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At work I shut off workstations nightly because we have incredibly unreliable power and only a couple of UPS units. The servers I leave running all the time, since they are well protected, and there's no real benefit to shutting them down. After all, we ARE the power company.
"A Journey of a Thousand Rest Stops Begins with a Single Movement"
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I only turn off my PC when I am leaving me home for more than couple of days. I've read and heard from others that turning on and off a PC can actually shorten its lifespan. I have not done a test specifically but I've had two computers run for 8 years straight without any component failure. My parents, who turn on and off their computer multiple times a day have had to replace their computer 4 times in the same amount of time because of component failure. I've heard an analogy that turning on your computer is like pouring ice cold water onto a sleeper. It shocks it awake and if I am the sleeper it definitely takes away some of my living time.
Brett A. Whittington
Application Developer
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And, depending on who it was, it shortens their lifespan too...;P
Ninja (the Nerd)
Confused? You will be...
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Same here, always keep all my machines going 24/7/365, barring any power outages.
"Real programmers just throw a bunch of 1s and 0s at the computer to see what sticks" - Pete O'Hanlon
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I've heard that too. I wonder if it's true.
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A long time ago, in a monopoly far, far away (AT&T Bell Labs), there was a statistical analysis done on terminal lifetime vs. being turned off overnight. Now this is 1980's terminals (not even monitors; these were ASCII terminals with the green or orange text characters) but they had many characteristics in common with today's PCs: power supplies, PC boards, etc.
The study showed that the cost of repeated repairs to these terminals greatly outweighed the cost of electricity to keep them running all the time. Again, prices are different almost 30 years later, but this is a hard data point.
It is generally regarded as risky to extend statistical results to causality, but the belief (based on what was in need of repair) was that the problem was thermal shock. It loosened wires, solder joints, and PCB traces. After hundreds of such shocks, it appears that components failed.
So, FWIW, thermal shock has been a measurable problem in the past on electronics.
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Thanks for giving some background info. So maybe replacement costs are no longer an issse. I will have to put into consideration.
Brett A. Whittington
Application Developer
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That's really, really interesting.
I've worked as a tech for something like 15 years, on and off, and I've experienced the sudden thermal death of equipment through nothing more than turning the thing off, working on it for a while, then trying to turn it on again. 'Oh dear, it seems to have turned its toes up'.
Customers howl, you scratch your head, then rip the thing apart and start hunting for crystalline solder joints or bulging capacitors. Without a microscope, or a full-on test rig, you're shall we say politely, screwed.
Interesting, I say again. What about accumulated static damage - any thoughts?
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BruceN wrote: What about accumulated static damage - any thoughts?
I've not heard about any studies concerning that. Seems like it would be much harder to correlate unless you were willing to deliberately subject equipment to ESD. Sounds expensive.
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I shut down my home computer, but I have a couple of small databases on my office system so I can't shut it down. Plus I can now remote into it from home.
On the other hand; I constructed an extension cord with a switch for ease of turning the monitors and speakers on and off.
Remember; many devices use power even when they are "off".
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My main reason is the energy saving and if you have any hesitation visit www.liveearth.org[^].
Secondly, I prefer shutting it down, when I start it on the next day it makes me feel that new fresh day is beginning with an empty desktop.(therefore no hibernation)
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Curious point...I always turn mine off and I don't mind waiting what, 2 minutes (max) for it to load?
Even if I did call it slow, and left the dual boot menu to run until it's default, it wouldn't take that long.
And if I leave it on, I can't sleep at night. The noise of the fan is ridiculous.
Ninja (the Nerd)
Confused? You will be...
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I keep my PC up all the time. Our company IT published a policy to power PC's down over night...unless it needs automatic maintenance or it needs to be backed up. We were never sure when we were suppose to keep it and not. It would be nice if they would let us know when these things are suppose to happen. So mine's up.
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I never shut down my office PC because I have the ability to connect via RDC and work remotely, and I often do.
I also telecommute that way some days, and it would be a real PITA to have to wait for someone to drag themselves into the office to boot up my PC on those mornings.
Grim (aka Toby) MCDBA, MCSD, MCP+SB
SELECT * FROM users WHERE clue IS NOT NULL
(0 row(s) affected)
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I've a plug board for mostly everything I have ... TV, computer etc.
I don't like any device that eats senseless energy while I don't need it!
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.. but never my computer. That's a quick and simple power saver that does not invoke the penalty of having to start-up my system and load my applications in the morning. Everyone that finds the inconvenience of a nightly shutdown too great, could at least turn off their screen.
Geoff
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Geoff A FitzGerald wrote: That's a quick and simple power saver..
It's not a 'power saver' if you're still leaving a computer sitting on all night doing nothing, it's just a stupid waste of energy.
I guess the planet isn't going to warm itself!
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Remarking (admittedly to excess):
I was thinking of using the same strategy in other facets of life. For example, the inconvenience of flushing (and washing my hands, for that matter) after . . .
On a slightly serious note (if I'm forgiven for the forgoing):
Being an old timer, I like the idea of shutting down completely, clearing pointless riff-raff from memory, along with the flotsam and jetsam. As I recall, memory becomes fragmented, just as does a hard drive. Probably never significant enought to worry about, unless, of course, one allows it to accumulate indeffinitely.
COnsider you "few" watts, times millions of other misguided PC owners. Why when you consider millions of users your talking about millions of watts - entire power plants dedicated to keeping nothing at all happening.
"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein
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Monitor off, reboot CPU before leaving. Then any overnight updates (virus) and access to the SQL server are available.
The reboot clears the days junk.
Now at home I turn off the computer to save electric and prevent hacking, not that I have anything besides diskspace to really hack.
djj
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I keep my server on always (not mine, but I'm in control of it) to server web requests. My laptop stays off while my desktop stays on (incase I need in from RDC).
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Damn thing is HOT and uses a *lot* of energy. In fact while I'm on holidays this summer I only turn it on briefly to read email in the morning and again briefly in the evening.
"I don't want more choice. I just want better things!" - Edina Monsoon
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What a waste 
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I'm on HOLIDAYS all summer, in the fall I'll be thrashing it to within an inch of it's life once again.
"I don't want more choice. I just want better things!" - Edina Monsoon
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I'm more aware of the power my computer uses since I switched to using a laptop. Now I switch it off overnight.
It also helps that Mac OS X boots up pretty quickly.
regards,
Paul Watson
Ireland & South Africa
Shog9 wrote: And with that, Paul closed his browser, sipped his herbal tea, fixed the flower in his hair, and smiled brightly at the multitude of cute, furry animals flocking around the grassy hillside where he sat coding Ruby on his Mac...
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Paul Watson wrote: It also helps that Mac OS X boots up pretty quickly.
Paul, you've really mastered this subtle Apple promotion haven't you  (the plain english guy should pay attention ). You're right tho... a mate was showing me the MacBook bootup other day, and it was impressive.
"For fifty bucks I'd put my face in their soup and blow." - George Costanza CP article: SmartPager - a Flickr-style pager control with go-to-page popup layer.
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