# Is it better to turn off my laptop of just leave it on standby?



## acehimself (Jun 11, 2006)

Ok so often times I turn on my laptop and use it for a little bit in the morning then I go to work for the day and I come back at night and use it some more. Under these circumstances, would you say that it's better for me to turn it off when I'm done using it in the morning completely or to just put it on standby, close the screen and leave it like that all day?

thanks.


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## TheMatt (May 9, 2006)

I just leave my laptop durring the day, and when I go to sleep at night, I put it on standby. Its probably not a good idea to be shuting down and booting up daily, plus it takes a lot longer than waking up the computer.


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## acehimself (Jun 11, 2006)

TheMatt said:


> I just leave my laptop durring the day, and when I go to sleep at night, I put it on standby. Its probably not a good idea to be shuting down and booting up daily, plus it takes a lot longer than waking up the computer.


really? You mean leaving it on standby for long times doens't carry and risk of overheating?


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## saralvr247 (Jun 7, 2006)

As long as it isn't on a soft surface, such as a pillow, carpet, etc, it shouldn't overheat. If you are worried, just run over to the local Wal-Mart and pick up a cooling pad.

Cooling Pads


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## Terrister (Apr 18, 2005)

In standby, most laptops draw so little power, overheating should not be a problem. 
I always leave mine in standby.


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## Doby (Jan 17, 2006)

I have read were closing the screen is not always a good idea if you can help it because it traps heat, its best to leave it open and manual go to standby, even when shuting down its best to leave it open for 10 minutes to cool


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## V0lt (Sep 14, 2002)

TheMatt said:


> I just leave my laptop durring the day, and when I go to sleep at night, I put it on standby. Its probably not a good idea to be shuting down and booting up daily, plus it takes a lot longer than waking up the computer.


Shutting down and restarting a computer doesn't hurt it in any way.

If I had a laptop that I actually used, I would definitely shut it down every night and restart it when I next need it, if not for the power I'd save (probably a few dozen watt-hours a night) then for the security of not having it attended for hours on end, both from a physical and internet standpoint. Actually in terms of not being good for a computer, between leaving a computer on all the time and turning it off every night I'd have to say leaving it on all the time would probably be a bad idea.


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## laboye (Apr 11, 2006)

Standby is fine. When a computer is in standby, it halts the hard drive, downs the processor (and it's fan) and only draws enough power to keep the memory going. The computer will NOT get hot at all. Closing a computer while on will generally have no adverse effects as it does not emmit lots of heat from the keyboard. Shutting down and booting up, if anything would just shorten your hard drive's life by a couple days (they should last for 10 years, if you take care of them). Standby and Hibernate modes do not power on devices, and ergo do not generate heat.

It is safe to leave your computer on standby for extended periods of time. If you are running on a battery, the battery power will likely drain and die within a couple of days. Use hibernate if you plan to not use it for that long. Both modes resume right where you left off, but hibernate saves whatever is in memory to the hard drive in a 'hibernation file', then completely shut's down the computer, using no power whatsoever.


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## V0lt (Sep 14, 2002)

How could shutting down/restarting possibly shorten the hard drive's life at all? 

Like you said, standby halts the hard drive... wouldn't this be the same effect by your logic?


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## TheMatt (May 9, 2006)

Since its summer here, I set my laptop to go on standby after an hour of being idle for the specific purpose of keeping the CPU cool. I don't shut it down because I don't want to have to wait for it to boot up. It only takes 40 seconds, but it takes only 2 seconds to resume from standby.


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## laboye (Apr 11, 2006)

Yea, thats the idea behind me! :grin: Well, it does take that extra little juice to spin up that big, heavy, massive "solid-state" storage device. Ok, I'll say it shortens the life by a good few seconds... :wink:

But, anyway, yea; standby's the way to go!


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