A Basic Computer ? To Ask

Cerise

Cerise

Well-Known Member
I recently bought a new computer---I ditched the win98 pile o' crap I struggled with oh those many years and in wanting to be compatable with the future bought an AMD 64 bit dual-core powered 2 gig of ram with all the bells and whistles Gateway. Also a flat-panel wide screen and new speakers (w/a bass and 2 tweeters)

I still have a basic "duh" question though:

When you shut down your computer is it better to shut it off totally, or put it on standby? And is standby the same as sleep? Currently I stand it by throughout the day, but shut it off at night because it has an irritating flashing blue light on the power button to indicate that it is indeed standing by. The computer is in a bedroom and the light it makes is way too bright to sleep by.

Anyway the sales guy said it was harder on a computer to turn it on and off every time I used it.
 
Standby is not complete power off. I think the best way is to shut it off totally, and you can do it two ways:
- Shut down: which closes all your open apps and performs an OS shutdown.
- Hibernate: saves the current computer state to disk and then it powers off.

With hibernate you get the advantage that it will boot faster and with all your programs opened, just like you left it.
 
Thank you Luis G. I have heard of hibernate of course and I wonder if that is what the little moon on the upper left of my keyboard is for. And is that the same as standby--one of the XP options to choose when you click Shut Down.
Because to me hibernate would mean more of a deeper "sleep" than standby. Kinda like bears in caves for the winter...;) Hmm. Maybe they're just interchangeable definitions.
 
We never shut ours down. I have my monitor set to shut down after 15 minutes of idleness, I think Rob has the same.
 
So you just turn your monitor back on and you're ready to roll again---that would have sitting through the windows startup screens beat.

It stays pretty cool just coasting like that? Have you ever had to replace anything like the fans?
 
Cerise said:
So you just turn your monitor back on and you're ready to roll again---that would have sitting through the windows startup screens beat.

It stays pretty cool just coasting like that? Have you ever had to replace anything like the fans?
Click to expand...
Actually, all she probably has to do is move the mouse. I hibernate my work PC, but I usually shut down the one at home. OTOH, I have a Linux server that hasn't been shut down since my last kernel upgrade in February (before that it was up for over a year). I've never had a fan issue although I have fixed some.
 
Yeah, I just move the mouse. I have had to replace one fan in...2 years? Something like that.
 
unless you have a reason to keep your machine running all the time (file downloading, folding, etc) I would shut it down when not in use.
I don't think it will hurt it either way, and windows likes a reboot every now and then to keep it fresh :)
 
Mine usually gets its periodic reboot whenever Windows does a critical update. Otherwise, I leave mine up 24/7 for folding, and just turn off the monitor if I'm going to be away for more than a little while.

I've found that fans seem to have an approximately five-year lifespan with near-constant use. I had to do my front fan either the end of last year or the start of this year, and my back fan last month.
 
Kruz said:
unless you have a reason to keep your machine running all the time (file downloading, folding, etc) I would shut it down when not in use.
I don't think it will hurt it either way, and windows likes a reboot every now and then to keep it fresh :)
Click to expand...
You know that Microsoft says that the switch to NT (2000, XP) based products has solved that problem? My experience is that you're right and they're full of it, however. ;)
 
I shut mine off at night, only because there are times when the power goes down every once in a while here, and it's usualy early in the am...
 
Cerise said:
Thank you Luis G. I have heard of hibernate of course and I wonder if that is what the little moon on the upper left of my keyboard is for. And is that the same as standby--one of the XP options to choose when you click Shut Down.
Because to me hibernate would mean more of a deeper "sleep" than standby. Kinda like bears in caves for the winter...;) Hmm. Maybe they're just interchangeable definitions.
Click to expand...

The moon means suspend (or standby). Perhaps you have hibernate disabled, go to start menu, control panel, and then energy options. There should be a tab named hibernation, click on it and then the option to enable it appears.

