I recently got a new work laptop and encountered an issue where it won't wake up from sleep without a hard restart. To deal with this, my IT team changed the settings so it never goes to sleep. Since then, I've been using this computer without shutting it down or letting it sleep. Now I'm wondering if it's a problem that my laptop is basically always on. Should I start using the backup laptop instead, or is it fine to keep doing what I'm doing? Any advice would be appreciated!
5 Answers
If you're mostly using the same programs repeatedly, keeping it on shouldn’t cause problems. However, I’d recommend shutting it down completely at least every two weeks just to keep things optimal, but it won't hurt performance much.
I rarely turn my computer off or put it to sleep either. I just set it to turn off the screen when it's idle, which saves power but keeps it running, and it works well for me.
It shouldn’t be a big deal if you keep it on as long as you’re not skipping updates. Where I work, we have machines that run for hundreds of days without issues, but it’s still wise to restart them occasionally, especially for security updates.
Generally, computers are built to run 24/7. It's a good idea to restart or shut it down every now and then to clear out RAM and refresh the system.
If you’re running Windows, don’t forget you get mandatory updates pretty often. You should still shut down your computer occasionally. Try using the CMD prompt to shut it down cleanly with the 'shutdown /s /f' command.
Good tip! I didn’t know about that command for a cold shutdown.
That’s smart! I should try that too.