Why do people not shut down PC's?

[xrobwx71]

In an age where energy bills are going up, climate change is in the news every day, why aren't more people just shutting down their PC's when they aren't in use? These "stand by" or "hibernation" modes do exist, but why not just shut down if you don't plan to use your PC for a good few hours? I've yet to see any legitimate reason for home owners to not shut down their PC's and yet every day I see people make comments that they don't shut their PC down. Why? 

 

I do shutdown my PC after I use it, unless I am going to eat and go right back after. My specs are such that the boot time is only about 30-40 seconds to get to a usable state. Win 8.1 Pro on my particular machine boots fast. I also am a clean freak when it comes to a tidy computer. I have almost no 3rd party software that starts up and i have disabled many services that are defaulted to automatic based on BlackViper's suggestions. http://www.blackviper.com/

[FiB3R]

In which case a lot of posters in this thread have very small penises.

... I mean that's the correlation you were referring to, correct?

Haven't tallied up, but yeah, I'll go with that :)

[leesmithg]

In an age where energy bills are going up, climate change is in the news every day, why aren't more people just shutting down their PC's when they aren't in use? These "stand by" or "hibernation" modes do exist, but why not just shut down if you don't plan to use your PC for a good few hours? I've yet to see any legitimate reason for home owners to not shut down their PC's and yet every day I see people make comments that they don't shut their PC down. Why? 

I put my PC into sleep.

 

Unless Windows updates request a reboot.

 

I use sleep, as it saves on electricity and wear and tear on the components.

 

The amount of energy to reboot a PC would be a lot more energy than use of a staying on PC for a week.

 

Everyone should put their PC into sleep, saves energy and time.

 

 

 

[Joe User]

I have a sleep button on the keyboard, so I hit that when I'm done working. It hibernates shortly after.

 

From an energy standpoint hibernate and shutdown are exactly the same on a modern computer. 

 

I may just re-map the sleep button to hibernate directly, there are very few times I wake the computer up after hitting the button.

[PGHammer]

Let's not forget that many maintenance tasks are typically scheduled to run overnight.  Windows Update checks for and installs new patches if available, system backups, full system virus scans, etc.  I sure as heck don't want these things to run when I'm using the computer but if I shut the system down when I'm done they will have to or they won't run at all.

Not only are most updates (via WU) published overnight (the case back to NT 4.x and ftp.microsoft.com), it's also when bandwidth is used least, making it the best time to grab those piggy downloads if you aren't torrenting.  On the subject of electricity use, that is also when power is cheapest (businesses that use large amounts of electricity are typically down in the "vulture period" (2200-0500 local time)), making it cheaper from a cost standpoint to run those tasks then also.

[froggyliver]

-AV runs scheduled scans at night

-Windows updates run at night so they don't bother me

-If I need my computer remotely I can get to it

-Computers don't really use much electricity now

-Powering it off just to help Go Green is a crap reason

[Sandor]

My home PC is usually on for maybe 6 hrs or so a day during the week. Seems pointless to have it on doing essentially nothing for the other 18 hours.

 

I wouldn't leave a light on just because I'm too lazy to flick a switch. I wouldn't leave heating or air con on if I'm not at home. I wouldn't leave my car running while I run into the store because I'm too lazy to turn the ignition when I get back. Seems stupid therefore to leave my PC running for most of the day when I'm not there.

 

I found the "it uses so little power" comments interesting. That's true...until millions of people use that same approach. The total power "waste" becomes enormous. It might only cost you a few dollars a year in "extra power" but that'll equate to a lot of coal, gas, oil, uranium for no practical reason whatsoever.

 

Similarly "i can't wait" comments. Hilarious excuses. A decent PC even with mechanical drives will boot up in well under a minute. You must all be really popular with the girls if you can't wait a minute.

[CosmicPoop]

I think my PC has been running nonstop for at LEAST 6 months...  :wacko:

[y2k2r2d2]

For Bittorrent

[xWhiplash]

I thought SSD were not supposed to be "slept"?

 

I shut down because it may only be ?1 a year leaving it on, but that ?1 I'd rather spend on a large chocolate bar or drink...

