Leaving Your Computer on?

As one article (I think it was on C|Net) pointed out, a lot more can go wrong on start-up/shut-down than can go wrong while your computer is running (under normal circumstances). I still shut mine down because it heats up the house (well, not so much the actual computer but rather the cable modem that is plugged into the powerbar).

Never.

In fact, it's now been up for 2 months, 3 days, 19 hours, 31 minutes and 3 seconds says a not so knowledgeable piece of dodgy code provided by my irc client.

Um, the startup/shutdown stuff used to be true, but modern machines handle it just fine.

I start my computer up when I'm going to use it, and shut it off when I'm not going to use it for an hour or so. I never have had any problems doing that.
I've never seen any evidence proving one way is better than the other, so basically, if you want it on, leave it on, if you want to shut it off, shut it off, it likely will make no difference in the life of your computer.

well, my ram has gone bad, so if i shut down my computer i don't know if i can get it back up again. this is week 3 and no sign of any problems..

I have a server I leave on all the time; it has several Subversion repositories that are useful for school projects, homework, and my own projects, especially if I want to work on them from a location != home.

I turn off my desktop and laptop machines when I don't use them; there's really no reason to keep them on and consuming electricity, plus my desktop computer tends to heat up my room. If I really need them on remotely I can send a Wake-on-Lan packet remotely using a program I put on my server.

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As one article (I think it was on C|Net) pointed out, a lot more can go wrong on start-up/shut-down than can go wrong while your computer is running (under normal circumstances).

This is true. Ever notice a lightbulb usually burns out when you turn it on? It has to do with the influx of current and capacitor stuff.

As well, dust generally can settle on your fans, mboard, etc...more easily when the computer is off.

Finally, overheating generally isnt a problem if you've already got a fairly good fan in place. Chances of the fan suddenly stopping are pretty slim. I leave my computer on for months at a time.

I turn the computer on and off at most once a day. In the morning when I use it I'll turn it on and leave it on until I'm done with it at the end of the day.

Usually I leave it on, because if I turn it off then the fans have some problems before they start running smoothly. But perhaps I should shut it down, at least in the summer. In the winter it's ok, it warms the room a little so the electricity is not really wasted.

My pc is on when i'm awake. The only reason i switch it off is that it that the fans still tends to bother me a bit when i try to go to sleep

My computer is always on. About the only time it is off is while adding new hardware (not very often), or between resets if I instal some program that thinks it needs it, etc.

Dwiel

Working from home, I'm on the computer most of the day. I usually leave it on all night if I know I'm going right back in the morning. It's pretty nice, because there are 3 PC's here in the basement and we don't have to worry about heating bills.

On the off chance that I know I'll be away from it for more than 8 hours, I'll turn it off.

The boot-up/shutdown messing up of your system is an urban legend (it might have been true half a decade or so ago, but not anymore).

However, your computer will be subjected to the usual wear and tear when it's turned on (the hard drive is essentially a metal disc spinning at high velocity, and so are all of the fans (albet not metal)). While the risk of failure is small, your hard drive will quite certainly become unusable sooner if you never shut it off (mostly simply because its MTBF (mean time between failures) simply fills up quicker).

I hardly ever leave my computer on when I'm gone - simply because I have no reason to - I'm not even running Prime95 on it anymore and I hardly ever render stuff anymore as well (gr - should take up raytracing again... on a very related topic: should screw up the time-space continuum and make Earth days 900 hours long and/or increase average human lifespan to one million years - why is time passing faster and faster every day than the day before? Shouldn't it be slowing down instead?).

my comp has been on for more then a week now. I usually don't restart it unless an update requires that I do. It runs perfectly.

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Original post by Crispy However, your computer will be subjected to the usual wear and tear when it's turned on (the hard drive is essentially a metal disc spinning at high velocity, and so are all of the fans (albet not metal)). While the risk of failure is small, your hard drive will quite certainly become unusable sooner if you never shut it off (mostly simply because its MTBF (mean time between failures) simply fills up quicker).

Yeah, but who knows with hard drives. They can tank at any moment anyway. Besides, most will be replaced before they die anyway. How many hard drives get used as the primary drive more than 3 years?

Well, if you're worried about your hard drive croaking while you're away, just have it shut down after 30min of activity or so.. it will spin down until your computer goes out of sleep mode..

I leave my computer on all the time.. always have.. probably always will.

I'm not too worried about hard drives because of backups, and because they're continually getting cheaper. I'm more worried about the power supply frying and burning my house down :P Anyone ever have their computer catch fire before? I have sort of; there was a short in a front LCD panel that caused wires to melt and the computer to smoke, but I've been paranoid ever since.

I've been turning mine off, mostly because my fan sometimes makes weird noises at startup and I'm afraid it'll die when I'm not around - probably not very likely to happen though. Its also quite loud compared to other people's computers - not surprising since I built it myself, not really knowing what I was doing. As a side question, would electricity bills be much higher as a result of leaving a computer on constantly?

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Original post by Cold_Steel Quote: Original post by Crispy However, your computer will be subjected to the usual wear and tear when it's turned on (the hard drive is essentially a metal disc spinning at high velocity, and so are all of the fans (albet not metal)). While the risk of failure is small, your hard drive will quite certainly become unusable sooner if you never shut it off (mostly simply because its MTBF (mean time between failures) simply fills up quicker). Yeah, but who knows with hard drives. They can tank at any moment anyway. Besides, most will be replaced before they die anyway. How many hard drives get used as the primary drive more than 3 years?

I have been using one for 12 years and one for 6 years.

I would like to have that ability to keep it on. Yet, my computer requires a crap load of electricity($3 according to my dad) each hour.