Do you need to start your computer?

[Livenomadic]

I have a brand new PC with windows XP.

I tend to leave it on for weeks at a time.. is there anything wrong with this?

[SEOMike]

Nothing SUPER wrong that I've seen. I've left my computer on for months at a time with no trouble. (I keep my HDD set to spin down after 10 minutes of non use)

If you are leaving it on that much, you should make sure that auto updates are turned on. You wouldn't want your computer vulnerable that long if an important update came out.

If your computer seems slow, re-boot and it should be ok. RAM can sometimes get clogged up if you leave it on for a long time.

Also, keep your eyes (and ears) on your system fans. One burns out, you could have problems if you don't notice for a few days.

[moltar]

I don't turn mine off for years. Only restart once in a while.

[treeline]

Wasted electricity, depleted natural resources...

[giggle]

<obvious>If it's connected to the internet make sure that you've got a firewall running</obvious>

[larryhatch]

There's a lot of dust at my place, lousy housekeeping on my part mostly.

One day I had a hand brush in my hand, and brushed the dust off the side of the
computer where the vent slots are.

Immediately, the fans changed pitch! They sped up or slowed down (not sure which)
but the machine runs cooler now. A whisk-brook will work fine. Cheap insurance. -Larry

[kris_winter]

I used to leave mine on all the time, until once i noticed smoke belowing out from the insides. A cable had got so hot it burst into flames :o It proberbly wouldnt of burnt the house down but was enough to make me turn it off every night now.

Make sure you have a firealarm somewhere near it just in case.

[tigger]

is their an off button :)

[Rosalind]

Having it on all the time creates heat, which is going to shorten the life of any computer by increasing the risk of data corruption. Turn it off when it's not in use.

[Tropical Island]

We live just 500 meters from the ocean with the prevailing wind being onshore. Our house is open all year round (no A/C).

If we turn the computers off and on at night then the accumulated salt infested dust and humidity shorts out video, sound and mother boards within a year.

We now have one that has been cosnstantly running for over 3 years without any problems except rust on the case. We re-boot it every couple of days to keep it running smoothly.

[too much information]

Tropical Island - any real estate for sale in your area?!?!

I leave my machines running all the time. I keep a 2nd hard drive connected for backup but it is off most of the time. PCs are so cheap now that if one dies I would rather replace it than repair it, and with that 2nd drive all I have to do is plug it in and copy the data over.

[wruppert]

The stress caused by cooling off then heating up can cause more damage than the constant heat of being on all the time. I never turn mine off.

I do have the CRT and disks set to power off after 20 minutes.

You do have to worry about keeping vents clean and fans operating, as mentioned. There are three fans in my box, any two of which will do the job. And I have my motherboard set to shut down the system at a fairly low internal temp.

In an office environment, I would turn off my machine for the weekend.

[supermanjnk]

I used to leave mine on all the time, until once i noticed smoke belowing out from the insides. A cable had got so hot it burst into flames :o It proberbly wouldnt of burnt the house down but was enough to make me turn it off every night now.

Make sure you have a firealarm somewhere near it just in case.

you need more fans.

[wrgvt]

Most computers go into standby mode when unused and power is left on, reducing the amount of energy used. Turning it off will only save that small amount of power. Computer chips suffer more from transient temperature conditions (on/off/on/off) than they do from constant operation.

[bcolflesh]

[pcguide.com...]

[wruppert]

Good article, bcolflesh.

It reminded me that you should have a UPS as well, mainly to save your machine from the horrible stress of transient power failures.

[longen]

You could just Log off - the PC is running but Windows isn't going through its routines, creating HD accesses, etc.

[Tropical Island]

Tropical Island - any real estate for sale in your area?!?!

Actually with the current political atmosphere here the whole country is "for sale".