is it safe to leave pc in sleep mode?

[taleblou]

Hi:

I do not know under which section this post goes but my question is that I have decided to put my both pcs (one with windows 7 ultimate 64 and the other with linux mint 13) to sleep instead of shutting it down at night and turning it on the next day.

So my question is this. IS it ok to put pc in sleep mode? I mean in regard to over-heating and shortening its lifespan or any other issues?

Thanks in advance for your answers.

[Hungry Man]

Yes, it's very safe.

[Technical]

Sleep does not overheat or reduce life afaik.

[Victek123]

Originally Posted by taleblou

Hi:

I do not know under which section this post goes but my question is that I have decided to put my both pcs (one with windows 7 ultimate 64 and the other with linux mint 13) to sleep instead of shutting it down at night and turning it on the next day.

So my question is this. IS it ok to put pc in sleep mode? I mean in regard to over-heating and shortening its lifespan or any other issues?

If by sleep you mean standby mode then be aware that the system is still requiring electricity. If you had a power outage it would be the same as pulling the plug while the computer was running, so not good for the software. This is mitigated if you have a UPS to protect against power failures. On the other hand if by sleep you mean hibernate then the system is essentially off and power isn't an issue.

In both sleep and hibernate modes the system doesn't generate any heat and the hard disk isn't spinning so it shouldn't effect the lifespan.

[taleblou]

Hi:

In linux mint it said "standby"? so thats same as sleep mode? in both the win 7 and linux mint I press the moon shape button thatn it all goes black and the light on pc blinks internitten. Is that sleep mode and not hibernation? When I click the same button again it comes right back fast just as I left it.

So these are sleep modes then?

P.S. I have a APC with battery connected for pc and monitor. on my linux machine and just surge protection on the other windows 7 machine. SO should I just use regular shut down on the machine with just power surge protction or is it alright in term of damage?

[taleblou]

The reason for me not shutting down the linux mint machine is that I have comodo linux antivirus with "real-time protection" enabled and if I shut down pc or reboot then I face an issue and have to reconfigure comodo. SO instead I want to put it on sleep mode instead. Also linux mint firewall stops after each reboot and I have to run it again each time. By putting in sleep mode that issue is fixed too.

[Victek123]

Originally Posted by taleblou

Hi:

In linux mint it said "standby"? so thats same as sleep mode? in both the win 7 and linux mint I press the moon shape button thatn it all goes black and the light on pc blinks internitten. Is that sleep mode and not hibernation? When I click the same button again it comes right back fast just as I left it.

So these are sleep modes then?

Yes, it definitely sounds like "sleep".

Originally Posted by taleblou

P.S. I have a APC with battery connected for pc and monitor. on my linux machine and just surge protection on the other windows 7 machine. SO should I just use regular shut down on the machine with just power surge protection or is it alright in term of damage?

To be safe I would actually shutdown the machine that doesn't have a UPS when it doesn't need to be running. You might want to get a cheap UPS for it sometime so you can forget about it.

[Victek123]

Originally Posted by taleblou

The reason for me not shutting down the linux mint machine is that I have comodo linux antivirus with "real-time protection" enabled and if I shut down pc or reboot then I face an issue and have to reconfigure comodo. SO instead I want to put it on sleep mode instead. Also linux mint firewall stops after each reboot and I have to run it again each time. By putting in sleep mode that issue is fixed too.

That all makes sense. This is the machine with the UPS, right? If so no problem.

[NGRhodes]

Originally Posted by Victek123

If you had a power outage it would be the same as pulling the plug while the computer was running, so not good for the software.

In both Windows and common Linux Distros ACPI packages all outstanding data is written to the HDD before the hdd powers down into standby/sleep, therefore a lot less risk compared to loosing power.
I can cite references later if you need when I have more time.

Even more useful Windows 7 supports hybrid sleep where the contents of memory are written to the hibernate file, so if there is a power loss the machines can be restored to the same state as just before the power loss.

Cheers, Nick

[TheWindBringeth]

Originally Posted by Nick Rhodes

In both Windows and common Linux Distros ACPI packages all outstanding data is written to the HDD before the hdd powers down into standby/sleep, therefore a lot less risk compared to loosing power. I can cite references later if you need when I have more time.

Flushing buffers seems reasonable to me because you wouldn't want hardware buffers in devices on the motherboard being powered down before that data is flushed to the storage device and you wouldn't want storage device hardware buffers or memory being powered down before the data within them is persisted. So I'm inclined to think that happens, but to what extent? Perhaps that is just driver outward?

Even if every outstanding filesystem write operation were fully completed, that would still leave TBD data/state in RAM (and swap/page file too I would think) being lost. Right?

[Victek123]

Originally Posted by Nick Rhodes

In both Windows and common Linux Distros ACPI packages all outstanding data is written to the HDD before the hdd powers down into standby/sleep, therefore a lot less risk compared to loosing power.
I can cite references later if you need when I have more time.

Even more useful Windows 7 supports hybrid sleep where the contents of memory are written to the hibernate file, so if there is a power loss the machines can be restored to the same state as just before the power loss.

Cheers, Nick

All good, but I should have added that it's bad for the hardware too A UPS is a necessary part of a safe system to protect against spikes and micro-brownouts IMHO. If you don't need serious up time you can get an entry level UPS for $40.