Maybe. It depends.

@wolong42

8 ай бұрын

If I shutdown my desktop when not using it aren't I preventing threfters from accessing open ports?

@askleonotenboom

8 ай бұрын

@@wolong42 "threfters"? Anyway your router should be doing a perfectly acceptable job of blocking incoming connections to any open ports.

@StepDub

8 ай бұрын

I work from home, so it’s my power bill. My laptop and monitors(2) consume 40 watts when quiescent. That’s for 14 hours a day 5 days a week plus weekends not in use. At 50 cents per kW (European rates are high!) that is over 120 euros a year. On the other hand, my employer supplies the laptop and although stress damage is a possibility, the laptop is replaced every 3 years and all data is on a cloud server. So the plug is pulled every evening.

@catchaser52

7 ай бұрын

What about power surges when PC is sleeping ?

@askleonotenboom

7 ай бұрын

@@catchaser52 What about them? They can happen any time day or night. If they happen often enough and cause your computer problems, then get a UPS.

With regards to component wear and tear from repeated heating and cooling, then I don't see that much difference between turning the computer off and putting (or allowing it to fall into) sleep mode - both will result in components cooling down, then heating up again when you turn it back on or wake it from sleep.

@moronicvideos

7 ай бұрын

It's not unreasonable to assume that the temperature difference between idle or lighter work and heavy gaming is actually larger than between idle and total power down. I've always shut down my rig for the night and the last one lasted for 11 years and is still working albeit retired and serving as a reserve rig.

@philuribe7863

7 ай бұрын

@@moronicvideos Not quite sure what point you're trying to make with your first sentence ? but, like you, my rigs get shut down every night too. My work rig is nearing 5 yrs now and doing just fine, and my old one - at least twice as old - is hooked up to my TV/recorder/and hi-fi (and with a few external SSD's attached) and is also chugging along quite merrily.

I do, every time I go out, go to bed etc. I have had my pc for 5 years now. It's still as good as ever. Only time I ever leave it on is if it's doing something like updating or downloading etc.

One thing you did not address is the cyber attacks. The less your machine is on and on a network the less chance to be hacked. Everyone should have security software but there are a ton of applications that are snooping on you and sending data out 24-7. When I was working I would be on call 24-7 so I left my computer on. Now that I am retired I turn my computer off when not using it. So as you said it depends. Just keep in mind the less it is on the less energy it is using and the less the risk of attack. FYI

@stevencooper2464

8 ай бұрын

That is so true. The most secure computer is the one that's not connected or turned on.

@andrewmurray1550

7 ай бұрын

you can always switch the Bluetooth/wifi off (either through software or the physical switch on some laptops) or pull the network cable while keeping the machine on or turn the router/modem off. Obviously, that won't help if you need to access your home network from a remote location e.g. checking security cameras that are wired into the internet, that you can check on your phone.

@gdonham1203

7 ай бұрын

@@andrewmurray1550 Your suggestion would work but is impractical. Just shut down. Save energy and possible security threats. Every ISP in America has a range of IP addresses and they are known and are constantly being scanned by bad actors. The safest computer is one that is shut down. Most modern computers only take a couple of minutes to boot up. I shut mine down when not in use. The less exposure to threats the better. Plus if you want to save the planet start with your own computer shut down.

@Old_Foxy_Grandpa

7 ай бұрын

And that is why you need to have a good security package.

@SirReptitious

7 ай бұрын

While you are technically correct, the danger to the average user of being hacked is quite small. Hackers target company/government computers for a reason- $$$. As long as you keep your OS patched, have a good firewall, be careful about what you install on your PC, you shouldn't worry. The way that people get access to normie's computers is via social engineering; THE USER IS THE WEAKEST LINK. NEVER install any remote access tools(RATs) unless it's someone you know and they need to do that to fix your system because they can't come to your house. Never open any attachments unless you are expecting the attachment and you verify that the sending email header matches what you expected. Lately the biggest email danger has been people sending spam to people via email lists they buy that have infected PDF files attached. You download it and open it in Adobe reader or another reader and BANG, you just got pwned.

I've been shutting down my computers every day for 29 years and nothing bad ever happens.

A big depend is component wear from heat. All components are derated at high temperatures. The CPU is the most heat sensitive which is why there is complicated heat management in the CPU itself. Some CPUs cost as much to replace as buying another computer. I don't shut down for lunch but do shut down the 12 hours I spend sleeping and watching TV.

@mac0285

8 ай бұрын

@@almoemason By 90% less, do you mean they last a lot longer when left on 24/7, or that the MTBF is 90% less (which, literally taken, would mean less time between failure, meaning fails more often)?

You mentioned stress caused by the temperature gradient between off and on, but the biggest stress on components is the power surge they get when first powered on. The more an electronic device is turned off and on, the more power spikes it is subjected to. This type of stress is the main leader in component failure. Remember the common incandescent light bulb? It almost always fails when it was turned on. However, I agree with you about how a person uses their computer being the driver for how often it gets turned off and on. Like you, I use mine the majority of the time in a 24-hour period, so it is on 24/7.

