# How long is too long to leave a computer on??



## grazhopper (Jun 1, 2006)

In general how long is too long to leave a computer on for before the parts get overheated or damaged? I'm not really asking for too specific just on average.


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## bigsaucybob (Jun 1, 2006)

Well you have a nice case and probably sufficent cooling. Once you leave it on for a certain amount of time it will probably shut itself off or hibernate or standby. I dont see why you couldnt just leave it sitting there for a week at a time.


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## grazhopper (Jun 1, 2006)

wow.. I'm glad i asked because I've been really consiencious(dunno how to spell that) about leaving my comp on. Thankx


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## Shady (Jun 1, 2006)

i left my computer for a week without a restart 
and for more with restarting ....
it's no big deal and i have stock cooling and a crappy PSU
here it is  





and a friend of mine even got it for 9 days  (we keep records )


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## dragon2309 (Jun 2, 2006)

shadyi said:
			
		

> and a friend of mine even got it for 9 days  (we keep records )


your friend has just cheated you, connected for 9 days, ok, thats more than possible, not a problem, but just take a look at the packets sent and recieved.... that connection has been on for a max of about 10 hours... unless your friend makes a habit of turning his PC on, then not touching a single thing, blocking every program from internet access and just letting it sit... no way in hell is that right.... i hear the clickety click of a photoshop mouse....

dragon


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## Geoff (Jun 2, 2006)

bigsaucybob said:
			
		

> Well you have a nice case and probably sufficent cooling. Once you leave it on for a certain amount of time it will probably shut itself off or hibernate or standby. I dont see why you couldnt just leave it sitting there for a week at a time.


Why do you say it will shut off?

It really doesnt get much hotter after being on for a day than if it was on for a few hours.  The longest time i kept my computer on for was about 18 days or so, i only had to restart it because i installed some new programs



			
				dragon2309 said:
			
		

> your friend has just cheated you, connected for 9 days, ok, thats more than possible, not a problem, but just take a look at the packets sent and recieved.... that connection has been on for a max of about 10 hours... unless your friend makes a habit of turning his PC on, then not touching a single thing, blocking every program from internet access and just letting it sit... no way in hell is that right.... i hear the clickety click of a photoshop mouse....
> 
> dragon


Whenever you put your computer in standby and then resume it, the time connected stays the same but the packets get cleared.


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## 4W4K3 (Jun 2, 2006)

Parts won't overheat unless you have a serious cooling problem. Even with stock cooling, simply sitting idle you should be able to leave the PC on for weeks at a time. It may bog down if you're constantly saving stuff and doing alot of intense work, but thats not the question 

Just don't leave the monitor on for that long. Burned in images are a pain.


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## dragon2309 (Jun 2, 2006)

> [ Whenever you put your computer in standby and then resume it, the time connected stays the same but the packets get cleared.


that maybe the case but putting your PC into standby doesnt exactly fit in with the rules of keeping your PC on for the longest time.... cos its in standby, surely thats cheating....

dragon


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## bigsaucybob (Jun 2, 2006)

[-0MEGA-] said:
			
		

> Why do you say it will shut off?



His power settings might be set to turn off the computer after a certain amount of time.


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## Shady (Jun 2, 2006)

dragon2309 said:
			
		

> your friend has just cheated you, connected for 9 days, ok, thats more than possible, not a problem, but just take a look at the packets sent and recieved.... that connection has been on for a max of about 10 hours... unless your friend makes a habit of turning his PC on, then not touching a single thing, blocking every program from internet access and just letting it sit... no way in hell is that right.... i hear the clickety click of a photoshop mouse....
> 
> dragon


no he didnt
he doesnt have internet connection 
that's all


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## Yue (Jun 2, 2006)

i had mine on for close to two months and had no problems.


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## m0nk3ys1ms (Jun 2, 2006)

longest ive ever went is maybe 2 weeks


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## SC7 (Jun 2, 2006)

I had a PIII rig that I didn't care about, ran W2K Server, I had it on for Several months at a time, never went down.


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## diduknowthat (Jun 2, 2006)

We use to never turn off the downstairs dell unless it had some serious crash, we've left it on months at a time without issues.


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## SC7 (Jun 2, 2006)

I don't leave my main one on because it's in my bedroom, and it's too loud to sleep with.  My parents, for leaving theirs on forever at a time, it now has on and off high pitched buzzing sounds, I gotta fix it for them somehow.


