How often do you power down?

[bigmck]

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.

It is not even close to a couple dollars a day cost. I had an electrician in a while back and we got to discussing ceiling fans. He said their cost was about a dollar a month. I would think a PC would be about that also. There is not much electricity flowing at all.

 

[RST101]

Have it in sleep mode set to initiate after 20 mins(it's rare I'm away from it that long) but I power off 2/3 times a week for a reset.

 

[bobtran]

I restart whenever a patch/upgrade/update requires a restart which in my experience occurs every couple of weeks or so and/or almost always monthly when Microsoft pushes out patches.

Other than that I always use sleep on my desktop and hibernate on my older laptops. I keep my media center pc shutdown except when I actually use it. My Windows Home Server is only started when needed or every 2 weeks to backup my systems if they have not been backed up for an upgrade/new install (I always create a new "Working copy" backup, in addition to the original system "Gold copy", if I install new software and 1: after verifying that it is stable 2: that I will continue to use it).

 

[dobhar]

My main 2 PC's stay on 24/7 unless a reboot is required. I turn my Laptops off when not in use.

 

[Lebon14]

Always On. Except if I have to actually open my computer to check/replace/place/clean my hardware. Or in case or major electrical storm, which is rather rare. I find it bothersome to open/close my PC because it takes time to open... my POST takes like 30sec alone so, yeah. Also, I want to have my PC ready in case I want to do something. I can't do sleep because my graphic card doesn't take it (I have to replace the graphic card temporarily only to get my PC running again... see how far it goes).

That's it.

 

[BlueDove]

I tend to leave my PC running 24/7 except for reboots on new installs. I power down the monitor but not the PC as I get a 'hang' on a cold boot. A reboot (even from cold) works OK. I suspect a power supply or capacitor problem. When I've tried Sleep mode I get erratic behaviour on wake up.

Interested in what others do.

i run programs 24/7 on 2 computers
i too power down my monitor but not the PCs

my 10 yo PC(win2k) get rebooted once a month when it runs out of virtual memory.
my brand new custom build PC (Windows 7) would reboot for no aparent reason and wait for me on the log password window. it would do that several time per day.
i knew i had an issue with a driver from Asus video card during install, (it didn't want to install--not compatible) something to do with Asus Smart Doctor. so after a few days of mis-behaviors , i decided to remove Smart Doctor from the programs --- No problem ever since. it now runs 24/7

hopes this help

 

[DrWho]

Home computers are made from the cheapest components available to keep the cost of a PC down where a working person could afford it.
Those cheap components were never designed for 24x7 operation.

Unless you're running Windows Server, even windows itself was never designed to be run continuously. There are certain things that windows needs to do periodically, that it can only do by shutting down.

Hard drives and cooling fans have bearings in them. Each bearing is rated at a given number of hours. The cheaper the bearing, the fewer number of hours before failure.

So to extend the life of your PC to its utmost....turn it off when you're not using it.
If your boot up or shut down is excessively long....something is wrong...FIX IT!

 

[CarlTR6]

Home computers are made from the cheapest components available to keep the cost of a PC down where a working person could afford it.
Those cheap components were never designed for 24x7 operation.

Unless you're running Windows Server, even windows itself was never designed to be run continuously. There are certain things that windows needs to do periodically, that it can only do by shutting down.

Hard drives and cooling fans have bearings in them. Each bearing is rated at a given number of hours. The cheaper the bearing, the fewer number of hours before failure.

So to extend the life of your PC to its utmost....turn it off when you're not using it.
If your boot up or shut down is excessively long....something is wrong...FIX IT!

In sleep mode, all my fans shut down, drives shut down and the monitor is in standby. Just enough power is used to keep the memory active.

 

[EpicThorn]

I shut it down when not being used, no need for it to stay on. The old mu=yth of components inevitably being damaged due to expansion/shrinking when being used and being turned off is pretty much bullshit nowadays.

 

[profdlp]

I power off when my roommate plugs her hair dryer in.

That's about it.

 

[EpicThorn]

Hairdryers are forbidden in my house!

 

[profdlp]

Hairdryers are forbidden in my house!

They'd be forbidden in mine, too, if I wasn't 'whipped.

 

[ManyBeers]

I set Sleep for 30 and Hibernate for 60. That way if I walk away and come back it can wake up quickly, but if I don't want to come back it turns off the machine for me with all of my work saved.

My roommate insists on keeping the power on at all times, including on his monitor which just burned out after a year. It irritates all of us who split the power bill.

This is my setup exactly. When I go to bed at night my computer will hibernate after 1 hour and via a scheduled task is powered up and ready to go at 7:00 a.m. I don't have to touch it.
I rarely shut it down.

 

[noobvious]

Hairdryers are forbidden in my house!

They'd be forbidden in mine, too, if I wasn't 'whipped.

:roflmao:

 

[profdlp]

If she looked like that I might not mind.

 

[Manigue]

Every night = Power Down.

Once or twice = Sleep modes during day if down period not intended to be too long.

 

[Zaraphrax]

My laptop is switched on 24/7 when it's on my desk. When I need to to take it somewhere, it put it in suspend before I put it in my bag. I reboot fairly often though since I dual boot Windows and Linux, but I sometimes go a week or two without rebooting to the other OS, it just depends what I'm up to.

I find leaving it on 24/7 gets all the mundane stuff out the way (like AV scans, nightly backups, defrags etc) whilst I'm sleeping. It also means I can schedule downloads if I want to as well (since my internet connection is quite slow so I can't download things and use it during the day), as well as being able to keep whatever I'm using open (yeah, I'm lazy like that).

 

[indecisi0n]

I use sleep mode pretty much all the time. Sleep at night when i go to bed. Sleep when i am at work all day. No need to fully shut it down. Although i do like to reboot every once and a while to start windows "fresh."

 

[sergiogarcia9]

I never power down. I need to have my rig available 24-7