@alexandradane3672

2 ай бұрын

Well said .

There is another element to think about and that is whenever ANY electrical or electronic device is turned on, there is an initial surge of current throughout the device. Over time this surge can weaken components thusly shortening their life. One way to notice this is whenever you turn on a device that draws substantial current. For any given circuit in my house (not necessarily the entire house) whenever I turn on my stereo equipment or my computer any lights on that particular circuit dim noticeably for a brief time.

As a retired telephone exchange tech, I know that telephone exchanges (which are basically computers told to be an exchange) are NEVER turned off. I was also aware of the heat-cycle stress thing. I consequently never turn off my lounge tower box PC (unless Windows gets confused). I have a laptop in the bedroom which I do turn off due to lingering fears of heat, electricity and bedding not being a good mix.

My very un-scientific reason for leaving PC on was based on the number of times I have had a lightbulb blow when switching on.😜💥

Great video! I just found your channel and this is the second video I watched that is phenomenal. I’m very interested, encryption backups in general how to I’m primarily a Mac user, but looking to replace my 20-year-old PC just to have a PC in the house as a back up and also to be able to archive backups using M Disc and to run Microsoft flight. Thanks again. PS may be a video about the M-Disc technology would be great. I just learned that SSD drives can lose their data overtime. I was dumbfounded that I had no idea that could happen.

Have been a subscriber to the newsletter since its inception and I also subscribe to other computer based newsletters going on 28 years. Enjoy the info from all. For years I have run 24/7 although from 1999-2013 I did shutdown when we travelled. During the last 10 years the computer never shuts down except when there is a power outage or I did a total revamp of the system in June. With that done I expect the next significant shutdown will occur at my personal shutdown and I won't be caring at that point at all. Oh yes and I BU BU BU. One internal daily and two external (monthly at different times)

I kind of do the same, my main desktop machine is running all time, unless I'm out for a couple of days. My laptops are set to sleep mode (working machine) or really shut down, as I'm not using the private one every day and battery life is another component to think about for them.

Nice video. Thanks. I leave my computer turned on 24/7. On average, I restart about once a week, usually when Dell installs an update or when some process -- usually browser-related -- seems to be consuming too much memory. I avoid doing a complete shutdown because of the risk that the computer either won't power up again or will require numerous power-up attempts over a period of several hours. I know that sounds like a hardware issue, but I've encountered that problem at least once with each of my last four Windows computers over a period of about ten years.

There are these 2 fellows who call themselves " The Proper People" who travel to many abandoned places and in one abandoned hospital they found there were computers in the abandoned office still turned on running Windows 95 untouched for over 25 plus years!!!!!. Now that is truly leaving your computer on :)

@marbleman52

8 ай бұрын

@ralphyo6285....This sounds a little suspicious. Why would an abandoned hospital still have the power turned on? Maybe there is a reason....I would like to know.

In my old tech support days, I fixed many desktop PCs by opening the case and pressing all the socketed chips back into place. The repeated heat/cool cycles caused the chips to creep out of their sockets. I do the same thing with cable connectors. Now I leave my tower on at night, but shut off the monitors. I have a scheduled job that runs in the wee hours of the morning to do a restart... so I have a fresh boot status in the morning.

@askleonotenboom

8 ай бұрын

My machine also reboots overnight. I have it launch all my most-used programs automatically so it's ready to go when I arrive.

Every Spring the dust in my desktop is blown out with the hair dryer and raising the laptops ground clearance improves cooling during the long hot Summer .

I run iDrive every night from 9 pm to 5 am. I usually turn it off all Sunday, but the rest of the week it's on. I have mission critical backups that have to run in my downtime.

I had heard that, especially on a Windows machine, it is good to at least periodically (weekly? monthly?) turn your computer off because the act of doing a complete shut down and reboot allows the installed software (especially Windows) to perform maintenance and repair functions that don't always happen with a computer that is constantly left on. That being said, my Chromebook, which I use a lot every day, only gets rebooted when I'm notified that an update is available (once every week or two) while my Windows laptop in my office is used less often but remains in standby mode except ever week or two when I do a regular shut down and reboot.

@errorsofmodernism7331

8 ай бұрын

Hilarious

I like how you explain things & your logic!

