Should I Shut Down My PC At Night?

Wed Jan 31, 2007 4:18PM EST

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Reader Jason writes: Is it better to leave a computer on all the time or shut it off when you done? If I leave it on, what settings (like hibernate) should I use?

Years ago the conventional wisdom was that leaving your computer on all the time would allow it to last longer before a crash. The culprit: Your hard drive. Frequent starts and stops would cause your hard drive mechanism to wear out much faster than if the drive never spun down. An old saying (possibly apocryphal) was that stopping and restarting a hard drive was the same as eight hours of regular running time.

I talked to the good folks at Seagate to find out if things had changed. According to the company, starting and stopping is not a huge problem with drives any more, and they can be safely shut off and on in order to save power. According to Seagate, you can expect a drive to last for three to five years of running time before dying, though obviously many drives last longer.

What's the big factor that causes drives to die early? Heat, says Seagate. Ensuring your computer stays cool through the proper use of fans is far and away the best thing you can do to keep your drive healthy. I'd imagine that shutting it down when not in use will only help. Naturally, shutting down your computer will also conserve electricity, so unless there's a compelling reason to leave it on (as with a server), you should probably shut down at night.

So, how should you shut down properly? It's completely up to you, really. If you do a full "Shut Down" (or "Turn Off Computer") your computer will be completely off, using no power at all. "Hibernate" and "Standby" are lower-power states that allow you to resume quickly into the Windows desktop. Standby simply powers down hardware components like the hard drive, monitor, and peripherals, but continues to provide power to RAM, so everything you were doing stays active. Hibernate is closer to a shut down: It saves an exact image of your Windows desktop, then powers the PC down. When you awaken from hibernation, everything is back where you last had it. Personally I'm not a big fan of hibernate, because if I'm going to shut Windows down completely I like to reload everything fresh into RAM, which helps system stability. I tend to use both standby (for shorter times away from my PC) and shut down (for more than a few hours of downtime) instead.

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  • 6 Posted by rwm5150 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 8:57PM EDT Report Abuse

    If you go through the normal shut down... ie click start.. click shut down.. you can select stand by instead of shut down in the window that pops up and that will put the system into stand by mode.. to make your system hibernate you need to go to the start menu.. then settings.. click control panel and then power options and you can set you system to hibrinate automatically

  • 7 Posted by markosians on Thu Sep 3, 2009 7:08PM EDT Report Abuse

    Good article Chris, thank you. Guess it's time to change my old thinking about saving hard drives by leaving computer on 24/7/365. I wonder how much electricity (cash money) it might save too? Nick

  • 8 Posted by festrada88 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:59PM EDT Report Abuse

    I tend to use Hibernate a lot because my computer takes forever to boot. A full shutdown implies going through 5+ minutes of booting time. I don't use standby because I have a long commute, so if I forget to plug in as soon as I get home, my battery dies. I only do a full restart about once a week.

  • 9 Posted by rickyfr on Thu Sep 3, 2009 8:40PM EDT Report Abuse

    Hibernate is NOT a low power state. It uses no power. It is the same as shutting off the machine, unlike standby. When you select hibernate, your computer writes its memory state to a temporary file before shutting down. The temporary file is read and the computer's memory state is restored when the computer is powered on again.

  • 10 Posted by nissanchris760@sbcglobal.net on Thu Sep 3, 2009 7:39PM EDT Report Abuse

    At my work, i leave the computer on all the time and ive never had a problem with that computer. however, my last laptop i shut down and left off whenever not in use. that computer crashed hard and now can not be used for more than 1 hour before becoming instable. Now the new laptop i have i leave on except for when it goes on stand by, but i do notice i have to re boot every so often to maintain stability.

  • 11 Posted by david_lowenthal64@sbcglobal.net on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:38PM EDT Report Abuse

    if u use a laptop use the power settings for desktop instead of the laptop . it reduces the power settings to the minium requirements in stead of max

  • 12 Posted by aaliyah2346 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 2:43PM EDT Report Abuse

    Thanks for the information. I have a desktop that is about 4 yrs old, and i like for it to remain as stable as possible . Sometimes i would leave my computer on for awhile, but until i read your article i will reduce my habit of leaving the computer on unattended. :)

  • 13 Posted by masterful2one on Thu Sep 3, 2009 7:10PM EDT Report Abuse

    I leave my systems on 24/7. I have the computers to automatically restart ( 6:00am) each day to clear out the memory. I think Seagate goal is to sale more hard drives.

  • 14 Posted by hecman1us on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:17PM EDT Report Abuse

    I've had my PC for about six years and I use it three/four times a day, seven days a week. I always shut down even for a few hours and then all night. Never had any problems and it still works to my expectations. I have a compact w/xp. should I look for a new one soon?

