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NJRonbo · Feb 4, 2007, 07:17 PM

I was sort of shocked when after posting on one of these
forums that I shut down my Mac Pro after each use that
someone replied that doing so was harmful to my computer.

Is this true? Am I better off putting my Mac in "sleep" mode
instead of shutting it down?

I know that on PCs, it was never a good idea to constantly
put your computer in hibernation or standby. Even I noticed
that after doing so for a few days, Windows just started acting
flaky.

...but this is OS X and Mac Pro. Perhaps I need to rethink
how I operate my hardware.

Would love to hear advice on the proper way of turning off my
computer.

Thanks!

mduell · Feb 4, 2007, 08:26 PM

Sleep (standby)/Safe sleep (hibernate) is the way to go on both OS X and Windows. Don't waste your time rebooting, relaunching all your apps, reopening all your files, etc.

chabig · Feb 4, 2007, 09:14 PM

I agree. While I don't believe there is anything with shutting down and rebooting, it's just a waste of time.

phoenix78 · Feb 4, 2007, 09:47 PM

I always shut my mac down after each use. The reason for this is that i believe that having it on all the time will degrade some of the electronics over time. In sleep mode it is still active to some extent so i just prefere to turn it off completely.

Saving files and opening applications again and restarting isnt that big a deal really.

I dont believe for 1 second that turning off your pc rather than putting it in standby is more dangerous for your system. lol.... i would have thought the opposite true.

rob.

Chuckit · Feb 4, 2007, 10:54 PM

Shutting off your computer won't really do it any harm, but not shutting down won't hurt anything either. In fact, it's better to leave it on so it can run periodic maintenance.

mduell · Feb 4, 2007, 11:33 PM

Originally Posted by phoenix78

I always shut my mac down after each use. The reason for this is that i believe that having it on all the time will degrade some of the electronics over time. In sleep mode it is still active to some extent so i just prefere to turn it off completely.

Saving files and opening applications again and restarting isnt that big a deal really.

I dont believe for 1 second that turning off your pc rather than putting it in standby is more dangerous for your system. lol.... i would have thought the opposite true.

Many "things" will fail from cycling (off-on-off) before they will fail from time on. In my experience, this includes computers. I've never had a power supply fail while running, but I've had quite a few fail when turning them on.

SpaceMonkey · Feb 4, 2007, 11:49 PM

Originally Posted by NJRonbo

Would love to hear advice on the proper way of turning off my
computer.

I would sleep or shut down as you wish. It's generally not worth worrying about. Most of the things that "turn off" when you shut down your computer are also "off" when it is asleep. Most importantly the hard drive, which, as the only mechanical device inside your computer, is the one component that is most likely to fail. So I say to not think about it too much.

...as long as you're reciting the chant.

You ARE reciting the chant, aren't you?

OMG!

I can't believe you haven't heard about this.

Simon · Feb 5, 2007, 04:27 AM

Both do no harm to your computer. If you are concerned about wasting zero electricity that might be a reason to shut down the system completely. Other than for that reason, I'd never shut down a Mac between normal user sessions. Actually, I have several portable Macs that I have never shut down once since I bought them - I have rebooted them however.

Simon · Feb 5, 2007, 04:29 AM

Originally Posted by Chuckit

In fact, it's better to leave it on so it can run periodic maintenance.

AFAIK Tiger will run periodic daily/weekly/monthly and SU as soon as you wake/boot if the Mac was off or sleeping at the time designated to run those tasks.

Big Mac · Feb 5, 2007, 04:48 AM

Can we please make a sticky about this? This topic has been discussed many times in the recent past.

GORDYmac · Feb 12, 2007, 04:25 PM

I never shut down my Mac. My current G4 933 was purchased in 2001, and other than a hard drive death, it has all of its original equipment. I like the efficiency of tapping a key and being right back where I was--apps still open, docs still there.

While start-up times are no where like they were in the past [I think I boot up in around 30 seconds], I see no need to do it. Just in case, it's always good to have a good UPS hooked up, just in case there are power issues.