40 year technician here. There is a good answer to this question ... but it depends on what you mean by "off". If "off" means using the power button on the front of the case, yes you can turn it on and off mostly at wll. The user power button is really just a "deep standby" switch in which the heavy power consuming parts of your system (cpu, disks, video, etc.) are shut down but the charge storing parts (capacitors, batteries, etc.) are kept ready to go. Restarting them from a soft-off state is of little consequence to the lifetime of a system. However if "off' means switching off AC power to the device, now we're into an entirely different discussion. When you turn off the power bar or flip the "baby sitter" switch on the back, all of the capacitors and regulators in the system will discharge to 0. Then when you turn the AC back on they all have to be recharged at the same time, creating a huge power surge that puts heavy load on the power supplies. This "inrush current" can be ten times normal operating current and hundreds of times the soft-off restart current... or more! This will in turn do an accumulating bit of damage each time you turn the AC power back on, until eventually the damage done will cause a premature failure of the power supply. The makers of PCs, audio equipment, monitors, TV sets. printers etc. know this and they will design their equipment to keep the big capacitors charged when in the soft-off state so that turning things back on does not fry the power supply. So the smart money is to use the front panel power button (soft-off) and leave the AC power on all the time. I first came across this issue when I was servicing the older laptop computers. It wasn't the computers that were failing. It was the power bricks. They were lasting about half as long as you would normally expect as people were carting them around with them and plugging and unplugging them constantly... causing massive in-rushes of current every time. Then it showed up in desktop units where people were killing the AC power at night. And, more recently it became a problem with monitors, printers and audio gear that used external brick power supplies on a power bar. The bricks were dying way too quickly and almost always the same way... from damage caused by inrush current.

If your computer has a mechanical hard drive, leaving your computer on could mean your hard drive continues to spin, and therefore wear while the computer is on. On the other hand, the turning it on and off frequently could produce extra wear when it has to spin up. I believe this is less of a issue if you're running SSD's . Also many personal computers are not running with a UPS, the damage that could be caused by an outage or brown-out won't happen if the computer is off at the time.

@hartmutholzgraefe

8 ай бұрын

It hasn't been much of an issue with spinning disks in recent years either. Back when PC HDDs were still 5.25" beasts that was much more of an issue due to the larger masses to make and keep spinning. On the other hand you often still had access to the main spindle on these beasts, and could give them some extra startup help using an electric screwdriver, to bring them up one final time to back up all the data on them.

The main reason I turn mine off at night Is the satellite modem. The old modem got only slightly warm. The new one gets noticeably HOT. I got to keep my old my modem, so I have a backup.

Something not addressed is security. Most modern systems have ethernet or other devices that communicate with a network and leaving them plugged in, even when powered off but plugged in still can have a part of the system active and can be prone to attacks. What I do is not only turning it off at night, but also flip the power switch on the power strip to turn off everything (after cleanly shutting down of course). It also saves more power for all the switching PSUs that remain active and drawing a couple of watts. With so many devices it can easily add up to many kilowatts per year and depending on the power tariffs can cost you as much as having a couple of diners for two at an average restaurant. Backups run in a couple of hours for my system so I don't need to let it run throughout the night. And backups often don't need to be daily. I do it once a week with a full backup once every month with offsite backup (not in the cloud).

Good information and I agree with "it depends." In my case, I want the computer available during the day but it's fussy. Sometimes it can't sleep but at least the monitor *usually* goes dark. Other times, it won't wake up and I have to do a hard shutdown. Now I've reached the point of choosing that if I'm going to be away from it for several hours, those problems tell me that I need to shut it down.

I've had home computers since before the original IBM PC. I've had home computers that I left on all the time, I've had laptops that I left on all the time, I've had desktops and laptops that I turned on and off each day. The only problem I've noticed with any of this is fans in desktop computers can wear out after many years, and I had a hard drive that I thought was having a bearing fail from running all the time. I just replaced a desktop computer and a laptop each that were 14 years old, both were turned on and off every day. At work I'm still using a 6 year old laptop that has been on constantly 24/7 for almost all of its life. What I do is this- when I get ready to use the computer each day I will turn it on and I will leave it on until I'm sure I won't be using it again then I turn it off. Most days this is about 8:00 AM through Midnight but some days it is less. I do the same thing with my laptop but it is usually on only about 4-5 hours per day.

I used to put mine to sleep most of the time and just shut it off once or twice a week. But then it started waking up on its own in the middle of the night and lighting up my room. That, combined with the fact that we get a power flicker once or twice a month here and I haven't had the best experience with battery backups, has caused me to just turn it off every night.

I have services running 24/7 on my computer, so it always stays on. Plex server, reception of airplanes and relaying their data to keep Flightawares users happy. I also monitor radio propagations to see if I (it) have received long distance signals at any time. And I forgot to mention backups that I run with Cobian at night.

I use down stair cpu the most and at 10 (2200) my virus checker checks the hard drives for problems and then shuts down the computer. Before going to bed, I turn the upstairs cpu on so it gets checked too. I leave the server in the basement on 24/7.

I think the calculation swings towards powering off if you have fans or water pumps running while idle. File server = leave it on. Gaming PC = turn it off when not in use.

@_winston_smith_

8 ай бұрын

@@almoemason Mechanical devices will usually fail long before the electrical components. Heat cycling is statistically irrelevant in comparison to the wear on moving mechanical parts.

@_winston_smith_

8 ай бұрын

@@almoemason Ok. Cite one study that shows a PC water pump having a longer average life than the electrical components of a motherboard. I won't hold my breath.

I’ve used many computers for many years and components almost never break. Monitors do break, but I think that’s mostly because of burn hours, not power cycles. It’s also not really relevant for monitors since they have good power consumption controls and go to sleep after a number of minutes.

