Is it Safe to Leave my M17x Running All The Time

Hey Guys -

I just wanted to ask you guys if its ok to leave a laptop, such as my M17x running all the time? I have a modded laptop cooler running all the time as well. I wasnt sure about laptops, as I used to only use desktops, however the look and perfomance of the M17x got me turned into a lappy fan.

Also, I was about to upgrade my video cards to two 260m. But I wanted to ask you if and when is Nvidia coming out with their next video cards? Is it usually the middle of each year???

Thanks guys very much

 

perfectly safe to leave it on all the time as far as i know buddy, mines on most of the time

 

Should not be a problem. Just remember to allow for full and proper airflow....

 

Be warned though that if you leave it on all the time, the HDDs will still spin. The fans will also spin. What I suggest is, after about a week of leaving it on, let it rest for a day or two just to be safe Machines need to rest too. If you really need to leave it on i suggest hibernating it or put it in "sleep" or standby mode.

 

LOL that's probably a better practice, especially if you aren't attending your system....

Still, I would leave my desktop on 24/7, but probably good idea to power down laptops periodically....

 

Should be fine, but as with all electrical and mechanical devices, any wear will contribute to the general life expectancy MBTF (particualrly mechanical devices such as spinning HDD, DVD Roms fans etc but incl. heat too).

My trusty Dell M1730 has had long usage over 3 years now and going strong, but the only noticeable change has been the noticeably dimmer LCD - so if you enable LCD powersave that might be the only suggestion I would make.

Cheers

Trelawney

 

I'm a dummy with computers and believe you should not leave your computer on all the time. It will shorten the life of many parts such as your hard drive for one. All moving parts will have their life shortened. Your screen life will probably be shortened. I would imagine that even your graphics cards life will be shortened. But then again, I am a dummy.

 

Light bulbs last considerably longer if you leave them on all of the time due to the annealing of the filament getting hot and cold from turning on and off. Not sure if this translates to the electronics in computers but I do notice when you power off electronic devices they attract dust particles like a magnet in the powering off process. The downside of leaving it powered on all the time is the higher energy consumption.

 

you can run it all the time but remember the fans are sucking air and dust and all that is going to your heatsink radiator building a lot of dust in it

 

I would recommend having a notebook cooler on top of that even though it should be fine

 

Why would you cool somthing that was already cool ?

 

Iv went for months leaving my alienware area51m 776 on and it has always done fine. Since it was born in august of 2004, i havent noticed a difference from the first day iv goton it, alienware has there stuff togather i think in that department. How ever as the laptop is aging into its 3rd and 4th years, iv started a power managment plan witch goes on the order of something like screen saver on after 20 minites, monintor off after 30, and standby mode after 45 minutes. It seems to work out well, and you always have a fresh laptop without any low memory to work threw out of standby...

 

You really have to think about where you live, do you have pets like cat or dogs. Do you have a fire place.

If you turn it off once a week and use a can of air You should be ok.

 

Can anyone think of a hardware that went bad while the computer was running ? That was never my case, either way, i usually leave my laptop/desktop running for months. Usually it goes around 2-3months uptime before I restart it (damn you windows updates) and never had any issues so far with any of them except from my old clevo which had its poor GPU fried with no reason (and again not while the laptop was running ).

My desktop is still working which i pretty much run it like a server with almost a year uptime and its like 6 years old now

 

Hence I blow out my machine on a regular basis.

As long as one is not gaming 24/7 it should be fine....

 

I was just discussing a similar type subject in the M17x owners lounge.

 

Faulty battery =

 

^^^^^Ouch!

 

In all fairness, that can also happen with other electrical stuff. Indeed, most electrical fires in homes are started by people mis-using extension cords and power strips, not laptop batteries....

 

Depends on the usage, since i treat mine as a desktop replacement i never use the battery, only plug it in when im on the go.

 

To cause an actual fire the battery has to be faulty to begin with. The average battery just won't go up in flames unless it's abused.

 

it's not safe at all. it's a huge waste of energy. as you known there's a thing called ozone layer and stuff... so it's not very safe.

 

^^^ Are you serious

 

LOL....

Oh, I forgot to mention, I do things like my weekly full system backups and virus/malware scans at night while I am sleeping, so I need to leave it on at night at least....

 

The harddrives can be set to spin down in Windows power settings. I usually turn on my screensaver at ten minutes, blank the screen and spin the drives down at the twenty minute mark.

The fans unfortunately will take on wear if the machine is left on all the time. Happened with my Dell Inspiron 8200, but I still leave mine running 24/7 with a cooler.

- F