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Is it safe to turn off and on your PC multiple times a day?

Hello everyone. I am wondering if it is safe to turn off and on PC multiple times a day. I turn on/off my PC 2-3 times a day and I've read that this can cause stress on components, ultimately lowering the lifespan of them. Should I just leave my PC on throughout the day and only turn it off before sleep? Thank you and a have a nice day.

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Unless your PSU is absolute garbage to the point that every powering up of the system is a roll of the dice, it's perfectly safe. The "additional wear" comment ties back specifically to PSUs.

 

 

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Yes, it's safe. There's not going to be a noticeable effect on its lifespan from powering it on/off two or three times a day.

 

Keeping it running all day is probably just as bad for fan bearings, it'll use power for no good reason and just suck in more dust.

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Both your mobo and PSU have capacitors that are used for storing current. At least from the PSU standpoint, this is to cushion the slap of startup surge loads. On-off-on-off shortens the life of these capacitors, so yes, it is safe, but leaving it idle and letting go into sleep mode will save some power over foregoing sleep mode, and extend the lifespan of the PSU.

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51 minutes ago, An0maly_76 said:

Both your mobo and PSU have capacitors that are used for storing current. At least from the PSU standpoint, this is to cushion the slap of startup surge loads.

The capacitors to "cushion" the start up are quite small and of a type that won't be affected by start up pulses. The chokes in series with the lines in also help suppress the startup pulse. They are big and solid bits so start up can in no way affect them.


The big capacitor(s) are there to give a large DC source for the switch mode transistors to run from and have nothing to to do with startup pulse suppression. They will probably only last 2 or 3 decades or more.

Laptop power supplies are designed the same way and will often be switched on and off a few times a day.

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6 minutes ago, RollyShed said:

The capacitors to "cushion" the start up are quite small and of a type that won't be affected by start up pulses. The chokes in series with the lines in also help suppress the startup pulse. They are big and solid bits so start up can in no way affect them.


The big capacitor(s) are there to give a large DC source for the switch mode transistors to run from and have nothing to to do with startup pulse suppression. They will probably only last 2 or 3 decades or more.

Laptop power supplies are designed the same way and will often be switched on and off a few times a day.

So that being said, what would you say is the issue here?

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1 hour ago, An0maly_76 said:

So that being said, what would you say is the issue here?

"this is to cushion the slap of start-up surge loads." - as applied to which capacitors. They are physically small and they will take the start up spike for decades as they are not the big electrolytic capacitor(s) and are designed in conjunction with the choke(s) to limit the start-up spike.

 

"Both your mobo and PSU have capacitors that are used for storing current"  - these are the capacitor(s) storing the voltage between sine wave peaks. If the suppressor part of the circuit is doing its job, they won't see a spike on start-up.

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Yes. 

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on/off can push a serge of power witch can cause damage thow its probably rare. but imo things last longer by leaving it on like other said there a sleep mode thow some mb have problems with it like my x58 mb for some reason my tv wont detect the pc coming out of sleep mode so i have to turn it off a few times witch is a pain. thow surge protectors are probably a good idea too for power outs.

 

it can ware an tare the power button not so import end on a case but on say a monitor means most likely need a new one.

 

that being said most people turn there pc off after use and no one knows what caused the pc to not turn on in till they try and find out. alot of people would probably just buy a new pc... if they dont have the no how to trouble shoot it.

Edited by thrasher_565

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I have not heard of any hardware components in the PC with a limited power cycle, apart from mechanical HDDs.

Even for mechanical HDDs, they have 100k+ load/unload cycles rated, which is hundreds of load/unload per day in its design life.

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3 hours ago, thrasher_565 said:

it can ware [wear] an tare [tear] the power button not so import end [important] on a case but on say a monitor means most likely need a new one.

Why use the computer's power button? Use the big strong wall switch which switches off the monitor, printer, scanner, coffee maker and what ever else is plugged in.

 

I've never had to replace a computer or monitor power switch in the hundreds I've dealt with..

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I wouldn't turn off the computer.

 

Just set the sleep timer to be 15 minutes.  When the PC and Monitor are asleep, they use an exceedingly negligable amount of electricity.  Turning it off doesn't really save much.  

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9 hours ago, RollyShed said:

Why use the computer's power button? Use the big strong wall switch which switches off the monitor, printer, scanner, coffee maker and what ever else is plugged in.

 

I've never had to replace a computer or monitor power switch in the hundreds I've dealt with..

my point was if the monitor dose not turn on it could be a broken power button but most people dont take it to a tec to see what happened as it cost too much they just replace it. i had a monitor not turn on. also had a cheap $10 coffee maker button broken but i quit coffee so i threw it out.

 

im going to guess my monitor with the joystic button on the back will fail same with the lap top power brick it uses... but i found a work around using a power bar to turn it off and on. thow the cheap power bar buttons will probably fail...🤔

 

 

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Edited by thrasher_565

I have dyslexia plz be kind to me. dont like my post dont read it or respond thx

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9 hours ago, RollyShed said:

Why use the computer's power button? Use the big strong wall switch which switches off the monitor, printer, scanner, coffee maker and what ever else is plugged in.

