how long can i keep my computer on in a single day?

Question

my computer is nearly on 12 hours a day. won't it get damaged by staying on so long? just wondering.

Answer 1

Never leave it on more than 24 hours in one day.

Long Live Jambi

Answer 2

There's a trade-off between the wear of circuits running and the impact (shock) of powering up. Normally it balances out to make them virtually identical. Dust and other pollutants have a harsher impact on systems and that happens whether they are on or off. But the single biggest thing that damages a system is heat. Leaving your box on causes a buildup in heat. Heat can damage any and all circuits in the system. Here's a rule-of-thumb I use that has worked for me for, oh, over 15 years.

Desktop systems can remain on 24/7 as long as they have enough ventilation. A good CPU fan and some extra case fans will usually be enough to keep things from melting. Just remember to turn off the monitor when you're not using the system.

For laptops it's a different story. Even with cooling stands it's difficult to keep a laptop running for more than a few days without the heat becoming a problem. For a laptop I try not to keep it on for more than a couple of days.

Answer 3

More damage can be done to most computer components by the frequent toggling of heat & cold than by just leaving it on for long periods & rebooting it occasionaly.

As long as your PC is properly ventialated & colled by appropriate fans you may leave it on for months if you wish. So far as the operationg system is concerned you should at least reboot it every few days to clear RAM & swap files.

Ever since my forst Pentium unit I've been leaving my PCs on all the time. Monitors (espectally CRTs) should, however, be powered down when not in use. You may also xhoose to have the hard drive power down after a certain time of inactivity by appropriate using the "Power Management" feature in Windows.

Incidentally, servers are not a good comparison to home PCs. They have heavy duty components and are often stored in rooms under a very strict tempuature control.

regards,
Philip T

Answer 4

It can be left on 24 / 7 / 365 with no damage whatsoever.

The dumb comment about it shutting down itself after 48 days is rubbish....the server I run has not been restarted in over a year - runs just fine.

The only thing that would be advised is to set the screensaver to use a power saving mode to shut down the monitor & the hard disks (not the computer!) when not in use for more than an hour or so.

Any just make sure it's well ventilated & not in a dusty environment. Will be perfectly OK.

Answer 5

Actually a lot of people believe that turning a computer on and off daily does more wear and tear to the the components than leaving it on all the time. This is because the heating up and cooling down that occurs when powering on and off causes expansion and contraction of the components and solder joints. Just like bending a paperclip back and forth hundred of time will cause it to break this what can occur to the components and solder points on your motherboad. About the only disadvantage I see to leaving it on all the time is the waster power. I leave mine on 24 by 7 and usually have to replace the fan after 2 to 3 years but otherwise have had no problems.

Answer 6

No. Worst possible outcome is regular wear n tear, ie getting a dust build-up etc., which can be easily vacuumed out anyway.

Edit: In any case the only issue would be overheating. The vast majority of components will not "burn out" gradually from continuous heat. They'll either work or not, there's no status of degrading in between. For example a CPU burns out at around 80 deg C I think. No properly working computer should reach that temperature anyway. Hard drives might get slightly damaged if they overheat but even this should recover when they cool down again.

Answer 7

Having built and worked on servers as part of my job, most systems can stay on indefinitely. The one thing to watch is the condition of the cooling fans. Which means that they do have to be shut down occasionally to clean or replace the fans. Also eventually the mechanical parts like hard drives will wear out. To prolong the life of the drives the system can be set so that the drives will go into sleep mode if they are not accessed for a preset time. You must remember to turn off things like screen saves to do this.

Answer 8

No you won't harm it. Desktop PCs can stay on for day after day after day, if you want.

Personally I trade off the idea of most damage being caused during warm-up against the cost of electricity by leaving mine on for about 12 hours per day too. At work we've dozens of PCs running round the clock for overnight updating and maintenance and they never fail - having said that, they get taken out about once a month on a rolling basis for a good clean and check.

Hope that helps.

Answer 9

While no serious damage can be done:

Your cooling fan may not be able to cope, and may overheat.

Another problem is that be leaving the screen on, a still image can be "burned" onto the screen of most flat panel moniters. Always use a screensaver.

Also if connected to the internet, leaving a pc on when not needed increases the risk of virus and hacking.

Answer 10

This past Thanksgiving I had family from Australia come to visit and my niece who is 6, slipped in on the 19th and played with the computer. No one checked it till the the day before they left on the 2nd of Dec. I found it on and she owned up to not turning it off since the 19th of Nov. But the computer is fine.

Answer 11

I have my PC on at least 12 hours a day.. If i'm downloading big files i leave it on for days.
I turn my PC off every few days and it's working fine... I do take the back off every now and then to clean the dust build up you get from the fan though.