How often do you power down?

[esha]

I shut mine down every night, and also during the day when I'm out for longer than 1 hour.
I've got several harddisks in it, a Quad processor and one of the better video cards and 2 monitors, and electricity is expensive over here. So what I don't need gets switched off. Sometimes, when I know I'll be back shortly and I have a half-finished work open, I switch off only the monitors.

I only wish my sleep mode would work correctly, but I'll open a separate thread for that.

 

[kcmike]

I have 4 computers. I power down 3 of them every night. The other is my DVR. It stays on 24/7.

 

[noobvious]

I pay attention to my ram usage. At first boot it's usually at about 19% at idle. When it gets to 30%+, I usually power down. Pretty much just a quirk that I've carried over from Windows 95.

I use sleep exclusively when away from it for any length of time. I also turn off the monitors because of the horror stores I've read about monitor files. I'd rather do something that may not be necessary than to wish I had.

If you close your open programs, activate sleep mode, and then wake up the computer, it will flush the RAM the same way.

 

[Dinesh]

I shut down when not in use. I only use it 2-3 hrs a day, so its turned off the rest of the times.

 

[burtie]

My PC is on most of the time unless I am away for a few days. If I am not using for more than half hour I put it to sleep and overnight I put into hibernation and pull the power plug out so that no power is being used by any of my other devices.

 

[bigmck]

I am lazy and do not like to backup my files. I have a service that backs up every night. This is why I leave mine on 24 / 7. I do try to power down and reboot about once a week.

 

[strollin]

I never power my machines down unless I am working on them. The video is set to shutoff after 10 minutes of non-use.

At work, I turn the monitor off when I leave, otherwise the machines are on 24/7.

 

[Dwarf]

I power mine down completely when it is not in use.

 

[z3r010]

Power down?

 

[pebbly]

Yep, turn mine off every day

 

[pparks1]

Heck, I don't even think I have turned on my desktop one time in the past 3 weeks. I have to carry my work laptop home every night, so I typically just use that.

 

[blackroseMD1]

I usually power mine down every couple of days. I don't pay for electricity where I live, so that's not a concern, and everything but the hard disks are brand new, so I'm not really worried about wear and tear. I usually schedule things like backups and defrags for around 4 am, since I'm usually asleep by then, so I just leave my comp running. Occasionally I will put it to sleep, if I am going out for more than 3-4 hours.

 

[gregrocker]

Startup hangs can also be logged in Diagnostics-Performance log at Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Performance Information and Tools\Advanced Tools

.

 

[seekermeister]

Only when I need to work inside the case.

 

[JonM33]

I leave my PC on 24/7. I only power it off during hardware installation/maintenance or reboot for OS patches.

I usually power mine down every couple of days. I don't pay for electricity where I live, so that's not a concern, and everything but the hard disks are brand new, so I'm not really worried about wear and tear. I usually schedule things like backups and defrags for around 4 am, since I'm usually asleep by then, so I just leave my comp running. Occasionally I will put it to sleep, if I am going out for more than 3-4 hours.

A PC running 24/7 is mostly idle anyway. Most PCs don't use up much power. At most it might be a couple dollars per day.

What really burns up electricity is air conditioning, electric dryer, refrigerators/freezers, electric stoves/ovens, microwaves and electric hot water heaters.

 

[fseal]

Have you added up what a couple $$ a day costs per month? Per year? You could buy an entirely new machine with just the energy savings of turning it off when not using it.

It actually doesn't even cost that much but the $10 a month or so it does cost is still worth considering. All for... saving 30 seconds on a boot?

Thing is, everything adds up. And things that are left on 24/7 add up FAST, being comparable to big things that only run for an hour or two a day (or week).

 

[pparks1]

A PC running 24/7 is mostly idle anyway. Most PCs don't use up much power. At most it might be a couple dollars per day.

Have you plugged in a meter to see what your PC actually draws. You might be surprised to see a 200watt load. Plus, a few dollars a day over the course of a month does add up.

What really burns up electricity is air conditioning, electric dryer, refrigerators/freezers, electric stoves/ovens, microwaves and electric hot water heaters.

Yes...those do burn electricity and I use them as sparingly as I can. I got a new fridge about 3 years ago and it's Energy Guide tag said it would consume about $50 in a year. I thought that was pretty impressive. Certainly worth the cost for the food that it protects and keeps cold.

 

[Kirsch]

At most it might be a couple dollars per day.

With Heavy usage, ALL DAY, and about 1000 watts of equip running (not max available, USED).. then maybe you will reach a couple dollars per day

 

[Cato]

monitor files?

do you mean flies?

i notice that in the summer they love to poop on my screens. anyone else have this problem?

Fires, I meant fires. Hate it when I do that.

 

[Layback Bear]

This is a no brainier for me. If the computer is off it uses zero power and there is zero wear and tare. I agree with TVeblen a lot of good things happen with a fresh boot. If the system is set up correctly it will only take about 90 seconds and away you go. This will very because of how many programs your system loads at start up. I keep a close watch of this with msconfig/start. We all have a few seconds in our life to do a fresh boot.