My husband insists that if we leave the computer on (we only have one) all the time, including the internet, it's a waste of electricity. I'd like to leave it on overnight to catch updates without having to deal with them when I'm trying to do computer stuff during the day.

Other than the electrical cost, is it harmful to leave it on all the time? Once I turn it on, whenever that is during the day, it stays on until I turn it off for the day.

I appreciate your comments, suggests, etc.

Well the most stress you cause a computer (particularly the hard drive) is when you switch it on so leaving it on is less harmful than switching it on and off.

If you're running power management to put the PC to sleep, probably not. I've had workstations in the office that I never turned off. They generally out lasted identical workstations that were powered off each day.

You'll probably get several answers, but that my opinion on it

I turn mine off once a week on Sunday night. However, in order to keep the fans from sucking in dust constantly, I do put it to sleep at night and then just tap the keyboard to wake it up the next morning.

So kind of what Inland said, although I don't think there is any one answer. It's probably more about how it suits you. There are plenty of opinions out there on whether turning it on every day wears out components - just do a Google search! One I read once said that you don't leave your TV on all the time and that part of your TV seldom wears out. Then you'll find another opinion that swears it will!

On a slightly different aspect in this argument:


I like seeing "What is being updated on my machine" rather than not knowing what has been updated and why. And just curious, how much updates do you have that causes that much of a time delay?

Take care
Ray

I definitely prefer to review my updates first too, Starcom. But I have several of my friends' computers set to automatic updates or they would never happen! This past Tuesday, they pushed out 22 updates so they definitely took awhile.

Tell me about it, I haven't had the laptop on for awhile and was wondering why it was acting sluggish. Update after update and I was trying to update iTunes, arggh.

I leave mine on all day, unless I have to be out of the house for hours. I would leave it on all night but we have a studio and the fans can get kind of loud in the quiet of the country here.

Hit the sleep mode on mine at night.

Keeps the dust sucking in, down alittle.

My the dust is a menace huh.

Re-start once a week.

updates down load but I check which ones to install.

Wifes computer is on all the time.

Dunn

I shut mine off every time I use it. It's 8 years old and no problems!

I keep mine on during the day and let it go to sleep when I'm not at it; I do close it down every night, including all the peripherals, just in case a rogue thunderstorm blows through and we get a power surge.
I "okay" every update that I download.

I always shut down my machines (and everything associated with them) every time I finish a session .... saving the planet's resources

Thanks, everyone, for an interesting array of opinions and answers. I think I'll continue to turn it on before I'm ready to use it so it call run whatever it needs to run and shut it down at the end of the day

Starcom, to answer you question about what updates take so long. I have Itunes, Adobe, and Microsoft on automatic download (that I can think of at the moment), then I get prompted as to when to install.

The problem is most of the time, I don't know what's downloading until it stops and tells me that a new version of 'whatever' is ready to be installed.

Also, fairly often, esp if I've been playing online or downloading a few games, I'll get a message saying that I'm low on 'virtual memory' whatever that is, and while the computer is increasing the memory my game runs slow and stupid or downloading stops.

Maybe it doesn't really take all that long but when I'm ready to get something else done or in the middle of a game, my patience is short so the interruption is definitely not welcome.

Virtual memory is a file on your disk. The computer uses it as if it were RAM. Usually it only increases when you are low on real memory. A RAM upgrade shoukd help you here.

Just what I was going to say, mj2c. Sounds like she could use a RAM upgrade...

My guess is that this is not something I can just download otherwise, knowing how resourceful this site is, someone would have recommended one to me.

I've been thinking about upgrading anyway, so sounds like it's time to call my computer guy, who's been after me to let him do up a custom PC for me. He fixed things when I had a couple of nasty viruses a couple of years ago and I haven't had an other one since.

Thanks again!

No RAM is not something you can "just download."
It's a physical object that you put inside the computer.

If you do get a new computer for gaming,

!!! PAY EXTRA ATTENTION TO THE VIDEO CARD !!!

Do not buy a computer with a fast processor and a lot of RAM and expect it to play all your adventure games without a hiccup if you get onboard video or a low end video card designed for office work.