Leave computer running or shut it off?

[Timelessblur]

I could care less actually if it is bad/good for the computer to be on. As long as it meets my demands everyday. Boot up / Log on time is a pain on a 166 Mhz.

boot up/log on is a pain no matter what you use. I hate logging on to my laptop because I gotten really good at messing up at typing in my password but I need it there to keep people out of my stuff an so people can not change anything on my computer. Every time I hibornat it I need to log back in or the comptuer goes into stand by but THen again on XP it does not take my long ot boot up

[jester22c]

Exactly right PhaseDMA

My computer remains 100% stable running 24/7 and it provides an indespensible convenience for me. For instant access to the internet or email or whatever my heart desires all the effort needed is walking into my room. I have been dealing with computers for at least 10 years and I have an old P66 that was left on 24/7 for about 5 years. The only reason it was shut off then is because I moved and had to package it up. It still runs flawlessly. Wear and tear my foot. Computer components are made to last essentially forever. I have worked with servers that have been up and running since they day they were purchased and they work without a fault. As Phase mentioned, if my computer eventially does kill over... reguardless of the fact that many of my components have a lifetime warranty, I'll probably need a new computer anyway.

[Michael]

1. Tremendous waste of energy. Just imagine how much energy would be saved every year globally if everyone who left their machines running started shutting them off at the end of the day.

Um....duh! Put it to sleep! I put my iBook to sleep whenever I step away from it, and when sleeping, it only uses up 1% of the battery every 6-8 hrs, so it hardly uses any energy at all. You keep your refrigerator on all the time, don't you? And your clocks? Freezer? Why not your computer? I think it's dumb to leave it on at full power all day and all night, but if it goes to sleep, just leave it on.

[Walker]

There is a nifty little program that will help you optimize your computer speed if your running 9x or ME. The reason it is not reccomended for 2k and XP because they do a fairly good job at clearing the RAM, but hey you can never have too much RAM. To get to the point the program is Called MPower. You can view how much RAM you have open and you can operate it mnually or have it set to optimize when you are running low. You can get it here. http://mindbeat.com/utils.shtml