that, but the small utility could help quite a bit.
 


<< On the other hand, your drive will for sure not live 6 years if it's turned on 24/7, it will wear out in a no-time. >>



That's funny. I never turn off my PCs, and I have NEVER had a hard drive failure. The oldest of my HDDs still in service is a 1GB Seagate I bought in 1996 that I gave my niece. It still runs to this day, and she leaves it on all the time just like I taught her to.

HDDs are more stressed by spinning up and down, than by being constantly on. This is a VERY well known fact.
 
I turn off/on my PC about 5-6 times easily per day...I have a 2GB in my system which is 4 1/2 yrs old and runs fine!!...I have a 7200rpm Barracuda rite now,and all this talk abt damaging the HDD is scarin me!!..Is it true?????...🙁
 
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