Hardware Is it bad for a laptop for being on 24/7?

[test84]

what do u think?

 

[ZAFDeltaForce]

When your laptop is on 24/7, it gets hot. Very hot. This extreme build up of heat could potentially screw around with the internal circuitry and other fancy pancy technological stuff inside the laptop.

Unless you got a kick ass laptop cooler I suppose..?

Voted "No" by mistake, sorry. My real choice was "Yes"

 

[test84]

thnx delta, since my friend used to download all night when he's asleep, i was wondering if i can use this machine for my main downloads.

 

[Urza]

Use the power management to underclock the CPU/GPU and make sure theres ample airflow underneath. I usually prop up each of the back corners with a GameCube/PS2 memory card.

 

[Movi]

It totally depends on the laptop, btu as long as youre not letting it do Folding@Home or some sort of that, you should be fine (ACPI should automatically turn on the fans when needed, and in critical situations shut down the laptop). On the whole i wouldnt be concerned, but if the cooling is sub-par itll probably turn on the fans and be loud.

 

[TGBoy]

I leave my laptop on 24/7. twice i left it on 24/7 for a month. and once 45-50 days. Same reason downloads. No probs for me. I am not using any special cooler. Of course I did leave the Air conditioning/Fan switched on in the room.
P.S. - I am not sure but i think leavin the laptop charged continuously reduces how long it can run on battery power

 

[DjoeN]

Since i had 1 laptop fried from overheating, i use a laptop coolingpad.

Since my laptop (New laptop, same brand/tyupe) rests on that (it's powered by the laptop usb port) it never feels warm again, so the chaneg off overheating it again is down by 80% i can say

, it sucks the heat from the laptop andblows it away

It has 4 fans in it and doesn't make to much noise, to almost no noise (you can set the speed of the fans wyth a turning wheel.

I can leave my laptop on for 2 months without problem (to say, the laptop is almost always on)

 

[2cb2ct7]

After a year of doing the exact same thing I didn't want to risk it anymore... A$2000 or the mere A$600 it cost me to build a dedicated internet computer?

 

[legendofphil]

I know of someone who screwed up several laptops doing that.
Also having it plugged into the mains all the time is bad for the battery.

 

[Lukeage]

Leaving it on 24/7 will cause it to have a shorter life, but so will leaving a desktop on 24/7. As long as it is in a well ventilated place (ie, don't leave it sitting on the carpet), you shouldn't have any issues.

It will however (depending on design) cause the battery's life to be shortened. "Storing" the battery at 100% is worse for it than storing it at 40% (the optimal), and the trickle charge that is used to keep the battery full will cause it to heat up slightly, which also reduces its life.

I've personally done this with my laptop and it has barely been turned off in the last 10 months. However, I don't really use it for anything else, and rarely take it anywhere (was a hand-me-down) so if the battery 'dies' I'm not that concerned.

 

[berlinka]

I only have a laptop. It's an Acer Aspire and it has a Intel Centrino processor and when I keep it running at night I always set it to the lowest CPU-speed. Occasionally it can get very hot, but so far I have never experienced any problems. I think laptops do get better and better and they use less power than desktops.

 

[azotyp]

When your laptop is on 24/7, it gets hot. Very hot. This extreme build up of heat could potentially screw around with the internal circuitry and other fancy pancy technological stuff inside the laptop.

Or buy yourself some laptop cooling pad
(available on ebay)

 

[suppachipmunk]

I have an HP zd8000. It is a pretty big laptop (17" wide) and it seems to overheat very quickly. I recently got a prop for it that keeps it at a tilt, drastically reducing the overheating problem. But I wouldnt dare leave it on for more than 8 hours or so in fear of it killing itself.

It has a 3.0Ghz P4 HT processor. It is pretty powerfull and power hungry for a laptop. how would I turn down the Clock speed of both the CPU and GPU, if possible?

Also, the battery seems to not be recognized sometimes... I have cleaned the contacts and it seems to work for the moment. Is this a sign of bad things to come, like buying a new battery?

suppachipmunk

 

[ZAFDeltaForce]

^ If I'm not wrong, you can do it in your laptop's BIOS. Access it by hitting the delete key on bootup.

 

[Vampant]

I use to be told though it is better for windows to stay on then to continually switched on and off

 

[suppachipmunk]

@ZAFDeltaForce

Thanks, I will try to open the BIOS on the next bootup.

Suppachipmunk

 

[kellyan95]

Nothing to do with Windows, it's the old HDDs that had problems being turned off and on too much

 

[beautifulbeast]

I don't know, but laptops are bad for your testicles if you place them on your lap. More so if you'll be using it 24/7, wich completely defeats the purpose of downloading porn.

 

[nostic]

Nah it's 100% safe leave a laptop on for weeks at a time with no damage, just take some precautions.

1.) if its a modern laptop (Centrino or Mobile chipset) then the processor with auto scale speed (power consumed = heat)
a. Make sure you set the laptop to "longer battery life" under power management (get to it though screen saver tab under display properties
2.) Have your screen turn off when the lid is closed, the display drains more power than anything else on a laptop (well maybe the Hard Drive unless its SSD and what your doing, but in a normal/web browsing/Text writing situation)
a. Once again you can do this under power management under display properties
3.) Last if you know the download will be done by a specific time then you can auto shutdown your pc at that time, I do this when I'm downloading stuff I'm not proud of

a. to do this click on START -> RUN -> type "Shutdown -i" without the ""
b. for computers type 127.0.0.1
c. type = shutdown
d. display warning for X time where X= when the Download will be done in seconds so 4 hours would be (4*60*60 = 14400)
e. to abort the shutdown for whatever reason just click START => RUN => type "Shutdown -a" without the ""

anywho thats my 2 cents, I've been downloading porn errrrr history documentaries for years with no problems on a laptop.

 

[ackers]

I leave my laptop on 24/7. twice i left it on 24/7 for a month. and once 45-50 days. Same reason downloads. No probs for me. I am not using any special cooler. Of course I did leave the Air conditioning/Fan switched on in the room.
P.S. - I am not sure but i think leavin the laptop charged continuously reduces how long it can run on battery power

Yup the more you charge the shorter it lasts. And holy crap leaving your laptop on 24/7 for that long must cost an absolute fortune in electrical bills!