  • 15 Posted by niff_13 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 7:38PM EDT Report Abuse

    I shut my work computer down each night, but does it make a difference if I close out each program individually before shutting down? For example, I will set myself out of office on my phone, but I won't close out of the phone program. I will then shut down XP by going to Start -- Shut Down. Does it make a difference whether I close out of everything first or is that part of the XP shut down process?

  • 16 Posted by c5inla on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:16PM EDT Report Abuse

    Just close all programs that are running before shutting down. It's easier on the computer.

  • 17 Posted by ahplagemo85 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 2:47PM EDT Report Abuse

    While heat is a major player in the life span of any computer or any computer part, its not the only thing to be concerned about. If you leave your computer on 24/7 keep it plugged into a surge bar. If you use a laptop and you will be leaving it on (as in my case), remove the battery and leave it plugged into the surge bar. Secondly, if you use your battery for a few minutes, DONT charge it. A battery cycle is at least 30 minutes, with this in mind, after about 25-30 cycles, discharge the battery entirely and charge it back up with the computer off. The key to having a stable computer is not clogging up its hard drive with files. If you want to do this, get an external drive. Heat is the trickiest part. The computer is the most stable when it is at its coldest temperature. So, the colder the computer is, the better it runs. Keep your cooling vents clean, dust off of the boards and have the best fans and heat sinks w/ thermal grease you can buy. Hybernate saves all memory in your RAM onto your hard drive in a designated file and powers the computer off entirly. Stand by puts the computer into an extremely low power consumption state where it is still on. These are the difference. The power surge upon boot up in the milli amps. Computers are built with this in mind, so on the power supply the transistors and capacitors dont let a spike burn up traces either on the boards or the tranistors on the cpu. With this in mind, all you need to worry about upon start up is how long will it take, and listening to your hard drive grind away.

  • 18 Posted by intel828cc on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:24PM EDT Report Abuse

    shut it down to lessen the electric bills..your hard drive wont crash unless u close the programs and shut it down properly.

  • 19 Posted by t_drake_net on Thu Sep 3, 2009 10:26PM EDT Report Abuse

    thanks, I was stuck in the old "don't turn it off" mindset.

  • 20 Posted by noodleio on Thu Sep 3, 2009 7:40PM EDT Report Abuse

    We let our's hibernate. I've tried getting my husband to power off, but he is impatient. We do unplug the modem though (I read that hackers can come in that way if you don't) I am not that computer saavy,so I dont know if it is true.

  • 21 Posted by guildmember57 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:14PM EDT Report Abuse

    My 1995 Toshiba Satellite laptop loses its Wi-Fi connection 90 percent of the time after I put it into standby. Upon awakening, it says it's connected. Sometimes I can receive POP mail but can't connect to the Web. "Repair" connection almost never works, and I have to reboot. I wish I could figure out what's wrong.

  • 22 Posted by zz_ctw2005 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 11:02PM EDT Report Abuse

    ok. You need to turn it off at night if possible. If you are not using a grounded outlet, out could wipe your computer all the way out. If lighting hits your power wire, it could blow up your computer. And also when in a storm also turn it off and if your using dial-up through any of phone line(s) cause that could cause probs. too!

  • 23 Posted by cloudchip on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:27PM EDT Report Abuse

    Standby often goes into a coma mode, (doesnot wake up,often have to reboot anyway), esp if security software is running,the resources do not feedback in properly. Wireless or other internet not connecting afte sleep mode? common problem,virtuyally unsolvable with today's security software and other background program running loads= REBOOT

  • 24 Posted by desertbrat2002 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:41PM EDT Report Abuse

    hi everyone, Im still not clear about leaving 2 pcs on 24/7/365. is it better or not? I have troubles when I get up in mornings and go to pc and all my applications are slow to opening and moving about. I am in process of getting much larger Hard drive like a 100+ gb and another question I have ...how does one put files from old 40gb hd to a new one? so many questions but I can learn if anyone knows ?? thanks, in advance....desertbrat

  • 25 Posted by johnohan on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:39PM EDT Report Abuse

    Hi all, I am a PC Consultant, and I would like to help those who are having connectivity problems with their WiFi after their PC goes to a power-saving mode. In Device Manager (click Windows logo button, left of the space bar, together with the Pause/Break button on your keyboard), then click "Hardware" tab, now click on Device Manager. Find "Network adapters" and expand it by clicking on the + sign. Double click your Wi-Fi card entry, then click on "Power Management" tab. Uncheck all thats listed. Yes, Uncheck. Many times lazy Wi-Fi hardware or poorly written drivers prevent them from coming of power-savings mode properly. Hope I helped you.

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