Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!decwrl!apple!agate!darkstar!helios!ted
From: ted@helios.ucsc.edu (Ted Cantrall)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
Subject: Re: Leave the PC on vs. Power it off daily?
Message-ID: <7164@darkstar.ucsc.edu>
Date: 25 Sep 90 17:42:48 GMT
References: <1990Sep17.205845.12803@pdn.paradyne.com> <1990Sep19.115137.22763@wciu.EDU>
Sender: usenet@darkstar.ucsc.edu
Reply-To: ted@helios.ucsc.edu (Ted Cantrall)
Organization: UCO/Lick Observatory, Santa Cruz
Lines: 21

>>In <1990Sep17.205845.12803@pdn.paradyne.com> dixon@pdn.paradyne.com 
>>(Tom Dixon) writes:
>>With todays pc hardware, exactly how dangerous is each power cycle?  
>>If you power your office unit off every night, are you in for early 
>>hardware failures?  Or is this all propaganda spread by electric power 
On page 32 on the Sept 24 INFOWORLD, Steve Gibson (of Gibson Research and
SpinRite fame) discusses several aspects of this long running debate.
He says "I have determined that hard disk-based personal computer
workstations should never be turned off." Near the end of the article 
he modifies that stance somewhat, but in the bulk of the article he talks
of hard disk heads jerking on power-up, surge currents in motors, CRT
filiments and other parts. Thermal cycling may have been more obvious
in the days of vacuum tubes, but have you ever put your finger on some of
the large chips in your PC? You can cook eggs on some of them! He also
quotes hard disk manufacturers say that thermal cycling is harder on bearings
that continous operation. 		-ted-

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