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## bigsaucybob (Jun 2, 2006)

It seems like each person contiunes to beat the next.



> i had mine on for close to two months and had no problems.





> I had a PIII rig that I didn't care about, ran W2K Server, I had it on for Several months at a time, never went down.





> We use to never turn off the downstairs dell unless it had some serious crash, we've left it on months at a time without issues.



Well, I had some computer that I left on for two years. Any takers?


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## SC7 (Jun 2, 2006)

bigsaucybob said:
			
		

> It seems like each person contiunes to beat the next.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Several months, I just said that because it was a fileserver system.  If I ran my day to day applications on it, (aka my desktop), it would be too slow to operate after more than a week (longest my desktops ever been)


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## Geoff (Jun 2, 2006)

I think it's hard to keep a computer on for that amount of time, mainly because if you install something it needs to be restarted for some programs.  And most likely your computer will turn off from a power outage or surge.


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## Arm_Pit3 (Jun 2, 2006)

The only time my computer is turned off is uring power outages and matince, other then that it stays on for months at a time. No problems, I have a nice heatsink and fan for my CPU and i dont have any overheating problems.


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## 4W4K3 (Jun 2, 2006)

I turn my laptop off at night. Being new I'm paranoid it will overheat. Even though I gamed on it for a good 2-3 hours straight and the keyboard was barely even warm. It's got a pretty good cooling solution, vents all along the bottom and the risers along the bottom also help.


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## Eric Richards (Jun 2, 2006)

As I understand it, The computer would be better off left on all the time, to stop it heating up and cooling down causing metal fatigue.

However a computer serviceman told me even if you turned on your computer and did nothing with it windows operating system slowly corrupts itself, I can believe this my last boss used to leave the computer going after a day or so of Windows 98se it became a "pain in the A____" (PITA) to use, until I rebooted it to save my hair, and a blow out in blood pressure .  

This makes LINUX a clear winner for keeping the computer on and not having to reboot it. 

--- more ---
So what I am saying my boss used to leave his computer going all the time, it is just that it had to be rebooted all the time.


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## Shady (Jun 2, 2006)

2 years without a blackout ?
that's hard to believe 
anyway i guess this thread made it's point
which is leave it as long as you want


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## apj101 (Jun 2, 2006)

> 2 years without a blackout ?


ups


i've seen machines surpass though figures, they aren;t mine though


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## Christian Darrall (Jun 2, 2006)

i have a server in the loft and that gets left on 24/7 and that has been running no stop for over 2years and it works fine


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## Dr Studly (Jun 2, 2006)

u can leave it on as long as u want... i just recomend restarting it after windows updates and isntalling certain programs/drivers


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## Parky_007 (Jun 3, 2006)

Well Linux beats them all, longest has been just over 3 years: http://counter.li.org/reports/uptimestats.php.

It would help that the only thing you need to restart for is kernal updates.

Rowan.


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## BigBrains57 (Jun 3, 2006)

Here is how long mine's been on....


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## Filip (Jun 3, 2006)

BigBrains57 said:
			
		

> Here is how long mine's been on....



Nice, you running a pre-ENIAC?


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## Holiday (Jun 3, 2006)

Mine stays on all the time, it only get rebooted when I install software that requires it to be, or if I have to install new hardware.

Mines been on for well over two weeks before, but what's the good of a comp if u don't install new stuff!

(O and well actually, the air conditioners in the back room flipped the circuit breaker a few days ago.. Man I need a battery backup.)


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## Markware17 (Jun 3, 2006)

I've had a few of my FreeBSD servers at work run for around 3 years . My Windows servers do need to be "refreshed" once and awhile as with any Microsoft operating system. The longest I've got with Windows Server 2003 before an update forced a restart was ~ 30 days.


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## SC7 (Jun 3, 2006)

Some people here are talking hardware, others software.  I don't see the big deal to have to restart a desktop every once and a while, I'll take that few restarts over having to deal with the hassles of linux, and hours it takes to compile certain applications.  As for hardware, yes, the heating and cooling may take it's toll, but so does leaving the electricity running through, fans constantly spinning, hard drives spinning for most of the times, as the system may run certain tasks, PSU constantly working out that power.  It all really depends on the specific situation.  It's probably a marignal difference anyway, 9 times out of 10 my PCs become obsolete before they go down.


