Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[tuftedduck]

I wonder if some kind soul could advise me please.

Would I do any harm if I were to leave my PC running but with the monitor switched off, damage apart from the size of the electricty bill.

[toulouse]

I'm no expert TD, but that's what I tend to do with mine and I haven't suffered any ill effects so far. I start up my PC when I first get up in the morning and leave it on all day, but if I'm going to be away from the computer for any length of time I just switch off the monitor and switch it back on again when I return.

TTFN

toulouse

[scottiesmum]

 TD,   My machine has always been running from about 7.30 am  until midnight (ish) without any problem whatsoever; I'm not sure if that's a good idea or not, but I've always done it.    I've  never thought of actually switching the monitor off though      good idea thank you !   

[UncleUB]

Mine also is on from about 6am to 7pm.

TD,do you mean leave it running 24/7 so you don't have that shutdown poblem ?

[roseway]

I leave mine on all the time, but switch the monitor off when I'm not using it. I do automated backups overnight, so that on time isn't wasted.

In general it's likely that a PC will last longer if left on than if it's switched on and off frequently. The switch-on surges are more damaging than the continuous running, particularly with electromechanical devices such as hard disks and fans.

[tuftedduck]

@ unkyUb...........yes, that is what I am thinking of.

@ roseway.......... thank you, I think I will try that.

@ all others......... thank you for your comments and guidance.

 

[kitz]

I leave the main PC on all the time as its a bit of a workhorse and runs/monitors several things that may require 24/7 access.  It also does a backup at 1am.

My last PC was more or less constantly on for over 4 years.  It only started having problems after I switched it off one night for some reason... and then it was never the same after I booted it up again after its 'rest'... as eric says, power up is when the PC can come under the most strain.

I leave this PC on 24/7, but have the monitors set to power down after 20mins of inactivity within windows, but I also turn them off via their button when I go to bed.

[Ezzer]

If you leave your pc's running for long periods then there are some academic institutions who have programs which utilise your pc's spare proccessing power whilst on screen saver.
By running mathamatical proccesses on thousands of machines and sending out new tasks they have a world wide super computer.

Seti is the most famous, I did have an old pc which I had runnig on Seti then via a link which I'll need to find again via the Rocky cancer site (an Arsenal favorite who passed young due to cancer, a charity toward cancer research and care of those suffering was set up in his name) I had algorithms running for a cancer research establishment.

On line the pc would load a mathermatical task & send back the processed result back once finnished and get the next packet.

The establishment can process a lot of complex mudane data which would be slower and very expensive if done purely on there own systems.

Also allows you to actively support a cause you may feel strongly about and help do something towards it. If the pc is on and powered up, not to busy doing anything for you at that moment in time. Might as well some good use of the power your using
 

[tuftedduck]

Thank you all for your further comments.

Ezzer, I had thoughts along the lines of your ideas, and am giving serious consideration to these possibilities.
Am investigating the question of security on these connections and will see how it goes.

[tickmike]

I also have a old pc that's on 24/7 365 days a year, It's my network dedicated firewall      http://www.smoothwall.org/
It's been running for about 3 years now with no problems and no attacks  .
It's not uncommon for a computer to be left running It could be a server or used in industry for number crunching or security system etc.

Edit ..The most important thing is to make sure it does not over heat, take the cover off and get all the dust out of it and check the fan runs ok.