Is it true that computers should never be turned off?

I was told that every time a computer is turned on or off, it puts a lot of stress on the computer. Also, I was told that leaving a computer on constantly would be better for a computer than turning it off every night before going to bed. So my question is, what would be the best thing to do? I tried leaving it on for about 2 days in a row before and it never got hot(although my monitor will get hot if it's kept on for a whole day)

 

I don't know... it will probably stress the processor....
But yes during the boot the comp has to do a lot of disk management...which leads to irregular disk access and possibly more wear and tear...

I don't know about leaving it on all the time tho...

 

i dont know....but for wht its worth....my comp is on practically 12-14 hrs a day

 

But after running for a long time and using and closing down many applications the operation does slow down...many programs have poor memory management...So i usually shut it down after 2 days....at night i always make it a point to switch off the monitor....but my comp is on for a min 14 hrs a day...

 

@nebu...do they allow kazaa/torrents etc at ur place??

 

Hmm..I keep it on during the nights..coz then i hav free net hours..And I turn on my kazaa...And there's a auto-shutdown software which closes my computer as soon as it is day..

 

i have a cable internet connection. once, i turned my computer on and virus attacked it. from there, i turn my coputer off everynight.

 

yup, i sut it down every night..........:grin:.......

 

@dennis...no kazaa is blocked..u can tunnel through but it will cap at 2KB/s....
I used to run torrents on my department server(surprisingly they had allowed it)...had some great times dwnloading stuff..but like all good things,it came to an end....they got fed up of the high processor and network b/w usage...

 

Your computer will start to go slow if you have poor RAM.

 

i keep ma pc runnin all the time ...and i think last i time i turned it off was to dust the cpu ... that was a month ago ...

 

Hmm,.. but depends a hell lot on which OS are u using,... if u r using Windows,.... hell then better switch it off atleast once a day, yr comp will perform better!

 

....no prob if your computer is on for days...but if you are on high end processors like P4 >3 GHz make sure you got air conditioning or enough fans inside the box....

monitors will get overheated as bob said ... so turn of your monitor and let the rest run

@guitarangela so the virus attacked the computer when you were asleep ? :lol: that's a real smart virus i must say

 

@nebu--hehehe, good on u . Even here theve shutoff kazza .so now i fik up my airttel broadband conection

 

i've never heard of that. ofcourse they should be turned off (for over-heating purposes mentioned already in this thread) and because it can be done. your computer is more apt to perform poorly if left on for days or weeks.

all that pretty much occurs when a computer starts up is the opening of a few files which enables you to use it and do the things you are able to do. when shutting down, it simply closes those file.

 

well i certainly dont agree. its just a false myth that someone has puked into you. dude, that CPU(Processor) will over-heat like hell. it may even burn if heat sinks are not adequate. moreover every processor has a down counter register which is set to all 1's when the processor is first turned ON. its starts to decrement its count with every clock pulse. now if it reaches all 0's the comp's OS crashes. but not to worry dude..the time required for it to fall to all 1's is around 47-48 days!

 

Ok, i have listened to everyone, here is the truth....

The only problem with keeping your PC on always is that it consumes power constantly and since even if you are not doing anything on computer, it has several housekeeping tasks to do when idle and hence processor is being used at that time. The result is the heat produced from constant usage but as long as your processor fan is working it wont let the temprature rise and you are ok with keeping the PC on always.

The advantages from having PC on always are that your most frequently used applications are in RAM so you will see faster response to those application in compare to if you shut down the computer and restart it again. RAM stores all your current session application data and is volatile, it means that data will get erased once you shut down your computer. After booting it again it loads data from application as per the request.

So if you are very sure that power consumption is OK, processor fan is working fine and you really work with lots of application simultaneously, its good to keep your PC on, but turn off your monitor while you are not at work.

Cheers.

 

if u are o.k. with the power consumption then.... there is the o.s. issue... if the o.s. is has a good paging system the 3-4 days is not a problem... but wit's os.'s like win 98/2000 ... boot it atleast once in 2 days.....

 

Well believe it or not, my computer is on since 1 or 2 months and its running perfectly.I only turn it off when it hangs or if I get some major error.But since it gets to Standby mode by itself if not used for a long time...I think it doesnt affect the CPU much.But keeping the computer on for a long time can cause overheaing, so I hope you have a god cooling system in your CPU.

 

I should caution every1 that if you keep your computer off consecutively for two much time, probably around 10 to 12 months. You wont be able to start your PC again.

Reason....
Any1 here to answer this????