 

Plus, I am simply not a wasteful person.  A PC being on doing nothing for me may as well be off.  SSD boots in under 20 seconds so I can wait that long while I turn the speakers on behind me.

 

This is the first time I am hearing this.  What makes you think SSDs should not be put to sleep?

[srbeen]

It does things in my absence on my behalf.

 

For a real answer though, shutting down and power up electronics can be hard on them due to the heat they create. If you get your computer hot then shut it down, and keep repeating, it stresses the components more than remaining at a consistent temperature. Microsofts 360 was a good example of that, as when you shut down hot things and remove their cooling they actually get hotter before they cool. In addition to this, waiting 60-90 seconds to boot and login to just check your mail isn't fun, so those without SSDs opt for sleep/hibernate with a 5 sec-resume time.

[evieluvsrainbows]

I believe most laptops will stop charging the battery once its topped up and remain powered by the mains till enough power has drained from the battery.

Oh, so that's why my laptop keeps going to "not charging" and then once it hits 95% it recharges. Thanks!

[Lord Method Man]

 

For a real answer though, shutting down and power up electronics can be hard on them due to the heat they create. If you get your computer hot then shut it down, and keep repeating, it stresses the components more than remaining at a consistent temperature.

 

Yep, and 90% of all electronic component failures occur at one of two times: Powering on and powering off.

[neufuse Veteran]

Can't be ####ed waiting for it to boot.  

how long does it take for your system to boot? heck I start mine from cold every morning and it takes a whole 15 seconds to get from power on to desktop...

[metallithrax]

At work my PC is always left on, as most of the time I have things running overnight - OCR, image adjustments etc.

 

At home the only time I leave my PC on is if I am downloading or if I want to watch something that is on my PC on my phone while I am in bed.

[Deihmos]

Standby uses about 1 watt for me. That's about $1.00 a year. I never shut down the PC.

[dragon2611]

I usually shut my home pc off at night, but not if I know I'm going to use it again shortly.

 

Home Microserver is usually off these-days, But I keep a Nas running but that's about it for home.

That said I have a load of servers running 24x7 in co-lo including a couple that really do spend a lot of their life idling away.

[spikey_richie]

Seems I'm in the minority here. I shut my PC down when I've finished with it; I use it for maybe 1-2hrs a day on average so why have it sat there doing nothing for 22-23 hours running up my electricity bill? I have an SSD boot disk and a UEFI BIOS so from cold start I can be on the desktop in about 12 seconds. I used to leave the PC on 24/7 when I crunched for WCG but I stopped crunching a few years ago due to the cost and excessive heat in the summer.

[Dot Matrix]

You don't shut down a tablet, nor do you shut down a smartphone. So why still shut down a PC? Shut down has little meaning today than it once had.

[Lord Method Man]

The last time I regularly "shut down" my PC was when the case had a huge red throw switch on the side to turn it off. I think I had also just recently got a fancy "Sound Blaster" add on card that allowed my PC to produce real sound instead of those "PC Speaker" beeps.

[spikey_richie]

You don't shut down a tablet, nor do you shut down a smartphone. So why still shut down a PC? Shut down has little meaning today than it once had.

 

Your PC doesn't run off batteries. If my tablet or smartphone was wired directly to the mains, I'd shut it down too.

[spikey_richie]

Uptime directly correlates with penis size. Thought everybody knew this!?

 

Actually it's an inverse exponential function.

[+Warwagon MVC]

My quickbooks computer is a laptop that runs with the lid closed that is accessed via RDP from all my other computers.. I always have it on so when a customer wakes me up in the morning I can go straight to my computer and not have the customer wait while I turn my computers on.

[+JHBrown Subscriber¹]

I understand most points here about keeping the computer on. I fail to understand those folks who use boot time as an excuse. My computer boots in seconds. Are we now living in a world where people can't wait a few seconds for something? That is pretty disturbing when you think about it. There is no reason that the average/gamer user can't wait a few seconds.

[+JHBrown Subscriber¹]

Actually it's an inverse exponential function.

Awww! That takes me back to my Algebra 2 days.