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View Full Version : Is it ok to leave laptop on 24/7?



hockeyfighter09
January 5th, 2008, 06:48 AM
I have a laptop that I use for everything. I rarely use the family desktop. Would it be ok for it to be left on all the time? I would like peoples thoughts on this because I dont want to mess up my laptop.

fedex1993
January 5th, 2008, 06:53 AM
Um do you have a cooling pad on the bottom of it or a well vented on the below the laptop and not next to any heat sources it sounds good to elave on. Linux distros are know to stay up for a while and i mean a while. Um if you dont have a cooler on the laptop i would recommend getting a cheaper like the 20 targu$ is good to keep a laptop cool.

HermanAB
January 5th, 2008, 06:55 AM
The only issue is that if you never use the battery, then it will go south more quickly than if you do sometimes use it.

hockeyfighter09
January 5th, 2008, 06:57 AM
Um do you have a cooling pad on the bottom of it or a well vented on the below the laptop and not next to any heat sources it sounds good to elave on. Linux distros are know to stay up for a while and i mean a while. Um if you dont have a cooler on the laptop i would recommend getting a cheaper like the 20 targu$ is good to keep a laptop cool.

Its a newer laptop and it is usually used on flat hard surfaces. Would it be ok to run without a cooling pad if on all the time or is one required to have it on all the time?

Lostincyberspace
January 5th, 2008, 06:57 AM
Yeah make sure to use the battery or it will just die.

fedex1993
January 5th, 2008, 06:58 AM
umm my laptop gets hot just sitting on my lap and then it gets a little cooler on the table but i run a zalaman cpu cooler and it liks 10 degress cooler than it usually is i would recommend getting one.

yopnono
January 5th, 2008, 07:24 AM
Like other say, make sure it have enough airflow for cooling. Use a screensaver, use the battery sometimes or unplug the battery.

D-EJ915
January 5th, 2008, 07:27 AM
If you don't have proper cooling or feel that it's getting too hot, set the screen to turn off, fold the screen so it's at like a 45° angle to the base and simply turn it on its side

hockeyfighter09
January 5th, 2008, 07:31 AM
To give everyone an idea of the laptop its a dell xps m1210. Do these laptops have good cooling systems? Does anyone on here own one of these laptops and leave it on?

fedex1993
January 5th, 2008, 07:39 AM
whats up with everyone buying dells just asking but i will lookinto cooling for it

Sef
January 5th, 2008, 07:41 AM
Yeah make sure to use the battery or it will just die.

You should drain the battery about every 3 weeks or it will not be able to charge up as much and eventually you will have a dead battery.

jrusso2
January 5th, 2008, 07:53 AM
I would not leave a laptop on all the time they don't last as long as desktops and they run hot.

macogw
January 5th, 2008, 08:04 AM
whats up with everyone buying dells just asking but i will lookinto cooling for it

Dell sells computers with Ubuntu now. I'd still prefer a ZaReason. They have this nice open hardware warranty...if your video card goes but you added more memory, most OEMs take away the warranty because you put in memory. They just say "meh. you didn't touch the video card. we'll replace it"

ispy
January 5th, 2008, 09:10 AM
whats up with everyone buying dells just asking but i will lookinto cooling for it

Personally, it was cheapest at the time (I got an Inspiron e1505 for $570 with Win XP Media Center edition august '06) It didn't come with ubuntu, but I did have an extra partition to use. :)

hockeyfighter09
January 5th, 2008, 09:19 AM
whats up with everyone buying dells just asking but i will lookinto cooling for it

Ive always stuck with dells because I find them priced ok for me. Also I havent had any problem with them, very reliable for me.

trash
January 5th, 2008, 09:28 AM
wood surfaces are also the worst as they retain the most heat, i use a large porceline(sp?) tile under mine and it barely gets warm.
Thanks for the battery tip guys I would never have known!

adamklempner
January 5th, 2008, 09:29 AM
Just leave it on a hard surface and make sure the vents are not blocked. I have an Averatec laptop that is on most of the time. A laptop at idle should consume very little power and generate very little heat. A properly designed laptop should be able to idle indefinitely without any heat issues.

jeffus_il
January 5th, 2008, 09:37 AM
Maybe its good to make sure that the laptop-mode-tools package is operating, and that the disk is spinning down, also that a cpu frequency utility is setting the speed lower while the computer is idle. And of course exercise the battery, I pull out the power when I'm working and push it back in when the battery warning pops up.

slimdog360
January 5th, 2008, 09:43 AM
what is the point of leaving it on all the time. If you don't use it for 10 hours why on earth would you want to waste all that power. Think green man.

hockeyfighter09
January 5th, 2008, 09:46 AM
Maybe its good to make sure that the laptop-mode-tools package is operating, and that the disk is spinning down, also that a cpu frequency utility is setting the speed lower while the computer is idle. And of course exercise the battery, I pull out the power when I'm working and push it back in when the battery warning pops up.

