Tech

Is it bad to turn off the PC? Should I leave it on hold instead?

Surely you have ever asked yourself, am I wrong when I turn off the PC? The truth is that This question has been generating doubts for many years to a lot of users, and every time I get it I’m reminded of the sudden terror I felt when I shut down my first PC without waiting for Windows 95 to show me the “it’s now safe to shut down your PC” prompt.

What can I say, it has rained a lot since then. Over time, it was no longer necessary to turn off the equipment manually, that is, pressing the button after executing the corresponding action in the operating system. New ways of using the PC also arrived, such as sleep and hibernation, and these meant that, in the end, many of us ended up not turning off the PC for longer and longer periods of time.

With this change in trend, many questions arose. We have already mentioned one of them, if it is bad to turn off the PC, but this is not the only one, we could also ask ourselves if it is bad to leave the PC in sleep mode for a long time, or if it is a good idea to leave it on and with the screen off without use that mode. It is easy to think, in a general way, that leaving the PC on for hours, doing nothing, is not a problem, and leaving it in sleep is not a problem either, but is it really the case? Let’s find out.

This was the message that Windows 95 showed to shut down the PC

Turning off the PC or leaving it on: Life and wear of components

For years we have seen arguments for and against turning off the PC. Among the most used arguments in favor are the supposed wear suffered by the components with the processes of turning off and on, something that makes some sense, but that for some experts has become “obsolete”, since its impact would be negligible, at least in minimally current equipment. I qualify this because, in theory, the oldest computers are the ones that suffer the most with those power cycles.

On the other hand, we must take into account that when leaving the equipment on wear and tear is also taking place although we do not give it any type of use. Many experts have confirmed this reality, and it is very easy to understand. Think of the components and peripherals that have a fixed useful life that is expressed in hours before failure. If you leave those components on, even if you don’t do anything with them, they are working and consuming hours of useful life.

In this sense, we can give many examples, but the monitor is one of the clearest. Leaving the monitor on with a fixed image causes wear and tear, which obviously can reduce its life cycle. But that’s not all, you also have to take into account that this can cause specific problems in certain types of panels, such as image persistence in OLED panels (especially in older models), and reduce the useful life of LED models. Similarly, leaving the PC on means that the cooling system, and other components, continue to work, even with a minimal load.

How can we appreciate, in the end it is not possible to give victory to one of these two options, since each one has its negative side. Turning off your PC can accelerate the wear and tear on certain components, especially in older configurations, but leaving it on can also cause the same effect on certain components and peripherals. We must not forget that, in addition, the sleep mode, and even hibernation, represent a constant energy consumption.

shut down or suspend a PC

To the point, what should I do then?

The answer is that it depends on what you are going to use the equipment for. If you are going to use it throughout the day, but with small interruptions that will not last more than an hour or two, the ideal is that you do not turn it off and that you resort to the state of suspension. Under this state, the RAM memory continues to work, so you will be able to use the equipment almost instantly.

On the other hand, if you are going to use it in the morning and you are not going to touch it again until the afternoon, or until night, the most interesting option is hibernation. When we activate it, the RAM is completely turned off, and to compensate for this a copy is made in the storage unit with all the keys of the state of the PC when that mode was started. Thus, when we use the computer again, it will use that copy to start at the same point (same open programs and others) where we left it. I remind you that hibernation is not activated by default in Windows 10, and that to use it we must follow these steps.

We have a third option. If you are only going to use the PC at a specific time of the day, and you don’t plan to touch it again until the next day, or even for a few days, the ideal is that you turn it off. I know that many of you will tell me that it is okay to leave it on hold, that the energy consumption is minimal, but wear occurs I told you about before because, in the end, the components continue to work, even if it is at a minimum level.

On the other hand, not turning off the PC and keeping it on sleep for days can end up giving serious problems like blue screens and data corruption, since the memory is in a state of minimal activity and retaining data for too long, something that does not fit with its normal working mode.

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