andsome Posted August 30, 2005 Report Share Posted August 30, 2005 This may seem a daft question from someone who has owned a computer as long as I have, but there you go. I have always left the computer running from when I switch on in the morning, until the evening. What are the merits or otherwise of allowing the hard drives to switch off after a period of not being used, and also for the power to switch off to standby mode? How do you go about staring up again, do you have to press the start button? Is there any gain or otherwise in doing these things? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
korgg Posted August 30, 2005 Report Share Posted August 30, 2005 I think the only gain is in power consumption... I leave my computer running 24/24 ... The only thing I did was to turn off the monitor after 20 min... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andsome Posted August 30, 2005 Author Report Share Posted August 30, 2005 The question appears to be irrelevant in any case. I have just tried to set things up, and the monitor will not switch itself off, and none of the other setting work either. Everything just stays running. Any ideas anyone? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
korgg Posted August 30, 2005 Report Share Posted August 30, 2005 Try enabling APM in BIOS ... This should do the trick ... at least with the monitor ... other causes could be runing programs that write to hdd and therefore the hdd doesn't enter in stand-by ... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andsome Posted August 30, 2005 Author Report Share Posted August 30, 2005 Thanks for the help, but I prefer to leave the bios alone. Regarding running programs, control/alt/delete shows nothing running. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boris Posted August 30, 2005 Report Share Posted August 30, 2005 andsomeCould be your Diskeeper service running in the background ??? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
D4\/!d Posted August 30, 2005 Report Share Posted August 30, 2005 I do the same. Switch it on in the morning and off when I go to bed :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andsome Posted August 30, 2005 Author Report Share Posted August 30, 2005 andsomeCould be your Diskeeper service running in the background ???Could be right, I never thought of that. I will try again tomorrow, just out of curiosity. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
madboy33 Posted August 30, 2005 Report Share Posted August 30, 2005 My computer is on 24/7 andsome and when i leave the house i depress the off switch on the monitor front and switch the printer off Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scarecrow Man Posted August 31, 2005 Report Share Posted August 31, 2005 Having your Hard Drives turn off when they are not in use will increase thier lifetime greatly. I recently had to send in a 200GB after having it running 24/7 for 6 months. My 40GB from 03/99 is still running strong (power settings turn it off after 20) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andsome Posted August 31, 2005 Author Report Share Posted August 31, 2005 I had a chat with my power supplier. They reckon that leaving the computer running for about ten hours per day uses about £4 worth of electricity per month. I don't want to keep turning the computer on and off during the day, and setting things up the way that I wanted seemed to be a sensible thing to do. Unfortunately turning off diskeeper and stopping it running in the background has not done the trick. The screensaver will turn on and the monitor will switch off. That is as much as I have been able to achieve as yet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andsome Posted August 31, 2005 Author Report Share Posted August 31, 2005 Just tried something else. My monitor has a minor fault with the on off switch. If the monitor turns itself off the power light flicks between green and orange. I was assured by the manufacturers that this was OK and would give no problem, ands that if it did so it would be replaced. I never have had a problem. However, it occurred to me that this flickering might be stopping my settings from working, so I turned it off as normal like I do usually when I leave the computer. This time everything appeared to work. The fans were running as normal, but when I switched the monitor on there was no signal. Moving the mouse did not solve anything. I wondered how to turn things back on again, and pressed the on/off switch on the case. The computer closed down. I had enabled hibernation. Is this what I had done wrong? How do you normally get things running again. By the way the green light on the case was pulsing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thos Posted August 31, 2005 Report Share Posted August 31, 2005 Unlike most people, it seems, I only switch on when I am ready to do something on the computer. And I switch off when I have finished, unless, of course, I expect do do some more work (or play) within the next hour or so.I don't have any particular reason for this, except perhaps, an innate feeling that the mechanical parts, fan motor and bearings will wear out faster if left running. I read somewhere an argument that surges in electricity caused by switching on and off harmed the electronics, but I discounted that. Am I wrong?Thos. :confused: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andsome Posted August 31, 2005 Author Report Share Posted August 31, 2005 Conclusions so far. If I enable Hibernation, I cannot switch the computer back on again without pressing the on button. I then get a message that Windows is recommencing with a scroll bar passing along the bottom of the screen. When I did this, one of my sound settings was changed, and the mouse pointer locked up. I had to switch off and back on again. If I don't enable hibernation, then nothing much appears to happen. Immediately I turn my monitor back on, the desk top is visible. Any ideas please? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cohrt Posted September 2, 2005 Report Share Posted September 2, 2005 This talk is mumbo-jumbo.Concerning laptops you have to turn them off when not used, because they have poor temperatureregulation.Worst case scenario explosive fire in your laptop, or decreased longevity, or simulated virus or sppywareattack.You could use a cooling pad and obtain a temperature reduction of 8 Celsius. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andsome Posted September 2, 2005 Author Report Share Posted September 2, 2005 This talk is mumbo-jumbo.Concerning laptops you have to turn them off when not used, because they have poor temperatureregulation.Worst case scenario explosive fire in your laptop, or decreased longevity, or simulated virus or sppywareattack.You could use a cooling pad and obtain a temperature reduction of 8 Celsius.This doesn't answer the queries that I have raised. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
-pops- Posted September 2, 2005 Report Share Posted September 2, 2005 This talk is mumbo-jumbo.Concerning laptops you have to turn them off when not used, because they have poor temperatureregulation.Worst case scenario explosive fire in your laptop, or decreased longevity, or simulated virus or sppywareattack.You could use a cooling pad and obtain a temperature reduction of 8 Celsius.???I don't think that laptops or even overheating are the subject of the discussion. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thos Posted September 2, 2005 Report Share Posted September 2, 2005 This talk is mumbo-jumbo.Concerning laptops you have to turn them off when not used, because they have poor temperatureregulation.Worst case scenario explosive fire in your laptop, or decreased longevity, or simulated virus or sppywareattack.You could use a cooling pad and obtain a temperature reduction of 8 Celsius.This doesn't answer the queries that I have raised.Nor mine.Thos. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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