We had a heated discussion about turning the computer off, so my brother who has a PHD in computer science and heads up the r&d at Orical (former Storage Tec in Co.) was asked and he said :

OK, here's my take on this.

It's fine to leave the computer plugged in, turned on and running all the time. In fact a lot of Windows systems are set to receive automatic updates from Microsoft daily at 3am, so you might miss out on critical updates if you switch the machine off at night and you don't download updates manually on a regular basis. Same goes for antivirus software updates. So from the software side of things no harm in leaving it up all the time, although I am a believer in periodic reboots "just because", like maybe once a month. Sometimes systems that stay up for a long time just start acting weird, and rebooting clears things up.

Now on the hardware side of things, everything you say is perfectly logical and makes perfectly good sense. Except in bizarro computer land, common sense doesn't always pay off. In my experience, computer electronics hate to be turned off. There are always more problems after a power cycle than if the machine had stayed up. The power-on surge is harder on cold components, they like sustained, steady-state temperatures rather than cool-down, heat-up cycles.

Your advice isn't bad or wrong, and there's no guarantee that either approach will result in a longer-lasting or more trouble-free system. And PC newts will love to debate and argue this topic till the cows come home because, well, they're newts, and that's what they do. But there's definately nothing wrong with leaving things up all the time. The parts are designed to run for years, and for the most part they do just that. By the time a fan of a power supply blows out, your system will be worthless and it's time to replace it with a newer, faster computer with all the latest software.

If I write any more on this topic I'll turn into a PC newt so I'll quit while I'm ahead.

Tom

 

turn it on when I get up and turn it off when I go to bed. only for down loading big files do I let it run overnight.

 

I haven't seen that question debated for a while. It has been debated for years, and years and years and...

No one has the definitive answer. Just do whatever trip yer trigger. I've tried both ways and there is not enough power usage difference to bother about. One of mine has been running 24/7 for the past 9 years with only a reboot for updates.

 

I leave mine on with multiple apps. running such as FTE , blue prints and poker. Never an issue and I have cable compared to dial-up. I also run AVG, Spybot and Malware to thwart the evils out there

 

I leave mine running 24/7 - about the only time I shut it off is when I take it out to the garage to blow the dust out of it... I also do torrent downloads from time to time and have to set it up to do it in the wee hours of the morning so as not to interrupt the wife's gaming lol...

The wife and daughter tend to shut theirs down when not in use - they have this thing about "giving the computer a rest" - I may use what the OP's brother stated to try and convince them to leave them running, though...

 

Run pcs both ways.

I've not booted either of my desktop pcs (at home), or my MAC in months.
On the other hand, my wife's pc (that I maintain) and the two remaining kids at the house. . . well. . . .their pcs (that I maintain) haven't been turned off in months.

Laptops. . .
5 in the house.
My daughter just 'hibernates' her laptop.
All of the others are shut down after they are used, unless we're coming back to it/them during the day/weekend.

Electric usage vs. cold boot issues. . . .
Same/same.
I've come to that point in my life where IF I worry over the electric bill. . . I'd get nothing done.
My wife pays the bills. I've NEVER seen a late notice (and we still have $$$ in the bank). Not much, but, there's still some in there!

 

My 6 year old desktop stays on 24/7 and the only time it gets turned off is if there is a thunderstorm or I'm going to be gone for more than 24 hours. When a storm is brewing, I also disconnect everything from the pc case, power cord, router cable etc...

I do reboot it when I decide to play Flight Simulator so I can start it in a "gaming" mode where I have almost all services shut down except for what is needed to run the app.

 

I've got 2 systems powered on constantly. Start/stop heat/cold cycles are rough on electronics, especially if there are any weak solder joints. This is a major reason early XBOX360 consoles broke, is that weak joints would snap away from chips on the board.

Just set your display to power off after an hour or so, and leave the PC running.

Note however, if you smoke or live in a house with a smoker, pull the case lid off every few months and suck out the surprising amount of crap that you'll find inside. I've seen intake fans seize from the stuff after working for a pack-a-day client.

 

Well, I run mine all day then off at night. I've been doing this for seven years now with no obvious ill effects. I have had issues with XP loading up and slowing way down when left on for an extended time, plus my video card has given me some overheating problems in the past.
I did just finally replace my case fan a couple weeks ago, the original one has sounded like a small diesel running against the governor since the computer was new.

 

I agree with everything your brother said. And I could not have said it any better.

 

My system is 7 years old and runs 24/7 except for heavy thunderstorms and going on vacation. Never an issue.

 

Our "family" computer has had over 3 months of 24/7 uptime before, until it finally had to be rebooted for an update.

IMO, if your computer is older you'd be better off to leave it running. As hard drives age, the bearings stop providing the same anti-friction level when the drive was powered down as they did when new. So there is a chance when you shut your computer down, the bearing will "soft seize" and the motor will not have enough grunt to get the thing spinning again. The read/write heads can also stick to the platter surfaces, causing a similar issue.

 

The arguments made for keeping a PC on 24/7 are valid, however I don't think that by shutting your PC off every night you are going to cause any damage either. These days, manufacturing standards have gotten so much better that shutting a PC off every night just isn't going to hurt it.

I remember back in the 90's I was working on some older Sun hardware and the SCSI drives that they used (the big ones were 1 whole GB) had the cold-grease problem where the platters wouldn't spin up in time for the controller to initialize and detect the drive. So what I had to do was power the thing up, wait for it to fail to detect the disk, turn the box off and then turn it right back on again. This wouldn't allow time for the platters to spin down so they had a head start on the next reboot where it would be detected fine. If they were still stuck, I would remove the drive, and try to "un-stick" the platters by snapping the drive with my wrist in a circular motion. Sometimes this would help free the platters up.

This hardware is 20 years old today, and manufacturing standards have gotten so much better that this is a worry of the past. This simply never happens anymore.

So I really don't think it matters what you do with your PC anymore. Leave it on, shut it off, it's not really going to make a difference in the longevity of the system.

My laptop stays on 24/7 FWIW.

 

Hm, the only time mine ever actually gets turned off is when the power goes out...BUT, I leave the computer on standby whenever I'm not using it (and it spends a LOT of time on standby since I rarely use my home computer nowadays- posting this from work).

I have my work computer set up the same way, standby on nights and weekends.

 

Here is my take on this and it may get you thinking...

I shut my pc's off when not using them for long periods of time.. If I am leaving the house they get shut off.. The PC has been running for 8 years and no issues..

I recommend to all my customers to shut them down.. I had one that started shutting them down and one night he forgot to shut it off.. The next morning he smelled something electric burning.. It was the desktop.. The motherboard component failed..
Who know what would have happened if he wasn't home to unplug it..

PC's are electrical components that can go bad at anytime.. They can cause fires so shut them down..

I don't want to come home to firetrucks at my house cause my PC burnt up..

I will wait the 30 seconds it takes to boot up..

My 2 cents...