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## Holiday (Jun 4, 2006)

SC7 said:
			
		

> Some people here are talking hardware, others software.  I don't see the big deal to have to restart a desktop every once and a while, I'll take that few restarts over having to deal with the hassles of linux, and hours it takes to compile certain applications.  As for hardware, yes, the heating and cooling may take it's toll, but so does leaving the electricity running through, fans constantly spinning, hard drives spinning for most of the times, as the system may run certain tasks, PSU constantly working out that power.  It all really depends on the specific situation.  It's probably a marignal difference anyway, 9 times out of 10 my PCs become obsolete before they go down.



If u upgrade, your pc will last a lot longer.


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## SC7 (Jun 4, 2006)

???, I upgrade often, I just usually replace every single part at the point before it goes down.


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## Parky_007 (Jun 4, 2006)

Linux isn't a "hassle". It's a choice, a different way of doing things.

And what program did you try that took hours to compile? Oh, you didn't!


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## SC7 (Jun 4, 2006)

Parky_007 said:
			
		

> Linux isn't a "hassle". It's a choice, a different way of doing things.
> 
> And what program did you try that took hours to compile? Oh, you didn't!


Yes, it's a choice, but even the die hard linux fans will admit, it's still in a stage where it's a hassle for all new users.  Yes, I do use linux, and why don't you read about open office.  It takes several hours to compile from source.  Think through your posts before you attack someone on an unwarranted cause.


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## Arm_Pit3 (Jun 4, 2006)

I use linux(and windows, windows mainly, becuase i mainly game, but when im not gaming on linux), it was not a hassle at al, from installing to using, also use open office(on linux and windows, since its free  ) It does not take hours for me.


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## SC7 (Jun 4, 2006)

Arm_Pit said:
			
		

> I use linux(and windows, windows mainly, becuase i mainly game, but when im not gaming on linux), it was not a hassle at al, from installing to using, also use open office(on linux and windows, since its free  ) It does not take hours for me.


Bull it's not a hassle.  Either you only use provided software, or you judge the install from source not a hassle.  Getting an iPod to work isn't a hassle.  Modifying every last file isn't a hassle, getting an app to behave the proper way isn't a hassle, playing a dvd isn't a hassle.  Most of this stuff, I presume was built into the distro, what happens when something new comes out before the next distro.  I presume you installed using an RPM or APT get, because portage or compiling OOo from source takes hours to compile once you start it going.


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## DCIScouts (Jun 4, 2006)

I've had my computer for over 4 years, and I have had my compy on for a month straight a couple of times... , most of the time well over a week.


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## Parky_007 (Jun 4, 2006)

> Bull it's not a hassle. Either you only use provided software, or you judge the install from source not a hassle. Getting an iPod to work isn't a hassle. Modifying every last file isn't a hassle, getting an app to behave the proper way isn't a hassle, playing a dvd isn't a hassle. Most of this stuff, I presume was built into the distro, what happens when something new comes out before the next distro. I presume you installed using an RPM or APT get, because portage or compiling OOo from source takes hours to compile once you start it going.



It will only be a hassle if you want it to be.

Why compile Open Office when you don't have to? A lot of distro's have it all ready installed and using APT doesn't take hours to install it. And so what, it might take a while to install. Isn't that worth it at the fact it's FREE, which MS Office isn't.



> Think through your posts before you attack someone on an unwarranted cause.



Yeah, sorry. I was in a bit of a bad mood last night.


Rowan.


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## SC7 (Jun 4, 2006)

Parky_007 said:
			
		

> It will only be a hassle if you want it to be.
> 
> Why compile Open Office when you don't have to? A lot of distro's have it all ready installed and using APT doesn't take hours to install it. And so what, it might take a while to install. Isn't that worth it at the fact it's FREE, which MS Office isn't.


Not every distro has APT or RPM, and may not have it installed.  I may prefer a distro that doesn't have it pre-installed. (slackware), so then you have to compile it from source for every last update which brings very little change.  I don't like the heavy, dumbed down distros that usually include it, such as SuSE or Mandriva.  I prefer Slackware and Gentoo.  I'd still rather pay for MS office, why? It's faster, has many advanced features OOo doesn't.  OOo is great for basics, but I hit roadblocks when I do more advanced stuff.


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## Parky_007 (Jun 4, 2006)

Oh yes, very true.


