Computer On or Off???
Friday, June 22, 2007 by RoseNell | Discussion: WinCustomize Talk
I have heard it is better to leave your computer running all the time and then I have heard the opposite... Turn it off when not in use.. Or leave them on.. I have a friend and she never turns her computer off. Inquiring Minds want to know.. Thanks
Reply #2 Friday, June 22, 2007 11:03 AM
Reply #3 Friday, June 22, 2007 11:14 AM
Reply #5 Friday, June 22, 2007 11:18 AM
Reply #6 Friday, June 22, 2007 11:21 AM
It's My Secret
Reply #7 Friday, June 22, 2007 11:31 AM
for say 3 hours or more
old school computers were better
to leave on , but newer ones can
be shut down without worry ...
Reply #8 Friday, June 22, 2007 11:50 AM
Reply #10 Friday, June 22, 2007 3:19 PM
Reply #11 Friday, June 22, 2007 8:20 PM
Off.
Spend money on electricity if you like, but that is eating up the world's resources.
Reply #12 Friday, June 22, 2007 8:30 PM

Reply #13 Friday, June 22, 2007 8:37 PM
His PCI Video card had literally burst into flame and melted. Had he not been present I am sure a fire would have started.
Use your own judgement but turning them off does not hurt them.
Reply #14 Friday, June 22, 2007 8:50 PM
Spend money on electricity if you like, but that is eating up the world's resources.
Same with TVs, Sound systems and anything with a little red light glowing after you turn it off. I've read where the "stand by" drain on electricity is pretty overwhelming when applied globally. That's another reason I keep most everything on a power strip/switch that I turn off when not in use.
Reply #15 Friday, June 22, 2007 9:08 PM
Reply #16 Friday, June 22, 2007 10:42 PM
Saves money on my electricity bill, reduces pollution, reduces wear & tear on machines.
Turning computers on/off doesn't hurt them from what I know - been in this "business" for almost 20 years. I have however seen power supplies that have failed on units that are left on all the time, my brother-in-law used to leave his desktop pc on all the time until his power supply failed and started to smoke up & spark for some reason, filled the basement recroom with smoke, my in-laws called me over, they were afraid to turn it off because it was making weird noises and filling up the basement with smoke. Suffice it say by the time I got there, the damage was done: the smoking power supply was still providing some form of partial power to the pc and in turn smoked the mb, memory, harddrive, video, audio, network cards, etc. When we powered off the machine (and aired out the recroom), I opened up the box to reveal a dusty machine that was covered in dust & pet hair. The pet hair may not be a standard thing in most homes but dust is inevitable and leaving these machines on 24/7 just compounds the problem. Judging from the bulk of machines I've ever had the "pleasure" to service, most people never dust out their machines - leaving them on all the time turns them into dust magnets. The build-up of dust & dirt in these machines has detrimental effects: dirt & dust (& whatever else is floating in the air) constantly gets sucked inside the case of your pc - and eventually clogs both the pc power supply and fans. As it accumulates, the fans have to work harder to perform the same job, after a while the fans can slow down or fail completely which leads to overheating inside the case (your pc's cpu runs slower as it runs hotter), overheating also can cause other hardware failure and can lead to data loss, dust building up on your motherboard & other hardware components can build up a static electricity charge and one random discharge will fry your motherboard and probably other components as well (have you backed up your data lately?).
You can alleviate these problems by regular dusting the interior of your pc with compressed air (you can by a can of compressed air for pc cleaning for $5-$10 from your local pc shop) and turning off your computer when it's not in use.
You could also be one of those lucky people who leave their pc's on 24/7 and never ever experience any problems (except for above average electricity bills).
Reply #18 Saturday, June 23, 2007 12:58 AM
Reply #20 Saturday, June 23, 2007 3:11 AM
Please login to comment and/or vote for this skin.
Welcome Guest! Please take the time to register with us.
There are many great features available to you once you register, including:
- Richer content, access to many features that are disabled for guests like commenting on the forums and downloading skins.
- Access to a great community, with a massive database of many, many areas of interest.
- Access to contests & subscription offers like exclusive emails.
- It's simple, and FREE!







Reply #1 Friday, June 22, 2007 10:38 AM
Things like updates and spyware or virus scans or defragging can be scheduled and done in the middle of the night also, so I don't have to bother when I'm on the computer.