How should you turn off you pc?

[Symbiode]

So since I got my first pc back in 2010 when I was 6 years old, I heard that you should never turn off you computer using the power button on the casing. So I was a dumb kid and I had no idea about anything so I just believed it and I never looked into it. But then I saw people just turning it of using the power button, and it's not like that force stop thingy, just pressed it once. So I wanna know if there is any difference from doing that or turning it off the manual way. And also I wanna know if anything happens to your pc when u force stop thingy it or just straight up unplug it.

[Slottr]

Tapping the power button (not holding it to kill power) operates the same way as pressing 'shut down'

[Firewrath9]

I always use the power button on the PC. hell if it crashed, I use the switch on the PSU. If you have a HDD, dont do the switch on the psu.

[orbitalbuzzsaw]

7 minutes ago, Symbiode said:

So since I got my first pc back in 2010 when I was 6 years old, I heard that you should never turn off you computer using the power button on the casing. So I was a dumb kid and I had no idea about anything so I just believed it and I never looked into it. But then I saw people just turning it of using the power button, and it's not like that force stop thingy, just pressed it once. So I wanna know if there is any difference from doing that or turning it off the manual way. And also I wanna know if anything happens to your pc when u force stop thingy it or just straight up unplug it.

I do it through software and then usually turn off the power supply too.

[lmeneses]

4 minutes ago, OrbitalBuzzsaw said:

 I do it through software and then usually turn off the power supply too.

May I ask why you turn off the psu as well?

[orbitalbuzzsaw]

2 minutes ago, lmeneses said:

May I ask why you turn off the psu as well?

To make the RGB lights turn off (I sleep in the same room with my PC)

[lmeneses]

Just now, OrbitalBuzzsaw said:

To make the RGB lights turn off (I sleep in the same room with my PC)

Oh, makes sense HA, I've never had an rgb build, so I wouldn't know lol

[orbitalbuzzsaw]

2 minutes ago, lmeneses said:

Oh, makes sense HA, I've never had an rgb build, so I wouldn't know lol

burn the heretic

[lmeneses]

Just now, OrbitalBuzzsaw said:

burn the heretic

lmao  My next build will tho, do not fret 

[imreloadin]

I've heard that hammers are an effective, if somewhat of a permanent, option.

[Guest]

On 11/17/2018 at 1:27 PM, lmeneses said:

Oh, makes sense HA, I've never had an rgb build, so I wouldn't know lol

*gasp* Leave Now!

[corrado33]

On 11/17/2018 at 12:13 PM, Symbiode said:

So since I got my first pc back in 2010 when I was 6 years old, I heard that you should never turn off you computer using the power button on the casing. So I was a dumb kid and I had no idea about anything so I just believed it and I never looked into it. But then I saw people just turning it of using the power button, and it's not like that force stop thingy, just pressed it once. So I wanna know if there is any difference from doing that or turning it off the manual way. And also I wanna know if anything happens to your pc when u force stop thingy it or just straight up unplug it.

The reason why is simple. If the hard drive is currently writing something and you cut the power suddenly, you could crash the heads into the platters and break your hard drive. Also even with SSDs it's possible that if it was in the middle of writing something, you could break the file system and lose all your data. It's the same reason why you should "eject" usb drives before removing them. (Although by default most USB drives are setup so that you can just yank them and not worry about it.) As for the CPU or memory, I don't really think they care about a sudden shutdown. 

 

 

On 11/17/2018 at 12:16 PM, Slottr said:

Tapping the power button (not holding it to kill power) operates the same way as pressing 'shut down'

It depends on how it's setup in windows. You can make the power button do multiple things (sleep, shutdown, restart)

[Mira Yurizaki]

The power button on a computer these days is more like a signal to the system and the PSU. The system doesn't actually have to respond to a button press, though I believe for obvious reasons the power supply does respond to a long press.

 

However I usually just put the computer to sleep since I can wake it up by wiggling the mouse. If I'm going away for extended periods of time, I turn it off.

 

15 hours ago, corrado33 said:

The reason why is simple. If the hard drive is currently writing something and you cut the power suddenly, you could crash the heads into the platters and break your hard drive. Also even with SSDs it's possible that if it was in the middle of writing something, you could break the file system and lose all your data. It's the same reason why you should "eject" usb drives before removing them.

This is mostly mitigated now. I believe hard drives just yoink the heads back into the home position if power is cut and modern file systems are resilient to power loss.

