Comments on: Leave it On? Turn it Off? WHY?!

By: Greg Wynn

Greg Wynn — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 22:09:26 +0000

Fine info but you overlooked one of the elepants in the room. After all these years I have finally switched to a laptop/notebook. Due to my use it will be necessary to sometimes leave it on for extended periods so how will work, i’m not talking 24 hours plus here, indeed I got into laptops to reduce my enery imprint.

By: Jadesqr

Jadesqr — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 17:07:17 +0000

“LA LA LA LA LA”, way to much information Randal. Now I’m confused. If Cheryl has a CRT she should naturally shut it off when its not in use, but I have always heard let a well running PC run so it will ‘auto-update’ Windows, anti-virus, Norton at those odd times when its not in use. Only exception is electrical storms and schedualled power outages. Obviously, the LCD could be left on for ever. So which do you recommend, really?
PS: Don’t see Dan in ‘Responses’, did he DIS the article?

By: randal

randal — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 02:45:17 +0000

Hi, guys. Thanks for all the great comments. Let’s see if I can address some of them.

Mike, true enough. I hadn’t thought of that. At my day job, they do all of their updates overnight so that they don’t slow down the network when everyone is using it.

Dan, I’m not sure what your comment means. I didn’t say or mean that you should turn it off if you’re paying for it, or leave it on if your boss is paying for it. Conserving energy is a great idea, and if you meant that I should have mentioned that, you’re probably right. I should keep my own environmental commitment at the forefront when I write these articles.

Robert, you’re right about that. When I talked about screensavers, I didn’t mean to imply that they’d extend the life of your monitor beyond preventing burn-in when this was a problem.

Finally, Tim, thanks for your nice comment. It’s comments like this one that keep me going.

Randal

By: Tim

Tim — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 19:31:05 +0000

Randal, I’ve been in the computer world since 1980. I’ve been through all stages of PC monitors from the old monochrome green screens to today’s hi-res LCD models. And I’ve had the same question as you answered here dozens of times a year. Your answer it the most concise, reasonable and up-to-date I’ve seen in “print”. Keep up the good work. One other consideration, of course, is the “green” option. Conserving power is becoming far more of an issue than ever, and for that reason I’m powering off the home CPU tower and display when not in use.

By: Robert Wurzburg

Robert Wurzburg — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 10:25:36 +0000

I use a ‘blank’ screensaver. The monitor display is turned off, while the
screen is black. Using any other screensaver, shortens the life of the CRT
turning the pixels on and off while the screensaver makes its way around a
monitor’s screen. It’s like having the monitor on, just portions of it at
a time for a short time.

By: Premium Member

Premium Member — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 06:02:43 +0000

Excellent answer….also I was not aware that Plasma TVs suffered burn in.

I’m an old B&W and color picture tube expert. Still trying to catch up.

I travelled a lot and at the airports they were all burned in, especially in Russia and Poland.

By: Dan

Dan — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 05:25:20 +0000

you forgot or you are a member of the throw away society. Save energy whether you are paying for it or your boss is.

By: Mike

Mike — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 21:35:25 +0000

One reason to leave your computer on – especially if it is a work computer on a network: the company IM guys may be pushing updates after hours. We have to leave ours on for that reason.