to leave computer on or of ? that is the question
 

g'day, just wondering if its worth actually turning the computer off all
the time
ie u go to bed and come back to the pc in the morning , or if u use the
computer for a couple of hours and go away, then come back ..
also with thunderstorms can they damage modems??


milo

Re: to leave computer on or of ? that is the question
 

"milo" <mrmiloman2003@yahoo.co.uk> wrote in message
news:1077078895.381703@www.shoal.net.au...
> g'day, just wondering if its worth actually turning the computer off all
> the time
> ie u go to bed and come back to the pc in the morning , or if u use the
> computer for a couple of hours and go away, then come back ..
> also with thunderstorms can they damage modems??


1. As far as turning the computer on/off, to my knowledge there are no
known advantages/disadvantages to either method. However, when I used to
run Win95 and Win98, I always shut it down for the night (Win95/98 always
seemed to run better for me if I'd do a shutdown or restart every few hours,
particularly when under heavy use). However, with WinXP I don't need to do
that because it seems to be a much, much more stable OS.

Obviously, of course, if the computer is shutdown, it will not be using any
electricity (or very, very little electricity). For this reason, and this
reason only, I shut my system down if I'm not going to be using it for
awhile (i.e., several hours or more).

2. As far as thunderstorms, my opinion is that no matter what type of surge
protector is used, there is no real protection from a lightning strike that
is in very close proximity to your computer. Therefore, when thunderstorms
roll in I always shut down the computer and disconnect the cord from the
wall and disconnect my modem cable.

These are only my opinions and my practices - they've worked very well for
me over the years. Other people may have differing opinions/practices.

HTH,

Loren

Re: to leave computer on or of ? that is the question
 

Electrically speaking, it's best to leave the computer on.

#1 - It's built to sustain a certain and best performing temperature on the
CPU and other temp sensitive components over a long period of time.

#2 - When you turn a computer or other electronic equipment on and off, the
electronic components in the device expand and contract because of the
temperature changes. Eventually, this may result in problems with the
internal components. It's usually best to sustain one temperature on a
continual basis.

I always leave my computers on 24x7. But I reboot them every once in a
while to flush out the memory.

You bet that thunderstorms can damage a modem. But modems are so cheap
these days, it's very easy to replace them. Only in one case have I heard
that a thunderstorm actually knocked out the modem as well as the
motherboard. But in any case, it's always best to put the power source of
the computer on a surge protector that has a phone modem port so that it
protects the phone line as well.

For what that's worth...

Tim...

"milo" <mrmiloman2003@yahoo.co.uk> wrote in message
news:1077078895.381703@www.shoal.net.au...
> g'day, just wondering if its worth actually turning the computer off all
> the time
> ie u go to bed and come back to the pc in the morning , or if u use the
> computer for a couple of hours and go away, then come back ..
> also with thunderstorms can they damage modems??
>
>
> milo
>
>

Re: to leave computer on or of ? that is the question
 

Thunderstorms can damage a lot of stuff (just check out the clock/timer on
my built-in microwave oven...now it runs about 16% fast). Best thing you
can do for your computer and other stuff is:
1) have an electrician install a whole house surge suppressor (it is cheaper
than buying 3 or 4 of the things you plug into the wall plus then you know
everything is protected...you can even get one that will protect your phone
lines as well)
2) plug your PC into an uninterruptible power supply (UPS) so that if power
does go out you (or software) can power it down gracefully
3) lastly, and more toward your original question, the voltage transient
caused by turning your computer on and off does the most damage (when is the
last time you saw a light bulb burn out while it had been on for awhile?) so
you want to minimize the number of those occurrences...personally, I leave
mine on during the week and might power off on weekends if I don't expect to
be using it much (BTW, the computer I'm typing this on is 6 years old and
has never had a problem)


"milo" <mrmiloman2003@yahoo.co.uk> wrote in message
news:1077078895.381703@www.shoal.net.au...
> g'day, just wondering if its worth actually turning the computer off all
> the time
> ie u go to bed and come back to the pc in the morning , or if u use the
> computer for a couple of hours and go away, then come back ..
> also with thunderstorms can they damage modems??
>
>
> milo
>
>

Re: to leave computer on or of ? that is the question
 

What you're describing, while certainly a valid point, is a software problem
(memory leaks in the operating system) and has no effect on the longevity of
the hardware. From a hardware standpoint, it'd be better to do a warm
re-boot if that is sufficient to free up the memory that hadn't been
deallocated by the operating system.

