Welp, someone asked if rebooting frequently wears out a system

[D13H4RD]

Well, this is one of those questions I don't get asked frequently.

 

Someone once asked if rebooting a system frequently would wear it out quickly to the point of breaking.

 

My thoughts are that frequent reboots shouldn't break a system but there's really no real need to do so as an indication of a frequent reboot means there's something you need to worry more than whether your system can handle frequent reboots.

 

Your 2 cents?

[mynameisjuan]

It would def wear it out much faster than a PC always on. Turning on and off heats and cools the parts and solder which over time will cause it to crack and break. Now how much it hurts it is hard to say as I see laptops with their lid opening a closing many many times a day and they will run for years. 

[D13H4RD]

2 minutes ago, mynameisjuan said:

It would def wear it out much faster than a PC always on. Turning on and off heats and cools the parts and solder which over time will cause it to crack and break. Now how much it hurts it is hard to say as I see laptops with their lid opening a closing many many times a day and they will run for years. 

Though wouldn't something like a phone or a laptop always experience this type of varying heat load?

 

I would assume manufacturers take into account the heating and cooling cycle and make their devices tolerant to it as much as possible. 

[samcool55]

No, it doesn't hurt the system, of course as long as it's done properly. Cutting power during a task is never a good idea. I've seen blown op psu's due to power cutting abuse. Corrupted and broken hard drives are also quite common.

[Xander Cousins]

2 minutes ago, mynameisjuan said:

It would def wear it out much faster than a PC always on. Turning on and off heats and cools the parts and solder which over time will cause it to crack and break. Now how much it hurts it is hard to say as I see laptops with their lid opening a closing many many times a day and they will run for years. 

But we are talking about a reboot which will power down the system and power it back on in a matter of seconds. You would see a very Small or not noticeable change in temperatures to components if this is the case. Secondly if talking about a Physical reboot where your disconnected power for a few minutes wouldn't that just be the same as Power off any Device leaving it for a few mins and then turning it on again. 

 

Temperature changes in devices doing reboots are very small if not there at all as if left for 5mins all parts have been cooled down to room temperature and when booted back up will Slowly rise in Temperature. 

[D13H4RD]

1 minute ago, samcool55 said:

No, it doesn't hurt the system, of course as long as it's done properly. Cutting power during a task is never a good idea. I've seen blown op psu's due to power cutting abuse. Corrupted and broken hard drives are also quite common.

Anything forced or performed during a task is going to have an increased risk of damage.

 

Only do it when there is no other option like if a system is completely frozen. 

[mynameisjuan]

Just now, Alex Colson said:

But we are talking about a reboot which will power down the system and power it back on in a matter of seconds. You would see a very Small or not noticeable change in temperatures to components if this is the case. Secondly if talking about a Physical reboot where your disconnected power for a few minutes wouldn't that just be the same as Power off any Device leaving it for a few mins and then turning it on again. 

 

Temperature changes in devices doing reboots are very small if not there at all as if left for 5mins all parts have been cooled down to room temperature and when booted back up will Slowly rise in Temperature. 

Oh yeah I read it as just shutting it down and booting up. Yeah rebooting wont hurt anything as the parts basically never cool down. 

[Xander Cousins]

Just now, mynameisjuan said:

Oh yeah I read it as just shutting it down and booting up. Yeah rebooting wont hurt anything as the parts basically never cool down. 

Tbh even Shutting down and booting up wouldn't cause those fluctuations in Heat either as your CPU isn't gonna go from 70 degrees  to 50 degrees in like 5sec.

Secondly if your Rig is reaching 180-190 degress where it will start to melt solder joints then you would have something else to worry about because that Rig must be on Fire to be reaching those temperatures.

[mynameisjuan]

Just now, Alex Colson said:

Tbh even Shutting down and booting up wouldn't cause those fluctuations in Heat either as your CPU isn't gonna go from 70 degrees  to 50 degrees in like 5sec.

Secondly if your Rig is reaching 180-190 degress where it will start to melt solder joints then you would have something else to worry about because that Rig must be on Fire to be reaching those temperatures.

Like I said, yeah shutting down and booting up wont hurt it. My point was about shutting down to the point of it cooling to room temp. 

Secondly I never said anything about solder melting. Metal expands pushing the solder joints away from itself over time causing it to break free. Nothing I sad had to do with melting.

[Drak3]

Only if your machine actually power cycles the (important) hardware. Some machines, when restarted by the OS, flush RAM and Cache, but don't actually power cycle.

[Xander Cousins]

3 minutes ago, mynameisjuan said:

Like I said, yeah shutting down and booting up wont hurt it. My point was about shutting down to the point of it cooling to room temp. 

Secondly I never said anything about solder melting. Metal expands pushing the solder joints away from itself over time causing it to break free. Nothing I sad had to do with melting.

To be fair I thought your where talking directly about the solder not the motherboard. But even then what your saying is you Pc is being damaged EVERYTIME you power it on and off as it will be changing temperatures. So in general you have stated that you solder wears away in general not even because of Rebooting or Shutting down and Powering up.  True it would cause wear to the board But that would take a LONG time before that causes noticeable problems with the board. by then you would have a new Mobo. 

 

 

[mynameisjuan]

3 minutes ago, Alex Colson said:

To be fair I thought your where talking directly about the solder not the motherboard. But even then what your saying is you Pc is being damaged EVERYTIME you power it on and off as it will be changing temperatures. So in general you have stated that you solder wears away in general not even because of Rebooting or Shutting down and Powering up.  True it would cause wear to the board But that would take a LONG time before that causes noticeable problems with the board. by then you would have a new Mobo.

Yeah thats why I said I dont know how much it impacts it. Laptops that in heavy use go through shutdown cycles like crazy and can still last years.

[NinJake]

I built 20 pc's and 5 laptops for our public library brought new life to ~8 year old computers by switching the hard drive out for a SSD. These machines get rebooted every time a new user uses the pc... this is probably 10-30 reboots per day at a library that is open 6 days a week. They are fine, rebooting is fine.

[Xander Cousins]

Just now, mynameisjuan said:

Yeah thats why I said I dont know how much it impacts it. Laptops that in heavy use go through shutdown cycles like crazy and can still last years.

Can last years but become wired due to draining of the Battery So in all fairness could be a reboot cycle damages Battery life more so on a Laptop than components on a PC due to Larger Air flow.

[Alariel]

If a PC needs rebooting frequently enough for this even to be a worry then I'd probably be more worried about whatever is causing the frequent reboots in the first place.

[LogicalDrm]

How often? Daily shutdown isn't any issue. I would say it strains components more to keep system running 24/7 than closing it daily.

[Mira Yurizaki]

If by rebooting we're talking about a soft reboot or a warm reboot (i.e., no power cycling) then no. There's no real harm. Every system is designed to take in a reset signal and if it's triggered, start executing code from the reset address. Technically there may be additional wear because the computer is working on something, but that isn't different than running a game or watching a video.

 

If we're talking about power cycling or cold reboots, then additional wear may happen due to power surges, but you really have to hammer the power switch before this becomes a problem. If you're doing this a few times a day, it's not really enough of a problem to worry about.

Edited October 25, 2017 by M.Yurizaki

[Princess Luna]

Why not have Linus 2 cents on the subject?