That is the question. I almost never turn off the computer, but sometimes flick it off for just a second or two. Is this bad for it? Does it need rest? Thanks!
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Since there are a couple of questions here, let’s break it down int two:
**Does it matter how long a computer is powered off for?**
Yes, sort of. Some of the electronics inside the computer can hold energy for a brief period of time. These components aren’t enough to actually power the computer, but they can hold a small amount of voltage for a short period of time (usually a few seconds). In the context of restarting your computer for the purposes of troubleshooting an issue, it’s mostly immaterial. I’ve been doing IT work for literal decades. I can count on one hand the number of times that I had to worry about it at this level. There were a couple of unique cases where I had to unplug the device, press the power button to create a load (this immediately drains any power stored within the circuit), then plug it back in.
If you power a device off, count to 10, then turn it back in, that is generally sufficient except for *extremely* rare circumstances.
**Do electronics need rest?**
Most electronic components have no moving parts. The CPU in your computer, for example, has no moving parts on anything above an atomic scale. That is to say, there are electrons moving around, but that is it. As you use them, they heat up, but as long as this heat remains constant, they don’t experience wear at any rate that is relevant for the typical lifespan of a computer.
This is the story for most of the components in your computer. They get warm during operation, but as long as they stay at a steady-ish temperature, they’ll last a really long time. Turning a computer off allows it to cool down. As the components cool down, they shrink a little bit, then they expand again when they warm up. If the components are heated up and cooled down repeatedly, this expansion/contraction can weaken the soldered connections between components and the board they’re connected to. In this way, a computer that is run constantly actually has a pretty good chance at long life.
There are, however, some components that do have moving parts. Hard disk drives, for example, have spinning metal platters and moving parts inside. The more these run the sooner they wear out. However, the drives have mechanisms to shut the drive down when not in use. Most computers use SSD (solid state drives) these days, so this is less of a concern.
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