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how often do u reboot?

markjones05

markjones05

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jan 15, 2003
935
0
Brooklyn, NY
I barely reboot my machine it usually goes a week or two with just going to sleep everynight and waking up everymorning. Is this bad? Does it eat away at your ram? My friend told me its bad not to reboot for long periods of time because it eats at your ram. Is this true?
 
I never restart unless i need to install software on my 450 cube and it runs like a dream never heard of the ram thing before run a ram test with xbench after a couple of weeks and then straigt after e reboot?
my record is 8 months no crashing no rebooting

(my cube runs ut2k3 at 25fps! he he he!)
 
I shut down every night... unless I'm rendering.

I don't see the need in keeping a machine on 24/7 unless it's in use ;)
 
saves power a start upo consumes quite ait of power its like stobe lights it takes more power to boot that for 12 hours use
(in sleep)
 
+ theres the cant be arsed to wait 2 mins for a start up when i could just press the mouse
 
I only reboot after installing software that calls for it, or if some hardware needs to be changed/added/removed. Otherwise I leave them all on all the time.

I upgraded my PowerMac on Sunday and haven't rebooted since :D
 
I shutdown my Mac at home before going to bed. I start it up when I come home at night, so usually the Mac is running only in the evening.
Same at work, but other way around: startup when I get there (get some coffee too), and when I go home I, more often than not, shut it down.
 
I restart only when I install software that requires it or there is a problem. That works ou to be every 2-3 weeks on both my PowerMac and iBook.

With the new stuff in Panther though, I might reconsider and have it start up automatically at certain times.
 
I leave my G5 on all the time, at night the screen effects come on. I only reboot after a software install, each and everytime I have to turn NAP off or I will have the annoying chirp every second...
 
I rebooted to install 10.3

I can't think of a time i've ever rebooted (OSX) just to reboot. It's always for an install or the odd crash or two I've had. Sleep works fine for me.
 
I leave my Macs on 24/7 since they are running RC5 when I'm not using them. I only reboot when I install new software that requires a reboot.
 
I leave my PB on all the time too. I actually heard it gets faster the longer its been on, although I have had a few problems that were solved by a restart. (Not like faster CPU-wise, but it helps the RAM access programs faster or something like that.) Usually go about 2-4 weeks between restarts, and that's usually because Apple still hasn't quite figured out how to do core OS tweaking without a restart. It's coming though. I like my uptimes, it's one of those things I like to show PC users. They are always booting up and shutting down their laptops for some weird reason...:p
 
I reboot for software updates. That's it. Sleep mode is awesome. Why would I want to wait a minute or so for the system to start up when I can be checking my email in a couple of seconds? Sure, OS X boots fast but it recovers from sleep even faster. I don't see any point in going out of my way to extend the time it takes for my computer to reach a useful state.
 
Re: how often do u reboot?

Originally posted by markjones05
My friend told me its bad not to reboot for long periods of time because it eats at your ram. Is this true?
Click to expand...

Your friend must use Windows. That's exactly what would happen to me on my old PC. Now, I never reboot unless a software update requires it. No problems.
 
I was rebooting often, several times a day because of the ATI video card/Lightwave issue. Since that's been fixed up I've only been rebooting when installing Panther...

D
 
i push my machine pretty hard, so only a couple weeks. i was forced to restart last night because warcraft flipped out. my record is about a month, but by then i start seeing weird interface quirks, or permissions are screwy, or something won't run right. if logging out and in doesn't fix it (or repair permissions, depending), i restart.

started having this thing happen lately, where after a couple days i can't select anything on my desktop - i can select, apparently, but nothing looks highlighted - and any overlays for dragging files or images, like from a browser for instance, don't work right or at all. relaunching the finder usually fixes it.
 
This definitely underscores a major difference between older machines running OS 9.x and new machines running OS 10.x. I have a rev B iBook and I reset or shutdown at least once a day. With all the proper patches, updates and extensions, my iBook often doesn’t wake properly from sleep. One of the things I look forward to doing some day is upgrading to a machine that can run OSX with out issues. Even with student priceing on software and hardware, it's an expensive undertakeing.

This thread also shows that few people use more than one battery when they are out-and-about with their portables. Changeing the battery necessitates shutting down. (unless you have the older PBs.)
 
Re: how often do u reboot?

Originally posted by markjones05
Does it eat away at your ram? My friend told me its bad not to reboot for long periods of time because it eats at your ram. Is this true?
Click to expand...
I suspect that your friend has your best interests at heart, but uses a PC (or a Mac on a pre-OS X system).

It's my understanding that with Windows the computer needs to be restarted relatively frequently to purge the RAM of residual information that piles up when programs start and stop and windows open and close. Windows can't fully get rid of these bits without actually shutting down.

One of the benefits of a unix-based OS is that it's designed to be up and running for long periods. (Imagine what would happen if e-commerce companies had to restart their servers as often as your friend restarts his machine -- consumer outrage, no doubt!) As I understand it, what's called pre-emptive multitasking allows programs to "take" the RAM they need from programs that aren't using it, shoving them into VRAM. So any residual bit of program would end up in VRAM on your HD and eventually be overwritten.

With OS X, I find that sleep is good enough and I enjoy rarely having to wait for start up. If shutting down appeals to some part of your sense of order, it's OK too, but I don't think that using sleep will affect your RAM.
 
I had an iBook which i would just put to sleep simply because it was easier than shutting it down and having the restart it in the morning.

I would send it to sleep at night, wake up, plug in the battery and go straight to college and right away open it up. Much better than when i had an NEC laptop. Shut it down at night, put it in bag with power cables (battery only laster 40 minutes), go to college, plug the power adapter in boot it up, then when finished pack it all away again while with the iBook all i do is close the lid and put it in the bag, in a word FAB!
 
normally about once a week, once a month - depends on updates etc needs to reboot. i did yesterday - deimos did not work so only way of getting its normal behaviour was rebooting.
 
easy test to prove myself right
put yoir ibook/powebook to sleep
for a night from full battery unpluged make a note of the battery percentage
then unplug a shut down ibook on full charge and then boot up on mine just boot up is 96% and sllep for nite is 98/96

there around the same so and i cant be bothered to reboot.
 
there is one downside that after about 4 months always on my cube go's dog slow like it takes 4 mins to wake from sleep!
but thats only hapened a few times as i usualy install software that required reboots

(any one elce had a problem with 10.2.4-.8 with a cube screen colous screwing up not going to sleep all my other freinds macs dident have this problem apart from the coulers screwing up on 10.2.6)


deslectics of the wolrd untie!
 
I used to leave my G4 on 24/7 and ended up with a knackered hard drive 16 months into its life. Could have just been a bad one or over use, I don't know.
Then my Formac screen died just before the 2 yr warranty was up this too was on 24/7.
Now I leave the Mac on once I've used it during the day and put it to sleep at night. Aaaahhh!
 
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