Do you shut down ?

[Raining_again]

Its better for windows lettin it shut down, as someone said it does do updates and so on, and sometimes windows just needs to "clean" itself, by shutting down all the processes etc. I have my pc off more than on, its never come to any damage. And there is teh electricity bill.

 

I would have thought having it on 24/7 would do more damange than switching it on and off. Maybe thats just me?

[glucoseaddict]

I leave my desktop and laptop on 24/7 and both operate fine for me. However, my laptop has been plugged in constantly for about 2/3 years and the battery is shot - won't work for more than 5 minutes without being plugged in. Doesn't bother me much though, as I rarely bring my laptop anywhere.

 

I've also heard that starting up/closing down you computer puts more stress on your hard drive than just leaving it on. But then the ESB bills (electricity) keep going up.

 

Also, sometimes RAM chips become temporarily damaged if the computer is left on for a long period of time. But all you have to do is restart the computer and all is fine again. It's like the tiny memory cell things get stuck on a 1 or 0. This is why some people see their computers acting up if left on for a good while (like a week+).

[The3rdChildren]

Standby for me.

[Letty]

I switch mine off..

[The-Ironflame]

I leave it on everyday of the week and restart now and again unless it's a bloody hot day.

[Platty]

Ah thanks for your replies, pretty mixed views going on. Ive decided i will turn her off after using.

 

When im at work or out there is no point my computer being on. I do log on more or less daily and when i do it's usually on for quite a few hours and there is not much rebooting (unless i install something) so i think it will be fine.

[Dasky]

my computer has never been effected.

[Jack]

I turn mine off. There's no point leaving it on unless I'm downloading, encoding video or using a folding program.

[christophicus]

My pc is over 6 years old and I nevre leave it one when its not doing something , it is off the vast majority of the time.

[yo yo]

I usually leave mine on over night for dowloads+torrents, the real trouble is when my mum comes in and switches it off at the plug(i've told her hundreds of times how to turn it off properly aswell), i hear that pretty bad for your comp.

[fatnickc]

Typically I turn it off when I'm not using it, but sometimes I leave it on for a few hours when I want to watch a program/play a non-PC game/read a book and so forth, when I'll be using it later. This is because the system that I'm most often on takews quite a while to get into Windows.

[RoadKill]

I am an always on, server kind of guy.

 

http://piro-server-farm.league.uptime-project.net

[Space]

As long as I plan on using the PC I keep it switched on. No point in re-loaded up all my software again each day. I've installed a silent PSU and quiet heatsink so it doesn't keep me awake. The monitor gets switched off as it's a big power drain.

 

But I don't recommend keeping your laptop on all the time. I used to keep mine on and shut the lid at night and after a year or so it started getting very hot and kept powering down. After taking it apart I found the heatsink was totally blocked by a thick wedge of dust. After clearing that out it was as good as new. Closing the lid stops the air circulation and dust that would normally escape out the top hits the lid and falls back inside. A word of warning to save you from taking your laptop apart.