Stand-By vs. Shut-Down vs. Hibernate

[Fsiphskilm]

If the

[Arnobius]

How about None of the Above?

I'm sick of the computer failing to recognize that a process like XP Pro's Backup/Restore is running, and sleeping/hibernating, leaving me with a useless bkf file.

I just leave it running when I am at home, and shut it down when I leave.

[TurkishMonky]

I hibernate my laptop when i close the lid, shut down my personal desktop daily, and leave my development box on all the time during the week.

(however, i'm always messing with my laptop so it get's shut down every couple days or so.)

[ShiroiHikari]

I hibernate the laptop when I'm not actively using it. However at night, I shut it down.

On my old desktop, I used to let it run until it needed to be restarted, then I'd restart it or shut it down for a few hours. I couldn't use "standby" on that computer because it ran Windows98 and it would crash when I tried to do it.

[Fsiphskilm]

Heh,

[Debitt]

I usually just save everything and close all my programs when I'm not using my comp and leave it on. I shut down right before I wrap up for the day.

[Locke]

I just leave my computer on all the time and leave it playing music when i'm gone.

Heh, maybe i'm paranoid of someone inside my house >_>

[Conner999]

I wish I could use standby/hibernate on my computer. I'm running WinXP, and whenever it goes into one of those modes, it shuts everything down like it should (at least, that's what it looks and sounds like) but then after a few seconds, it all powers back up again... Then shuts off, then powers back up.. An endless cycle until I send an input (move the mouse or whatever) to deactivate it...

If it really is shutting down and powering up like that, it seems logical that it's working harder than it would be just sitting on. All I have set right now is a monitor power saver, so at least the monitor doesn't use energy whil I'm away.. I leave my computer on a lot.

[Mithrandir]

Florida is the world's Lightning Capital. More lightning hits here than any other spot in the world from what i'm told. I know some people who lost TVs and Computers to random storms. So it's best to unplug.

I've always been curious as to the logic behind the "surge protector" and lightning. Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't lightning just make its way from the sky to the ground? Is it really going to stop for a 1cm gap in a wire?

At any rate, I've never really had much trouble with my Mac's being put to sleep, and the WinXP box I have at work doesn't do anything weird when I put it to sleep. *shrugs* Anicdotal evidence is seldom conclusive, I guess.

[Arnobius]

I've always been curious as to the logic behind the "surge protector" and lightning. Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't lightning just make its way from the sky to the ground? Is it really going to stop for a 1cm gap in a wire?

At any rate, I've never really had much trouble with my Mac's being put to sleep, and the WinXP box I have at work doesn't do anything weird when I put it to sleep. *shrugs* Anicdotal evidence is seldom conclusive, I guess.

Well, everything I read indicates that in a thunderstorm it is wise to unplug from the wall (incl nodem/broadband) because it is more than a surge protector can handle.

[LorentzForce]

Lightning isn't just a straight line; because of such high voltage it often "draws" upon surrounding charges as well, and that gives it to a similar effect as an electric shockwave. Same reason why you better not stand under a tree during a lightning storm, even if you aren't touching it you'll still get a lot of voltage through you.

As for using a surge protector, I've never seen one in actual use myself. You'll have to get a pretty high specification of a surge protector if you want to protect against lightning though, unless you are lucky to live with lower...

[TurkishMonky]

What about daisy chaining battery backups... i know it's not reccommended, (oh well....) but why not? wouldn't that double or triple the protection?

[Mr. SmartyPants]

I've always been curious as to the logic behind the "surge protector" and lightning. Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't lightning just make its way from the sky to the ground? Is it really going to stop for a 1cm gap in a wire?

At any rate, I've never really had much trouble with my Mac's being put to sleep, and the WinXP box I have at work doesn't do anything weird when I put it to sleep. *shrugs* Anicdotal evidence is seldom conclusive, I guess.

heres one good reason:

its the only thing you have to unplug... because everything else is connected to that

[Shao Feng-Li]

My laptop just seems tyo freeze up when I close it. :\

As for our desktop, the sleep button on the keybord doesn't work. And I don't think there is a hibernate. We just shut it down at night.

[Mithrandir]

Wow. Three people apparently totally misread what I was meaning to convey. How odd...

[Arnobius]

Wow. Three people apparently totally misread what I was meaning to convey. How odd...

I suspected I did, but now that you confirmed it, I still don't understand what you meant. Can you clarify?

[Mithrandir]

Sure. I'm always willing to explain my puns. Three is an odd number of people, to say nothing of the people themselves. But now we're derailing the thread into a punishing discourse.

[Shao Feng-Li]

?

[Fsiphskilm]

A SURG

[Arnobius]

Yes, I understand OldPhil.

His Point is the same as Mine.

A SURGE protector is not a LIGHTNING protector. NOTHING is a lightning protector.

IF lightning can go 4 miles from a cloud onto the ground, (considering AIR is the one of the worst conductors of electricity) what makes people think a little rectangular box pluged into the wall is going to obsorb all of that power?

Ah, I see... yeah that's what I meant too. Unplug everything durning a thunderstorm.

[LorentzForce]

Voltage doesn't matter, what matters is current. Surge protectors don't protect against voltage, they protect against current spikes. Unless it was a direct hit (which case you better worry more about heat generated because outside case of your computer will act as a Faraday's cage) you won't get much current through your computer.

Always remember that voltage of a lightning is not the same throughout, it's merely voltage difference between the clouds and the ground, the maximum voltage. If you take a segment of the lightning you'll realise the difference is much smaller there. Current stays the same throughout of course, which all hopefully goes to ground more than through your computer.

[Fsiphskilm]

Yes, y

[Arnobius]

Maybe a little late for the thread, but I received notice of a Bios upgrade today. One of the things they said it was good for was recovering from Hibernation.

Now admttedly, we all have different motherboards, but it may be something worth looking into with your own system for problems ordinarily attributed to Windows

[LorentzForce]

Hibernation is not something that can be done completely on BIOS level for it requires to save everything on the RAM onto the hard drive, and who knows, you might not even have a hard drive, all computers are different and all. All the BIOS can do is stablise all the APM states (S0, S1, S2, etc etc). So please, keep blaming Windows

[Arnobius]

Didn't say it was all BIOS, just that my upgrade said it helped with Hibernate problems and thought I'd pass that along

Sometime's I've blamed Windows when it wasn't at fault. My computer used to hang on shutdown... turned out it was a BIOS issue.

So I'm just passing along places to check for problems