Is your computer on/off when your not using it?

[xubunterooster]

Can't remember the last time I said "Power off". I restart about once a week but it doubles as a file server so I don't keep it off

[denyu]

Off when I don't download anything . Even when i go out working still on

[frogimus]

I live within 2 miles of a rock quarry. I have to blow out my cases monthly, and I turn off the PCs when I'm not home.

I even turn off the power switch to the surge strips for all electronics (PCs, Home Theater, etc) because anything with a power supply/transformer still uses energy even when no load.

[JonM33]

My Windows system is up 24/7 unless I need to restart once a month for Microsoft updates. I'm going to get a KVM with DVI/USB so that I can keep my Mint system up 24/7 as well.

[The Alpha Gamer]

My laptop is on from when i get up til when i go to bed

[Oscar799]

One or other of mine is on about 12 hours a day

[viking777]

If the period that I am not going to use it is more than about 1 hour then it is off, every time.

[ezas]

Off at night to save power unless I started a big download. First thing on in the morning. I've done this for years. In this day and age either approach is fine. I've had more computers than I can count, for a time I had three running everyday under my desk. And I've done my share of time in server rooms some were the size of football fields. I would say that I've seen more hardrive failures on machines that were on 24x7x365. The only startup failure I've seen in 15 years of computer use at work and home was an HP laptop whose motherboard fried. And thats hard to say since when it was booted in the morning it was dead as a doornail. So hard to say it it was at shutdown or startup that did it. Computer was 'asleep' and the lid was closed. That was the the last cpu breath that it took.

[gordon.cooke]

I leave the desktop (which I use to handle share drive and printer for all my other computers) always on. I rarely turn off my laptop but instead use suspend-- its normally plugged in and the battery usually lasts long enough in suspend for placed I take it. Occasionally I power it down.

My work computer I log off each day and leave it on but I always turn the monitor off when Ill be away from the desk. We have to logoff and leave computer powered on because they run push patches and conduct network monitoring overnight. A neat feature our sysadmins added at work though, on friday nights they send out a shutdown command when they are done so computers are off to conserve power over the weekends.

[m1k3]

I generally leave mine on 24/7 unless the power goes out (like last night). I have it set to lock screen when the laptop is closed.

$ uptime
16:07:18 up 18:18, 2 users, load average: 0.87, 0.94, 0.97

I also own a TonidoPlug which is definitely on 24/7 so that I can access it remotely.

[libssd]

I think that laptops should be turned off when not in use. Laptops get hot and no one wants to take them apart to clean them very often, at least I don't. My Wife destroyed a fairly expensive laptop by leaving it on all of the time. She ruined the I/O controller on the mainboard and the cost to replace the board is almost as much as just buying a new laptop.

That's what suspend is for. I have a generic netbook, in which I replaced the HDD with a SSD. Overnight in suspend mode, it it's running off battery, uses up about 5% of a battery charge, and its temperature is, for all intents and purposes, the same as its surrounding environment. In my opinion, the energy consumption in suspend mode is insignificant.

I reboot if a Linux update requires doing so, or if swap starts getting used; otherwise, it's on 24x7. Same for desktop iMac.

[piratesmack]

Mine is usually on all day, but I suspend to RAM when I'm not using it.
I turn it off or hibernate at night before I go to sleep.

[m1k3]

I guess the only reason why I leave mine on is because CrashPlan backs up my shtuff at night. I suppose I could change that or it would be nice to have it suspend my computer after it's done.

[_Matt]

Back when I was running a desktop I turned it off before I went to sleep unless there was something I was downloading overnight.

Now that I use a Laptop/Netbook as my main computer I have it on throughout the day as well but when I'm not using it I just put it on hibernate and shut it, then I turn it off before I go to bed.

I have as well heard arguments but I've never had issues with turning off a computer over night.

[tdockery97]

I was leaving my laptop on but have decided to shut it down when I'm not using it. I know it is theoretically harder on the hardware turning off and on, but in all my years of using computers I've never had one break from being turned off when not in use.

[Robin]

Mine is always off if I'm going to be away from it for any length of time especially during the summer, because we get terrifying, sudden thunderstorms here with lots of lightning! Last summer we lost two big trees in our yard to direct strikes. I unplug everything I care about when I'm not home.

I'm probably being super paranoid because no one else in my family even turns anything off, much less unplugs it even during one of those really scary storms! I don't dare say it out loud, but I think that's incredibly dumb (making sure no family members are looking over my shoulder as I type this).

-Robin

[exploder]

My computers are off when they are not going to be used for a few hours. I also unplug my systems when it storms. I lost a brand new HP computer a couple years ago to a lightning strike, that was a expensive mistake.