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MBP, left on all the time

H

HBOC

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Oct 14, 2008
2,499
234
SLC
Ok, so i use my computer all the time, and with school in full swing, i have a lot of work to do on it. I find that i leave it on 24 hours a day, almost non stop. Infact, i cannot remember the last time i turned it of for more than a few hours. Is this good or bad? I remember hearing that it was bad and harsh on the computer to keep turning it off and on. (wives tale?) I see no ill effects from this. I bought the computer brand new in october, and the logic board was replaced about a month ago.

I do put it in sleep mode some times.
 
My PowerBook has been on for nearly 4.5 years. Shutdown for about 1 month in total during that time. It's not done any harm...
 
HBOC said:
Ok, so i use my computer all the time, and with school in full swing, i have a lot of work to do on it. I find that i leave it on 24 hours a day, almost non stop. Infact, i cannot remember the last time i turned it of for more than a few hours. Is this good or bad? I remember hearing that it was bad and harsh on the computer to keep turning it off and on. (wives tale?) I see no ill effects from this. I bought the computer brand new in october, and the logic board was replaced about a month ago.

I do put it in sleep mode some times.
Click to expand...

Go to your Energy Saver settings and set up your computer to go to sleep after a period of time of inactivity. It's ok to turn your computer on and off and probably the sensible thing to do if you're not using it for an extended period of time e.g. a day or two...
 
I leave my MBP on 24/7 as well. I have it set to sleep at a certain time, and, of course, it's sleeping the whole time it's closed. The only time it ever gets restarted is when a software update requires it. I can't remember the last time it actually got shut down completely. No ill effects here. I've done this with all my Apple notebooks dating back to an iBook G4. Never had a problem.
 
i've left my powerbook on for 7 years (yes, i've had my computer forever) but I rarely shut it down unless I'm traveling. So, I've never had any issues leaving it on, but it does go into sleep mode.
 
It's not a wives tale that constantly turning on your computer off and on is not a good thing for it. Everytime you shut it off then turn it back on, you are sending a sudden jolt through all the components. They are built to just have a constant source of energy running through them, so in terms of longevity its actually better to have them constantly running. For other components of your computer, like a hard drive, it may wear out faster.

Now, on the other side of the coin, while you may shorten the life of your computer, you are also wasting power to continuously run it, and by the time the effect of all this wears down on the components it may be at the end of its usable life anyways.
 
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