How do you put a PC to sleep?

[K515]

Background story:

I'm a PC/Mac user. We had to take my MacBook Pro to the Apple store because its hard drive failed. I just ordered the MacBook Pro online from apple.com in July of 2009. Since it arrived at the house in mid-July, I've been leaving it on all day even when I wasn't using it. I wasn't putting it to sleep at all during this 4 month period but I shut it off every night when I went to bed. So the hard drive failed because of this. Also, 10 yrs ago when I used to go to school, I heard that regarding PC's, if you keep shutting them down/turning them back on several times during the day it'll be more wear and tear on the PC's innerds, so it's better to leave your PC's on all day. This is when I noticed that the teacher's computers when I'd visit my teachers' offices where left on constantly all day even when the teachers were not using/they were away from their PC's, and that leaving a PC on all day instead of turning it off/on several times during the day reduces wear and tear on the PC's innerds (hard drive)?

I have a Dell Inspiron netbook which I run Virtual PC with Windows 98SE as a guest OS in the netbook's host Windows XP OS, and I'm thinking about buying a new desktop PC (tower only) from EcollegePC hopefully in the near future (December 2009) - I have my eye on one of the Value Series. This new desktop PC will be used mostly for playing adventure games in Windows XP 32-bit.

So my question is: just like I have to close the lid to put my MacBook Pro to sleep when I'm away from it (while leaving it on all day, several days, they said to do this at the Apple store today and to shut it down at a minimum of once a week so to prevent a recurrence of the hard drive failing) so I'm wondering if this trick can be transferred to when you use a PC?

So how do you put a netbook to sleep and wake it up, ditto with the desktop PC?

[PrntRhd]

This is an older article but should still be valid:
http://www.microsoft.com/smallbusine...urnoffcomputer

[Paul Komski]

So how do you put a netbook to sleep and wake it up, ditto with the desktop PC?

How to just depends on the hardware having APM (Advanced Power Management) capabilities, which just about all modern hardware has, and the options in the versions of windows. For Windows the options are usually listed under the Power Options in the Control Panel. Whether to turn off or not every day or once a week or whatever is an old old debate that has never really been resolved for those that use their computers a lot. The more often you use your computer the less often you should need to turn it off or put it to sleep.

[K515]

What about putting the hard drive to sleep vs putting the monitor to sleep (I'm confused here)? I mean, if the monitor is asleep but the hard drive isn't, won't it burn out the hard drive in 4 - 6 months even if the PC is brand new? My new mac is 4 months old now (got it in July) and its hard drive burned out b/c I never put it to sleep but left it on all day.

And about the sleep timer - should I set it to go to sleep after 1/2 hour, 1 hour, 15 minutes, 5 minutes, or what?

Whether playing a game, working with Photoshop etc., backing stuff up on a blank DVD, or printing stuff out from the internet, I'd say I work on my PC for roughly 1/2 hour - 1 - 2 hour sessions, then I leave the computer for about 10 - 15 minutes to take a break or 30 - 45 minutes to eat a meal, etc.

[Paul Komski]

and its hard drive burned out b/c I never put it to sleep but left it on all day.

You were either unlucky or something else happened (such as as bad power supply from the PSU). Leaving a hard drive running should not let it burn out for literally years and years. Must drives fail when turned on. As with all electrical motors there is a huge power surge as the electric motor starts to spin up from nought to x RPM.

[K515]

Originally Posted by Paul Komski

You were either unlucky or something else happened (such as as bad power supply from the PSU). Leaving a hard drive running should not let it burn out for literally years and years. Must drives fail when turned on. As with all electrical motors there is a huge power surge as the electric motor starts to spin up from nought to x RPM.

So you're saying that it's safe to leave a PC's hard drive running with the PC turned on continuously day and night, all week long and just let the monitor go to sleep during this time, and only turn the PC off once a week (this is what I'm now doing with my mac) and this way the PC (monitor, hard drive, etc.) will last for many years without failure of any part?

[Paul Komski]

Eventually everything with moving parts will wear out and hard drives are no exception. MTTF rates are easily misunderstood but probably mean that in real life about one percent of drives will fail per year. Electric motors are a different kettle of fish because they prefer to spin at a constant rate and a constant power supply is very helpful in this regard. The biggest fluxes in current (and associated angular acceration) occur when the drives are turned on from cold and this is when many drives actually fail. So the argument is unresolved as to whether, for the hard drive's longevity, it is better to turn it on and off or to leave it running at a constant spin. The answer probably depends on just how much any particular system is actually in use.

To understand the current flow in electic motors means understanding why elecric motors do not simply continue to spin faster and faster and faster. As such motors spin they create a back emf (or voltage) until this "balances" the supplied voltage. Other things being equal this regulates the speed of spin. When this steady state has been reached only a small current needs to be supplied to overcome the other forces impeding any angular velocity. During spin-up the current can be particularly fierce - even if rather momentary.

[TylersPC]

lol i go to where it says shut down, then click the thing where it gives you an option of putting it to sleep :P

[hackerballs]

HDD's are now under warrenty for 5 years. 15min /monitor and 20min HDD/sleep. No power used when shut down. Shutting down is not bad as it resets for morning. Save $100 a year also. Check that your BIOS setting is set to the proper mode, probally S3