Whats the longest you've had your computer on for?

Not a server, but your work computer

[TheDave]

I know its not much, and somebody here will trump it by a lot, but so far my work pc has been on for 14 days, and has sent over 2.5 billion bytes, and recieved just over a billion bytes =D

Before that I had it going 10 days, but along came the windows update to spoil things :P So really 24 days, and about 5.5 billion bytes bytes of network traffic.

Anyone ever made an effort and gone longer? :)

PC Specs: AMD1800XP, Asus motherboard, 512DDR and Win2k

[ScottM]

Gosh, that's a great question. I let my home/work computer run 24/7 and have only recently had to reboot.

Guessed time before reboot? About 2 months. This would be a guess since I rarely need to do it.

[lorax]

Mine pretty much stays on all the time. I only shut it down occassionally. The longest run? I'd have to guess 4 maybe 5 months though I can't be sure.

[piskie]

You mean there's an off switch!

[TheDave]

Now imagine if I'd asked this question 5 years ago... "Well I *would* have had it on for months if windows hadnt crashed after 5 minutes" :P

[AAnnAArchy]

Except for the occasional reboot, 1.5 years. I really want a new computer though, so the new one will just have to take up where the old one leaves off.

[Hunter]

I have to reboot about once every week or two unfortunately just to get rid of the scumware attacks.

[moltar]

Do you mean 'on' as in not even restarting once? or 'on' like do not press turn off button?

I restart all the time, but I had it always on for about a year now. Since I got it...

[TheDave]

No I mean on without a restart :)

[moltar]

Well, without restart it was about 5 days :(

It's just everyone in the family uses my computer, because it's better and faster :) When my bro was gone for a vacation for some time, I managed to run it for 5 days. If I use it alone, I have to restart it much less. I run WinXP and it is pretty stable.

[marcs]

Keep the main one running 24/7. Only gets a reboot if a kernel upgrade is in order or if a bad thunderstorm hits which causes power to be down longer than UPS units can deal with.

I do turn off the monitor when I go to bed. That thing tends to heat up too much and start to emit not-so-pleasant smells after a day or two without being turned off :)

[TheDave]

Yes, turning the monitor off is always a good idea :) I have a fear of monitors, and unless I'm there looking at it I dont trust it not to burst into flames, so mine is always off when I'm not around

[RobinC]

I'd love to say 7 months, but I had to add a new hd a couple of weeks ago. Sadly it's also windoze(xp), so reboots every couple of weeks if there's an update that requires it (though I do tend to save up the updates until there's 3-4 that require reboots...)

As for my old Amiga - I did have that on and running (no reboots) for 6 months once... The power switch on the PSU was broken so I had to take the thing apart and rebuild it if I ever turned it off, being lazy I just stopped turning it off ;-P

[vincevincevince]

i'm limited by how long i can go before someone forgets to top up the electric meter - so i think the record is about 4 weeks

[killroy]

My longest without reboot was just over a month. I only "reboot" when the power cuts... Happens way to often in this country. Last tiem I had to restart 3 times before windows actually started. A few more cuts and I can throw it away.

My webserver recently bubbled, melted and went up in smoke from a power cut, despite generators and USPs... baa.

hm.. win98, I remember, 30minutes from reboot to reboot... yikes... (well crash-to-crash)
SN

[hostlead]

I don't see the point in leaving a computer on for weeks or months.
I turn my computer off every evening and turn it on the next morning.
Those who said they had their computer on for 2 months or more...do you never go away for a weekend? If you do, why do you leave it on? Nobody is using it, so turn it off.
You don't leave your TV or car's engine on 24hrs per day either, do you?

HostLead

[DaveN]

no i don't leave the car running that would be dangerous.

I do leave switch on all the time

the Video Recorder
the Sky Box
the TV in standby
the PC it goes into sleep mode by itself
the fridge
the House alarm
the Night light in the kids room
the Alarm clock
the Stereo in standby mode
the rechargeable battery charger
the mobile phone desktop charger
the aircon unit
the telephone

Dave

added the fish tank

[smokin]

I use win2k and have had my pc on fot the last 8 momths without any problems. This is mainly because it takes too long to boot.

[onlineleben]

For the PC it was 5 days to do some rendering on an old Pentium 2
The longest time without switching off was about 6 month for an old TRS-80 workalike to run a lottery-system simulation. Since this was on 1.7 MHz and 64 KB RAM (lots of computing power in '83) I guess I could do it in less than 5 minutes today.

[AAnnAArchy]

hostlead <<Those who said they had their computer on for 2 months or more...do you never go away for a weekend?>>

No. But I may go to CoffeeFest in Seattle in October, so my computer may get a few days off. I'd rather go to Pubcon, but Seattle's cheaper. ;)

<<You don't leave your TV or car's engine on 24hrs per day either, do you?>>

My car doesn't get email & my computer doesn't emit any fumes.

[vincevincevince]

I don't see the point in leaving a computer on for weeks or months.

My computer runs automated website updating tasks, acts as internet gateway for my LAN, sits ready for me to connect via VPN when I'm away from home, and greedily gobbles up bandwidth with P2P networks.

I'd say those are plenty of good reasons never to turn it off, wouldn't you?

[hostlead]

ok. Your computer may be getting e-mails, but if you're not at home, nobody is going to read them. If you turn your pc off, then your e-mail just stay on the web server.
I'm guessing that all you guys are americans or canadians or are from a country where electricity is cheap.
I turn my computer off because
1) I want to save money
2) I want to avoid polluting the environment

You guys wouldn't be having your computer (and all the other toys ;) )on all the time if you'd have to pay a high price for every kW.

HostLead

[DaveN]

sorry UK here

[AAnnAArchy]

<<Your computer may be getting e-mails, but if you're not at home, nobody is going to read them. If you turn your pc off, then your e-mail just stay on the web server.>>

I'm always at home. I work from home. When I used to have to leave my home for work, I turned my computer off. I now need to be accessible at all times because I have my two of my own servers, plus a message board with 3500 members. Ah, the good old days when I could turn off my computer and not worry about what was happening online. I miss it sometimes.

<<I'm guessing that all you guys are americans or canadians or are from a country where electricity is cheap.>>

Guilty, I am American. I suppose electricity is cheap here (I don't have anything to compare it to), but if I wanted to turn anything off to save electricity, it would be my air-conditioning. The two computers running night & day don't affect the bill overly much. The air can't be turned off either though because I live in the desert.

[drbrain]

I think I've had my P233 server on for up to 3 months, its my firewall (and other stuff).

I have my monitors on a separate surge protector, so they get turned completely off, rather than sipping power when they're 'off'.

[hostlead]

Yes, I can understand if you leave it on if you work at home, or leave it on to download, as a firewall...etc.
I have no problem with that. :)

HostLead

[caine]

home computer, i will happily leave on for months at a time, until it screws up, and i re-install the OS, hence shut it down.

work computer stays on, but if i leave the premises, i dump it in network login / standby with the monitor off.

[TheDoctor]

I don't see the point in leaving a computer on for weeks or months.
I turn my computer off every evening and turn it on the next morning.

I don't see the point of turning it off every evening and back on the next morning. I run automated tasks, like virus scans, in the wee hours.

But I can't say I've had the machine running for months, since I have to reboot fairly frequently during the day (I use Win98).

[Josk]

Work machine runs constantly... Longest is usually six month stretches. Home machine has been on since March. It acts a print server for the flat network as well as a firewall. Its just handy to have it on all the time.

[jamesa]

I'd say months and months... I only turn it off if I have to physically move it, upgrade the hardware, or have a serious problem (which is rare, knock on wood).