How often do you turn your PC off?

[John]

How often do you turn your PC off. I only shut mine off during storms.

 

[Rick W]

When I'm not using it.
Had one comp that the CPU fan quit working while I was away. It didn't shut itself down in time and I lost a processor.

 

[Carol Lowery]

During storms, or to reboot. But now considering turning it off after what Rick said.

 

[Caroline H]

I have a laptop, is that the same thing? I'm really not computer savy. I shut it down every night.

 

[Blazin Bones]

I shut it down once every few days depending on updates.

 

[turnorburn]

Not often John look at this:

http://www.xs4all.nl/~jvdkuyp/flash/see.htm :yes

 

[turnorburn]

I have a laptop, is that the same thing? I'm really not computer savy. I shut it down every night.

I'm not certain but I think its harder on a computer when you shut it down
every night. :yes You can go here I've been a member for a year, they
can answer any question you might have.

http://www.worldstart.com/

And its free

P.S. Do you want me to or .....

 

[turnorburn]

I checked it out for you, the general consensus is they turn it off.

 

[Gabe]

I turn mine off every time i'm done using it, which can be a few times a day...i'm guessing from everyone's answers, this is not good? 2

 

[Rick W]

So do I Gab.

I've been building comps for many years. The worst enemy is heat brought on by the accumulation of dust. Blow out your computer with compressed air at least twice a year in normal household environments. A can of compressed air such as "Dust-Off" can be used for those without access to an air compressor. The 5 bucks spent is a very good investment.
Replace fans at the end of the warranty period. A CPU fan costs much less than the CPU it's cooling.

 

[Gabe]

Thanks Rick, i will.

 

[sheshisown]

Hiya~

I turn mine off whenever I am not using it too, mostly because my MS Professor gave this advise to our class. She had the same reason you did Rick. Actually, she encouraged the class to purchase fan plates with double fans that blow the entire time your laptop PC is on. Just to assist in keeping it nice and cool.

On the cleaning issue; Is there an easy way to clean out a laptop? If not, is there a service anybody here has trusted to do it for you? I have used canned compressed air to clean out my "school pc", a simple and amazingly helpful way to keep an older drive in better working order! :nod

As of Sunday, I am officially on Spring Break, and I am looking into souping-up and squaring away my technology. Prepping for my last semester, I'm taking 18-20 units.....Then it's on to an online university for me . . . SPEED... I need speed... and more brains! :rolling :help

Any advise is SO welcome! bonnie

 

[stovebolts]

My Kubuntu box rarely gets shut down.

My laptop gets shut down a couple times a week out of necessity. I run some pretty memory intensive apps that are "less than perfect" and after a couple days, well... the laptop just aint right.

My home pc's get shut down each night to save on electricity.

BTW Rick, 120 psi from the compressor works fantastic :D

 

[John]

Not often John look at this:

http://www.xs4all.nl/~jvdkuyp/flash/see.htm :yes

Nice :rolling

 

[Vic C.]

MY PC at work gets turned off on weekends only. My PC at home is usually on but goes into hibernation... when it feels like it. It's on a battery back (ups). Also, I do regular checkups on the fans, so they don't fail.

 

[Vic C.]

I turn mine off every time i'm done using it, which can be a few times a day...i'm guessing from everyone's answers, this is not good? 2

This used to be a problem. It would expose bad solder joints on the cheaper motherboards. What happens is expansion/contraction; when the PC is on, the joints expanded from heat and when you turn off, things would cool down and contract. Eventually bad solder jobs would fail. The constant switch between hot and cold would also loosen up the chips in their sockets. Every once in a while, you would have to shut down, let it cool off and press the chips gently but firm enough for them to re-seat themselves in their sockets.

There is another problem, not as common any more; it's called "stiction".

Hard disk drives

In the context of hard disk drives, stiction refers to the tendency of read/write heads to stick to the platters. Stiction is a complex and not very well understood phenomenon of hard disks. Stiction most likely occurs as a result of 2 properties of the platters, smoothness and magnetic forces. Once the heads have stuck to the platters, the disk will be prevented from spinning up and can cause physical damage to the media. Other forces considered as responsible for stiction include electrostatic forces and adhesion from the inherent stickiness of silicon.[citation needed]

In the early models of hard disk drives stiction was known to cause read/write heads to stick the platters of the hard drive due to the breakdown of lubricants used to coat the platters. During the late 1980s and early 1990s as the size of hard drive platters decreased from the older 8" and 5.25" sizes to 3.5" and smaller, manufacturers continued to use the same calendering processes and lubricants used on the older, larger drives. The much tighter space caused much higher internal operating temperatures in these newer smaller drives, often leading to an accelerated breakdown of the surface lubricants into their much stickier components. When the drive was powered off and would cool down(say at the end of the day when a user went home and shut off their PC), these now-broken-down lubricants would become quite viscous and sticky, sometimes causing the read/write heads to literally stick to the platter.

The common solution to this problem was the counter-intuitive move of taking the affected drive out of the host system, striking it gently, but firmly on the side against a desk or something as laterally as possible and then re-install it in the host system. This would break the heads free of the goop long enough to power the system back on, have the drive spin up and recover whatever data could be retrieved off it. While the data was retrieved, the machine would be left on constantly so that the heat from the drive's internals would keep the decaying lubricants in a liquid state.

from wikipedia

If this ever happens to anyone, I don't suggest striking the drive. I suggest removing it from the PC, hold it in the palm of your hand, palm face down. Quickly snap your wrist (and drive) left/right, left/right a few times. This usually unsticks the internal parts without damage.

But, if your PC is on, operating temps stay up and stiction is reduced or eliminated. Heat isn't always the enemy, if it's held at a normal operating temp. Overheating IS an issue. :yes

 

[stovebolts]

You know, since were talking about hard drives ;)

I work in I.T., and it's no coincidence that we have a significantly higher hard drive failure in our laptops during the days that are colder, like 10 or below.. and the common denominator is:

"My laptop was working fine yesterday. I shut it down, put it in my bag and left it in the car all night and this morning when I turned it back on, it made this clicking noise"

Makes ya want to just scream :mad

So, without getting technical, if you have a laptop, don't leave it out in freezing weather, then bring it in to your nice warm house of office and power it up while the laptop still has frost on it :gah

 

[Vic C.]

Correct Jeff. Bring it up to room temp, which could take some time or... don't leave it in the car!


Computers are like diesel engines. They are built to run and run best at a certain temp. The one component that works best at cooler temps is the CPU.

 

[John]

What if one uses a liquid cooling system?

 

[Vic C.]

What if one uses a liquid cooling system?

Pray is doesn't spring a leak.