Well, you hit the nail on the head. I leave my computer on 24/7. I have my backup (Acronis) set to run at 1 AM every morning. Last year, my hard drive failed and I bought a new 4 TB SSD and installed it. I then ran the reload utility on my backup after downloading and installing the backup utility and after a couple of hours, my computer was back, merrily running as if nothing had happened. I then went to Costco and for only $100, bought a 5 TB SSD and am running that. The old backup drive is in my drawer. I just felt better buying a new drive. So anyway, yes, by all means, just leave the computer on. Neither I or the computer get stressed.

Ive been computing since the early 80's . For decades now , I SLEEP my computer every night, and rarely turn off all the power, only when Im not going to be using it for days or doing hardware maintenance or upgrades. Get 7-10 years out of my machines. And probably more, cept by then I upgrade to new gens. Windows is instant on coming out of sleep and its very reliable. I dont even bother with the hibernate part of it, as the computer runs off a UPS. Just sleep to ram, takes seconds.

Thanks for the clarification Leo. Question: Have you even done or thought of doing an episode on printing or can you give me direction where to find it? My reason for asking is, I get so frustrate sometimes on trying to print out information from a webpage only to find that it does not look like what I am seeing on the screen. The most aggravating thing is when information I need turns out to be just white space or a big white empty box covering other information that I need. Sometimes a page will just print out helter skelter with no rhyme or reason. I'm not sure if it is printer settings, page design or just the nature of the beast. The weird thing is, some pages that use to print out the way I expected, now have the look I described above. Thank you for your continuing effort to educated folks like myself. JimE

@askleonotenboom

8 ай бұрын

Web page printing is a mess. It's almost completely up to the author of the webpage, and there's little you can do about it. I may post an article about an alternative or two I try in some cases (scrolling screen capture), but ... well, as I said, it's a mess.

@JimE6243

8 ай бұрын

@@askleonotenboom I will be looking forward to the alternative. Thank you! JimE

@NoEgg4u

8 ай бұрын

@@JimE6243 Print preview will let you see how your printed pages would look. If what you see in the preview is not to your liking, then you can print to a file, and edit that file (although I have never tried to edit such a file, I imagine there are tools to do so). Or, if your print preview shows blank pages, or a page of ads, etc, you can exclude those pages from the printout. If all else fails, you can do a screen capture -- even a scrolling screen capture, and print any part of what is on your screen. Lastly, choosing between portrait and landscape layout for your printout might help.

@JimE6243

8 ай бұрын

@@NoEgg4u Thank you! I have tried the print screen routine but it never seems to fill the page. I have done the % increase thing but it leaves something to be desired. I appreciate the help. JimE

@NoEgg4u

8 ай бұрын

@@JimE6243I am not sure what print screen tool you have tried? Windows has a "Snipping Tool", which although is very good, Microsoft has sort of retired it, and now includes "Snip & Sketch". If you run the above, it will capture exactly what is on your screen.

I use my computer several hours a day and always put it in sleep mode when I will be away and especially while I'm sleeping. Returns to life immediately without a reboot. Have used it this way for many years with no problems and energy consumption is a non issue. Only time I have to restart is when the OS updates.

Sometimes, running non-intervening updates overnight trumps shutting off the computer.

As a datapoint, I built my own computer. It's got an Intel i7, 32 gig ram, one NVME drive, two SSD's, and an old GTX 660 for graphics. I have it and the monitor connected to a UPS so I can see how many watts are being used. When the system is awake and just doing normal stuff, it uses 85 watts. When the monitor is sleeping and the computer is just on, doing nothing by me, it uses 33 watts.

@MikaelKKarlsson

8 ай бұрын

Yeah at least the typical desktop computer is definitely best to turn off.

@donjohnstone3707

8 ай бұрын

That's a lot of watts wasted doing nothing. I always shut mine down when I'm busy with other stuff that needs over 2 hours of my time, especially with the increasing cost of electricity.

@bradgraystock5966

8 ай бұрын

33 watts is actually not a lot of watts. In fact some night lights can take 12 to 25 watts.

@thomasmaughan4798

8 ай бұрын

"it uses 33 watts" Or in other words about 10 cents electricity every 30 hours, maybe daily.

THANK YOU! Finally a great answer that makes sense.

i only shut down for cleaning or moving other than that its always on. 4 years on my current pc. no issues. keep you comp running/ sleep is good too.

There is the issue of the lifespan of electrolytic capacitors. Most manufacturers don't specify the type and quality. Lifespans can range from thousands to tens of thousands of hours with ratings that are temperature related. Having said all of that.... I've had caps pop (like firecrackers) in my home computers and even in my presence! Supposedly you can get motherboards that are designed to last longer (for 24/7/365 usage) if you buy the expensive server rated boards. Assuming that you are building your own machines and you want them to last for years, maybe even past the usual obsolescence period, one way around the lifespan problem is to buy a few extra motherboards of the same make and model. When I was working, I ran desktop pcs 24/7/365 and this was an issue. Now that I'm retired, I'm usually playing with laptops occasionally so I only have them powered on when I'm using them - they usually last well beyond obsolescence.