[corrado33]

1 hour ago, M.Yurizaki said:

 

This is mostly mitigated now. I believe hard drives just yoink the heads back into the home position if power is cut and modern file systems are resilient to power loss.

I think that'd make an interesting video to test. It's still possible to mess up the not just a file, but the file system. Sure, it's less likely to happen now, but it's still a chance, and my data isn't worth the extra 5 seconds it takes to click "shutdown". 

[Mira Yurizaki]

2 minutes ago, corrado33 said:

I think that'd make an interesting video to test. It's still possible to mess up the not just a file, but the file system. Sure, it's less likely to happen now, but it's still a chance, and my data isn't worth the extra 5 seconds it takes to click "shutdown". 

I mean, I'm not saying it's a excuse to be lazy, but there are mitigations in place so it's not likely to happen if sudden power loss occurs.

Edited November 20, 2018 by M.Yurizaki

[corrado33]

1 minute ago, M.Yurizaki said:

I mean, I'm not saying it's a excuse to be lazy, but there are mitigations in place so it's not likely to happen if sudden power loss occurs.

I really would like to see this tested by ltt. Have a hard drive that's currently being written to and just literally yank the sata power and data cables out and see what happens. (And/or power down by the power switch on the power supply.) Maybe if they get creative they could fabricate some sort of clear hard drive case so we could see what happens. 

[Worstcaster]

On 11/17/2018 at 2:26 PM, OrbitalBuzzsaw said:

To make the RGB lights turn off (I sleep in the same room with my PC)

Check your BIOS.  Mine (Gigabyte B450) has a setting to control if the RGB stays on when the computer is shut down.

[Spotty]

On 11/18/2018 at 6:16 AM, Slottr said:

Tapping the power button (not holding it to kill power) operates the same way as pressing 'shut down'

Just to expand on this, that is the default function however it is possible to change what it does when you tap the power button in the Power Plan settings in Windows. You can find it under "Power buttons and lid" in the power plan settings. So if it's not shutting down your computer when you tap the power button you can check the power plan settings to see what it's set to.

 

It's also possible to change how the power button responds in the BIOS. Typically there will be a setting for a single press (tap) and for hold press (4 seconds typically?). By default a single tap will shut down, as per the OS. Holding it for 4 seconds will just kill the power and bypass the OS shut down procedure - useful if your system has crashed/frozen and you need to force it to power down.

 

On 11/18/2018 at 6:26 AM, OrbitalBuzzsaw said:

To make the RGB lights turn off (I sleep in the same room with my PC)

I had the same annoyance with a headset that had RGBs that lit up the room at night even when turned off. Check for a setting in the motherboard for ErP and enable it. It tells the motherboard to enter a low powered state when 'off'. That will kill the RGBs when the system is off, however keep in mind you will lose the ability to wake the machine over LAN and you will also lose USB power when the system is off - though if you're switching the PSU off you aren't using those features anyway.

Turning on/off the PSU at the unit or wall every day can damage the PSU. Modern PSUs only use between 0.05 and 0.5 W while in standby mode so it's really not necessary to turn them off.

[Guest]

I remember when I was young computers never actually shut down automatically, they just "halted" (shut down the CPU, hard disk, etc, only a message was displayed) and needed the user to switch off manually using the power button, probably as M.Yurizaki says in the past PSU were just power supplies

[LunaP0n3]

11 hours ago, Lukyp said:

I remember when I was young computers never actually shut down automatically, they just "halted" (shut down the CPU, hard disk, etc, only a message was displayed) and needed the user to switch off manually using the power button, probably as M.Yurizaki says in the past PSU were just power supplies

"It is now safe to turn off your computer" in amber text.

[N1NJ4W4RR10R]

On 11/18/2018 at 6:26 AM, OrbitalBuzzsaw said:

To make the RGB lights turn off (I sleep in the same room with my PC)

The bane of RGB...*night updates*

[Guest]

On 11/17/2018 at 11:26 AM, OrbitalBuzzsaw said:

To make the RGB lights turn off (I sleep in the same room with my PC)

If your RGB stays on when the motherboard is off, there's something wrong.

 

 

[Guest]

On 11/28/2018 at 1:09 AM, Worstcaster said:

Check your BIOS.  Mine (Gigabyte B450) has a setting to control if the RGB stays on when the computer is shut down.

This.

 

When the PC is "off" through "shut down", the ONLY power coming from the PSU should be the +5VSB which does not (or should not, rather) allow power to the lights, fans, etc.

 

Long term, flipping the switch on the PSU is going to damage your PSU.  There's plenty of threads here that have proven that.