[dba-Tech] Always On Notebook

I agree that home users and 8/5 businesses should be turning computers off
at night or simply enabling hibernation and setting the Energy Star settings
(Screen Saver dialog for Windows) to turn off the monitor, hard drive and
then hibernate  after the appropriate amount of time for their particular
needs. I generally do 30, 30, and 60 minutes.

Note that on some computer models the hibernation feature causes some
problems. In lieu of hibernation, which just allows the computer to start
faster and reload what you were last doing, I recommend setting the power
button to "shutdown when pressed" or for laptops "shutdown when closed".
That does the same thing as clicking Start | Shutdown | Shutdown but is just
more convenient. No shortcuts keys to remember and you can do it while
walking by the computer without having to find the mouse and click and such.

John B.


-----Original Message-----
From: dba-tech-bounces at databaseadvisors.com
[mailto:dba-tech-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Lembit Soobik
Sent: Tuesday, August 26, 2008 10:46 AM
To: Discussion of Hardware and Software issues
Subject: Re: [dba-Tech] Always On Notebook

Helmut,
I do have a different opinion based on my experience and MTBF data.

- as for the HDs, you can expect 3 to 5 years with 24/7 usage. then they 
start to fail.
your friend may just have been lucky. And I believe today its the bearings 
that fail first, provided you have your power filtered.

- Integrated Circuits can fail among others for electromigration, i.e., 
Aluminum atoms are transported by current flow, which decreases the width of

the conductor until it fails (open). Electromigration increases with current

and temperature. Since laptops usually get pretty warm, this is a critical 
point.

- cooling fans in my experience fail after 3 to 4 years when run under 24/7 
conditions.

I did run my PCs (desktop) 24/7 and did have failures every 3 to 4 years. 
Now I turn them off over night and have no failures since about 6 years.

Lembit
rs.com