Back in days of yore I was at an electronics shop asking about whether to get my tuner amp repaired for an issue that came up once every month or so....a hiss or buzz. The repair guy agreed it would be extremely difficult to catch and diagnose something so infrequent. So the conversation went:
Me: Well maybe I'll just turn it on and leave it on. I'll burn it out quick, till the problem becomes obvious, and then I can get it in here to be fixed.
Him: Actually if you did that you might not have that problem again for a long long time.
Me: What?
Him: The biggest shock to electrical components is when they're turned on. They go from zero to full current, they have to heat up fairly fast. If you just leave it on it can last for years.
So I went home and turned it on, left it on, and used it for about another fifteen years. My current tuner amp is also on all the time, works great, but I am sorry to report that after only 8 years the display lights are becoming practically invisible.
And so we get to computers. I had a conversation on the same topic, mentioning the tuner amp, with a PhD computer engineer at MIT, who kept nodding his head. So I asked whether it made more sense to leave the computer on. There were moving parts that could fail, like fans. His answer: "Fans are cheap." Which of course, they are. I suppose if you're not using a computer the HDD doesn't move much either. For when I had that conversation, HDD was just beginning to be a thing, it was a long time ago.
So now we get to the modern era. We don't have to choose between "on" and "off." We can leave a little current in the device via sleep mode, which I would imagine reduces the component shock of booting up. At the same time, you don't have to keep the system running 24/7.
Now I know that we need to reboot from time to time to let the update demon do its stuff, but I'm curious what people think about "sleep" vs. "off." I am a bit suspicious that even off is not off these days, I see that my mobo's aurora effect goes when the PC is "off," to kill the aurora lights I have to flip the PSU switch to the closed position. But I imagine "sleep" leaves a low level of current in the system, which would be why boot takes 3 to 5 seconds instead of 20.
Greg N
Me: Well maybe I'll just turn it on and leave it on. I'll burn it out quick, till the problem becomes obvious, and then I can get it in here to be fixed.
Him: Actually if you did that you might not have that problem again for a long long time.
Me: What?
Him: The biggest shock to electrical components is when they're turned on. They go from zero to full current, they have to heat up fairly fast. If you just leave it on it can last for years.
So I went home and turned it on, left it on, and used it for about another fifteen years. My current tuner amp is also on all the time, works great, but I am sorry to report that after only 8 years the display lights are becoming practically invisible.
And so we get to computers. I had a conversation on the same topic, mentioning the tuner amp, with a PhD computer engineer at MIT, who kept nodding his head. So I asked whether it made more sense to leave the computer on. There were moving parts that could fail, like fans. His answer: "Fans are cheap." Which of course, they are. I suppose if you're not using a computer the HDD doesn't move much either. For when I had that conversation, HDD was just beginning to be a thing, it was a long time ago.
So now we get to the modern era. We don't have to choose between "on" and "off." We can leave a little current in the device via sleep mode, which I would imagine reduces the component shock of booting up. At the same time, you don't have to keep the system running 24/7.
Now I know that we need to reboot from time to time to let the update demon do its stuff, but I'm curious what people think about "sleep" vs. "off." I am a bit suspicious that even off is not off these days, I see that my mobo's aurora effect goes when the PC is "off," to kill the aurora lights I have to flip the PSU switch to the closed position. But I imagine "sleep" leaves a low level of current in the system, which would be why boot takes 3 to 5 seconds instead of 20.
Greg N