Do you turn off your computer at night?

[Alan-LaCala]

Steve Bass at PC World recently discussed the age old argument of leaving a computer turned on all the time, or turning it off at night and back on in the morning. This is an argument that few will be able to change mind-sets of others.

One of his arguments for turning it off at night is his presentation of what goes on with the monitor screen during the night, if the computer is left on:



http://www.xs4all.nl/~jvdkuyp/flash/see.htm

Alan

[Cornflake]

Thanks for the link - good fun!
On a slightly more serious note, when I was "in work" and running a design company with lots of 'puters and a big server, we never turned machines off, just the monitors. It was reckoned stopping and starting up computers puts more strain on their delicate little workings than just letting them go to sleep by themselves overnight. Would always always want people to close their various programs and files however.
Contrarywise, now confined to one laptop machine, I always turn it off. I don't have any logical explanation except tidiness, letting it cool off (laptops are very prone to overheating - mine is) and possibly saving some small iota of a centimo of electricidad.

[Pigeon Tim]

I know some people leave their computers on all the time. And they're fine! But for most of us and most computers a good thing to do is to shut it down when you're not using it. Overheating, dust - not good things for computers. And there's also the saving in electricity.

Also rebooting a computer will often clear any glitches or software compatability issues.

[Grouser]

The main drawback to turning a computer off every day is wear and tear on the hard drive. Every time you boot up, the computer addresses the same places on your hard disc to find the OS. This can eventually wear that part of the disc out and crash the machine. I have had this problem and had to replace the hard drive. Fortunately I am in the habit of backing everything up on CD or DVD, so there was just the hassle of re-installing everything. Conversely, as Tim points out, if you leave the thing on all the time it sucks in dust, there is a danger of overheating, frying the motherboard and you are squandering energy. If you have an Internet connection you also run an increased risk of your machine being hijacked by spammers or worse.
My choice is to have the machine on only when I need it and make frequent back ups.

[Shukran]

We were never allowed to turn our computers off at work, only the screen. However, here in Spain I always turn mine off if it's going to be left for more than, say, 2-3 hours and it's always turned off overnight. The electricity fluctuations and chances of lightening strikes here in Spain made my decision for me, as well as having a major crash 6 months ago and losing a lot of precious stuff because of these problems.

[El Cid]

I put my PC into Hibernate mode every night.

It is 99% "off" but boots up in a few seconds rather than minutes.

Sid