Leaving your computer running can also wear the computer down. You have concerns with fan failures, hard drive failures related to motors and heads, lights can burn out, and dust can accumulate in all of the cracks and crevices the fan(s) blow into. If you drop a drink on it, it's more likely to do more damage while the computer is on, rather than when the computer is off. Aging parts can potentially overheat. If you're running a Windows machine, periodically doing a full restart is important. I personally disable Hibernate, so shutting down and turning on is always a full restart. I'm not a fan of Sleep, so I never use it. I use my computer a few hours every day, so I turn it off when my daily session is done. In over 20 years of building my own desktop PC's, I have had very few hardware failures (one sound card, two hard drives). I doubt I have saved all that much money on electricity, but I feel better about myself and my machines if I give them a regular break. It likely doesn't make much of a difference either way, so I go with my gut.

i tell my clients if you going to use the computer within the next few hours to leave it on, otherwise shut it off. if i take two computers for lets say 5 years and leave one turned on forever 24/7 and the other one in the box. the one in the box is technically still new and usable. the one running 24/7 is full of dust and likely already failed. as far as the backup i agree with you 100% that it's very important. but for someone to hope an automatic backup is going to be there when they need it is a disaster waiting to happen. if they don't know how to backup and are not checking to make sure their files are getting backed up, then it's just a matter of time before they lose them. i've ran into two companies over the years that thought they were backing up , but when they needed it the backup was empty. they did all the right steps but never check it.

Something that you did not cover was the heat generated by your power supply and all the heat that is exhausted from your computer case, I have found that my computer generates sufficient heat that the bedroom temp where all my computers are located ups the room temp by a couple degrees, cold winter nights it supplements my room heat, in the summer I have to up my air conditioning use.

ACPI S3 Sleep Mode only adds a few dollars to annual electricity costs. Avoiding capacitor discharge & recharge shocks.

Wow, this covered all the bases. It is not a simple yes or no, but how you use the machine. While I understand completely, wish me luck when I try to explain this to my relatives who call for tech support. 🤣

@lewiskelly14

8 ай бұрын

No it didn't. He could have given examples of power consumption and costs of a machine on and standby...

For me, leaving my computer on or not has depended on factors entirely separate from the hardware itself. When I lived in a house just off of a busy street, where neighbors could easily see people taking too much interest in my house, I left my computer on all the time so that the screen (set to a photo album screen saver) would produce a soft lighting in my main room that, from the sidewalk, would make it appear that someone is up watching television. Served to set the expectation that a thief would encounter the resident(s), a situation most thieves will avoid if they can instead rob a house that has no obvious awake people in it. Now, though, I live in an apartment building well off the main roads, where an active computer monitor says "Hi, there's electronics in here that might be worth money." So, living here, where someone could try and break in without many eyes watching, I try to reduce the amount that I advertise the computer's presence. So, I turn it off not only overnight, but whenever I go out for more than a few minutes. And to be honest, I haven't noticed any real difference in how well my computer operates now vs. when I left it on 24/7. I *do* open up the PC's cabinet and blow dust out every 6 to 12 months (based on the CPU's cooling fan running more and getting loud), and I haven't noticed needing to blow out the dust any more or less now than I did when it ran 24/7. So, my preliminary conclusion based only on my own computer is that it really makes little difference.

also, you may consider...every computer is made up of many components and parts which all have a finite life span... while running they use electricity and create heat which much be compensated for by AC (more electricity)...oh and your chance of being hacked while the machine is off....must be infinitely lower than keeping it running 24/7. I knew a person who used her computer to print up items about every week to 10 days...never turned the machine off. It lasted 4 1/2 years before the power supply went...basically just idled its lifespan away....so your mileage and productivity may vary.

How about pluses and minuses for the operating system and software ?

Won't going into sleep mode cause less heat to be produced and hence the machine will cool down causing stress when you power it up again?

@askleonotenboom

7 ай бұрын

Possibly.

What about the risks of power surges and the damage that can do?

@askleonotenboom

6 ай бұрын

You should have a surge protector or UPS as needed. This then doesn't impact whether you leave things on or not.

Another thing to shut down at night is the cable modem if you have one. They are power vampires throwing off heat the whole time they are on.

With better parts like SSD memory PC's have gotten better at withstanding on/off cycles. What would fail are things that spin; the fans and HDD. Keeping the PC on would keep the oil in these things warm and working properly. And there's another level too; if the PC is plugged in with the main PSU switched on but the computer is off it still consumes some power so it can provide a little bit of standby power for some things use. E.g. it makes the coin battery on the MB last longer by powering the RTC. To fully power down your PC unplug it or turn the PSU switch off.

