Never turning off a notebook

I'm looking to purchase my first notebook, and I'm looking at a W3V to replace my ancient desktop.

I'm the type of person that leaves computers on all the time. Would it be a good idea to do that with the W3V?

Will it significantly decrease it's life span?

Thanks!

 

It will, since all computer parts, no matter if its desktop or laptop will slowly wear away.

However, leaving it on is fine, but I would think a weekly reboot would be helpful, and if its truely not needed to be left on(If you aren't downloading/scanning/defragging/etc., then a Hibernate would help.

Also, a Laptop cooler may be of help.

 

I usually have my W3A on for about 15 hours per day and use hibernation when I shut it down so that I can restart with my applications open where I left them.

Even without shutting the computer down, power management options can turn off the LCD backlight and the hard drive after a period of inactivity in order to reduce the wear on these items. [Power management can also put the computer to sleep or hibernation.]

John

 

Thanks for the info.

Coriolis: I noticed you're in the Toronto area. Any recommendations on a reputable Asus dealer to purchase my W3V?

 

If you haven't already, I'd recommend you stop by any one of the 3 CanadaSys stores, they SHOULD have most of the laptops on display. I know the Markham(Warden/Steeles) location has almost all of them for display but I'm not familiar with the other stores.

Check out their site(It's pretty crappy, no offense Danny ) www.canadasys.com - ask if they have the W3v on display. Oh, while you're there, tell them I sent you

 

CanadaSys's North York location doesn't keep any Asus laptops on display (other than a few barebones), but I learned that the technicians will happily build a machine for you to test; it takes only 15 minutes.

 

Yeah I'm one of those people who uses the laptop in classes. Web surfing mostly but that's beside the point. I turn it off when i need to migrate to the next class. I just thought that if the HD is running and the moving around would cause some head crash for the HD. True there're those sudden movement sensor which stop HD movement some laptop advertise. But with computer boot time at like 2 minute or so these day, it's not that much of an inconvenience to boot it up in another class. Rarely do i leave the laptop running when moving around.

 

A full boot from off takes about 80~ seconds with everything loaded(NHC, SpeedFan, Atheros WiFi client, Avast!, Spyware Doc, ATI TRAY tools, etc.

From Hibernate, its under 30~ seconds, which is alot faster.

Just like ngocthach, when I need to physically move it, hibernating is the best way, because physically moving the HD while its spinning is not healthy for it.

 

Any idea on what dealers like Canadasys' policy is on stuck / dead pixels? I'm a little concerned about having screen problems after reading some other posts. I would hate to see a stuck pixel in the middle of the screen after paying $2000.

 

Keeping a laptop battery at full charge in a warm environment will rapidly degrade the battery...

I have a Toshiba sitting here that my mom left on 24/7 for like two years, and the battery lasts a whopping 21 minutes now...

 

So what is better then? I usually use mine with the battery in, but still plugged into the mains. Should I be removing the battery entirely when I'm using mains power? Or should I be mostly running on battery, and just plugging into the mains to recharge? I already have enough problems with low battery-life; I don't want to inadvertently make it worse!

 

I think the general concensus is... if you use your notebook for extended periods of time PLUGGED IN (a week or longer), then take the battery out and store it in a cool, dry place.
If you do use it on battery regularly (a few times a week), then there's no harm if you leave it in.

On my old M6Ne, it's been over a year and the battery capacity hasn't decreased significantly. I still get about 4 hours of life on it... I barely ever took the battery out.

 

Thanks. I hope I haven't done anything to mine yet. It's been almost a year. I have tended to plug it in almost all the time, with the battery in, but then when I go out I put it into sleep and unplug it to put it away, so having the battery is was useful for that so that I didn't have to turn it off every time. Maybe I should just use it on battery much more often - or does that cause its own problems?

 

Regardless.. a battery has a fixed lifespan.
If you use it often... it will die faster.
If you don't use it... it will die, but slower... depending on how you store it.

With these lithium ion batteries.. I don't really see a need to treat them "special"... just use them how you want to. No matter what, the battery is slowly decaying its charge.. so use it according to your needs

 

I think the problem might be that this particular model of laptop generates a significant amount of heat, and the battery is stored completely internally rather then along the back like a lot of newer models. At any rate it was purchased in 2002, so it's three years old now, not surprising that it's dead. I just ordered a new one.