[CAT] Scratching Post

I got a question for you dudes: what, in your mind, are practices that are harmful to your PC? For example, ChodaGirl has had her laptop since January 2006 I think. She probably turned off the thing 4 times, restarted it about the same amount of times. To me it's common sense, when I don't use my PC, to turn it off... maybe I'm way off but I was always under the impression that somehow, the PC's life expectancy is not infinite, and so if you always keep it on while you're not using it, clearly it'll die much earlier than it should. I just wonder if doing that could actually "damage" it to the sense that its performances would decline, and if so, what it is due to. Frying the CPU's transistors one after the other? She's been complaining non-stop lately that it's just too slow, which it didn't use to be, but I'm thinking "it probably got less than a month of rest all combined in over 3 1/2 years, it's probably just tired!!!".

Oh well, I ordered more and faster memory just in case... if that doesn't help, I suppose she'll move on to rough around another laptop...

I never turn my machine off. I guess it's really a toss up. Moving parts like your fans and CPU have so many hours of life in them, so leaving the machine running will shorten the life of those parts. However, turning a machine on and off risks damage from parts expanding and contracting as the machine heats up and cools down. <-- not sure if that's true, but that's what I've heard.

The moving parts have a life span, as Kenny says, but as long as things don't overheat the machine can stay on as long as you can afford to pay the light bill.

It used to be that it was better to leave it running - Starting up and shutting down stresses components out.

However with all the fans that are in a machine nowadays I'm not sure if that's the case. I guess you can replace fans more easily than fried components.

I give the bitch a rest when I'm not using it. More of a save energy than worried about shelf life.

What kind of spyware/malware/ant-virus does she have on there? In my experience fixing suddenly "slow" machines for relatives, it's always cos they can't resist animated cursors or web toolbars that come along with a boatload of spyware/malware. What kind of surfing habits does Chodagirl have? Is she net-savvy?

I go back and forth about whether to let my PC run or turn it off. I'm not so much worried about stress on the machine as added $$ out the door in my electric bill.

The slow factor is prolly coming down to the OS. its more than likely bogged down with who knows what. after so much shit is on there, even anti-spyware programs won't catch it all. Best idea would be to do a complete wipe IMO.

And i've run my same processor for coming up on six years now (nearly every day, only turning off when i go out of town), so I doubt that age has much to do with the slowness.

Koz makes a good point. When was the last time the OS was reinstalled fresh? There's just no getting around the necessity of doing that at least once a year, if not every 6 months.

I do it every three months, or there about. There's nothing like that fresh OS feeling.

I wonder if Summer's Eve makes an OS?

Kenny is lying. he doesn't reinstall every 3 months, he completely changes his OS every 3 months.

Once a year on my boxes. Never for the wife. Reinstalling and updating a PC in another language is a total pain in the ass....Though I just switched her to Windows 7 and that was pretty easy.

OS is windows 7, installed a couple of months ago max... I ordered more ram for her, twice as much and faster, we'll see how that goes. She's pretty net savvy, won't download any shit and she keeps her programs to a minimum...

I'm torn on the 'leave it on all the time' question. I've had industrial workstations that have been up 99.9999% of the time over the last 8 years (we're talking first-generation Pentium 2's here that I worked on in 2006) that are still running strong. And I've had machines that fried completely in 2.

More than anything, what causes the physical parts to fail is environment. In a sealed unit that's kept at a fairly even temperature (though ours used to run on the higher side, working in a printing plant and all), as was said, you're not stressing the parts by expansion and contraction.

Honestly, I think of it like a incandescent lightbulb. When do they normally blow? When you turn it on or turn it off.

Myself, I keep my machines in standby mode mostly. There's still power flowing through the machine, just not nearly as much as regular mode. It's been a happy medium that hasn't caused any problems. Hell, they only hardware I've had of my own machines that's failed was an 8800GTS that I overclocked the shit out of constantly.

Mmmh... just for energy consumption principles, I turn it off when I'm not using it. I see it like a light bulb: I don't leave the light on in a room when I leave. Less extreme, but when I'm not using my PC, I turn it off...

Anyway, installed a couple of gigs of memory, faster than the lone gig she had before, and she says it works like a charm now...

the memory was a good idea. I had a buddy who bought a laptop with just 1 gig in it and he was complaining it was slow. doubled to 2 gigs and it seemed to help out. It was a couple years back like that one, so it makes sense i suppose.

I think laptop makers purposely set it with a small amount to try and entice you to upgrade through them when you originally purchase it. a pity most people don't bother until they use it and its "slow."