A couple of questions

Sean1082 · May 14, 2010

1) When I turn off my PC at night, which I do every night, should i turn the power button on the back off my PSU off as well? Or should this be left on?

2) My hard drive has recently begun to make very light, and what seems like, scratching noises. It only seems to happen when data is being written or retrieved. What could this possibly be? I have no idea how a hard drive really works. Are there moving parts in there besides the disk spinning that could be scrapping? Or could it simply be a disk reader making those noises as it moves?

Thanks
Sean

whs · May 14, 2010

ad 1) I do that if a thunderstorm is in the area - or if you have fequent power failures. In any case, it cannot hurt. It is even better to switch off the power strip where you may have other units too (Monitor, Router, External disk, etc.)

ad 2) Most hard drives do that. It is the arm that moves around. It is some rasping sound. I would not worry about it.

Jonathan_King · May 14, 2010

1: It doesn't matter. I'd leave it on just to save the time of switching it back on.

2: Besides the disc platter spinning, the head also moves an inch or two, so it can read every part of the disc. Hard drives do make noise, and scratching sounds are pretty common. I wouldn't worry about it too much unless it starts making very funny noises. Then test it out with one of these programs: HD Diagnostic

acurasd · May 15, 2010

If you are going to go through all that trouble of switching off the I/O switch in the back of the PowerSupply...

just like they said... Thunderstorms.. the best thing to do there is completely remove the 115volt cable from the Power Supply.. that is the safest thing for your computer.

Honestly I dont know what that rocket swtich is in the back of the Power Supply is used for...My old 350 watt has one but my new 600watt doesn't have one

Aphelion · May 15, 2010

1) No need to turn the PSU rocker switch off... if you do, you will have to replace the motherboard's backup battery more often as the PSU supplies a small current that holds CMOS memory in place taking the load off the battery. (plus a few other monitoring functions) i.e. booting the computer from a hot-key command.

2) Over time as the drive is used and data written/deleted...etc.. the read/write head has to do a little more work and as a result will become more audible as it moves around searching for data.

Ap

acurasd · May 15, 2010

Aphelion said:
1) No need to turn the PSU rocker switch off... if you do, you will have to replace the motherboard's backup battery more often as the PSU supplies a small current that holds CMOS memory in place taking the load off the battery. (plus a few other monitoring functions) i.e. booting the computer from a hot-key command.

2) Over time as the drive is used and data written/deleted...etc.. the read/write head has to do a little more work and as a result will become more audible as it moves around searching for data.

Ap

yeah that is true...
if you dont have that little power going to the motherboard... the CMOS is not kept... the power to the motherboard is not kept... so the Powersupply you can say is like the alternator to the CMOS battery. Then again the CMOS battery is littium so it can hold a long charge *lol*

umm your WOL (Wake On Lan) won't work... thats another thing. Some Add On Boards require very little power to be supplied to them...
yeah forgot about those little things.

Aphelion · May 15, 2010

I tend to do what you advised in your original post... there are a lot of thunder/lightning storms here in the summer, I unplug the power cable from the PSU. Since I'm using DSL for the moment, I also unplug the phone line.

Ap

Sean1082 · May 15, 2010

Thanks for all you're great replies. I did notice that battery on the motherboard and was sure it kept information as what was mentioned. I was just wondering if It was more wear on the PSU to leave it on rather than turning it off. But yeh, I always unplug it during thunder storms.

Thanks again guys
Sean

Aphelion · May 15, 2010

Sean1082 said:
Thanks for all you're great replies. I did notice that battery on the motherboard and was sure it kept information as what was mentioned. I was just wondering if It was more wear on the PSU to leave it on rather than turning it off. But yeh, I always unplug it during thunder storms.

Thanks again guys
Sean

For electronic components.. it's less wear to leave them on.

Ap

surfasb · May 16, 2010

For Thunderstorms, spend $50 on a good powerstrip from APC.

Jonathan_King · May 16, 2010

surfasb said:
For Thunderstorms, spend $50 on a good powerstrip from APC.

