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low rated
Do you:
* Leave it running
* Put it to sleep (suspend) (uses a low amount of power, and awakens quickly)
* Hibernate it (computer saves its state, shuts down, and loads it on resume; uses no power when off)
* Shut it down completely
* Something else I haven't accounted for?

Edit: Why the low rating here?
Post edited January 14, 2021 by dtgreene
I've found suspend and Hibernate to be exceptionally unstable in my uses of them, so the first thing I do is usually disable those features. I'll leave my PC running most of the time.
Computer... Not using it... Rare situation :P

Shut it down
Let my neighbor use her
Depends on what you mean by not using it.

My PC is usually in one of three states.

1. Me actually sitting in front of it and using it.
2. Left to download/convert/scan something, unattended ... might have it set to shutdown when finished.
3. Turned off completely ... don't like sleep or hibernate.

I don't like leaving it on and unattended if it isn't busy doing something productive.
In reality, as a retired fireman, I really don't like leaving it unattended full stop when on ... shit happens. But so long as I ain't asleep and are about the place, then usually I don't mind leaving it on if it is being productive.
I shut it down when not in use or if eating dinner or doing a fast errand, I would let the pc hit it's screen saver within 5 minutes to prevent burn in and let it go black screen till I get back.
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dtgreene: * Something else I haven't accounted for?
You missed "unplug it", because even when "off" or "shut down", it's still using power if all you do is a standard shutdown.
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dtgreene: Do you:
* Leave it running
* Put it to sleep (suspend) (uses a low amount of power, and awakens quickly)
* Hibernate it (computer saves its state, shuts down, and loads it on resume; uses no power when off)
* Shut it down completely
* Something else I haven't accounted for?
Shut it down completely, Due to severe weather in my part (think almost hurricane) 99.999% of the time bad weather!
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paladin181: I've found suspend and Hibernate to be exceptionally unstable in my uses of them, so the first thing I do is usually disable those features. I'll leave my PC running most of the time.
It's gonna explode!
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dtgreene: * Something else I haven't accounted for?
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eric5h5: You missed "unplug it", because even when "off" or "shut down", it's still using power if all you do is a standard shutdown.
??? you unplug it does your power points have little flip switches?
Post edited January 12, 2021 by fr33kSh0w2012
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dtgreene: Do you:
* Leave it running
* Put it to sleep (suspend) (uses a low amount of power, and awakens quickly)
* Hibernate it (computer saves its state, shuts down, and loads it on resume; uses no power when off)
* Shut it down completely
* Something else I haven't accounted for?
I am very conscious about power consumption. Which is why I only use laptops. I leave my ROG on sleep mode when not in use during short breaks. I shut it down completely otherwise.

My job, prior to the pandemic, required a lot of travel. I don't miss using a desktop much. Prefer laptops, 2 in 1s, and tablets as a digital nomad.

I am intrigued by the new m1 macbook air, due to its very efficient auto sleep and auto wake design. Seems like a great work laptop.
Post edited January 12, 2021 by Lionel212008
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eric5h5: You missed "unplug it", because even when "off" or "shut down", it's still using power if all you do is a standard shutdown.
Yes, but the more you have it disconnected, the sooner the CMOS (BIOS) battery will die.
I'd only recommend full disconnection (unplugged, not just the powerpoint switch) if away from home for an extended period or during a severe storm.

P.S. I guess if you update your PC every few years and get rid of it, the CMOS battery is unlikely to impact you.
Why would you leave it running? Turn it off. You'll save money on your power bill and it keeps the house cooler.
low rated
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dtgreene: * Something else I haven't accounted for?
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eric5h5: You missed "unplug it", because even when "off" or "shut down", it's still using power if all you do is a standard shutdown.
Would this work for computers that have batteries, or would they still be using a tiny amount of power from the battery?
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dtgreene: Do you:
* Leave it running
* Put it to sleep (suspend) (uses a low amount of power, and awakens quickly)
* Hibernate it (computer saves its state, shuts down, and loads it on resume; uses no power when off)
* Shut it down completely
* Something else I haven't accounted for?
avatar
fr33kSh0w2012: Shut it down completely, Due to severe weather in my part (think almost hurricane) 99.999% of the time bad weather!
Hibernating (or even something like the hybrid sleep feature found in Linux, where it saves the state to disk and then suspends) would still prevent data corruption in case of a power outage.

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DoomSooth: it keeps the house cooler.
Where I am, at this time of year that would be a negative, not a positive.
Post edited January 12, 2021 by dtgreene
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Timboli: I'd only recommend full disconnection (unplugged, not just the powerpoint switch) if away from home for an extended period or during a severe storm.
Yes, that's what I do. Just pointing out that "off" isn't really off.

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DoomSooth: Why would you leave it running?
Because you have a spinning HD and sitting around waiting for your computer to boot every time you want to use it is a pain. Far less of an issue with SSDs now.

You'll save money on your power bill and it keeps the house cooler.
Keeping the house cooler isn't necessarily a plus, depending on location and time of year. ;)

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dtgreene: Would this work for computers that have batteries, or would they still be using a tiny amount of power from the battery?
I don't really know much about how notebooks work, as I only use desktops.
Post edited January 12, 2021 by eric5h5
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dtgreene: * Shut it down completely
Shut it down completely. On my Windows 10 PCs, I routinely go to change the power option to disable "fast boot" which prevents the computer from shutting down completely. I also disable "hibernate" if there is such an option, as I don't want to keep any hibernate file around.

Yeah yeah my boot up times are somewhat longer then, who cares, I normally boot up the computer once a day, and with fast SSDs it doesn't really matter.

A friend of mine (actually my sister's husband) who is not that technically-minded, called me a couple of months ago, saying that he urgently needs help. He was supposed to start a MS Teams meeting with his clients (he has his own company) but his trackpad is not working so he can't move the mouse at all. (He didn't have an external mouse in use, not sure if it would have helped.)

So I was helping him by the phone, telling him how to navigate without a mouse (Alt, Tab, whatever is needed), we went to check the driver status in the control panel etc., to no avail.

Then I asked him "Have you tried to restart your PC?". He said "I have shut it down and started it again, but the problem doesn't go away.".

Then it suddenly hit me: "Oh, it is Windows 10? By default, shutting it down doesn't really shut it down properly but just puts it in that weird hibernate state so that it would start faster. Instead of "shutting it down", try to restart it instead."

He did, and the problem went away, and he could start his Teams meeting with mere minutes to spare, phew!

So, yeah. The default behavior of Windows 10 where it doesn't properly shut itself down means that certain problems can persist through the boots, UNLESS you separately restart the system once in a while (because only then it reboots properly).

All the more reason for me to change that stupid setting to properly shut the system down. At least it always clears that kind of stupid problems that my friend was having.


EDIT: The only computer which I keep running "24/7" (or at least for several days or even weeks) without rebooting or shutting it down is my Raspberry Pi4. I usually reboot it only if I run a system update like every few weeks (sudo apt update and sudo apt full-upgrade, and then reboot).

EDIT2: Oh, and the Android tablet and the phones, if you consider those as computers.
Post edited January 12, 2021 by timppu
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timppu: EDIT: The only computer which I keep running "24/7" (or at least several days or even weeks) without rebooting or shutting it down is my Raspberry Pi4. I usually reboot it only if I run a system update like every few weeks (sudo apt update and sudo apt full-upgrade, and then reboot).
I only restart the Raspberry Pi 4 if the update is to the kernel or eeprom; anything else I just leave it running, unless I need to unplug it.