Should I leave my computer on or turn it off?

My son gets on my case about turning my computer on and off during the day when I'm not using it. He says it's bad for the computer. He never turns his computer off, even at night which I think is a terrible waste of electricity.

What do you think Techno Gurus?

Should you leave it on?
Should you turn it off?
Well pgrisman this is a very good question that will require analysis of your usage of your computer.

If you happen to be running a home server from your computer, or dial into your computer remotely, then it is OK to keep your computer running. It does not sound like you are running a home server.

If you are not using your computer, you should TURN IT OFF. Its a waste of energy like leaving lights on in rooms you aren't in. Most Operating Systems have power or energy settings that put the computer in sleep mode after some time. I would advise you set that up if your computer takes a while to boot up.

Personally I leave my computer on all the time, however my computer is contributing to valuable research. When I am not using my computer, my cpu goes to work helping to solve complex scientific problems. You can find out how to use your computer for scientific research athttp://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/

Best of luck to ya!
:D :wink:

Thank you for the response, GuruLloyd. I don't think I am using a home server, since I don't even know what that is. (Unless it's something my son set up for me, who knows!) :lol:

My computer does take a few minutes to boot up now that you mention it. When I don't use it for a little while, I get a screen that looks like an aquarium with fish swimming around. Is this the sleep mode you are talking about? And does my computer use less energy when this aquarium is on?

Thank you again for your help.

pgrisman, that screen is the "screen saver". It protects your monitor from burn in. The power settings cab be found by
Right Clicking on the desktop and slecting "properties" This will bring up the Display Properties. You will see a tab labled "screen saver" select that tab and look at the bottom. You should see a button named "power". That is where you want to make your adustments.

Cheers,
Robb

When I don't use it for a little while, I get a screen that looks like an aquarium with fish swimming around. Is this the sleep mode you are talking about? And does my computer use less energy when this aquarium is on?

Thanks Robb for chiming in on this one. Your computer uses about the same amount of energy whether the screen saver is on or off. The screen saver is used to prevent phosphorus burn-in on monitors. You may have heard of or seen this burn-in happen with older monitors where a "ghost" of the screen burns into the screen when the screen is on and inactive for a long period of time. To prevent this, screen savers blank out the screen, or display moving images so the ghosting won't occur. (in your case you have pretty fish swimming around).

Right Clicking on the desktop and selecting "properties" This will bring up the Display Properties. You will see a tab labeled "screen saver" select that tab and look at the bottom. You should see a button named "power". That is where you want to make your adjustments.

If you do not want to turn your computer on and off all the time, just follow the directions Robb provided above.
[img:53c820199bhttp://www.artsprintshop.com/power-scrnshoot.gif[/
Once you are at the Power Options Screen, you will notice drop down boxes for System Standby and System hibernates (example shown above).

The System standby shuts off your computer, but leaves enough power on to keep all your programs in memory. So when you return from standby mode, you do not have to wait for Windows to load, and everything you were doing before it went to standby mode will still be active. This saves on power so adjust this setting to a half hour to an hour.

If you really want to save power, select a time for your system to hibernate. In hibernation mode, the computer turns off completely, and saves your current session to the hard drive. When you return from hibernation, your computer will re-load all the programs and files you had running before hibernation mode.

If you have any other questions, please do not hesitate to ask.

Best of luck to ya!
GuruLloyd :D

Thank you very much for the help, Robb and Lloyd! And for the picture of the screen so I know what to look for. I usually get nervous when I see screens like that and worry that I'm going to mess something up!

I changed my computer so it will hibernate after I don't use it for a couple hours. My son will be so impressed with me! :wink: