Never turn off the computer???
 

On the first day of school, my grand-daughter's 9th grade computer
teacher told the class that it was better not to turn off a computer.

Sounds odd to this semi-literate computer whizz..... ;-)

What would be the benefit?/drawbacks?

Thank you,

Jean-Pierre Gauthier

Re: Never turn off the computer???
 

"Jean-Pierre Gauthier" <gauthier2022@can.rogers.com> wrote in message
news:1157139602.068159.7740@m73g2000cwd.googlegrou ps.com...
> On the first day of school, my grand-daughter's 9th grade computer
> teacher told the class that it was better not to turn off a computer.
>
> Sounds odd to this semi-literate computer whizz..... ;-)
>
> What would be the benefit?/drawbacks?
>
It`s the old story of the chicken and the egg <g>.

It depends how large you want your eletricity bill to be.

Re: Never turn off the computer???
 

"Jean-Pierre Gauthier" <gauthier2022@can.rogers.com> wrote in message
news:1157139602.068159.7740@m73g2000cwd.googlegrou ps.com...
> On the first day of school, my grand-daughter's 9th grade computer
> teacher told the class that it was better not to turn off a computer.
>
> Sounds odd to this semi-literate computer whizz..... ;-)
>
> What would be the benefit?/drawbacks?


Though I'm hardly an expert...I do a *lot* of computer repair...
and it seems that the machines that are left on 24/7 loose harddrives a lot
more often than those
that are just used periodically...

I'd turn the machine off over night.

Re: Never turn off the computer???
 

"Jean-Pierre Gauthier" <gauthier2022@can.rogers.com> said in
news:1157139602.068159.7740@m73g2000cwd.googlegrou ps.com:

> On the first day of school, my grand-daughter's 9th grade computer
> teacher told the class that it was better not to turn off a computer.
>
> Sounds odd to this semi-literate computer whizz..... ;-)
>
> What would be the benefit?/drawbacks?

It's been a debate among PC users for years whether to leave the PC on
after done with a session or to turn it off. Some people leave them on
because when you turn a PC off and then on, you have a "power surge" that
flows through the machine when it's cold that may, over time, damage
components like the electronics (CPU, capacitors, etc.) or the hard drives
(which contain about the only moving parts in a PC.) Others believe that
this isn't enough of a problem to warrant worryig about and point to saving
energy and safety (they fear a running PC as a fire hazard.) As it is with
most modern PCs, they *always* power running through them even when "turned
off" because ATX machines power on through software on the BIOS. They just
haven't instructed the power supply to power the rest of the machine up.
As for your grand daughter's PC class, I suspect they leave the machines
on all the time for administrative purposes for the sys admin and to
prevent any tom foolery like password hijacking. Right around 9th grade you
have some really computer savvy wannabe h4X0r5.

HTH

Jerry

Re: Never turn off the computer???
 

"Jean-Pierre Gauthier" <gauthier2022@can.rogers.com> wrote in message
news:1157139602.068159.7740@m73g2000cwd.googlegrou ps.com...
> On the first day of school, my grand-daughter's 9th grade computer
> teacher told the class that it was better not to turn off a computer.
>
> Sounds odd to this semi-literate computer whizz..... ;-)
>
> What would be the benefit?/drawbacks?
>
> Thank you,
>
> Jean-Pierre Gauthier
>

One school of thought is that switching on/off causes wear to the hard
drive, the theory being that as the disks spin at high RPM and create a
laminar air flow that floats the heads off the surface - no contact = no
wear. Obviously every time you switch off the HD stops spinning and as it
slows the heads sink onto the surface and wear the landing point.

My own experience is that HDs fail just as readily as when the PC is turned
off and the CPU fan fills with dust and/or its bearings dry out causing
failure - oh! and leaving it on wastes a lot of elastictrickery!

Re: Never turn off the computer???
 

On Fri, 01 Sep 2006 19:45:15 GMT, "beenthere" <Waiting@Home.com>
wrote:

>It depends how large you want your eletricity bill to be.

I'm betting a computer uses about, what, $5 a month in electricity, if
that?

Re: Never turn off the computer???
 

