is it a good idea to shut your computer down each day?

Answer 1

of course why not?

Answer 2

If you run WinXP pro, then you can pretty much leave it running 24/7. Better still you can hibernate your PC (providing all your hardware supports hibernation) and then wake the PC up when you need it. Older versions of windows don't cope so well running 24/7 or hibernating.

You save power shutting down. You also clear your memory completely and write some settings back to disk. When you turn on, your windows is reloaded freshly.

If you leave it running (or hibernate and wake frequently) then you are running on live memory which can overtime become corrupt. This of course depends on how heavy you are on your system. If you are a heavy duty user like me, then you probably better shut down each night. Having said that, I can leave XP running for days with heavy duty applications running.

I think really it is down to your own personal preference. With regards to another replies post about heat, don't worry. As long as you have enough cooling fans you will be fine.

Only leave your computer running if you have XP pro, server 2003 or Windows 2000. NT4 can be funny.
Don't bother if you use 95, 98, 98SE or WinME.

J

Answer 3

Yes. And No.

When you turn off the PC nothing hurts and it cools down. But when you turn it on, there is a spike in electricity that hits the internal components. In addition, the system heats up. Over time (years, typically) this will cause electronic components stress and they will eventually fail. In addition, the heating and cooling (expansion and contraction caused by the heating and cooling) and, very gradually over time (years) make things like the RAM sticks and I/O cards slowly creap loose so that eventually you have a problem - it is a very slow process and you may never experience a problem - or you may. If you do, "reseating" (unplug/replug) is usually sufficent to get the component working again, but you have to figure out which one isn't working to begin with.

But leaving it on isn't necessarily good either. Leaving it on uses electricity (for me, in my area, it runs about $250-$300 per year per computer) and you run the risk of SEVERE damage if your electrical lines are struck by lightning or there's a severe power surge from some other source. TYPICALLY, if you want to leave it on 24x7, that's not a problem, but you should get an uninterruptable power supply (UPS) to protect the computer from sudden power failures and surges (power strips are just not that good compared to UPS systems with Automatic Voltage Regulation (AVR). The other drawback to leaving systems on 24x7 is that the components with moving parts (like the CPU FAN, the power supply and system fans and the hard drive) will wear down eventually. When they do, you can have a variety of problems from overheating of the computer to a complete loss of data (if the drive fails).

So what should you do? Probably just what you're doing. Because in either case, the chances of experiencing problems are fairly low during the useful life of the computer - 10 year old computer may not reach it's 11th birthday, but by then, it's so outdated, it should be replaced.

Answer 4

Yes, and Why? Because if you don't shut down your computer, sometimes your hard drives, and your motherboard can get burn by electricity activies while you're asleep or away from office/home. And that's why we must prevent this to happen to our own computer. Sometimes, when your computer is running more than 8 hrs, your hard drive get crash/ either the memory chip get burn. That's why we must shut down our own pc after using it. computer run time processing must be at lease 8 to maximun 10 hours. Then your computer will live long. If you have any more question please contact me at [e-mail]

Answer 5

In olden days (pre 1990), the PC computer parts were not resilient enough to withstand power fluctutions each day.

Today, the computer parts are plenty capable to handle it. The money you save on electricity far exceeds the potential issue of turning off your PC each day.
You still need to make backups of your data, no matter what you do.

Answer 6

while some of us leave our computers on 24/7 it's true that is good to at least restart your computer every once in a while to clear your memory and possible memory links something that most people believe to be the number one cause of computer crashes.

Answer 7

I always thought so until today until the guy from our phone company came to fix our dsl and he told us that were we use ours so much it would be best to leave it on all the time and not shut it down.

Answer 8

yes This will at least refresh You RAM -Memory- most people with home PC's laptops should do this simple Step.

Answer 9

I think it is. It needs to rest. You don't keep your TV on all day and night, do you? It get hot and may heat up.

Answer 10

Yes, it is recommended.
It restores a lot of files in your PC and also gives your PC time to rest.
Yes, it needs to rest.

Answer 11

To save electricity, otherwise no.