KLM672 From United States of America, joined Oct 1999, 2342 posts, RR: 3 Posted (8 years 8 months 2 days 2 hours ago) and read 1119 times:
Hey, now at college, i notice that a lot of students leave their computer on all day and night, for days. I was wondering is that good for the computer? I do the same, but I just wanted to know.
Also I love to fly FS2004, will it hurt the game, or my computer, if I just let the plane fly for a few hours when I go to class? One night I took off, got it to 35,000ft, set the heading and went to bed, woke up around 6:00AM and landed it.
DesertJets From United States of America, joined Feb 2000, 7673 posts, RR: 18 Reply 1, posted (8 years 8 months 2 days 2 hours ago) and read 1110 times:
What will happen if you leave your computer on for a long period of time, may I ask you????
Unless you set it up not to, your computer will go into standby mode after a while anyways. Practically like being off anyways. If you have a noisy computer and it bugs you while you try to sleep, then turn it off... otherwise don't worry.
Stop drop and roll will not save you in hell. --- seen on a church marque in rural Virginia
Slider From United States of America, joined Feb 2004, 6518 posts, RR: 37 Reply 2, posted (8 years 8 months 2 days 2 hours ago) and read 1110 times:
Assuming your CPU fan and power supply cooling fan is up to snuff, there's no problem in leaving it on.
In fact, I've heard recommendations that it's BETTER to keep it on instead of having frequent power up and power downs. I can't substantiate that however- just word of mouth from some buddies who are PC guys.
Jutes85 From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 3, posted (8 years 8 months 2 days 2 hours ago) and read 1110 times:
I wouldn't leave it on all night unless you leave it on for a flight, I do that myself.
Turning it on updates some files and refreshed the system. So if you can, turn it off or just hit the sleep button not to waste energy. Besides, the fan is annoying.
QR332 From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 4, posted (8 years 8 months 2 days 2 hours ago) and read 1109 times:
I usually don't turn off my computer or even restart for a whole week, and the only problem I ever had was my PSU burn because of a power surge, but that had nothing to do with me leaving it.
Regarding FS2004, many long haul flyers do that, just be sure that the plane doesnt get to its destination beforehand, and you should be fine.
Logan22L From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 6, posted (8 years 8 months 2 days 1 hour ago) and read 1075 times:
RE: What Slider mentioned, IT personnel have also told me that it is better to leave the computer on and avoid excessive powerdowns/startups. However, the "refreshing" aspect of restart is also a good thing periodically. That said, you should be energy conscious, and use sleep mode. The effect on sleep mode on simulators, etc. may vary. Also, I had trouble waking my office computer up from sleep mode, so I cannot use it; therefore, I shut down every night.
EGGD From United Kingdom, joined Feb 2001, 12426 posts, RR: 40 Reply 7, posted (8 years 8 months 2 days 1 hour ago) and read 1061 times:
Yep, If you don't enjoy huge electricity bills, switch your computer off. However, switching it off/on will significantly reduce the life of your power supply, and leaves a greater risk of it blowing up and taking out every component that is connected to it (Cards in slots on your motherboard will not be damaged, only parts connected to the power supply by a cable will blow).
Its really up to you, I used to leave mine on except for the odd occasion. In every day use you should have to restart anyway, most updates done by windows update will install periodically and will restart if needed automatically.
Captoveur From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 8, posted (8 years 8 months 2 days 1 hour ago) and read 1053 times:
I have heard it is a lot better to leave it on, no heating up and cooling down all the electronics and less wear on the switches.. I leave mine on all the time and run SETI at home as a screensaver.
Klaus From Germany, joined Jul 2001, 20848 posts, RR: 55 Reply 9, posted (8 years 8 months 2 days 1 hour ago) and read 1042 times:
It depends...
If the computer has crappy components, it may better to switch it off in order to get the most usable life out of it. Underdimensioned power components or crappy fans come to mind, also bad cooling which leads to permanent overheating of some or all components. Semiconductors, some capacitors and harddisks age much faster at high temperatures.
A decent system, however, generally will live longer if you spare it too frequent on/off cycles. Harddisks are especially stressed by stopping and starting (which also means you should not use the "sleep mode" of a harddisk at all or at least only sparingly); Next in line are power semiconductors, mostly in the power supply and in the voltage regulators. Some capacitors will also age with thermal cycles.
MD11Engineer From Germany, joined Oct 2003, 13334 posts, RR: 64 Reply 10, posted (8 years 8 months 2 days ago) and read 1035 times:
One thing comes to my mind:
After I had a power supply failure (fortunately without taking anything else down with it), even though I tend to let the computer run around the clock (except when I´m travelling, then everything in my flat gets shut down except for the fridge), I shut it down and open the housing every 3-4 months to clean out the innards wih a hoover. You won´t believe how much dust will accumulate in a computer and I think overheating of the power supply due to accumulated durt over two years caused it to break down.
Rj111 From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 11, posted (8 years 8 months 2 days ago) and read 1029 times:
Due to the incresed heat, Concorde expanded 7 inches in length when in a supercruise. So if the components in your computer are frequently being heated and cooled because you are turning the computer on and off then this must surely increase the probability that they are going to break.
PPGMD From United States of America, joined Sep 2001, 2453 posts, RR: 0 Reply 13, posted (8 years 8 months 2 days ago) and read 1012 times:
current uptime of my server
That's not a server, it's barely moving packets.
Now this is a server moving packets
Screenshot taken on July 1st, the server ran without a reboot until our friend Fances decided to kill our power for 4 days.
I have my personal laptop on for 60 days or more without a reboot.
If you a enough cooling on your system, then it's actually better to leave your computer on (as long as you have good surge protector and UPS). But in reality leaving it on doesn't extend the life of the computer all that much, IMO.
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