Computer ON, or Computer OFF?

Well, enough power cycles will kill most components on your computer.

However, in this day and age (of automatic hard disk parking, especially), this "enough" is a very very large number. Don''t sweat it; you could turn your computer on and off ten times a day for many years with no problems from that (except perhaps repetitive motion injuries).

The one exception is this: If you have a dodgy, no-name power supply you got from a company that went out of business 2 minutes later, consider changing it. Such supplies have a tendency to spike the power to the computer when turning it on and off. A power supply is one of the few components in your machine you should never skimp on.

You can get filters for your case; I''ve heard the best ones are the aluminum meshes. Realize, however, that you will have to clean or replace the filters occasionally, or air will stop flowing and your computer will overheat.

The other thing: If you filter air, make sure you have POSITIVE CASE PRESSURE. This is when there are more fans blowing air in than out. The reason this is a good thing is that if you have negative air pressure, air is going to be drawn in, dust and all, through every nook and cranny in your system; and these nooks and crannies are generally the worst places for dust to accumulate (such as in the disk drives).

Since most power supplies blow air out, and many computers also have an exhaust fan on the back panel, this means you need to add some intake fans. Add them at the other end of the case, so that the air flows throughout the entire case.

Your computer won''t die from switching it on or off.

Keep dust out of your computer by hoovering your room regularly. I''ve never really managed to do this myself, but that''s what you should do. Personally I just hoover out my case once in a while with a hand-held hoover.

www.elf-stone.com

I think I read some where that the temperature change from turning it on and off could cause solder to crack or something. I''m not sure how true that is, I have yet to see a computer die from it.

If your computer case insides are looking dusty (especially near the power supply fan) just get a can of compressed air and blow it out. You can buy them at WalMart, K-Mart, any computer store, etc. They''re also good for cleaning the dust out of keyboards.

-fel

This is a good question.
I turn my computer ON/OFF regularly.

I would think that would put a fair amount of wear and tear on the hard drive with the constant rebooting. I am more interested in energy conversation, so I turn my computer off when I''m not going to use it for long periods of time. I don''t think I could get to sleep at night leaving it on.

As far as solder cracking with the temp change, I don''t know what kind of solder they use in the SMT boards. I also don''t know the temperature variation either, or how long it takes to go from room temperature to full on temps. I would think the manufactures would account for the temperature variations. But then again, you never know.

Guy

I have a server that I leave on all the time, it has been on nearly constantly for well over a year now with now problems. I made that server with old (a few very old) components. As for dust, it''s a part of life, most of it is your dead skin cells anyways, just think of it as bits of you trying to help out your computer . I don''t worry about dust, I''m sure my server is filled with dust, I know my PC is, and it''s open on the side.

I guess I should "hoover" more often.

Either way, turning it off or not, by the time anything stops working it will have been time to upgrade for quite a while.

Jason Mickela
ICQ : 873518
E-Mail: jmickela@sbcglobal.net


Please excuse my spelling


-"I''m Cloister the Stupid" Lister (Red Dwarf)

As far as the dust situation, I wouldn''t do anything to the computer that would restrict air flow.

The only thing you could do is try to reduce the dust in the room the computer is in. If you have a forced air furnace in the house, you could put a filter on the register. I have done this, and it did reduce the dust significantly. But of course this only works when you are heating the house. You could put an air cleaner in the room, but I would think that would be an expensive option.

You might want to pay close attention to the air flow in and out of the room. If possible, try and restrict air flow from the rest of the house in the room. The air circulation could be through a filter of say a register, then have the air exit at some other point. I don''t know how your system is set up, so I can''t recomend anything specific.

But if you can''t do anything, "hoovering" is good, but you might consider vacuuming as well. That works better over here then over there.

Guy

vac what?



www.elf-stone.com

You can also blow yourself with a can of compressed air. Very pleasurable. Be careful if you''re a short; it might get blown off, or at the very least, bent.

yeah, I too had the same doubt sometimes back, but after years of personal experience I can say that the computer does not die from switching it on and off. As a matter of fact, the computer also does not die from keeping it ON all day-night (I''ve often left it running to take big printouts, etc).
...so don''t worry, these machines are very sturdy

you can avoid dust by using anti-static dust covers (if you''re not the lazy type and keep your computer switched off from time to time). I often use the blower of my vacuum cleaner to clean the motherboard. But when using air pressure cleaning, remember that you don''t hit any of the mounted fans directly with the air jets (those brush-less fans always get damaged if you hit them directly)

-CN

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"Turn off the lights and I''ll glow!"

The rule of thumb is to turn your computer on when you are going to use it and leave it on until you know your not going to use it anymore for the day then you can shut it down. For example, you get up in the morning to check email, turn it on and leave it on all day until night time when you go to bed, then shut it off. Thats been my schedule and haven''t had any problems.

As for the post about the soldering, I read that somewhere too. The temperature increases and decreases causing the soldered connection to break. I forget the technical name for it, I think its called a "cold solder".

To keep dust out, you want to use a can of compressed air to blow the dust out regularly as suggested by another poster. I''d say you want to do it at least every 6 months. Open the case, blow the cpu fan, the case fan, the boards, and the power supply.


Hitchhiker90
"There''s one bitch in the world, one bitch with many faces" -- Jay
"What are you people, on dope?" -- Mr. Hand

Someone mentioned something about power supplies....ahhh, here it is:

quote:

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The one exception is this: If you have a dodgy, no-name power supply you got from a company that went out of business 2 minutes later, consider changing it. Such supplies have a tendency to spike the power to the computer when turning it on and off. A power supply is one of the few components in your machine you should never skimp on.

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What is a good brand name (fer AMDs) ?

quote:

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Original post by Programmer One
What is a good brand name (fer AMDs) ?

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I swear by Enermax. Decent prices, consistently good quality, and the dual fan design REALLY improves airflow, while running at a surprisingly low sound level.

I usually have my home PC on 24/7 as I sometimes upload to or download from it at work. My work PCs I just log off, but keep running. Haven''t had any problems is years.

Breakaway Games

I always turn mine on when I want to use it, and off when I''m done (how novel!) and I''m sure most "laymen" do the same. My computer thus goes through a few power up/downs each day. I''ve had mine for over 5 years - not a peep.

I never turn off my computer, but I do restart it like 10 times a day.

EDIT: WTF this thread is really old...



[edited by - xaxa on March 3, 2003 8:26:19 PM]

AP: Do you have nothing better to do than necro?

10... 9... 8... 7... 6... 5... 4... 3... 2... 1...

Thread closed.

quote:

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Original post by Evil Bill
AP: Do you have nothing better to do than necro?

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The posts he uses to necro are getting shorter, maybe he will disapear altogether soon?

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Yours truly,
evil sausage

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