Leaving the Computer on all the time?

Question

i have heard that it is but yet they seem to run slower (At work) when we leave them on all the time their and they run faster when i shut mine off and turn it on every morning, at home though i've been turning it off everynight but it seems like every 6 months i'm having problems where i need to reformat my whole computer, im wondering if i leave it on all the time if this will keep my system healthy?

Answer 1

First, a point about turning off and on, do an orderly shutdown, do NOT just flip the power off. If you properly shutdown Windoze, nothing bad happens at the hard disk level. If you simply flip the switch, damage can happen to the file systen and directory structure and worse, the registry. Windoze does poor housekeeping, keeping critical information in a cache, the swap file, which has not yet been written to disk. If you power down, these changes are lost and can cause a domino effect into the file and directory structure file. So, assuming you do a proper shutdown, there are 2 schools of thought on this. First, power down and up later saves power cost, but may shorten the lifespan before failure. In the instance of a light bulb, repeated heating and cooling shourtens the time the light will stay lit in hours. If on all the time a bulb will last X hours. If turned on and off, it will last X minus some amount since the alternate heating and cooling effectively shortens the life of the filiment. However, on a recnt episode of Mythbusters, it really does not save power to leave a light on rather than turn it on and off when you enter or leave a room. Like a computer, it is a stress every time the computer powers up, which is not there when the computer is left on. The operating system does NOT care provided the system is properly powered down, only if it simply drops out which can amage the file system information. There is no study to provide a definitive answer either way. Powering down increases the liklihood of a hardware failure from heating and cooling and leaving on all the time consumes more electrical power. You be the judge as to which result you prefer.

Answer 2

Generally, if you are a frequent and heavy computer user, it is best the put the computer on standby, and only shutdown when you are relocating your computer. Putting your computer on standby only consumes power equivelent to two double AA batteries.

Shutting down frequently may lessen the health of your hard drive because of the stress the shutdown process puts on the drive platters.

There is no reason why you should not shutdown though. Just don't shutdown lets say five times a day.

Answer 3

I agree with the first two people however if your going to leave your computer on make sure you have a surge protector