 

I've never had to replace a computer or monitor power switch in the hundreds I've dealt with..

Using the Windows (not Computer) power shutdown is the preferred method of turning off a machine.

 

Do you routinely turn off a PC by a wall switch?  If you go thru the process of closing apps and saving data before shutdown, then the Windows shutdown button is just one more click away.  

 

Not the best idea to just turn off power to a PC and potentially truncating processes.

 

Hundreds?  What do you do that you experience hundreds of computers?  May be a value-add to mention that, to lend credence to your opinion.

"Do what makes the experience better" - in regards to PCs and Life itself.

 

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2 hours ago, Dedayog said:

Not the best idea to just turn off power to a PC and potentially truncating processes.

 

Hundreds?  What do you do that you experience hundreds of computers?  May be a value-add to mention that, to lend credence to your opinion.

Before switching off the power all processes running should be closed by left clicking on the bottom left of the screen and going through the Shutdown (unless it is Windows and it is top right or right click and something else). Once the computer has finished, then mains power off.

 

Hundreds? Yes. I worked at a university, electronics support, so had my department's computers, plus Maths department at times plus being called in to other departments. Though now retired, I have a list of over 50 computers worked on, new systems installed, over the past 2 years.

 

thrasher_565's monitor problem of not working is most unlikely to be the power switch. I know of plenty of monitors with capacitor problems that have stopped them working. And NO, not because of turning on and off.

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Keeping it running is arguably worse, as everything is working needlessly and you're wasting electricity.

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It is not a question which can be answered once for all the pc's. It really all boils down to components of pc.

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1 hour ago, clementishutin said:

It is not a question which can be answered once for all the pc's. It really all boils down to components of pc.

Not really, we can answer this for all PC's due to the fact anything in use today is roughly at the same technology level in terms of power interaction.

 

If we were talking 1970's PC... then we'd hedge and add caveats.

 

 

"Do what makes the experience better" - in regards to PCs and Life itself.

 

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most pcs last long enough it dose not matter not like it use to back in the day of sli, blower gpus, gray pus, everything my dad has own broke at some point ram, hdd , gpus thow he killed some himself... you maybe get 4 years from a pc if lucky

 

to day most parts will last 10+ years

 

however keyboard, mouse, headphones, monitors might not lats as long with more planed obsolescence built in.  but it still a part by part bases.

I have dyslexia plz be kind to me. dont like my post dont read it or respond thx

also i edit post alot because you no why...

Thrasher_565 hub links build logs

Corsair Lian Li Bykski Barrow thermaltake nzxt aquacomputer 5v argb pin out guide + argb info

5v device to 12v mb header

Odds and Sods Argb Rgb Links

 

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Yes. Perfectly safe.

While it can end up hurting parts that moves a lot... like a harddrive, everything else should be fine as long as your PSU isn't completely trash.

Bit of an anecdote, but even that isn't the rule of the land. My external drive shuts itself down after 15mins of not using it (power saving feature), it has powered on and off 35273 times since I got it in the early 2010s (according to Crystal Disk Info, equivalent of being shut down and rebooted 10 times a day for the past 10 years basically). Still going strong without any issues.
Your millage may vary, but yeah, in the old times, hardware may have gotten damaged more easily by doing this, but these days, they are built to handle it with the cleaner power coming from your PSU.

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It should not cause much wear (at least in somewhat modern hw), however it might be unnecessary. Sleep should be way more convenient.

 

If part of your shutdown routine is due to the idea of starting with a fresh system every time, then depending on your system it might not be the case. Default Windows 10 shutdown does not reset all processes, but works similar to hibernation - so sys restart should be done instead.

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Plenty safe. Tons of things with computers in them are powered up and down all the time - cars, consoles, entertainment centers, etc. 

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Probably something that has an answer but the answer is so minute that it doesn't really actually matter

Before you reply to my post, REFRESH. 99.99% chance I edited my post. 

 

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This has been a long running debate since x86 computers started to invade the home market, and yes, your hardware will probably last for years unless you got one of those disposable deals from Wish. Even then, repair of the failed unit usually just takes a few minutes with a soldering iron to reflow the joints. They normally fail due to cracks in the solder joints due to thermal expansion and contraction if they aren't designed well, or blown components if the manufacturer skimped on cheap parts, but if you stick with quality hardware, you will have outgrown your computer well before the power cycles begin to affect anything. In fact, most laptops go through multiple power cycles a day and often last for years, and it's pretty much the same hardware for the most part.

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My system is turned off every night and on in the morning. Hell, I had computer at work that would be turned off and on at least 10-15 times a day for cloning drivers and stuff. Never had an issue.

 

Any wear would be a bad PSU as mentioned. Honestly, even then it is not even worth mentioning. If you have a hard drive spinning down and spooling up a LOT (1000s of times) can wear it out. 

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