I have heard from a lot of places that one of the strengths of Linux is that you do not have to reboot it all the time. I am under the impression that this is easier on your hardware and I am wondering if that is true. I have a Dell Inspiron laptop, and in general I leave it on, trying only to do warm reboots when necessary. I do not use suspend because it tends to mess some things up (Like Kinternet) that only recover after a cold reboot. As I understand it, this is less stressful for the hard drive, as the spinning up and down is what wears it out. Can anybody tell me if what I am doing will make my computer last longer? And if not, what is the best way to use your computer to make it last the longest? Thank You Neal McDermott
I have heard from a lot of places that one of the strengths of Linux is that you do not have to reboot it all the time. I am under the impression that this is easier on your hardware and I am wondering if that is true.
I have a Dell Inspiron laptop, and in general I leave it on, trying only to do warm reboots when necessary. I do not use suspend because it tends to mess some things up (Like Kinternet) that only recover after a cold reboot.
As I understand it, this is less stressful for the hard drive, as
up and down is what wears it out.
Can anybody tell me if what I am doing will make my computer last longer? And if not, what is the best way to use your computer to make it last
Well, The same rules and physical laws that apply to general hardware are also true for your laptop. Spinning disks up and down decreases their lifespan. All hard drives have MTBF (Mean Time Between Failure) more or less than 50,000 hours and will fail at some point no matter how you care about them. Powering system up and down produces current and voltage spikes which impose excessive wear on all electrical components. Big temperature variations and vibrations are also decreasing lifespan of all electronic devices. An average laptop lifespan is about 3-5 years depending on the component and assembly quality. But why do you need more? I hope you won't list your laptop in your will as an asset for your kids and grandchildren. Won't you? Since hardware is so cheap why bother about its longevity? Is five year an average laptop lifespan not enough for you? After that it's gonna be technically and morally obsolete device. Although, you still can use it as a typewriter. A have 486DX laptop which is already about 15 years old and it's still working. But what can you do with it? It's very heavy and painfully slow and it has only BW display. I hope to recycle it someday. Are you shooting for the oldest working laptop record in the Guinness Book? Get a life man! Alex ------------------- the spinning the
longest?
Thank You
Neal McDermott
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Okay, here was my original question: I have heard from a lot of places that one of the strengths of Linux is that you do not have to reboot it all the time. I am under the impression that this is easier on your hardware and I am wondering if that is true. I have a Dell Inspiron laptop, and in general I leave it on, trying only to do warm reboots when necessary. I do not use suspend because it tends to mess some things up (Like Kinternet) that only recover after a cold reboot. As I understand it, this is less stressful for the hard drive, as the spinning up and down is what wears it out. Can anybody tell me if what I am doing will make my computer last longer? And if not, what is the best way to use your computer to make it last the longest? Thank You Neal McDermott And here was a response: tOn Monday 03 June 2002 08:49, Alex Daniloff wrote:
Well, The same rules and physical laws that apply to general hardware are also true for your laptop. Spinning disks up and down decreases their lifespan.
Great, thanks, I was wondering if I had it right.
All hard drives have MTBF (Mean Time Between Failure) more or less than 50,000 hours and will fail at some point no matter how you care about them. Powering system up and down produces current and voltage spikes which impose excessive wear on all electrical components. Big temperature variations and vibrations are also decreasing lifespan of all electronic devices.
More detail, thank you, I appreciate it. Thank you for answering. All Best, Neal.
An average laptop lifespan is about 3-5 years depending on the component and assembly quality. But why do you need more? I hope you won't list your laptop in your will as an asset for your kids and grandchildren. Won't you?
Oh, sorry, I thought it was a good question. Why make things last as long as possible? Why take care of your possessions? After all, we have endless supplies of everything, right? Computers don't pollute, just toss them as soon as you can. Otherwise, you are trying to make them eternal, which we all know is ridiculous. What is this? Longevity Panic?
Since hardware is so cheap why bother about its longevity? Is five year an average laptop lifespan not enough for you? After that it's gonna be technically and morally obsolete device.
Man, you are right, I'm sounding all third world here, trying to use old technology, and I didn't even know it. Did you mean 'technically" or "technologically?" that was confusing. And as for "morally," how does something become "morally obsolete?" Do you mean like the death penalty? Or the Spanish Inquisition? Am I somehow oppressing Steven Dell by not upgrading?
Although, you still can use it as a typewriter. A have 486DX laptop which is already about 15 years old and it's still working. But what can you do with it?
You are right. All you can do with it is write. What a waste. What's up with those writers, anyway? All that editing and stuff, when you can shoot from the hip in a second. Priorities.
It's very heavy and painfully slow and it has only BW display. I hope to recycle it someday. Are you shooting for the oldest working laptop record in the Guinness Book? Get a life man Alex
Wow, i didn't know that a computer built in 1999 was the oldest one on record. Now you have given me a purpose. Something to shoot for. Kudos brother! Gracias Vato! C'est formidable! I will do it! I will own the oldest laptop on God's green earth. You have given me a life! The rejoicing of the manservants is drowned out only by the ululating of the concubines. Sincerely, Neal McDermott.
