How often should one switch off your pc?

Question

Is it safe to leave it on 24/7 or should it be switched off regularly? I have heard so many conflicting versions, would be grateful for advice. Thanks.

Answer 1

You can leave it on forever, it's similar to a light bulb, rated for 1000 hours, but after turning on/off everday lightbulbs rarely last that.
Heat is the big killer to PC components if well ventilated it will last a long time if you never shut down, WindowsXX inherently has memory leaks in the OS, try leaving your PC on 24/7 for a week and afte the week you'll find it slow to do simple tasks, Restart the machine and you'll see how it magically becomes fast again!
You DECIDE, if you want to do it, if you don't, then don't --really preference, in my Professional opinion-

Answer 2

At night when you go to bed so its only on for once a day. I don't know exactly what damage it would or wouldn't cause. I don't think your ganna get a straight from the hip true answer on this one. I'm not A+ certified YET! The only reason I'm not is because I cant afford it. However I am more experianced then some certs A+. From my experiance I know is this what good can come from keeping the computer on 24/7 Nothing. The not so smart way of doing this your sucking up power all day and night. I choose to save money. So turning it off is the best thing. WASTE NOT WANT NOT! remember that old saying?

Answer 3

This really depends on how you use your pc and what its used for. If your serving anything like a web server, ftp server etc then you would want to keep it on. If its for home and you dont use your pc as a web server then switch it off when your not using it - like someone else mentioned it will keep the electricity bill down.

In the commercial environment it *is* actually better to keep the servers on 24 hours a day, we used to switch off servers at Christmas, but learnt the hard way that powering them up after a long break actually bought a whole load of problems on (hardware and software failures), in the end it was much easier leaving them on and just reconfiguring the firewall to prevent outside access. Intrestingly enough we didnt have the same problems for desktops that had been switched off for the same period, but thats understandable, servers are built and configured differently to workstations

For home and desktop environemnts it *is* actually better to to switch the pc off at least every now and again as windows is well known over time not to release used memory back, so over time the pc will become slower and slower as programs that have been closed dont free up the memory properly and windows thinks its still in use, so over time will start using your paging file (hard drive) instead which is a lot slower. A reboot gives windows a new lease of life.

In the old days you still had the to and fors for 24/7 running; it was said that powering your pc on and off can cause a huge jolt to the system (motherboard) such that dry solder joints over time will crack and consequently fail, this was also true of fans - a fan that is stopped and started will more likely give than one that has been constantly running. But again, you still had the other side pointing out hard drive problem (hard drives werent as good as they are nowadays ), and you had to do things like park the heads to optimise systems that ran 24/7 (you dont do that nowadays)

So in summary from general home use there is nothing wrong in leaving a pc running 24/7 (you can turn the monitor off even if the base is on - no point leaving it on if your not using it), but rebooting the pc every now and again will improve things. Alternatively dont be afraid of turning your pc off - as long as you dont do it by pulling the power plug off. For commercial use where the application is mission critical, like servers - just leave the base on.

Answer 4

It is safe to leave your computer on 24/7 provided your connected to the net via cable or dsl.
The only problem may occur with missing files over time, as your ram dumps some of the information it has collected to make room for more information. Most monitors have a program to deal with static build up. The only parts that have the real wear and tear on them are the fans inside your computers.
You should regardless where you shutdown your computer or not run disk scan every month and disk defrag. This will help keep your computer running cleaner on the hard drive

Answer 5

I am A+ Certified in computers. You can leave your PC on 24/7. I leave mine on 24/7. I only restart my computer when it calls for it! It does run up your electric bill though.

Answer 6

I am a laptop engineer and I have been told by most people at my job that it is healthier for the pc to leave it on as much as you can, I just turn my flat panel LCD off when Im not using mine. Obviously if you install new software or hardware then a reboot is mandatory.

Answer 7

I heard once that a PC on hibernate uses 3 watts of electricity per hour, while one that's off uses 2 per hour. So there's really no harm in leaving it on all the time. Just turn off your monitor, it uses a lot of power.

Answer 8

It hasn't affected mine when I do.

One time I had a problem but it was because I kept my video card over clocked (modifying it to run faster beyond the manufactures design) but it sorted itself out in a few days.

Your CPU would be the most vulnerable part. As long as it is kept cool and you run anti-virus/spy ware once a day and you defrag at least once a week your computer should be fine.

Answer 9

I keep it on 24/7, I have been doing this for five years nothing happened.

Answer 10

ahh the infamous question
no harm in leaving it on 24/7 if you turn monitor off and enable hibernation
mine's always on without hibernation but i turn monitor off
i only restart when i see my comp is sluggish
happens to all pc when they run without restart
turning pc off and on isn't bad but i don't like the loading time