Maybe. Yep, it depends. My personal stuff, I turn it off at night. When I had desktop units, it was more a matter of noise, but to me heat is more of an enemy than stress. A PC or laptop always runs at higher than ambient temps, even at idle. so unless I forget, my (now) laptop is off at night. My work computer is off at night, too. It used to be that updates would be pushed during off hours, but not so much anymore. More than 90% of updates are pushed during business hours. My work laptop is not particularly noisy, but again heat is the real enemy. So, it, too is off at night. I'm not suggesting that everyone do what works for me, but, yep it depends. Thanks for this thoughtful, interesting video!

As avpioneer in computers and software. Turning off the computer can cause stress on the system. However, if you depend on battery life, it may be necessary to do this.

I have a question related to this topic. I am not concerned about power consumption. I built my custom PC, which I have invested over $5,700.00. I use no hard drives; only M.2 NVMe drives. I have the monitor set to go to sleep after 20 minutes of non-use. I have the PC set to go to sleep after 2 hours of non-use. My question: Is leaving my PC on and in sleep mode, making it more vulnerable to hacking and being used for nefarious purposes? If this is a risk, should I also be shutting down my WiFi ISP modem, any time my computer isn't being used for several hours?

@askleonotenboom

8 ай бұрын

If you're behind a router you already have 99.99% of the protection you need, whether the machine is on, sleeping, or off. But in general, no, sleeping doesn't increase your attack surface. While there's always a risk no matter what we do, the probability here is tiny.

Only time my machines are off is when there's a power outage. That happens 3 or 4 times a year in the rural mountainy place I live.

I believe you left out one concern. In a company or corporate environment simply is not enough. Even with your computer turned off it can still be accessed by the corporate IT department for updates and other maintenance. If you shut down the computer you should go all the way and turn off the power to the machine. Now, if IT can access then it can be illegally accessed by others either inside the corporation or top level hackers. I am paranoid and cut the power not only to the computer but to any device connected to the computer. My wife leaves her machine on nearly all the time. She was hacked and had ransomware put on her machine. It was fun cleaning everything up and no we didn't pay the hacker a dime.

I have always left all my computers and now my current Imac on 24/7 and never have ever had any issues what so ever.

Interesting point of View great video

Here's something you might not be addressing! Some years ago we had a very bad lightening storm and we had turned off our computers and unplugged them. However, we were hit nearby by a bolt of lightening. it surged through the soil and through the ethernet cable to the computers in my studio in a separate building blowing out the video cards. On a tower, it was a cheap replacement, but on the other, it was part of the motherboard, and made the computer useless for online, email, and such. Since then we've both unplugged all computers every night when done for the day, and with every lightening storm. I've had numerous computers (all macs) and have never had any problem with having them off so much of the time.

Well this is my 20 year old question that I still dont have answer to, if [ depends ] is an answer, then maybe the answer is in actual specific's of computer type and or what is power down or off....... So are all computers the same? I have a [ hp laptop ] as in it folds down, so when it's folded down is that off or is it only off when I shut it off? When I get [ updates ] couple times a month it tells me to shut down and restart, so maybe thats all the shut down I should do, or do I go by hours of constant use? I first thought I was only using my laptop 3-4 hrs a day, but now retired I just counted up all the hrs per day from YT videos to online shopping and google searching and was shock at around 8-10 a day. But since old habits and superstitions are hard to break, I'll continue to power down my laptop, just so the power light stops blinking, and also shut off the power strip so the laptop wont catch fire from constant power feed, same with micro and toaster..........

If my Mac Mini M1 is in sleep mode will it update software automatically?

Thanks, Leo~

There are computers running that havent been rebooted or turned off in 10 or 15 years. Main frames are a typical example. Thermal stress isn't an issue. The issue is electrical stress when digital circuits are first turned on. That power surge puts a lot of stress on the components . The interconnections are extremely small and they flex a bit when power Is first applied. So chips will last longer if they are always under power. If they fail, generally, it's going to be when power is first applied. While the chips will last longer powered. The power supply will not. The power supply is a weak link. Large computer systems have redundant power supplies. Almost everything is hot swappable. Go ahead and turn of your computer unless it has applications running that shouldn't be shut down. If your PC lasts 4 years you've gotten your money's worth out of it. Most PC's will last longer, however it will be performing poorly and at the end of its useful life cycle due to applications demanding more resources.

I used to just shut my computer into sleep at night. However I have found (surprisingly) that it takes significantly longer to wake up the next morning than starting from cold. My theory is that sleep caches a whole lot of state info that needs to be reloaded at wakeup, whereas starting from cold brings up just the clean state.

@askleonotenboom

3 ай бұрын

There's a good chance that after it sleeps for "a while", it goes into hibernation. So you're really waking up from hibernation.

@theronwolf3296

3 ай бұрын

@@askleonotenboom good point.

I have cats. When I go to bed, the pc is turned off.

I like to know that the machine is capable of properly powering down and up also without surprises and as expected. Also just habit. I would say though that even if current draw is minuscule, it's not theory that it's using power. It's definitely not zero, right? :)

"Stress can lead to failure." That applies not only to hardware but to the wetware too.

@askleonotenboom

8 ай бұрын

So true.