Problem I have is that this laptop is affected by the huge loading cycle counts that some people are experiencing with ubuntu so i had to set hdparm to 254 to stop my load cycle from increasing insanely. I have been wondering though what does this do exactly to my hard drive? Does it spin consistently now? If so is there a way I can make it spin down after a certain time of inactivity?

jeffus_il
January 5th, 2008, 09:47 AM
A good point, But I guess if someone really wants to do it, why not help him do it a little better and greener.

bvanaerde
January 5th, 2008, 09:47 AM
If the laptop is always standing at the same place, you can just pull the battery out, and always use the power cable. Sometimes it's necessary to replace the battery with e.g. some CD cases, as the laptop won't be that stable anymore (physically, that is).

It's best to pull the battery out when it's about 50% charged, definitely not when it's empty.

At least, that's what I'm told :)
There are a lot of opinions on this. Your battery will die eventually, whether you are using it or not. But I believe it will die faster when using it.

hockeyfighter09
January 5th, 2008, 09:49 AM
If the laptop is always standing at the same place, you can just pull the battery out, and always use the power cable. Sometimes it's necessary to replace the battery with e.g. some CD cases, as the laptop won't be that stable anymore (physically, that is).

It's best to pull the battery out when it's about 50% charged, definitely not when it's empty.

At least, that's what I'm told :)
There are a lot of opinions on this. Your battery will die eventually, whether you are using it or not. But I believe it will die faster when using it.

My laptop is almost always on a desk and hardly moves so I have the battery removed so this isnt a huge concern for me.

jeffus_il
January 5th, 2008, 09:52 AM
Problem I have is that this laptop is affected by the huge loading cycle counts that some people are experiencing with ubuntu so i had to set hdparm to 254 to stop my load cycle from increasing insanely. I have been wondering though what does this do exactly to my hard drive? Does it spin consistently now? If so is there a way I can make it spin down after a certain time of inactivity?

Probably best to find the cause, Is that a "smart" parameter? Does it mean that the head is parking and then moving to read and then parking all the time?

hockeyfighter09
January 5th, 2008, 09:56 AM
Probably best to find the cause, Is that a "smart" parameter? Does it mean that the head is parking and then moving to read and then parking all the time?

This is a problem is alot of laptop users seem to be facing with Ubuntu. Its filed as a critical bug in the Ubuntu launchpad bug report. The bug is that Ubuntu is accessing the harddrive alot by default making it complete a whole load cycle in sometimes as little as 3 secs. I had like 3 load cycles in like 10 secs which is insane before I did the fix. So yeah thats about all I know about this problem.

gn2
January 5th, 2008, 11:05 AM
Laptops are not designed to be left on 24/7.

It's very difficult to keep the insides properly clean and the cooler can get blocked up.

hockeyfighter09
January 27th, 2008, 02:12 AM
Are there any other opinions on this subject?

Omnios
January 27th, 2008, 02:27 AM
I have a XPS 1530 and the 9 cell bat hands down a little letting the bottom cool. Could have a strip of something to allow for a little extra ventilation. So a little gap like a mm or so may help. Generally the cooler it stays the better.

tbroderick
January 27th, 2008, 02:28 AM
Are there any other opinions on this subject?

There's always other opinions. Google has lots. I'd say no, don't leave a laptop on 24/7. Waste of electricity and potentially harmful to my environment.

LookTJ
January 27th, 2008, 03:38 AM
Yeah, it's ok as long you use battery(if you move around your house). If not, use the A/C adapter. My laptop(which I use for my everyday tasks) went 35 days w/o battery until I restarted just because I wanted to change the clock in the BIOs and new kernels. In the 35 days, it survived a 1 sec power outage(it was on A/C power) :)

paintba||er
January 27th, 2008, 04:21 AM
I was wondering the same thing. I just bought a new MacBook, but I've always used a desktop before. I don't plan on leaving it on all the time, just while I'm awake (around 15 hours a day) and occasionally I'd like to leave it on for a few days for a large torrent with few seeders or something. Most parts of it have been staying around 100° F except the Airport (wifi) card which for some reason is always around 150° F. The bottom of the case is always about 80° F. Would it be fine to leave it on for long periods of times at these temps?

swoll1980
January 27th, 2008, 04:22 AM
I never turn my laptop off the only time it gets restarted is when I get the gutsy death lock
and have to hard stop it

Endolith
June 1st, 2008, 03:19 AM
You should drain the battery about every 3 weeks or it will not be able to charge up as much and eventually you will have a dead battery.

Huh? Draining the battery when you don't need to reduces the life of the battery. Why are you telling people to do this?

http://www.dansdata.com/gz011.htm

Anduu
June 1st, 2008, 06:29 AM
I would definitely recommend against leaving a laptop on 24/7.

They were not designed with that in mind.That is what regular PCs were made for.

zmjjmz
June 1st, 2008, 07:37 AM
If you can, you should put the laptop into Suspend when you can.