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5 Replies Last post: Feb 4, 2010 7:09 AM by Craig Paul Wallace  
Alan Priestley 2 posts since
Oct 31, 2007
Newbie
Currently Being Moderated

Dec 8, 2009 6:47 AM

Why do we turn off our laptops ?

I often hear people complaining about the power-on/start-up time of their laptops and we are now starting to see PC manufacturers offering laptops with 'quick boot' functionality that gets email and web access going before the complete OS is up and running. The OS system vendors are also  focusing a lot of attention of reducing their start-up times.

 

What I have never understood is what all the fuss is about - every laptop ( and netbook ) has a facility called 'standby' or 'sleep' which shuts down operations but leaves everything in a state where functionality can be rapidly resumed when needed - typically this would be set so when the screen is closed the laptop goes into a low-power suspended state. For a laptop this suspended or sleep state can be maintained for many days and the operating system can be setup to hibernate ( completely saving machine status ) if the battery power drops to a point that the suspend/sleep state cannot be maintained.

 

Personally I only 'start-up' my laptop once a week  ( or in the case of my MacBook or Linux-based netbook once a month ) so I would much rather the OS vendors focused on other aspects of functionality - application launch time, user responsiveness etc.

 

Am I missing something here - why do we need to add additional functionality to address a 'problem' that is created by lack of user understanding of current laptop capabilities ?

 

How often do you power off your laptop - daily, weekly, monthly, never ??

 

Do we as an industry need to better educate consumers ( and ourselves ) as to the capabilities that the operating systems and hardware actually offer ??

Keti Rogava Newbie 6 posts since
Nov 6, 2008
Currently Being Moderated
1. Dec 8, 2009 4:35 PM in response to: Alan Priestley
Re: Why do we turn off our laptops ?

I actually just realized that I tend to power off my personal computer every evening, but with my work pc it's once a week. will try changing my personal pc behavior as well, thanks for the post. Does powering off have any positive/negative impact on the machine?

Keti Rogava Newbie 6 posts since
Nov 6, 2008
Currently Being Moderated
3. Dec 17, 2009 4:35 AM in response to: Alan Priestley
Re: Why do we turn off our laptops ?

Thanks Alan, actually since I read your post last week I stopped powering down and actually realized how convenient it is. thanks!

Cpt.Dogfruit Newbie 9 posts since
Jun 26, 2009
Currently Being Moderated
4. Feb 4, 2010 6:32 AM in response to: Alan Priestley
Re: Why do we turn off our laptops ?

Hi,

The reason i used to always turn off my laptop, and even desktops for that matter was reliability to be honest. OK,most of the time it worked fine, but then tehre was always sometime or another that this driver or that one didn'y come back on properly, or that the OS seemed just that little bit slower.

Craig Paul Wallace Junior 6 posts since
Sep 17, 2009
Currently Being Moderated
5. Feb 4, 2010 7:09 AM in response to: Alan Priestley
Re: Why do we turn off our laptops ?

I've always turned my laptop off every day after work, and then on again in the morning. It is A LOT of effort to do so, but I dind't realise that the sleep or hibernate function could be used for longer periods of time.

 

Now I get into the office, flick the switch and I'm away. No loading, re-connecting to the internet, and sitting there doing nothing. Thanks Alan!

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