Do you power off your PC?

[Chris Wilson]

I have a friend who is a CEO at a very large computer sales company in Bolton. It seems my very arbitrary experience with PC's failing when turned back on coincides with their substantially less than arbitrary one, so i leave the bloody things on all the time and don't feed his exotic car habit more than necessary

 

[Deleted member 77746]

I have a friend who is a CEO at a very large computer sales company in Bolton. It seems my very arbitrary experience with PC's failing when turned back on coincides with their substantially less than arbitrary one, so i leave the bloody things on all the time and don't feed his exotic car habit more than necessary

25 years and not a single device has failed for me while turning it back on.

 

[Chris Wilson]

25 years and not a single device has failed for me while turning it back on.

You also have to consider that I am a Luddite and therefore, with computer technology, if it works you leave it well alone

 

[Tom_ed1987]

I leave mine on 24/7 because it's also my home media server. I really should get a proper NAS, but the hodge-podge of having many external HDD that has grown organically & i'm familiar with is difficult to get out of. I doubt the idle power consumption of a NAS would be that much lower anyway.

 

[Deleted member 77746]

You also have to consider that I am a Luddite and therefore, with computer technology, if it works you leave it well alone

Yep that’s my advice as well, leave it alone if it works!

 

[mattyg]

25 years and not a single device has failed for me while turning it back on.

ok so a bit of a back story.
I used to run an electrical engineering company. back in the day the old Sky boxes had a stock fault in the startup capacitors in the power supply. 90% would blow after they had lost power and plugged back in again. Customers that unplugged their units every night never had that issue... The startup Caps would go knackered from not being used. ie. It gets plugged in and never unplugged again, Caps go knackered and they are not needed again until a cold restart... However those that were unplugged regular never had an issue.
We also saw this on several different manufactures TV's once people were leaving them on stby and not using the physical switch

That would explain why some people have issues but not others

 

[gingergundog]

25 years and not a single device has failed for me while turning it back on.

Same, don't even consider it not booting after switching on. Only had the opposite after a very long MOHAA session, fell asleep, woke up and HDD was dead.

On topic, leave it running if popping out for a couples of hours but gets switched off including wall sockets if out all day or on holiday. Also at night but I don't switch off wall sockets.

 

[Raiden85]

Any reason for that? It seems daft to leave things powered on. Even if affordability isn't an issue it doesn't make sense.

I like to remote into it regularly when I'm away. Plus it's a convenience thing, I don't want to have the PC woken up and put to sleep dozens of times a day no matter how fast it is as it's in constant use, not exactly great on the hardware like fans, AIO pump etc when it's constantly turned off and on, warmed up and cooled down rather being kept at a stable temperature and voltages.

 

[Blackjack Davy]

Slighty off subject.

Replaced all your rooms lights with LED lights. Helps abit.

Already have all the other types have blown

Same, don't even consider it not booting after switching on. Only had the opposite after a very long MOHAA session, fell asleep, woke up and HDD was dead.

On topic, leave it running if popping out for a couples of hours but gets switched off including wall sockets if out all day or on holiday. Also at night but I don't switch off wall sockets.

Never had anything fail to boot after being powered off which I always do when not in use and will typically switch off at the wall overnight because the speaker system still uses power even when supposedly off, people will say whats the point but its easy enough so why not? Every penny counts afterall certainly in this day and age.

 

[Deleted member 77746]

I like to remote into it regularly when I'm away. Plus it's a convenience thing, I don't want to have the PC woken up and put to sleep dozens of times a day no matter how fast it is as it's in constant use, not exactly great on the hardware like fans, AIO pump etc when it's constantly turned off and on, warmed up and cooled down rather being kept at a stable temperature and voltages.

Ah you see that’s where power plugs come in handy. Turn devices off remotely.

 

[Mysterae_]

ok so a bit of a back story.
I used to run an electrical engineering company. back in the day the old Sky boxes had a stock fault in the startup capacitors in the power supply. 90% would blow after they had lost power and plugged back in again. Customers that unplugged their units every night never had that issue... The startup Caps would go knackered from not being used. ie. It gets plugged in and never unplugged again, Caps go knackered and they are not needed again until a cold restart... However those that were unplugged regular never had an issue.
We also saw this on several different manufactures TV's once people were leaving them on stby and not using the physical switch

That would explain why some people have issues but not others

I had an old PC that I never switched off, that was until I went on Holiday so turned off everything at the wall socket. When I returned and switched the PC on for the first time in weeks the power supply exploded taking many of the other components with it. I suspect from the damage to the PSU the capacitors had dried out through lack of use. It wasn't a cheap PSU either, Enermax if I remember rightly.

 

[LeeUK]

I've not turned it off since the day my numbers came up.

 

[Freefaller]

I like to remote into it regularly when I'm away. Plus it's a convenience thing, I don't want to have the PC woken up and put to sleep dozens of times a day no matter how fast it is as it's in constant use, not exactly great on the hardware like fans, AIO pump etc when it's constantly turned off and on, warmed up and cooled down rather being kept at a stable temperature and voltages.

I don't think those things are much of an issue really these days? But hey it's your money! Just seems really unnecessary to me but we all have different perspectives. Wouldn't it be better to get a laptop for those times you need to do those random bits of work?

 

[Andre]

Work laptop gets put to sleep every night, and switched off on the weekend. It's plugged into a couple of monitors, so clamshell closed and a PITA to open
Personal laptop is hibernated every time I step away as runs on battery 98% of the time - plugged in long enough to recharge every other day roughly
Server - on permanently as plex server and file host
CCTV server - on permanently
Media player - used about 18 hours a day, so doesn't really get chance to sleep
Probably some random other ones switched on in various places, but all <10W so I let them manage themselves

 

[beachBOYken]

I have a MacBook, I never turn it off, I just shut the screen so it sleeps. I only turn it off if im on holiday or something.

 

[Scania]

I always turn my stuff off, unless of course I forget and leave it on for a week whilst I’m overseas which I’ve done more than once!

I have a MacBook, I never turn it off, I just shut the screen so it sleeps. I only turn it off if im on holiday or something.

You don’t understand what never means…

 

[Tephnos]

I always turn my stuff off.

I'm sure I've said this before in here.

 

[Hades]

Work laptop = power off because it's encrypted so more secure if lost/stolen between work and home (have to enter pin when starting)
Personal laptop = rarely powered off, just close the lid
Desktop = powered off and PSU switch turned off to prevent any power usage at all (it's not used much now - tend to use the laptop)

 

[b0rn2sk8]

Work laptop = power off because it's encrypted so more secure if lost/stolen between work and home (have to enter pin when starting)
Personal laptop = rarely powered off, just close the lid
Desktop = powered off and PSU switch turned off to prevent any power usage at all (it's not used much now - tend to use the laptop)

Same. My laptop is an Arm based MacBook Air, it uses so little power when in standby, it’s really not worth the hassle. You could leave it for a week on standby and it would have barley lost any charge.

 

[CaptainRAVE]

It’s still permanently off since my PSU blew up a few months ago.