Is it bad if my PC is on for a few days without turning it off?

Question

This question might sound stupid but I just get paranoid about some things and think some things might go wrong.

Answer 1

No you computer will be fine I don't turn my pc off inless I have a crash or I install new parts. If you do leave your computer off for a long time the battrey on your mother board will die and your CMOS will be reset its not going to make any diffrence if its on or off but if you fire it up over and over your going to reduce the life of your PSU. If you dead race your computer in how life long race it would be going way after you die the hard drive might fail but it will still be going.

Answer 2

NO,

In fact the more stable the electronics, the better. I turn my machine on and off only once a day. If I am going to go out for a few hours I leave the machine on. It won't hurt it and it is better for the electronics to operate at the same temperature. I do turn off the monitor and I have my computer in a well vented area.

Temperature is the primary problem and if you keep it constant then there will be less stress on the machine. Under the power saving options (Start > Settings > Control Panel > Power Options) you can have the machine automatically turn itself off after a while or turn off its hard drive. This is primarily meant for notebooks, but parking the hard drive isn't a bad idea if you are going to be gone for a few hours.

Once you return and hit the space bar it will take a few extra seconds for the machine to power up, but not that long.

The worst thing you can do is to put it in a spot where fresh air can't get in and then keep switching the thing on and off.

Older versions of Windows wouldn't remain stable and it was only a matter of time before they would fail. But, that issue is long gone and you don't have to worry that the operating system is going to have a hiccup and suddenly crash on you if you leave the machine on.

My brother-in-law is a network engineer and he leaves his personal machine on all the time. Inside his house and vented properly it will remain cool enough to keep it going without any problems. I try to save some money on the electric bill so I turn mine off each night, but I have left it going all night with no worry. The computer will take care of itself and the less times you force it to reboot the better.

Answer 3

I generally leave my office PC on 24 hours a day and have done for the last 8 years. At home I tend to switch it off at night as well as the monitor as that uses power when in standby.

As to it being good or bad for the PC... I really couldnt tell you. There are so many factors like dust and dirt, temp etc... that complicate things. I have had PC's that stay on 24/7/365 have the same life span as a PC switched off every night. By the time they break they are getting old and needed to be upgraded anyway.

I really dont think it matters.

Answer 4

In a Taiwanese designed motherboard the electrolytic caps are typically not rated very well for actual input ripple voltage. These same caps are rated at about 2000 hours for the cheap ones they like to use. Bottomline, they dry up and lose capacitance. When they do this then voltage transients increase on your CPU and lead to performance related failures. ( i.e fast load demand from processor equals hung system) It is for this reason and the fact that I actually pay the electric bills that I like to turn my computer off when not in use.
I leave my work computer on all the time with no problem, and I turn my home computer off when I don't use it, also with no problem.

Answer 5

Nothing wrong with that. I know journalists leave them on all the time (yeah, turn it off and it may not start again!).
It is the cooling part you need to watch out for - in an aircon place, it should not be an issue. But people are talking global warming and going 'green' - so turn it off if you don't really have anything going.

Answer 6

I do it all the time with my home PC. I don't turn it off for several days and when I so it's usually because I need to reboot it for some reason. I run some background programs while it's idle. I've been doing it for years without any trouble so, for my experience, it should be fine.

Answer 7

i dont think so but just to be safe the easiest thing to do is to just put into standby when you leave or you can set up the computer to automatically go into standby after a set amount of time.... i only know how to do this on xp at the moment so if it helps....

go to control panel and click power options
two boxes up from the bottom of the window it says "system standby" click on the drop down menu next to it and click on the most appropriate timer.... the timer only run when yoyour computer is inactive i.e. ur not typing or moving the mouse.
best part is standby doesn't erase your unsaved work...

g'luck email me if u need more help....

Answer 8

NO! In fact, it's actually good for your system. Think of this for a moment. The Pentagon, White House and NSA keep THEIR computers on 24/7/365. They may reset their systems periodically for system updates and such, but for the most part, they are NEVER off.

On a personal note, I rarely ever turn my system off. Again, to update or free system memory, I'll reset it, but never turn it off

Answer 9

Well as long as the fan is clean it should be ok.... You might want to read this article about overheating:

http://www.gamegiants.net/article_info.php?articles_id=1

The biggest problem is the electric bill. A computer uses the power of 5 or more light bulbs!

Answer 10

no ? is stupid...i have had my desktop on consistantly for...o man....4 months now...maybe turned off here and there to tweak hardware and/or if there is a power outage or tstorm...i just turn off my monitors, set the harddrives to hibernate after 2 hrs of idle sitting...can change that in ur power settings under control panel (windowsXP im using) that way they dont run all the time and my monitors dont put off extra heat. i leave mine running cuz i use it as a file server.