"LPV" <lvetter@isd.net> wrote in message
news:103605kd8e9u12f@corp.supernews.com...
>
>
> 1. As far as turning the computer on/off, to my knowledge there are no
> known advantages/disadvantages to either method. However, when I used to
> run Win95 and Win98, I always shut it down for the night (Win95/98 always
> seemed to run better for me if I'd do a shutdown or restart every few
hours,
> particularly when under heavy use). However, with WinXP I don't need to
do
> that because it seems to be a much, much more stable OS.
>
> HTH,
>
> Loren
>
>

Re: to leave computer on or of ? that is the question
 

"George" <nowhere@newsonly.com> wrote in message
news:1036st384gtqg05@corp.supernews.com...
> "LPV" <lvetter@isd.net> wrote in message
> news:103605kd8e9u12f@corp.supernews.com...
> >
> >
> > 1. As far as turning the computer on/off, to my knowledge there are no
> > known advantages/disadvantages to either method. However, when I used
to
> > run Win95 and Win98, I always shut it down for the night (Win95/98
always
> > seemed to run better for me if I'd do a shutdown or restart every few
> hours,
> > particularly when under heavy use). However, with WinXP I don't need to
> do
> > that because it seems to be a much, much more stable OS.
> >
> > HTH,
> >
> > Loren

> What you're describing, while certainly a valid point, is a software
problem
> (memory leaks in the operating system) and has no effect on the longevity
of
> the hardware.

Yepper - I guess I didn't make that point precisely enough in my originals
post.

> From a hardware standpoint, it'd be better to do a warm
> re-boot if that is sufficient to free up the memory that hadn't been
> deallocated by the operating system.

Again, yepper - that's what I (used to) do. I don't seem to need to do it
very often at all using WinXP.

Loren

Re: to leave computer on or of ? that is the question
 

Been there, done that (too) <g>. Sure would be handy if the fingers typed
all the stuff that was really going through the brain (with a civility
filter, of course <g>).

George

"LPV" <lvetter@isd.net> wrote in message
news:10378ajiecfjl5f@corp.supernews.com...
>
>
> Yepper - I guess I didn't make that point precisely enough in my originals
> post.
>
> Again, yepper - that's what I (used to) do. I don't seem to need to do it
> very often at all using WinXP.
>
> Loren
>
>

Re: to leave computer on or of ? that is the question
 

We have 3 computers here on a network. They are running 24/7. We never
switch off our computers, and never had a problem with them. Through the
power management, the hard drives are configured to go to standby after 30
minutes, and the monitor will go to standby after 45 minutes. Overall, we
found that there were less problems leaving the computers on all the time.
But, they are used very often at different hours.

As for power protection, we found these surge protectors to be a waste of
time and money. A proper protection is a good quality UPS. If some
lightning hits your power line, none of these surge protectors are going to
do much. A very large UPS would have problems with a lightning hit. There
is a lot of power even in the edge of a lightning hit.

--

Greetings,

Jerry Greenberg GLG Technologies GLG
=========================================
WebPage http://www.zoom-one.com
Electronics http://www.zoom-one.com/electron.htm
=========================================


"milo" <mrmiloman2003@yahoo.co.uk> wrote in message
news:1077078895.381703@www.shoal.net.au...
g'day, just wondering if its worth actually turning the computer off all
the time
ie u go to bed and come back to the pc in the morning , or if u use the
computer for a couple of hours and go away, then come back ..
also with thunderstorms can they damage modems??


milo