Tell me my brother is full of crap.

Oct 9, 1999
15,216
3
81
Well this is one our on going skirms that's been irritating me.

This morning he tries to get on to the net using my machine because his doenst have a modem to dial on, so he uses mine to dial on and access the net via a proxy.

Well my machine didnt boot.. I have no idea, it booted half way and then there was no hard drive action for a while, you got to hit reset and then it boots up fine. I feel its something to do with Visual Studio (he installed) because it wasnt there before that was installed.

Anyway I was telling him that maybe if its so much in demand, why not keep the damn machine on all the time that way you dont ahve to tell your boss that you cant get online because your brother machine doesnt boot.

The question is:
1. How much electricity do you use / pay every month by leaving your machine on everyday. I have a 19" monitor that goes to sleep after 15 minutes, and my hard drive powers down after an hour.

2. How much heat is generated by your machines .. is it enough to heat a room. My machine sits in his room, because mine doesnt have a phone connection near by (plus not enough room to keep this monster in my room). His machine is in the hall.

3. Why is my machine not booting from time to time properly.
Its a P2-400/384MB/Rage Fury Pro/SB Live/ Creative Modem/ Linksys NIC/ATI TV Wonder / IBM DTTA371010/
running 98SE.
Anyone had this problem before. The desktop shows, but then there are no Icons and no start menu, that is yet to be loaded.. and that is where it pauses.
 

jaydee

Diamond Member
May 6, 2000
4,500
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81
Iheard it takes more power to boot it up then to sustain power up 24/7. But I am no expert and have no hard proof.
 

hymy

Senior member
Oct 12, 1999
535
0
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it couldn't be any worse than a 300 watt bulb being on 24/7. Both heat and power wise. And thats if you have a 300 watt power supply which you probably don't
 

Chuck

Senior member
Oct 9, 1999
704
0
0
As far as i ca remember the actual box takes very little power. The Monitor is the main user, but like you said, when that goes into standby useage drops a lot. Sorry I don't have any hard figures.
 

JiNk

Member
Jan 8, 2000
197
0
0
Try to change you login in network (control pannel). Change it from family login (or whatever it is on) to Windows Login. It shaves off about 30 - 40 seconds of startup time, because the NIC isn't looking for an address to connect to.
 

Mday

Lifer
Oct 14, 1999
18,647
1
81
1. depends on your computer.

2. not that much. the heating is nowhere near the amount of heat lost by windows during the winter. you may not notice it at all.

3. what programs do you have that are run at startup? run msconfig to find out.

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just buy a cheap modem if you find this annoying.