"Expert" says turn off computer at night

Okay, fuel to the fire, so to speak. The Purdue University guy in charge of "information technology" says to turn off the computer and all the things attached to it every night to save energy and be a good steward of the planet. He also says: Set the monitor and disk drives to sleep mode after 15 minutes, set the system to hibernate after 30 minutes, and turn off the computer before leaving for weekends, holidays or vacations. Would you?

 

My PC is set to sleep after 20min but i do not turn it off at night,i suppose it's green to turn it off but i can see no other reason.

 

Everyone seems to have their own opinion on whether or not it is better for hardware longevity to turn off your computer at night. I've never actually seen proof that a PC will last longer if it is left on when not in use.

Since this professor is saying this in regards to wasteful power consumption I agree with him. I, personally, turn my machine off at night, leave my printer off unless in use and turn off the monitor if I know I will be away from the PC for a couple of hours. I don't do the hibernation or set disks to turn off because I usually leave things running in the background and find that too inconvenient. Again just my personal opinion.

If I'm going away for a few days I turn everything off including the DSL modem(it always seem to run hot anyway--which I don't like ).

I guess that I am fairly "green" ahead of my time. Either that or I'm permanently scarred by my dad screaming, "Turn off that light when you leave the room!", one too many times.

 

My PC gets turned off at night and when I leave my place. Also turn off the printer when not being used. Heck, I also don't turn on the speakers either except when I want to listen to something. If that's good for green that's all the better. Additionally, sometimes we get power interruptions and am afraid something would happen to my only *baby* when asleep or away.

 

Yup...turn mine off at night...it deserves a sleep after 15 hours of use throughout the day LOL

 

I turn my monitors off when I am not using the computer. But my 'puters run 24/7. Can't Fold with the PC off! :-D

E

 

Yup, same here except when it's too hot here, takes a lot more energy to cool the room. I also forego the use of incandescent lights, darn waste of energy.

 

What does that mean?

 

http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=52432

 

I turn everything off after I have finished on the Net. I also have a 6 point surge suppresor with individual on / off switches for each point. I turn those switches off too. Too many years in the Australian tropics with storms and cyclones to risk leaving my laptop and ancillary electricals on 24/7.

With the individual switches I can run / turn off my XP laptop, and / or my Dell Vista desktop, with or without printer, or TV only. Gives great flexibility, as well as helping to save the planet, in my small way.

Bazza

 

Interesting. Never heard of it.
So, you folks who turn off your computer when not in use for awhile--do you all have your computers password-protected and go through the password process each time you turn the computer back on?

 

Yes, both my boxes have always been passworded, no big deal unless one has a 20 character password to re-enter every time. A bit of extra security.

 

Well, maybe I've been too protective. Heeding the advice to devise a "strong password," I came up with something so complex that I've been unable to memorize it! So I have it written down near the computer where--hopefully--nobody will come across it. Maybe I should come up with something safe but memorizeable (is that a word?).

 

I believe it is word! An adjective I think. http://www.thefreedictionary.com/memorizable You must live/work with some unsavory people to have a super password! Mine is abc, only have a password for remote desktop stuff. :-D

E

 

Maybe I'm paranoid. I live in a town of 7,000 in the Midwest, but I still worry about burglaries when I'm away. And I don't want a thief getting into my computer. Still, you make me feel a bit weird, so I think I will simplify my life by changing the password on my desktop machine. Probably should keep a hard-to-guess one for the laptop?

 

Yeah, now on my laptop I do add a bit more security. But if someone has physical access to the box, passwords don't mean much.

Certainly don't mean to make you feel weird! :-D I am in the south, a lot of us are armed well. But that would be a different thread.

E

 

Thanks to everyone who responded on this thread. Very helpful. I've already changed some settings on my computers to make them a bit more green. MajorGeeks never fails to help when I ask. (Love the South but don't care for the hurricanes. I have a son on the West Coast of Florida at North Port, near Port Charlotte.)

 

My laptop is on 24/7. My desktop is not ever on now, because it is currently broken. :-D

 

2 of mine fold 24/7 but the laptop gets turned off to let it cool down (the fan runs all the time during folding)

 

Cool... I thought folding was some super-geek programming thing, until I actually read about it. Since I leave my computer on, I'm a good candidate I suppose. I just installed the client.

 

great job welcome to folding.

 

Thank you sir!

 

Get a cooling pad for it Bill http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/category/category_slc.asp?CatId=3486&name=Notebook-Coolers

Looks like you got some new competition. :-D

E