The 3rd and MOST important issue is safety! I worked in a college a number of years ago and witnessed two computers catch fire with no warning at all. One was in a staff room and another in an IT room. Safety first switch it off at night or if you are going out…

@la7dfa

6 ай бұрын

I see people are scared of charging their phones or doing anything really at night. I am not worried at all, because I have a proper fire alert system with enough detectors. Fires happens and can happen to anything electric, but it is how your system and you responds to a fire that matters, no matter what interval they occur.

Unless something has changed in PCs, I believe even if you opt not to shut your computer down, you should at restart it occasionally. When you open and close and open applications, the memory will get fragmented. Only a restart can fix this. Am I wrong? Perhaps Leo can elaborate.

@askleonotenboom

8 ай бұрын

Decades ago memory fragmentation was a thing, but no longer. It's still useful to reboot occasionally, though

@rogerarchibald2627

8 ай бұрын

@@askleonotenboom An old computer user here. I did not know the memory fragmentation issue was a thing of the past, but just out of experience from someone who uses CPU and memory intensive software all day, (mainly video editing and rendering), I not only shut my computer off at night, but notice better performance and stability with an occasional restart. Thank you.

@thomasmaughan4798

8 ай бұрын

@@rogerarchibald2627The word now is "memory leak". A computer program terminates but has not released all of its memory allocations. Over time you gradually run out of memory. It does actually fragment but because of "page tables" it does not CARE about fragmentation. The memory table makes it seem to each program that it has this nice big continuous chunk of memory when in fact its allocations are scattered all over the place.

Why don't manufacturers advise their equipment users!

What about the fire-risk when an electronic device is left switched on while unattended? I switch on in the morning, and switch off at night (I'm talking about the computer!) and if I leave the house unattended I switch off when I go. I have no desire to return to a pile of ashes! Off topic, why do some people call computers machines? A machine carries out a mechanical function; that's why it's called a machine! Computers do not; they are devices which instruct actual machines (like scanners) to carry out mechanical functions (like printing). In fact I would venture that for most users, scanners and printers are the only machines controlled through their computers!

This was the biggest "while I have you on the phone" question back when I did tech support for NEC in the late 90s. My answer was also "It depends" ;-). ? I told them the same, that turning it on and off produces a slight power surge that ever-so-slightly damages an electronic device every time you turn it on. I compared it to the fact that "have you ever noticed that a light bulb usually burns out when you turn it on and not while it's on?" because it was something the normie's could relate to. I told them you have to balance this with the fact that the parts of the PC also have a finite lifespan so leaving it running 24/7 not only wastes power but also shortens the lifespan in it's own way. So I told them as a general rule if you use the PC in a single block of time and then not again for the day, turn it off. But if you keep coming back to it throughout the day, as was common back then when many households had only one family PC, leave it on until everyone goes to bed. I told them to set the power-hungry CRTs we used back then to turn off after 30 mins and the hard drive to spin down after 30 mins. That was pretty much the extent of power saving features in win95/98 back then.

I put my laptop into hibernation at the end of the day. I'm technologically challenged, but since computers can be just like other mechanized equipment, they can wear out faster by leaving them running 24/7. Maybe I'm wrong, but that's my story & I'm sticking to it! 😊

I am surprised how well the Engery saving mode works I use it all the time

I leave my home (non gaming) pc on permanently (unless I'm messing about with it). I have a shed load of films/videos/mp3 on it which I access on my android over the home wifi when I'm in bed and cant sleep. If you are afraid of external cyber threats just disconnect the network cable on your home router which goes to you ISP provider modem.

sleep or hibernate? What's best, and can either survive power loss overnight (in the event of a power failure)

@askleonotenboom

8 ай бұрын

Sleep will eventually hibernate if power is removed. Both will survive quite nicely.

Ahh...the never ending question that has been discussed from the very early days of home computing, and the answer is always the same...it depends. But...I will add that in the early years, cpu's and video cards ran a lot hotter, adequate case ventilation was not well known by the average user, other parts ran hotter, etc. Today, everything runs a lot faster but also cooler and technology has improved a lot and therefore...hopefully...components are a lot more dependable. But as one commenter said, they have an 11 year old Toshiba laptop that has been turned on & off thousands of times and it is still performing great ( I'm assuming all original parts..?? ). My desktop is 10 years old or older. I have a real good Gigabyte motherboard and power supply and quality everything else. I'm not a gamer or anything...just basic surfing & watching movies, etc., and I have done both...turn off each night...and have left on for many days...and no apparent problems except... I have had to replace the power supply a couple of times even though the power supply's are always very good ones. What's up with that ? Just luck of the draw perhaps. Now if bad weather hits with a lot of lightning, I will definitely turn off the power supply in the back and even unplug from the outlet...lightning can do some crazy stuff...!! Yep...no perfect answer...!!

@la7dfa

6 ай бұрын

If you want to run the computer always, just make sure it can throttle down and idle. In the power settings the consumption can be reduced significantly. I have ha a few lightning strikes in the past, but it was all coming via the ADS lines and now with fiber, it is just much safer.

