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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In most cases there is little to no difference. However in certain rarer situations you do need to wait longer to make sure the capacitors are fully empty. Like if you need to open up the computer it is best to leave it unplugged for a few minutes to make sure the capacitors are drained because it is better safe than sorry.
Another situation is something my IT mentor called “letting the demons out”, sometimes with less than common hardware (beta builds, custom boards, or just old stuff) or in weird failure cases your system didn’t shutdown properly and the firmware bugs out, so you let it sit unplugged for 5-10 minutes and then start it up and it works, sometimes you even remove the CMOS clock battery to make sure everything is nice and clear (this can require you to fix the computer’s clock if it doesn’t use network time).
I don’t see that anyone’s addressed the possibility of thermal stress for spinning hard drives. [switch to ELI5 mode] Metal expands when heated and shrinks when cooled. Constantly expanding and shrinking the metal in your hard drive by turning on and off your PC may cause it to wear out more quickly than simply leaving it on.
For the most part, computer hardware doesn’t care about what time it is. So wall clock time is something that is mostly for your benefit, or for knowing that a particular moment is the best opportunity for doing something that would annoy the user if they were there at the same time. Time.
Now that said, lots of things can expire like licenses and tasks and stuff. Like if you have a certificate that’s only good till January 4th 2023 then the computer needs to know when it’s January 5th 2023 to make sure that it isn’t using the expired stuff .
As far as intervals not running or powered down, that the only difference that makes is letting everything cool off.
And then there is the caveat to this. Some things are maintained in the computer by a capacitor power. When’s you turn something off and turn it back on again the rule of thumb is at least 10 seconds to let those capacitors discharge.
If anything more complicated than that is going on then you probably got something wrong with your hardware.
For example, while working on a particular system some years ago, the ACPI chipset would get set into an odd state while being powered down. It would wait for a user to push the power on button before it would start back up but the hardware didn’t have a power on button. The hardware was getting sent back and forth to the vendor because it couldn’t be to power back on again but when it arrived at the vendor’s place it worked fine.
That was because in the 7 days it took to get from the customer to the vendor. Something would finally finish discharging and the ACPI chipset would be back to zero power state.
Aside: we did not keep the hardware.
When you tell your computer to reboot it’s usually off, once it actually powered down, for like a second before it reboots. If my computer freezes up or becomes totally unresponsive where I have to hold the power button or unplug it, I usually count to 10 before I restart. Not sure if it’s needed or not, that’s just what I do.
Rule of thumb – 10 secs after if appears completely “dead” that way all electronics are discharged before you press the power on again. Sure you can wait less time but the risks go up that it will not boot clean or there is residual power that could cause a surge on the board.
Leave the computer off for 10-20 seconds so that all the components inside get the chance to lose the power they have, since some parts can stay on for a couple of second. After that it doesn’t matter if you leave it off for 10 seconds or a year.
Also keep in mind that this doesn’t just apply to computers, all electronics do this to dinner extent, so if you want to be sure, give them a few seconds before plugging them back in.
The comments are horseshit. You can unplug the PC, then press the power-on button, and THEN all the capacitors are definitely empty. The fans may even spin a little.
But they don’t actually need to be empty, and it does not have a damaging effect. That’s why you can turn it off and on as quickly as you want to, and if you really have some problems (never happened in my life, but always do it before you open it), you can do it as I described. Unplug and hold the power button.
Why do some people have their pc on for 24/7?
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