Do you turn it off or leave it on?

[LadyEye]

Just wondering what most people do with their computers after a day's use, assuming you are off of it for more than 4 or 5 hours ...

Do you turn it off? Or Do you leave it on?

Any particular reason why you may do one or the other??

[aconstas1]

leaving your computer on = less electricity used is a big myth.

your computer used about a dollar a day in electricity.

By turning it off, you save electricity; however, your computer components are shocked more every time you boot up, so your life expectancy goes down... So its kind of a catch 22.

do you want low electric bill or do you want your computer to last longer?

[Nite Producer]

I leave it on only when I'm downloading something in the off pick time which is from 12 midnight to 12 noon.

Yeah, my wife asks about the electricity thing, I was told that switching on and off uses more electricity then leaving it on in general, I'm not really sure, but I find that as an excuse anyway.

This proccess accure approximitly everyday. So I think I might say 97% of the whole year, I leave my computer on.

[Girlonthehill]

I leave mine on most of the time and just switch off the monitor. As to why - just because I remember being told, years ago, that it was less stressful on your pc but many things have changed and that may no longer be the case.

[Collectors-info]

Hi, I switch mine to standby when not in use, but have also set mine up to do all its updates every day at 2am & have then set up to do defrag & other bits at 5am. I usually just leave the machine running 1 night a week.
The only downside on leaving the machine running in normal mode is you will be sucking in dust & will start to have noisy fans after a period of time. You will tend to find this dust gets around the cooling fins on the motherboard fan & then starts to make the main chip start running at a higher temperature, which then slows your machine down & could damage things.
I have replaced the 2 of the 5 fans on my machine with stronger ones & then placed filters that I made from cooker hood filters over the inlet & outlet vents. Don’t think I have had to clean the machine once since doing this & all runs nice and quietly.

[racefan20]

ON, all the time. The only times this machine sees downtime is those moments when it's rebooted. It loves me for it, because it allows it the free time to chase the cat around the place while I'm sleeping.

[karel]

Interesting, mines always off and on through the day, the main reason is if I don't switch the damn thing off I don't move : )

Chris that spider is freaking me a bit lol

[Collectors-info]

Originally Posted by karel

Interesting, mines always off and on through the day, the main reason is if I don't switch the damn thing off I don't move : )

Chris that spider is freaking me a bit lol

Spider! It’s an old computer bug i got on my machine that escaped to a forum posting. You can have it. It’s off my machine now.

[karel]

Chris you rat, I only wanted one, look what you have done there mating.

[LadyEye]

I love that little bug. Funny it shows up here, I only received it myself 2 days ago. Fast mover though, and seems quite willing to share himself worldwide. I sent it to my friend and then later had to apologize and let them know it wasn't meaning that they were "bugging" me. lol

Amanda .. nice to see you ... time is nearing and I hope we shall see alot more of you!!

I tend to leave my computer on all of the time. With my old computer though, after 5 years, I did have the fan "burn out", however $10.00 part, flip one in and the other out and back in business, but apparently there are two fans, one more expensive and more damaging than the other, I guess I got lucky.

And I have read that it is kind of 50/50 leaving it on or turning it off so I guess that makes sense.

And the dust is a problem and should be dealt with at least on a monthly basis I guess, so I seen when replacing this fan, hmmm ... could have been the inners of a quilt lining, lol ...

But every once in awhile I will shut it off and give it a 5 minute rest and restart, I kind of get a sense that I just did some cleaning when I do that, probably doesn't mean a thing though.

Those schedulers, even though that is what works best because somedays just run right into the others, but no matter what time I set mine for, it always seems to interfere. But that's just me, appointments, schedules, just don't fit my lifestyle and I am told that is a good thing because I will be late for my own funeral, lol

Race, sounds like the old saying, "When the cats away,the mice will play" lol ...

[Dream Lady]

We have 3 computers in our home and leave them on all the time. The primary reason is because we are partnered with United Devices which uses our computers idle processing time to help create Grids in finding cures for various diseases. Here is a blurb from their site:

Grid MP consists of a server and agents distributed to designated machines (servers, clusters, or desktops) that can be in the same room or on multiple continents. The software schedules processing jobs to machines that "advertise" their availability (meaning they have idle processor time and are equipped to perform the necessary computations) – ensuring work is scheduled to the best-suited resource. The machines return results to the server, which recompiles the data and delivers it to the user in an easily searchable database format.

We have been making our computers available for over 3 years now, but the total time registered on our account in terms of years is over 14 years. For example, mine is working on a cancer research project right now. You can read about it HERE. Just something to think about if you don't already know about it.

[C L]

I leave my computer on, .......sure is alot bugs in this thread.

[LadyEye]

Originally Posted by Dream Lady

We have 3 computers in our home and leave them on all the time. The primary reason is because we are partnered with United Devices which uses our computers idle processing time to help create Grids in finding cures for various diseases. Here is a blurb from their site:

Grid MP consists of a server and agents distributed to designated machines (servers, clusters, or desktops) that can be in the same room or on multiple continents. The software schedules processing jobs to machines that "advertise" their availability (meaning they have idle processor time and are equipped to perform the necessary computations) – ensuring work is scheduled to the best-suited resource. The machines return results to the server, which recompiles the data and delivers it to the user in an easily searchable database format.

We have been making our computers available for over 3 years now, but the total time registered on our account in terms of years is over 14 years. For example, mine is working on a cancer research project right now. You can read about it HERE. Just something to think about if you don't already know about it.

To be honest with you Cindy, I was not aware of this. Leave it to you to be helping out in this way ...

CL .... Did you catch one of those bugs, aren't they cute, add it to your siggie .. lol

[C L]

ok, I caught one.........very hard to catch, I might add.........