If lightning hits a power strip, even the most expensive home one, it will fry it and everything on it. In a lightning storm, it's best just to unplug everything.

Wishmaster · May 16, 2010

Aphelion said:
Sean1082 said:

Thanks for all you're great replies. I did notice that battery on the motherboard and was sure it kept information as what was mentioned. I was just wondering if It was more wear on the PSU to leave it on rather than turning it off. But yeh, I always unplug it during thunder storms.

Thanks again guys
Sean

Click to expand...

For electronic components.. it's less wear to leave them on.

Ap

Always been my understanding and practice as well.
Supposedly more wear & tear on mechanical drives turning them on & off.

I agree with the others & also usually pull the power in lightning storms however. (even though I do have a power strip)

Speaking of:
I have heard that turning the PC complete off for say 8hrs a day, and then back on daily actually uses the same or more power. thast it best left on in this respect as well.

Any one know if this is true?

Jonathan_King · May 16, 2010

Wishmaster said:
Aphelion said:

Sean1082 said:

Thanks for all you're great replies. I did notice that battery on the motherboard and was sure it kept information as what was mentioned. I was just wondering if It was more wear on the PSU to leave it on rather than turning it off. But yeh, I always unplug it during thunder storms.

Thanks again guys
Sean

Click to expand...

For electronic components.. it's less wear to leave them on.

Ap

Click to expand...

Speaking of:
I have heard that turning the PC complete off for say 8hrs a day, and then back on daily actually uses the same or more power. thast it best left on in this respect as well.

Any one know if this is true?

Let's go through the math. Even if we don't know the numbers, we can still figure it out.

When a computer turns back on from a cold shutdown, a few things will require more juice. The hard drive requires a bit more energy to spin up than spin normally, due to inertia.

That's the only hardware related extra energy usage. On a reboot, often times programs are shceduled to run, such as updates, virus scans, hard drive checks, etc. The additional resources demanded may use a bit more power.

Even if you left your computer off for 10 minutes, and turned it back on, the power saved during its off period would more than compensate for the additional resources used.

Wishmaster · May 16, 2010

I was somewhat on the same lines of thinking in that regard.
Thanks for the explanation

Barman58 · May 16, 2010

The only thing I can think of here is the tubes in an LCD monitor - Fluorescent tubes can have a much higher startup current than the running current, due to the design.
As the monitor can amount to a major segment of a PC's power usage, not so much since the CRT days of course, this may make a difference.

kucing13 · May 16, 2010

still my friends PC got fried by lightning in off and unplugged mode. weird huh

HMonk · May 16, 2010

Jonathan_King is spot on about power-strip surge protectors. If electrical storms are really an issue your electric company can install (costly) a lightening interrupter on the "pole" that will quash any surge. Also I'd like to remind folks who might have DSL or Dialup service to unplug phone lines from the machine (or wall). Ditto re cable or satellite hook ups.

Question: does your BIOS and/or HDD have built-in "health" monitoring ability or SW? While not foolproof, such SW can signal impending HDD failure.

Monk

CarlTR6 · May 16, 2010

surfasb said:
For Thunderstorms, spend $50 on a good powerstrip from APC.

Jonathan_King said:
surfasb said:

For Thunderstorms, spend $50 on a good powerstrip from APC.

Click to expand...

If lightning hits a power strip, even the most expensive home one, it will fry it and everything on it. In a lightning storm, it's best just to unplug everything.

kucing13 said:
still my friends PC got fried by lightning in off and unplugged mode. weird huh

I live in the lightning capitol of the US. In the summer we have daily thunderstorm and at the height of rainy season we even have three or four thunderstorms a day. I have a commercial APC. It is worth the extra money and the battery backup gives me time to shut down when (not if) the power goes out. That said, when the thunder starts and the radar shows it is heading our way, I shut down and unplug.

Even when the computer is shut down and a residential power strip is turned off, a direct lightning hit on the lines close to you can travel through the power strip and computer on/off switch.

Back when I used a dialup modem, I would have a modem fried every two years or so by lightning hitting the telephone lines. I tried to remember to unplug the telephone line; but alas, sometime I forgot.

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