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#104518 - 2003-09-09 12:31 AM Turnoff the PC
attiahia Offline
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Some of our users do not turnoff their computers at the end of working hours; instead they just lock the computer (Ctrl + Alt + Delt).

If the user used to do this for long time (week or more), will this harm the OS or the performance of the machine?

Thank you.

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#104519 - 2003-09-09 12:55 AM Re: Turnoff the PC
Lonkero Administrator Offline
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well, no and yes.
or even yes and yes.
or then no and no [Big Grin]

basically, long online hours can affect the speed as there might be trashy programs not releasing their used memory.

and wintosh can do that too.
we had a PDC with IIRC NT sp4 on it and it kept using it's memo up until it had to be rebooted after some days.

basically, the OS itself can sit fine online for about 6-12 months without any harm.
but then again, it can't be properly updated up to date without reboots.
nor can all the stuff be released.

like, with w2k I've seen that after some 7 days it brakes down something in it's network-part and can't use VPN anymore.
and restarting all services does not help either.

like you propaply see, it's kinda yes/no answer.
but if you like to present your boss a draft that all comps need to be shutdown to keep them healthy, that does comply.

basically normal client with normal env should run just fine months without any problems.
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#104520 - 2003-09-08 01:55 PM Re: Turnoff the PC
Kdyer Offline
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Lonkero is right.. If you can think about this in a Server light.. Windows 2000 or better should work just fine. However, if there is a program/process that runs in the background, it may have a hard time with that.

Usually with Servers, you can leave them up for a extended periods. The only caveat to this would be a Terminal/Citrix server as they use up resources on a continuous basis.

Kent

[ 08. September 2003, 13:56: Message edited by: kdyer ]
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#104521 - 2003-09-08 02:58 PM Re: Turnoff the PC
Lonkero Administrator Offline
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kent, is that like nicely saying: "they are buggy"
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#104522 - 2003-09-08 03:19 PM Re: Turnoff the PC
Jack Lothian Offline
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Where I work, we are "must" lock our computer every night but never turn it off. In fact we get e-mail reminders if we consistently leave our machines off at night. Isn't this normal procedure? As far as I can tell, I don't seem to get any degradation by leaving my machine on 24x7. Of course the IS department auto re-boots my machine on average once every week for one reason or another.

[ 08. September 2003, 15:20: Message edited by: Jack Lothian ]
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#104523 - 2003-09-08 03:32 PM Re: Turnoff the PC
Radimus Moderator Offline
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we MUST log off everyday.

In fact, I have a scheduled task on each machine that forces a restart at 3am
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#104524 - 2003-09-08 03:36 PM Re: Turnoff the PC
Les Offline
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There certainly can be degradation if a computer is not rebooted often. Memory can and will fragment even if it is not consumed by a leaky app.

We encourage users to do a restart every night. That way we can perform maintenance without concern that they may have apps open with unsaved work. Very few of course, comply so we are frequently calling them in from home when we need to take downtime.

Newer computers we can power up with WOL provided they don't turn off their powerbars.
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#104525 - 2003-09-08 03:48 PM Re: Turnoff the PC
Jack Lothian Offline
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I just re-read our policy it is recommended we log off every night but leave the machines on.

Conrad,

Do you really need to call people at home? Here, I often go home leaving SAS running with a full scale data test running. This is normal practice & it never seems to cause a problem with upgrades & patches running. I or my staff have never once received a complaint for doing this.
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#104526 - 2003-09-08 03:50 PM Re: Turnoff the PC
Radimus Moderator Offline
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part of the scheduled task has a popup message... "click 'Do not reboot' or it will restart in 30 seconds..."
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#104527 - 2003-09-08 04:54 PM Re: Turnoff the PC
Les Offline
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Jack,
Don't call me Conrad... [Frown]

We don't need another Richard/Howard episode.

When we schedule downtime by sending out notices to all users to reboot and they don't comply or ask for exemptions, then we call them in. Partly punitive but mostly as a precaution.
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#104528 - 2003-09-08 09:36 PM Re: Turnoff the PC
Mart Moderator Offline
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Let them learn the hard way, hehehe [Big Grin] [Big Grin]

Our users are supposed to log of there workstations when they go home because we use SAP R/3. When a user leave a SAP session open the remote reboot wont work because SAP needs a confirmation even when a forced close all applications is given.

An other thing is that we have a main switch with some relays which power off everything when the last persons leaves and locks up. A user with a SAP session open at that time has a good change of locking a sales order or something or even locking him/herself out completely. And is saves power off course.

Only two or three machines are locked and stay on (and our servers off course). These are mine and my staffs machines. This way we wont miss any alerts and stuff at night.

All other users will be warned when to don’t logoff at the end of the day.

[ 08. September 2003, 21:39: Message edited by: R2D2 ]
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#104529 - 2003-09-09 05:58 AM Re: Turnoff the PC
attiahia Offline
Hey THIS is FUN

Registered: 2000-03-27
Posts: 268
In our company IT yearly general status report I found a part saying that the company has almost 13,000 Computers (80% XP and 20% other) located in different branches.
According to this report, approximately 50%
Of the users are leaving their PC on during the week and this cost the company $150,000 yearly.

Actually, I do not know how they calculated it. Any idea about the way how usually calculates such thing and about the accuracy of this money amount (150,000) will be appreciated.

Thank you.

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#104530 - 2003-09-09 11:03 AM Re: Turnoff the PC
Lonkero Administrator Offline
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how to calculate?
well at least the electricity bill can be thrown there.
I bet that what they've done and came up with this.

but then you can start assuming how many pc breaks down and needs to be fixed because they are kept on too much.

but I think that the number you have is purely hardly the electrity bill of the night ours the computers are left on.
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