Restarting computer equipment
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For me, depends what my mood is - often I just leave them, so they auto-sleep (like the monitors do). Or I might shut them down - these days, my machines take such a short time to boot (my Lenovo P1 boots in about 10 seconds), it's no hardship to wait through a boot sequence (of course, there's getting your environment back again - Windows could do with a feature like macOS where it'll reopen all the documents/applications you had open when you shut it down). And most of my machines are on the Windows Insider Fast ring, so get a new Windows version roughly each week, so there's at least one restart a week... As for docks - I use a couple of Dell Thunderbolt docks regularly and I never power cycle those.
Java, Basic, who cares - it's all a bunch of tree-hugging hippy cr*p
I've never had problems with the Dell dock (USB-C), but I have had problems with my P1 when using the monster Lenovo Thunderbolt dock (with the two power supplies).
Director of Transmogrification Services Shinobi of Query Language Master of Yoda Conditional
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Depends on the software you use - I find I have to power cycle from time to time on the Surface where it sleep /hibernates most of the time. If I don't, I lose the mouse pointer. And hibernate can be a PITA if you have network shares onto a power-saving NAS - if it goes into low-power mode and spins the disks down, Windows doesn't always reconnect them properly. The same with access to SQL via the Desktop machine, even if no apps accessing it are open when the Surface is hibernated. Herself also has "odd problems" with her Jigsaw app - sleep or hibernate with it running full screen and it always comes back with a blank screen, which is annoying to say the least.
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It's more my work laptop that I am questioning; and it arises when I intend to actually work from home and VPN back into work. Sometimes the Cisco client just doesn't want to "let go" if I don't power down before re-connecting in the office.
Director of Transmogrification Services Shinobi of Query Language Master of Yoda Conditional
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Ok, so I got me some new laptops and was looking for suggestions/opinions on restart/shutdown. And lets throw the Docks in too- I have one USB-C dock and another that is Thunderbolt; can these benefit from occasional power downs? Currently I hibernate the machine, leave the monitors on, and unplug the docks over the weekend.
Director of Transmogrification Services Shinobi of Query Language Master of Yoda Conditional
I believe that a computer that is turned off is less likely to have data corruption/loss during mid-night thunderstorm -- mine are always powered off when work is done. The USA Midwest can have impressive night time thunderstorms.
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I've read that Hibernate is very rough on SSDs (related to max lifetime writes) so that should be a consideration too.
Having used SSDs for many years, and tested them by putting them in TIVO devices... (Continuously writing)... Any fear I had of the SSDs getting worn out were put to rest. I got 4 years of TIVO on an OLD SSD I had run for over a year. It eventually died. But that was 4 years of continuous writes! That said. I replace ALL my SSDs within 3-4yrs for my workstations, usually upgrading in Size along the way! (Whereby they become backup (emergency recovery) devices for cold spares, usually created weekly. The restore process (if primary drives are gone), pop those in to spare, fire it up, and restore from most recent. This had the advantage of being testable and timed. We know how long it takes. And it's 2-4hrs until we are back up and running).
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I always power down overnight at work, it means I come into a clean environment everyday, and allows me to forget about yesterday's troubles.
You don't have to be mad to live here [UK], but it helps.
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I believe that a computer that is turned off is less likely to have data corruption/loss during mid-night thunderstorm -- mine are always powered off when work is done. The USA Midwest can have impressive night time thunderstorms.
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Ok, so I got me some new laptops and was looking for suggestions/opinions on restart/shutdown. And lets throw the Docks in too- I have one USB-C dock and another that is Thunderbolt; can these benefit from occasional power downs? Currently I hibernate the machine, leave the monitors on, and unplug the docks over the weekend.
Director of Transmogrification Services Shinobi of Query Language Master of Yoda Conditional
My laptop is used strictly on trips as a portable substitute for my desktop, so it gets powered up and down each time I use it. However, my company makes products that are based on Windows CE (6.0, in our case), and that OS has counters involved in timing that overflow about every 49 days, so our User Manual recommends power cycling the unit at least once a month. If the software is written correctly, that overflow can be handled, but I learned years ago to assume that software is never written correctly.
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Won't help much if it's powered off, but still plugged into the wall, will it? Or is the primary concern brownouts? In which case, this is what a good UPS is for.
Agreed. The small air gap of an open switch adds some protection. I unplug when I know bad storms are roaming around.
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Ok, so I got me some new laptops and was looking for suggestions/opinions on restart/shutdown. And lets throw the Docks in too- I have one USB-C dock and another that is Thunderbolt; can these benefit from occasional power downs? Currently I hibernate the machine, leave the monitors on, and unplug the docks over the weekend.
Director of Transmogrification Services Shinobi of Query Language Master of Yoda Conditional
I seldom power off any of my computers, but I do a reboot usually about every week-ten days (more on Windows machines, less on Linux). I will power off/unplug during a severe electrical storm if I am around because, while I am protected by surge protection and a UPS, a close-in lightning strike can overload a surge protector or UPS. (I live on top of a ridge, surround by trees, two of which have been struck in the last 20 years.) I am against powering off machines. Studies have shown that many chip failures occur due to the thermal stress induced by the warm-up/cool down cycle. This, of course, is dependent on the chip construction.
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MadMyche wrote:
Currently I hibernate the machine
Be really careful with hibernate. I'm one of the thousands of people whose laptop system drive suddenly found itself in a RAW state, because of flaws in the hibernate process. There's no recovery from that; you have to repartition and format the drive (after you've used disk tools to recover umpty-million unnamed files from it). Just put it to sleep. the average laptop will sleep on battery for an immense length of time, so it's not going to land you with a huge power bill if it (or the dock) is plugged in.
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In Windows 10 - the default shutdown is in fact hibernate. If you doubt this, do a search for "enable fast start up". Here's a link to get you started. The Pros and Cons of Windows 10’s “Fast Startup” Mode[^] I find that I need to restart every now and then because docking and undocking on my machine causes Windows to lose it's marbles. Slowly it begins not to redraw sections of the screen, starting with menu's. If it was Windows 3.1 I'd describe it as running out of resources. Amazing how far we've come.
