hi, I need to ask this question. Does anyone ever turn off their computers? Like if I go to bed at midnight, I put my computer to sleep. Is this ok? Suddenly I'm concerned about batteries and computer life.

this sounds really silly but I am always afraid that if I shut down my computer, the next day it cannot start. So if I put it to sleep, it can just wake up.

Will it make a big difference if I turned it off or if I let it go to sleep?
thanks
love satchi

Good question - I never turn my laptop off; I always just close it (but not because of any strange fear that it won't wake up :p I think it's just laziness, which is probably worse).

I hardly ever turn my PC off, and my laptop is on all the time, but only because I'm lazy.

I think if you leave them on its actually worse because the fan has to work 24/7 and then seizes up and then they overheat and then they break (?) which would make sense because I broke 2 desktops during my PhD because of them overheating.

It's a good idea to turn it off occasionally because this is the only time it goes through the full reboot procedure - necessary once in a while to keep everything's in order. But in terms of battery life and power use etc., putting it to sleep is absolutely fine. I'd suggest shutting it down a couple of times a week and buying an external hard drive to alleviate concerns about its death!

hi everyone thanks for your replies
last night i turned off my computer! (up)
thanks again
love satchi