-------------------
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On Tue, 2002-06-04 at 02:07, neal mcdermott wrote:
Okay, here was my original question:
I have heard from a lot of places that one of the strengths of Linux is that you do not have to reboot it all the time. I am under the impression that this is easier on your hardware and I am wondering if that is true.
Dear Neal, It's a legitimate question. I too, try to take good care of my hardware. It's not that I need to set a world record for longevity, it's just that I'd rather not be wasteful. Maybe I'm just conservative. Laptops generally don't last as long as desktops. Aside from being banged around, the biggest reason for their shorter life-span is that they run hotter. The compact size of the case and the fact that there is usually no place to install a fan works against keeping the machine cool. On some laptops, you can practically fry an egg on the keyboard. So I would say that keeping the machine running constantly to avoid rebooting would be a false economy - you may be shortening its life expectancy. What can you do to keep a laptop cool? I live in stinking hot Taiwan, so this is an issue.Since I'm not planning to move to Alaska, I use three techniques to keep cool: 1) I rest the laptop on top of two paperback books (or whatever) on both sides of the computer, leaving a nice big gap on the underside of the machine - that "breathing space" helps keep it cool. A friend of mine who uses his laptop strictly at home went even further and glued four wine bottle corks onto the corners of the computer, giving the machine four "legs." 2) On hot days I have a large electric fan blowing across the keyboard (and myself) keeping both me and the machine cool. 3) The trickle charging of the battery creates a great deal of heat. As long as I'm someplace where I have electric power, I remove the battery while the computer is in use. If I want to recharge the battery, I do it with the computer turned off (actually, I seldom compute in an airplane or cafe, so my battery remains uninstalled at least 95% of the time). hope this helps, Robert Storey
Robert, Thank you for some great tips. I appreciate you including the information about the battery, because I was wondering about that too. I will put your ideas into practice right away. Thanks again for the help. Neal
Okay, here was my original question:
I have heard from a lot of places that one of the strengths of Linux is that you do not have to reboot it all the time. I am under the impression that this is easier on your hardware and I am wondering if that is true for laptops too.
And here was the response from Robert Storey:
Dear Neal,
It's a legitimate question. I too, try to take good care of my hardware. It's not that I need to set a world record for longevity, it's just that I'd rather not be wasteful. Maybe I'm just conservative.
Laptops generally don't last as long as desktops. Aside from being banged around, the biggest reason for their shorter life-span is that they run hotter. The compact size of the case and the fact that there is usually no place to install a fan works against keeping the machine cool. On some laptops, you can practically fry an egg on the keyboard.
So I would say that keeping the machine running constantly to avoid rebooting would be a false economy - you may be shortening its life expectancy.
What can you do to keep a laptop cool? I live in stinking hot Taiwan, so this is an issue.Since I'm not planning to move to Alaska, I use three techniques to keep cool:
1) I rest the laptop on top of two paperback books (or whatever) on both sides of the computer, leaving a nice big gap on the underside of the machine - that "breathing space" helps keep it cool. A friend of mine who uses his laptop strictly at home went even further and glued four wine bottle corks onto the corners of the computer, giving the machine four "legs."
2) On hot days I have a large electric fan blowing across the keyboard (and myself) keeping both me and the machine cool.
3) The trickle charging of the battery creates a great deal of heat. As long as I'm someplace where I have electric power, I remove the battery while the computer is in use. If I want to recharge the battery, I do it with the computer turned off (actually, I seldom compute in an airplane or cafe, so my battery remains uninstalled at least 95% of the time).
hope this helps, Robert Storey
Hardware is not cheap. It is merely less expensive than it used to be. Arguably, much computer hardware is outrageously expensive and poorly constructed with it. This applies especially to laptops whose makers do very well out of lock-in to proprietary gizmos both software and hardware. An advantage of Linux is that it does run very well on older systems. It frees us from buying into the upgrade treadmill, no more so than with laptops whose makers have yet to "go straight", get honest and offer upgradeable parts. :) Mark At 08:49 03/06/2002 -0700, Alex Daniloff wrote:
Well, The same rules and physical laws that apply to general hardware are also true for your laptop.
[snip]
Since hardware is so cheap why bother about its longevity? Is five year an average laptop lifespan not enough for you? After that it's gonna be technically and morally obsolete device. Although, you still can use it as a typewriter. A have 486DX laptop which is already about 15 years old and it's still working. But what can you do with it? It's very heavy and painfully slow and it has only BW display. I hope to recycle it someday. Are you shooting for the oldest working laptop record in the Guinness Book? Get a life man!
participants (4)
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Alex Daniloff -
Mark Crean -
neal mcdermott -
Robert Storey