It's very likely that the names in the above procedure are a bit wrong since I have a winxp in spanish.
 
tonksy said:
We have those UPS beepy boxes for when the power goes out or a cat pulls the cord.
Click to expand...
A UPS is always a good idea. I hate losing stuff because of a power outage or such. I have my desktop and my server plugged into an APC SU1400. That;s probably overkill, even for me, but it was free (well, I had to buy a battery pack and two 35¢ diodes). :nerd:
 
chcr said:
A UPS is always a good idea. I hate losing stuff because of a power outage or such. I have my desktop and my server plugged into an APC SU1400. That;s probably overkill, even for me, but it was free (well, I had to buy a battery pack and two 35¢ diodes). :nerd:
Click to expand...

A battery pack is the best way to go, they are far ahead of most surge protectors...
 
I heard that 15 years ago it was better to leave HD's running, because frequent off's and boots stressed the HD's.. but I bet with the newer hardware it really doesn't matter if you leave it on, or shut it off at the end of the day...

I think it's parallel to the idea that if you must stand with your vehicle running for more than a minute.. that it's cheaper on gas to shut it off, because it takes a minutes worth of running gas to start a gas engine...

Shutting a flat screen PC off at night would likely save about 50-cents hydro...

I doubt that you could put any detectable damage on a HD by shutting down every day... Probably by the time you could notice any HD troubles, you would have gone through three more computers, and XP would have been replaced by Windows Cubical, and Windows Rapsody...

I have to shut mine off every night.. as it's in the bedroom, has a badly worn HD which makes a distinct whining sound that keeps me awake, and we're skimping to save money these days... I got the tower free that as it is... the HD connector had slipped off the HD, and the last owner dint have uh cloo...

Question "shut down or leave on"...
Ans: do you prefer chocolate or butterscotch"..
Some say timodoes, some say timadoes...
Some wear undies, some don't...

"I did it myyy wayyy"...

_____________________________________

I have a super well written set of 20 W98se posts that pretty much teach the novice all about making W98 run fast and samooth... Does this forum want a thread build of those 20 posts?..
 
DonaldJ said:
Question "shut down or leave on"...
Ans: do you prefer chocolate or butterscotch"..
Some say timodoes, some say timadoes...
Some wear undies, some don't...
Click to expand...
I'm thinking I'd rather not know the answer to that one. :D
 
From what I'm reading about computers here.. it seems there's a lot of maintainence not being done to keep PC's running at peak smooth...

Rebooting a PC clears the RAM of the crap it collects...
You can download Cacheman Memory Restore for that.. You just click the icon, and the software takes about ten seconds to clear up cluttered RAM...

I'm running W98se about as fast and smooth as it gets...
To maintain an antique PC to hold its efficiency, it is rerquired that it be scandisked & defragged daily.. and run a good registry cleaner every couple days...
For this I'm running "Power Defrag", "Registry Mechanic", "PC OnPoint", "CCleaner", and sometimes an old version of "Uninstaller"...

For security I'm running a Router, "Spybot", and "Norton 2002 AVS".. but still a hacker can get in and mess things up via bugs in emails that I shouldn't have opened...

For the best browser in the world I'm running SeaMonkey 1.2...

I discovered the biggest reason W98 is the shits, is because of Macromedia crap causing All those lockups and slow-down problems...

W98se is a good system once you catch on to how to make it run right...
A lot of hackers and computer techs swear by W98se over the new troublesome leaky OS's...

If you are having troubles with W98, uninstall all Macromedia software, including Shockwave and Flash... Those state of the art spyware softwares are way too powerful for the old W98 system...

If you are running ZoneAlarm with Norton AVS, that will cause you a lot of grief.. Those two are not compatable...

If you are running FireFox with ZoneAlarm, you best get BlackIce... FF & ZA are not compatable, and ZA does not protect FireFox nor SeaMonkey...

For sure get yourself a freebie copy of "Tiny Personal Firewall", and set it to block everything, even itself from connecting to the Net, and configure it as you go...

I have an archived well written 20-post thread that guides the novice through all the common problems in W98se, and how to avoid them... Does this forum want a "Running a fast smooth W98se" computer thread of 20 base posts?...

If your PC ever gets hit by a killer virus, and suddenly your files and programs won't open.. immediately run "Eraser" if all else fails...
You are taking a bit of a chance running "Eraser", but it works...
 
defrag daily is just-...........bs
And I'm yet to find an expert that would choose w98 over win2k.
 
Damn that's alot of work. XP corporate Pro & a bi-annual clean install works wonders.
 
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