Arguments for/against power off and suspend?

Discussion
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As suggested

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There is much discussion now about energy saving, it costs x to leave your computer on, against y in suspension against zero if you switch it off totally.

Weight that against the posibilities of power surge when starting up.

Incidentaly windows just goes into sleep mode even when you power off, mainly because it takes so long to start up otherwise. Thats why microsoft is going ssd and no cold starts.

So how do you leave yours ?

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I always power off all my stuff.

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I do also!!!

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My own linux boxes (yes more than one, around 5 at last count) are all either laptops or net books and I remove the battery as due to age they no longer charge or function.

I disconnect from the mains when I finish for the day. Ok it takes me longer on the .orning to get them going but gives more time to make coffee and for me to wake up.

But my phone and tablet I never switch off they are on 24…7

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that’s the thing here also. We should learn to reboot those at least once a week. I’ve seen recommendations to power off and on every day. Maybe too much, but once a week is doable

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Sometimes I turn my computer off, other times I leave it running while I’m in bed or doing other things.

Works just fine.

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I always switch off my desktop. It cold boots in about 25 seconds.
When switched on, use it for couple hours a day, then switch it off completely until next day.

Regarding my laptop I just close the lid, that means suspend.
After opening the lid the system is usable in 2…3 seconds.
The cold boot would take again about 25 seconds, maybe little bit more.
I open/close the lid frequently, it would be uncomfortable to wait 25 seconds for a cold boot every time I want to use my laptop.

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I am with the always power off brigade… we are in a high risk lightening zone… that outweighs every other consideration… during storms I also pull the plug.

Well that rules out windows for me.

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By default, it does. I have mine configured to shutdown and not suspend. Startup times aren’t bad for me, it’s the shutdown times that take longer than it seems like they should (not due to disabling sleep mode).

That’s a pet peeve of mine. I see it on TV shows and movies where people just close the lid on the laptop and act as if it is shutdown. Then if you put it in your bag and drive home, you’ll find a very toasty laptop. Not every time but why take a chance.

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I have not hear of this. I am sure when I “Power Off” my windows PC, it is off.
I am sure for 2 reasons. 1-It takes longer to boot form power off then to wake up from sleep.
and 2-If my PC was in sleep mode, it would have the same screens (saved info) from sleep when I turned it back on.

There might be an option turned on that will place your PC into sleep mode instead of off?

Paul, if you having a problem turning off your Windows PC, I did find a couple items on the internet concerning this behavior. If interested, I can edit this post and add the links.

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Here in the states, we been given a recommendation to turn off our cell phones at least once a week. I would suppose that would also go for tablets too.

“The NSA’s advice? Power your phone off and then back on at least once a week. This simple action can make it more difficult for hackers to steal information from your phone”

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Yeah, we power off on Sunday… so it doesnt ring in Church.
Apart from defeating hackers, a fresh boot csn help clear issues.

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I thankfully dont have a windows pc
Closest i get are client machines, or my wifes and thats only when she says how do i do this or this does not work

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Not sure how this would change things ?

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A boot might clear any memory resident malignencies.

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I think @callpaul.eu means the power-off while “quick start” (or whatever) is enabled.
Doing so Windows is not stopped, but it’s rather in a hybernated state then.
That’s not really off from software point of view, hence the problems for Linux trying to mount NTFS drives, which were used by such Windows previously.
But from hardware point of view it’s OFF then.

I don’t see how this helps to prevent hackers getting to your data, except for that few hours when the device is switched off.

Oh dear! How many people don’t care this. It’s always elderly ladies, and when their phone yet starts to ring, they need almost a minute to grab it out from the deepest pocket of their bag…

I have serious doubts of this. But maybe, I don’t know.

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Occasionally I have problems with ex windows disks being unable to mount due to them not being closed just in hibernation mode so have to force them

I do that to copy files off ready to initial installation of linux

As for phones I use airport mode so they don’t ring not the same as power off

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Yes, a shutdown or re-start on your cell phone according to AI does have some benefits. Some of these include.

  • Performance: Restarting your phone helps your phone run more smoothly and prevents glitches
  • Security: Restarting your phone helps protect you from scammers and hackers
  • Memory leaks: Restarting your phone helps stop memory leaks, which happen when an app doesn’t free up
  • Cache: Restarting your phone helps clear away cached datamemory it’s not using
  • Operating system: Restarting your phone helps your phone’s operating system run all functions smoothly
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I have a desktop, and two laptop PCs. I keep all three devices powered on 24/7. For the two laptops, I change the default configuration for the power ‘button’ to shut down regardless whether they’re plugged in or not. I disable hibernate, suspend, and sleep modes on all three devices as well. Finally, for my laptops, I’ve found an app named lidlock that locks the screen when I close the lid. It has an option named autorun in the ALT+Click menu that makes it start up when Windows starts, so Windows always locks the screen any time I close the lid, even following a reboot.

After I assembled my current desktop PC, I was curious about just how much keeping all three devices powered on cost me, so I retained the default power configuration on that device and added a power consumption monitoring device between my surge protector, and the main power supply. After a month, I tabulated the cost of the power my desktop system consumed, then changed the system’s configuration to disable the ‘features’ mentioned above, and after another month, I calculated that cost of operation. For me, the difference was minimal, less than about $2.00/month, assuming my calculations were accurate, so that’s why I keep my computers running 24/7

Ernie

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