Evan Platt explained on 01/09/2006 :
> On Fri, 01 Sep 2006 19:45:15 GMT, "beenthere" <Waiting@Home.com>
> wrote:
>
>> It depends how large you want your eletricity bill to be.
>
> I'm betting a computer uses about, what, $5 a month in electricity, if
> that?

you may be surprised...

http://michaelbluejay.com/electricity/computers.html

Re: Never turn off the computer???
 

"Jean-Pierre Gauthier" <gauthier2022@can.rogers.com> wrote:

>On the first day of school, my grand-daughter's 9th grade computer
>teacher told the class that it was better not to turn off a computer.
>
>Sounds odd to this semi-literate computer whizz..... ;-)
>
>What would be the benefit?/drawbacks?
>
>Thank you,
>
>Jean-Pierre Gauthier

The "rule of thumb" that I have used for years is that turning a
computer on and off once has about the same long-term cumulative
effect as does leaving it running for 24 hours.

The only study that I have ever seen was done years ago (on 80386
machines, no less) where a large number of identical computers were
purchased by a university and split into two lots - one was put into
computer labs and classrooms where the practice was to turn the
machines off at the completion of each class and then the next class
would turn them back on. The other group was put into administrative
offices where they were normally turned on at the beginning of the
work day and turned off at the end.

Within 18 months the lab and classroom computers were starting to have
considerable numbers of failures of motherboards, RAM, video cards,
hard drives, etc. and at the end of 4 years pretty well every
machine had experienced at least one major component failure. The
admin machines were still going strong, with an insignificant number
of failures, at the end of 4 years.

Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--
Microsoft MVP (1997 - 2006)
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca
Syberfix Remote Computer Repair

"Anyone who thinks that they are too small to make a difference
has never been in bed with a mosquito."

Re: Never turn off the computer???
 

"Evan Platt" <evan@*******************************> wrote in message
news:917hf2p75hihm73bp9u9jlfd49ja23jsu7@4ax.com...
> On Fri, 01 Sep 2006 19:45:15 GMT, "beenthere" <Waiting@Home.com>
> wrote:
>
>>It depends how large you want your eletricity bill to be.
>
> I'm betting a computer uses about, what, $5 a month in electricity, if
> that?

It all adds up though -- there are a lot of computer users around the globe.
It all adds up, bit by bit.
I'm not exactly your poster-boy for the green movement, since I use
****-loads of electricity myself, but I can see how much we all use. It's
not insignificant.
I saw this programme years back (on the BBC I think) about this bloke who
built a dome-like home made of timber and covered in mud & turf.
It was pretty big inside -- it was warm in winter and cool in summer -- it
had a wood-burning stove for cooking and heat -- solar panels for
electricity for his computer -- he used rain water for showering.
Admittedly he still had to go shopping now & again, but he was
semi-self-sufficient, and that impressed me a lot.
[If anyone knows a website for the bloke in question, please let me know].
After seeing that programme I wondered why more homes aren't built with
solar panels as a matter of course.
Surely that'd relieve the strain on the (UK) national grid a huge amount?

Re: Never turn off the computer???
 

Jean-Pierre Gauthier wrote:
> On the first day of school, my grand-daughter's 9th grade computer
> teacher told the class that it was better not to turn off a computer.
>
> Sounds odd to this semi-literate computer whizz..... ;-)
>
> What would be the benefit?/drawbacks?
>

You can find the debate all over the web through a search engine. Very
roughly, the "leave it on" supporters point to the wear and tear on
components (particularly the HD) caused on boot-up and power down and reckon
the occasional capital cost of replacement outweighs the running cost of
power supply. The debate is complicated by the fact that there is no
universal agreement on exactly how much power a computer consumes when not
in use.
The "Turn it off" guys believe running costs outweigh the possibility of
hardware failure (and point out how rigorously components are tested and
that almost everyone will have upgraded before any part of their machine
wears out.)
I've seen vehement arguments on-line between people who hold diametrically
opposing views but who both seem to be equally (and very well) qualified to
know what goes on under the bonnet.
The only extraneous argument I know is that using a computer for some form
of distributed computing (eg folding at home) may be of longer term benefit
to Society and more work will be done by leaving machines on.
And there's a third party view that says OK, leave 'em on during the day
when you may come and go, but turn it off when you turn yourself off because
the puter is no use to you while you're asleep.
--
John Dean
Oxford