Turning off computers- do you, or not?

[Bruce Page]

Thanks for the info. When I put my PC into sleep mode it goes dead quiet.
Larry, I wasn't worried about the pennies, I was curious about what the difference was between the two states.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

I am not knowledgeable about the current level of Windows. In the early days when laptops first came out I stayed on top of it. In those early days, certain files got closed and others got cleaned up only when Windows got shut down. Failure to shut systems down periodically could really effect the performance of a system.

Professionally, I had to deal with UPS's. I don't have a UPS, have no desire to have a UPS as I consider it a minor inconvenience to power up and wait for a system to boot up. Having dealt with equipment failures for 40 years often due to "dirty" power, I choose to shut my computers down each day. I also unplug everything in my shop when I leave on an extended vacation or trip as I have dealt with the results of damage caused by lightning striking the ground and coming into a radar via power cables buried in the ground. (The lightning striking the nearby ground was witnessed by the runway crash crew sitting in their "crash" truck some 20 yards away.)

It's subjective. There is no right or wrong. Do what tickles your fancy.

[Scott Underwood]

My file server running Windows Server 2003 had close to 23,000 hours of run time before I had to restart it. It has a big UPS hooked up to it, so it even stayed up when we lost power for 2 days.

[Larry Browning]

Thanks for the info. When I put my PC into sleep mode it goes dead quiet.
Larry, I wasn't worried about the pennies, I was curious about what the difference was between the two states.

I think Mike H. has it right.

[Dennis Peacock]

I never shut mine off. It stays up and running 24x7x365.

[Tom Stenzel]

At the opposite end of the spectrum, I turn my 'puter on only when I use it. Since I received the Samsung tablet my desktop system isn't turned on most days. Leaving it on for only a few hours of use a week seems a waste.

-Tom

[Paul Lawrence]

... I don't have a UPS, have no desire to have a UPS as I consider it a minor inconvenience to power up and wait for a system to boot up.

A UPS has little to do with powering computer up or down. It only keeps the computer from losing power at an inappropriate time where one might lose something unsaved.

We have more little "blips" of power outage than complete power downs. I guess tree limbs and squirrels short the wires, but don't blow the breakers. A UPS saves a lot of electronics in those kind of power problems.

[Leo Graywacz]

One reason to have a laptop. Built in battery backup