Why don’t you shut down while you are sleeping? Isn’t it running for nothing in that case?

@askleonotenboom

8 ай бұрын

My backups run overnight, along with a few other things.

@AMD-jw6vb

8 ай бұрын

@@askleonotenboom oh, so that’s why.

@graytonw5238

8 ай бұрын

Plus, keep in mind Leo's comments about stress. The repeated heating and cooling from turning the machine off and on does wear on it. Same thing with the (now) older tungsten light bulbs, you got way more life out of a bulb if you left it on all the time. All my computers over the decades have been left on 24/7 for years, with usually a weekly reboot to clear the memory. Best if it's plugged into a UPS or at least a good surge protector.

I never turn it off or put it on standby. I rather restart it. I also have backups running every night (full/incremental) to my NAS.

most desktops still use power when shutdown, they need to power the usb and network ports

Doesn't the 1st argument negate the 2nd? I mean: if the computer itself reduces its power consumption, it cools off too. If the power consumption becomes negligible at night, then it will be almost as cold as a computer that is turned off. And if it doesn't, it has to use significantly more power.

I would never leave a computer or phone on at night, same in the day if I go out computer and phone are turned off purely because of the fire risk. Computers do catch fire and so do phones.

I can only speak for myself, but I turn on my PC the moment I wake up in the morning, and I'm on it all day long watching TV shows or movies or designing graphics or surfing the web...whatever I do all day. I then turn it off right before going to bed at night. I've been with Windows since Windows 3.11, and it seems commonplace that windows puts things in your RAM that can get corrupted and cause programs to misbehave, so by turning off my PC every night, I am insuring myself that there is less of a chance to have corrupted app data, but that's just me. I've also learned from experience, to do my own backups manually. I never forget, so the backups thing is not an issue for me.

In the past, and maybe still, Microsoft sometimes schedule tasks to run overnight. When they first started saying to not bother manually defragging the hard drives it was because they scheduled a weekly defrag overnight.

@loupasternak

8 ай бұрын

no longer a factor

@askleonotenboom

8 ай бұрын

True, but that task has "Run task as soon as possible after a scheduled start is missed" set, so if your machine is off, it'll happen when you turn the machine back on again.

lol , most of heating up and cooling down (stress) will happen nearly as much ...as the low energy use is producing the same effect so using energy when not around is not good... no matter what ... the pc is made to turn off for a reason !... might be different fora business user for other reasons but not for home recreational users

If the computer draws very little power on stand by, it will cool down.

I never turn off mine. I live near the ocean and have been told that keeping it on will prevent corrosion of certain parts.

Thanks!

I really think that there is a risk in leaving a computer running all the time. A nearby strike from a lightning bolt will fry any computer just through the earth wire. When I am away I turn my computer off and if I am away for long time I pull out the power lead. I pull out the power lead of all of my electronics if there is a thunder storm about!

What about your router? Should that be switched off overnight?

@askleonotenboom

8 ай бұрын

I wouldn't (and don't) bother.

Thank you for another well done video. I leave my main computer on 24/7. However, my PC is hard wired to the router. I have set my PC (Windows 10) not to attempt a wireless connection. I also bought an on/off switch that goes between the router and the PC. Every time we quit using the internet, turning the switch off insures the bad actors don't have access while we are "off line". Of course it's not perfect but it protects us without having to physically shut down. Just another approach.

I always hibernate my PC overnight, or if I think I won't be using it for some time.

I use my PC every day for about 16 Hours a day. I turn it off every night when going to bed. I have never had a PC fail on me due to stressed components. I also use hand-me-down PCs, which I get for free, so they are already have a "few hours on the clock". I have updated these PCs only so I could get a faster machine, as I usually hang onto them for a while. I turn my PCs off to save power, especially now since power is so expensive due to the dirty & dear renewables !!!!

I have solar panels that generate more power than I use, so I don't care how much electricity I "waste". My computer is _never_ turned off. Yes, the monitor goes into sleep mode, the hard drives spin down, but that's pretty much all the power saving I do.

With today's poorly written software, constant updates are necessary. I have my desktop set up to do updates overnight so I don't have to deal with the inconvenience during waking hours when I need my machine to be fully available to me. I leave my machine running 24/7 and have done so for decades, and haven't noticed any adverse effects. If we were talking about mechanical switches perhaps I would buy into the idea that turning the machine off every day and then back on the next day could cause premature failure. We aren't talking about mechanical devices other than perhaps the "ON" button with today's computers, or hard drives. Modern hard drives power down when not being used anyway, so I doubt there is any significant difference.

Is it ok to run a Fan on your Laptop to stop it from getting to warm .....?

@askleonotenboom

21 күн бұрын

Sure. You can even get laptop stands with fans built in.

For most of the year my home needs to be kept warm, so the small amount of extra heat produced by electrical equipment on standby does not go to waste.

These days anyone using a physical hard disk should change to solid state. Then you basically have no moving parts other than fans.

The IT department at work requires to staff to keep their laptops on overnight in case they need to push Windows Updates or other software updates.