Windows 7 - Question about turning Machine On/Off?

I would like to know that Power On/Shutting Down your Computer about 3 to 4 times a day does effect on the life of a Computer or harm it or any components in any way? The problem is in my Country the stupid lazy and corrupt Government turn the light off (Power Off Total Black Out) for 1 hour each time and about 4 to 5 times in a day in my area. I do have a UPS attached to my PC but it only gives back up for 10 to 15mins so i had no other option but to Shutdown my Computer and turn the switch off on the back of my PSU everytime. In winter when my Electricity is coming 24/7 mostly so my PC is always on coz i heard it's better to turn machine on but i wanna know is it ok to Turn Off and Turn On about 3 to 4 times a day?

Since you have UPS and can shut down when the grid goes down, it should not affect you. If you didnt it might be slightly more of a problem. You do still have a battery in the PC to allow correct shutdown.

They used to say it would wear the HDs & other HW faster powering on and off alot.

But, thats the past. Newer hardware it doesnt really affect that much.
The only issue would be completely cutting the power without warning, as that can possibly cause file corruption.


Ideally, leaving it On or at least going to sleep mode is best.

But, No, I do not believe it will harm the system if you shutdown daily.
TBH, the only real downside would be the longer startup time from a cold boot.


Do you mean it can run 15minutes while powered On?

If so, to save power, you might want to try putting the PC to sleep during the Power-outs.
This way its still On, yet running in a low power state. When power returns, wake it up.

I always shut my computer down overnight and use sleep mode during the day apart from when a reboot is called for after an update or software installation.

In all the years I've had a computer I've never had one fail because it was being switched off on a regular basis. The main downside as I see it is the longer boot times when you reboot as opposed to wake from sleep.

I will chime in and agree with your UPS and a controlled shut down won't cause any harm. hopefully your UPS has a setting to allow it to conserve battery power and can shut you PC down automatically when you power goes off. Also your BIOS should be set to stay off after a power outage.

I leave mine/ours on 24/7 normally.

My old Sony Vaio XP machine used to get turned on/off 4-5 times a day for about five years. Now, it's about 1-2 times a week just so I can keep it updated. Never had a problem except I noticed the Vaio light in the front doesn't come on any more. Oh, and I did replace the DVD drive last year.

I live out in the sticks and power used to drop every time it rained so I have UPS boxes on just about every major electronic piece in the house. Our public service company came around about two years ago and re-strung power lines out here so it pretty stable now. I don't use the auto-shutdown mode on any of PC-UPS boxes. I'd rather control that myself and skip the overhead of another driver just sitting there taking up space.

@ Wishmaster

Yes i tried once or twice running my PC for 10 to 12 mins when power goes out but normally when my light goes i shutdown PC within 5 mins of time to save the battery life other wise the UPS keeps on beeping constantly and drain every bit of the battery slowly slowly. The store i bought it from the guy there told me it can run my PC for about 20 to 25 mins according to my specs and size of LCD but he told me when i shutdown my PC turn off the UPS in the end but not the Plug where the UPS is plugged in and that's why i did'nt let the PC put on sleep mode and i select the options to Never only the display time is set to 10mins

@ carwiz

Yes i also never use the auto-shutdown mode on the UPS and did'nt even attached the cable on UPS to PC. I also control it my self

I also preffer to keep my Machine on all the times but too bad i can't due to the Power-Out on daily basis Thanks alot for zigzag3143, Wishmaster, seavixen32, Britton30 and carwiz for the help and info

You're welcome Boogieboy.

Not a problem Boogieboy. I hope we were able to help you decide what to do.