Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!watcgl!watmum!smvorkoetter
From: smvorkoetter@watmum.waterloo.edu (Stefan M. Vorkoetter)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: Power on sequence?!?
Message-ID: <8618@watcgl.waterloo.edu>
Date: 15 Mar 89 16:37:33 GMT
References: <8000042@m.cs.uiuc.edu>
Sender: daemon@watcgl.waterloo.edu
Reply-To: smvorkoetter@watmum.waterloo.edu (Stefan M. Vorkoetter)
Organization: U. of Waterloo, Ontario
Lines: 26


Some monitors, such as older IBM Monochrome Units can be destroyed
by running them without a computer feeding them signals.  Such
monitors should only be on when the computer is on.

Leaving the computer running is good for the electronics (not as
good as leaving it always off, but better than turning it on and
off all the time).  However, if you have a hard disk, leaving it
running will wear it out, whether or not it is being used.  Someone
should come up with a way to turn off just the hard disk.  Before
someone mentions parking programs, realize that these do not stop
the disk; they only move the heads over a "safe" track.

With today's computers, there is no good reason not to switch the
whole thing on and off with one master switch.  I have a Tandy 
Power Switching System, which sits under the monitor.  It has a
master switch, as well as separate switches for each component of
a system.  Each outlet is individually surge protected about as well
as possible without resorting to an isolation transformer.

Hope this helps.

Stefan Vorkoetter
(smvorkoetter@watmum.waterloo.edu)
Symbolic Computation Group
University of Waterloo