Another computer question

[OneEmerald]

Dear computer know-it-alls,

I have an on-going debate with a co-worker. I always turn off my computer (at home and work) at the end of the day. My reason being to save energy and to turn off the internet connection. I do not turn off the monitor.

Co-worker says you should leave the computer on but always turn off the monitor. The co-worker claims the monitor will last longer doing this and there is no benefit to turning off the computer.

What is the correct thing to do? Why?

Sincerely,
Confused in Cheektowaga

[yokes]

most modern monitors shut themselves off when there is no signal

Depends on the computer. For business class computers that may have data pushed to them from the IT Department its neccesary to leave them on.

For most home computers it doesnt really matter, but without a good security solution it opens you up to hijacking.

Vista, and XP Pro are good being left on, xp home or earlier wndows versions can become unstable after time if they arent restarted

(not an expert, but I did stay at a holiday inn express last night)

[NoCtUrNaL]

What is the correct thing to do? Why?

Put the co-worker on mute at the beginning of every work day.

[300miles]

I've heard different angles on this too... But here's an article from a Microsoft guy. (read thru all 6 (short) pages). Basically says you can save almost as much energy by using Hibernate mode. But he still prefers shutting it off.

But regardless of energy savings, from my experience at home and at work, it's good to reboot your computer regularly anyway just to fix memory problems and clean up the system. Not necessarily everyday, but on a regular basis.

Also, if your computer is offline it can't be hacked.


Here are some good links from EnergyStar

Power Management on Individual Computers
http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?...ower_mgt_users

FAQ
http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?..._power_mgt_faq

[keyboard150]

It doesn't save energy by leaving your computer on, obviously. However, leaving the computer on does less damage to your computer than turning it on and off constantly.

If your computer is able to "sleep," I would just have the hard disks spin into sleep mode. I never shut my computers down--just restart them. The only time they go off is if I'm going to be away for a few days.

[cookie]

It doesn't save energy by leaving your computer on, obviously. However, leaving the computer on does less damage to your computer than turning it on and off constantly.

If your computer is able to "sleep," I would just have the hard disks spin into sleep mode. I never shut my computers down--just restart them. The only time they go off is if I'm going to be away for a few days.

Same here. I try to remember to restart them once a week, but sometimes it's once every 3 or 4 weeks.

[Daisy H]

Depends on the computer. For business class computers that may have data pushed to them from the IT Department its neccesary to leave them on.

Funny, my former employer used to tell us to leave our computers on at night for this reason and we all just figured it was so they could access our stuff. We were all very distrusting of the management, can you tell?

[cookie]

Funny, my former employer used to tell us to leave our computers on at night for this reason and we all just figured it was so they could access our stuff. We were all very distrusting of the management, can you tell?

They can do that while you work and you would probably never know!

[yokes]

Funny, my former employer used to tell us to leave our computers on at night for this reason and we all just figured it was so they could access our stuff. We were all very distrusting of the management, can you tell?

With Technology today you can be there and they have access to your stuff, for the most part every letter you type on a work computer is tracked and/or logged

[anyones neighbor]

I usually leave mine on during the day unless I'm going to be gone for 4 hrs or more. I've read that the fans can get hot if left running a long long time. Just had BOTH replaced recently. I suppose it's up to the individual. I have a friend who NEVER shuts hers off and she's RARELY even on it. Of course mine was $600 4 years ago and I'm going to say hers was $1000.
If anyone is interested, here's a site I go to often for help or just to read.
www.worldstart.com Here's another:
www.theeldergeek.com

All the people here are very accomodating.

[speaker]

Interesting!

I've got another question. Today when I did disk cleanup, it started out a 170,000 kb's . I elected to compress old files and then repeated the cleanup. It had added to the kb's, a sum of 233,784!

These never leave. What are those and why would the cleanup add to the file?

[HipKat]

It doesn't save energy by leaving your computer on, obviously. However, leaving the computer on does less damage to your computer than turning it on and off constantly.

If your computer is able to "sleep," I would just have the hard disks spin into sleep mode. I never shut my computers down--just restart them. The only time they go off is if I'm going to be away for a few days.

Same here. There's an old fable that made enough sense to me, that I'm going with it, that says that everytime yoiu fire your computer up, it heats up, then when you shut it off, it cools down, and so on, and so on, and after time weakens those solder points.

I only turn my moniter off and keyboard lock the computer at work, and here, I just have a laptop that usually get's shut down at night, and is on all day.
It also get's unplugged from the power/internet and kept in the bedroom at night, for some reason.

[OneEmerald]

Put the co-worker on mute at the beginning of every work day.

That is the best advice! thank you

[Daisy H]

With Technology today you can be there and they have access to your stuff, for the most part every letter you type on a work computer is tracked and/or logged

Oh, I know...we just never believed them when they said to leave our computers on for "overnight updates".

[yokes]

Oh, I know...we just never believed them when they said to leave our computers on for "overnight updates".

That was probably the most honest thing ever told to you by an I.T. deprtment