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## SC7 (Jun 4, 2006)

Parky_007 said:
			
		

> Oh yes, very true.


What is that supposed to mean, that you can't respond to my post?  I still use linux, I just dislike when people try to advocate it as a serious easy alternative for the average joe, because it just isn't at that stage.  I like it's flexibility, but for me, it's just not ready to be my desktop OS.


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## HelpMePlease! (Jun 5, 2006)

One time I left my comp on for I dunno, 3 weeks, and in that span i Recieved like 3,600,000,000 packets


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## beriah (Jun 8, 2006)

i am on a laptop but still i haven shut down or restarted since last chrimas last year which is like 6 monthes


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## Parky_007 (Jun 16, 2006)

SC7 said:
			
		

> What is that supposed to mean, that you can't respond to my post?  I still use linux, I just dislike when people try to advocate it as a serious easy alternative for the average joe, because it just isn't at that stage.  I like it's flexibility, but for me, it's just not ready to be my desktop OS.



It means: Yeah, your right, you win, I'm sorry.


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## jp198780 (Jun 16, 2006)

HelpMePlease! said:
			
		

> One time I left my comp on for I dunno, 3 weeks, and in that span i Recieved like 3,600,000,000 packets



geez, lol, the longest i ever had my laptops and desktops on was a day in a half.


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## Christian Darrall (Jun 17, 2006)

well no offence



> Originally Posted by HelpMePlease!
> One time I left my comp on for I dunno, 3 weeks, and in that span i Recieved like 3,600,000,000 packets



but this seems a bit pointless, 

why would you need to run a computer to run that long,

and a computer can stay on for aslong as it wants to, as long as the tampreture stays idle.


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## jljhlhl (Jun 18, 2006)

Christian Darrall said:
			
		

> well no offence
> why would you need to run a computer to run that long,



Because some people leave it running instead of turning it on/off? I know I would if my parents weren't so uptight about it.


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## Decadence (Jun 18, 2006)

BigBrains57 said:
			
		

> Here is how long mine's been on....


i didnt know they had windows xp 548,000 years ago...learn something new every day


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## apj101 (Jun 18, 2006)

Decadence said:
			
		

> i didnt know they had windows 548,000 years ago...learn something new every day


sure they did


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## Shady (Jun 18, 2006)

oh my GOD i can't believe this is happening 

*apj101* your new style is funny


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## jp198780 (Jun 18, 2006)

apj101, whats the answer 2 your sig?  lol.


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## anil099 (Jun 18, 2006)

> apj101, whats the answer 2 your sig?  lol.


i heard it on a tv show or somewhere...i think it something like "hey you smell carrots?" or am i completely wrong? I think it was on the west wing someone made that joke...or atleast thats where i heard it


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## Shady (Jun 18, 2006)

anil099 said:
			
		

> i heard it on a tv show or somewhere...i think it something like "hey you smell carrots?" or am i completely wrong? I think it was on the west wing someone made that joke...or atleast thats where i heard it


you are not wrong
the answer is also written in his sig
but it white


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## jp198780 (Jun 18, 2006)

ok i see it now lol, i highlighted it, but i dont get it? im a littleslow (not really).


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## anil099 (Jun 18, 2006)

> you are not wrong
> the answer is also written in his sig
> but it white



haha i just went back and checked i donno why but it made me laugh...the fact that it was white...i wudd've never thuoght of that lol



> ok i see it now lol, i highlighted it, but i dont get it? im a littleslow (not really).


 
is that "not really" at the end suppose to say that u got the joke or that your not slow...well just incase i think it is my obligation to let you experience this joke by getting it....you see the question is What did one snowman say to the other? now take into account that most snowmen have a carrot for a nose....my obligation is fulfilled (lol dont mean to piss you off i felt like being a d!cl<


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## apj101 (Jun 18, 2006)

> I think it was on the west wing someone made that joke...or atleast thats where i heard it


its a "lost" reference. Darma replacements in the Swan hatch were identified by knowing the answer to that question, it was how desmond thought locke was his replacement and the guy before desmond asked him the same questions (only losties, like SFR et al, wil get what i just said). Plus it is hilarious


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## anil099 (Jun 19, 2006)

haha ohh yeah...sorry i forgot i watch both shows religously so i had em mixed up...i cudda sworn i heard it on the west wing but now i remember thanks


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