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Question: Other than energy wasting, is it harmful to computers to allow them to idle? We leave dozens of desktops on all the time at my work...most people neve

Question: Other than energy wasting, is it harmful to computers to allow them to idle? We leave dozens of desktops on all the time at my work...most people never even shut theirs down for months.

pmiller2 7y ago
Technically yes. There are 3 types of phenomena that cause transistors to degrade or fail. All 3 are caused by electrons flowing through the gates. See https://semiengineering.com/transistor-aging-intensifies-10nm/ https://semiengineering.com/transistor-aging-intensifies-10n... Practically speaking, however, I doubt it makes much of a difference for most desktop systems.
- monocasa 7y ago
  There's way more in computers than transistors ; you have to weigh that against the other effects on the complete system. I would be surprised if the thermal cycling from shutting down and booting the computer wasn't orders of magnitude more likely to cause problems than actual wear on the transistors. That being said, all of these issues are very unlikely to occur.
LinuxBender 7y ago
Likely the bigger impact is on the HVAC cost. Test it out some time. Have your facilities team show you HVAC power consumption for a month. Then for a month, turn off all the PC's on the weekend and after hours.
Symmetry 7y ago
There's a certain amount of electromigration that happens in silicon transistors with a voltage applied but it scales strongly with temperature so I wouldn't worry if the processor is idle. I suppose mechanical wear on the fans is a concern?
tomatotomato37 7y ago
Probably more harmful to the active software session than the hardware. A lot of programs (OS's included) have subtle memory leaks and other obscure bugs than can take multiple days to manifest.
1q2w3e4r5t6y7u8 7y ago
It's unlikely that this would matter to most people, but leaving the computer sleeping rather than hibernated or shutdown partially defeats any full disk encryption. Recovering keys from RAM is possible for a short period of time after power is removed. [1] Microsoft suggests disabling sleep when using bitlocker encryption. [2] And it is similarly suggested that Ubuntu use suspend-to-disk (hibernate) rather than suspend-to-RAM (sleep) when utilizing full disk encryption. [3] For better security leave the computer shutdown when not using it. 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_boot_attack https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_boot_attack 2.https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/previous-versions/windows/it-pro/windows-vista/cc766200(v=ws.10)?redirectedfrom=MSDN#what-are-the-implications-of-using-the-sleep-or-hibernate-power-management-options https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/previous-versions/windows/i... 3. https://security.stackexchange.com/questions/208921/is-suspend-to-ram-really-a-meaningful-risk-for-full-disk-encryption https://security.stackexchange.com/questions/208921/is-suspe...
rambojazz 7y ago
As a Linux user, I confirm that I only switch off my PCs when there is a power outage.

Question: Other than energy wasting, is it harmful to computers to allow them to idle? We leave dozens of desktops on all the time at my work...most people never even shut theirs down for months.

pmiller2 7y ago

Technically yes. There are 3 types of phenomena that cause transistors to degrade or fail. All 3 are caused by electrons flowing through the gates. See https://semiengineering.com/transistor-aging-intensifies-10nm/ https://semiengineering.com/transistor-aging-intensifies-10n... Practically speaking, however, I doubt it makes much of a difference for most desktop systems.

monocasa 7y ago
There's way more in computers than transistors ; you have to weigh that against the other effects on the complete system. I would be surprised if the thermal cycling from shutting down and booting the computer wasn't orders of magnitude more likely to cause problems than actual wear on the transistors. That being said, all of these issues are very unlikely to occur.

LinuxBender 7y ago

Likely the bigger impact is on the HVAC cost. Test it out some time. Have your facilities team show you HVAC power consumption for a month. Then for a month, turn off all the PC's on the weekend and after hours.

Symmetry 7y ago

There's a certain amount of electromigration that happens in silicon transistors with a voltage applied but it scales strongly with temperature so I wouldn't worry if the processor is idle. I suppose mechanical wear on the fans is a concern?

tomatotomato37 7y ago

Probably more harmful to the active software session than the hardware. A lot of programs (OS's included) have subtle memory leaks and other obscure bugs than can take multiple days to manifest.

1q2w3e4r5t6y7u8 7y ago

It's unlikely that this would matter to most people, but leaving the computer sleeping rather than hibernated or shutdown partially defeats any full disk encryption. Recovering keys from RAM is possible for a short period of time after power is removed. [1] Microsoft suggests disabling sleep when using bitlocker encryption. [2] And it is similarly suggested that Ubuntu use suspend-to-disk (hibernate) rather than suspend-to-RAM (sleep) when utilizing full disk encryption. [3] For better security leave the computer shutdown when not using it. 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_boot_attack https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_boot_attack 2.https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/previous-versions/windows/it-pro/windows-vista/cc766200(v=ws.10)?redirectedfrom=MSDN#what-are-the-implications-of-using-the-sleep-or-hibernate-power-management-options https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/previous-versions/windows/i... 3. https://security.stackexchange.com/questions/208921/is-suspend-to-ram-really-a-meaningful-risk-for-full-disk-encryption https://security.stackexchange.com/questions/208921/is-suspe...

rambojazz 7y ago

As a Linux user, I confirm that I only switch off my PCs when there is a power outage.