do you leave your computer on overnight ?

Question

i do not leave my computer on overnight due to power usage for no reason (unless backing up files and whatnot) i htink it is actually stupid to leave it on when it uses power uses the life of your pc parts when you dont have to and it keeps me asleep due to leds and uv light what do you think? does it do anything to the hardware when i turn it off when ever i dont use it for long peroids of time (hours) used everyday thanks

Answer 1

My computer is on nearly all the time. I try to do the time consuming stuff at night like encoding videos or downloading massive files.

Incidentally, the only wear and tear parts in your computer are the hard drive and cooling fans. They're the only items with moving parts that are constantly in use. (and they're fairly cheap to replace)

As for power consumption I turn off the monitor when I'm not in front of the machine and the hard drives power down after an hour of inactivity.

Answer 2

Yes I do, for months and Internet running.

Computers on idle don't use much electricity. They only do when Processor-intensive tasks are done. At night, just turn off the monitor, especially if it's a CRT. It uses a lot of electricity.

If you're leaving the computer and coming back in about an hour or two, just leave it on. Computer hard drives are designed to keep spinning. The more spin-ups and spin-downs will reduce it's life. Computers running for years straight will have a longer life (as long as there's enough ventilation) compared to one that's always turned off and on. But overnight is quite long, so you can turn yours off if you want.

Answer 3

I have always left my systems running at night. That's when the OS gets a chance to rebuild the search indexes and other tasks like automated backups that keep the system safe and fast during the day. A typical laptop draws about as much power as a 30-watt lightbulb when it's active. While inactive or in standby mode, that's far less. Let the screen and hard drive turn off automatically.

Answer 4

its better for the computer to leave it running.
bad for the environment though.
We should all conserve more.

use your power safer to kill the monitor and hard drives after a few minutes. the monitor sucks a lot of power and the HD has moving parts that need to be protected.
start > run >
powercfg.cpl
press enter


other than that, turning the computer on and off causes some parts to warm up and then cool down..... as this keeps happening, small fractures can appear on circuit board wiring or inside chips.

your better off turning it off though. I think the money you save on the electric bill could end up being a nice chunk of change to put down on new parts if they go out......

your HD or CD drives are usually the first to go anyway.

I usually leave mine hibernating at night.
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,2554,00.asp

Answer 5

Sometimes I do. Actually it is the monitor that consumes most of the power (unless you have some super-fans running to cool your overclocked CPU). If you do leave on overnight, you should reboot it once a day. Otherwise it will slow down. Your pc will become outdated long before its hardware dies from being left on overnight.

Answer 6

No, i dont not leave my computer on overnight. It is ridiculous to waste the much amount of energy if you are not going to use it. No it does not do anything to the hardware when you turn it off and if you dont use it for long periods of time (hours).

If you having trouble falling asleep due to no uv light, i suggest you try either putting the computer on a certain of amount of time when you dont use it, like for instance, you set the computer to turn off automatically if you dont use it for say... 60 min (to the most at least), then you can go to sleep and it wont waste energy and electricity not to mention. You can do the same on a t.v. if you dont want to use the comp. just put the t.v. on sleep instead.

Answer 7

Is it a notebook, if it is make sure if you plan on leaving your computer off for an extended time shut off, to fully charge your battery. L-ion batteries do not like to be stored in a discharge state. Another thing to think about is the more times you push those bottons there is wear and with time even computers built for a commercial environment tend to not work as well.

Answer 8

Nope, but thats because mine is rather old and noisy, although it is in the office! I use to leave it on when i was at uni doing a lot of downloading, but not so much these days as i have to keep an eye on the electricity bill! Leaving it on also increases your carbon footprint ;)

Answer 9

Yes.

The power surge when you turn on the computer and the thermal cycling on the CPU and memory is actually harder on the computer than leaving it on all the time. Most operating systems put the hard drive to sleep after a few minutes of inactivity anyway, and that's really the only mechanical part you'd need to worry about.

Yes, leaving it on wastes power. It's a trade off.

Answer 10

I occasionally leave it on over night. If I don't have to be up in the morning for anything, I stay up late and surf the net off and on through the night but I will shut it down once I've had enough.