Reboot Says No Need to Reboot

(Catchy title, huh?)
In this long thread , we discussed when to reboot XP, and then whether it was even necessary at all, on a well tuned system.

I am trying an experiment. Uptime, so far, 46 hours. Yesterday I ripped 20 audio cds and burnt 6 MP3 cds. I did my usual hammering before, during and afterwards... Let's see how long this thing can go! Anybody want to join me? Dave? Martin? PeteC? BillyBob? Any takers?

Johanna

 

While there's no doubt in my mind that this machine would tick away for days, weeks, maybe months on end without needing a reboot, it wouldn't be a very good one to base anything on. It's not taxed the way alot of people's machines are. Primary purpose is education, mine and the kids. Surfin, a few games here and there. A few CDs here and there. Little photo editing and printing.

Now if I run off my test drive, where there's all kinds of questionable software loaded for experimentation, my guess is that it wouldn't go too long without one. But who knows, it might just fool me.

 

Hi Johanna,

What I got out of that long thread was that the issue was more about power issues, ie, do you shut down the system and how often rather than rebooting.

For me, the issue is moot anyway, because I switch between OSes, so end up rebooting more than once a day. Even if I didn't have that config, I would shut down overnight anyway.

Regards - Charles

 

You guys are just chicken

Current Uptime: 1655 hrs, 27 min, 34 sec

 

Not chicken reboot, just don't have the need. BTW, I agree with you fully. If it's stable and not running junk software, rebooting is rarely needed. I have had mine up for four days before, run it down to a crawl, then just closed some apps., and all was well again. I normally shut down every night, but reguardless of what I do during the day, with the exception of switching drives, I don't ever have to reboot to clear out the system, or refresh it.

 

I'm with Pete on this one. I've got 7 fans running in my system, so I'd rather save power as well as the slight fire risk, not to mention wear and tear on the mechanical components (such as fans). If I needed to run it 7/24 OK. But I don't, so she gets powered down after a few hours or so. Never had a hardware failure in 7+ years of switching on/off my PC's, sometimes a few times a day.
We run many W2K PC's at work 7/24 (Radio/TV station) and yes they are reasonably reliable, but get occasional reboots so they don't fail at a critical time. They certainly arn't any more reliable at the end of the 3 year lease. To the contrary, these never switched off machines occasionally have fans and HD's that fail. (mechanical wear!) more so than the one's that are powered down daily.

 

Cluck Cluck!

Still up, Reboot, got a smooth machine, no software conflicts, reasonably current hardware... I've had to "fight the urge" a few times, but I'm leaving this puppy ON. I use this comp hard (mostly because I fix other people's comps with it!)

I do want to say, that before I began this journey, I did thouroughly clean out the fan and and mobo with air, and Q-tips and alcohol elsewhere. I'm still running with the side off, so crud gets in there fast. I also defragged, did all my backups, weekly maint. and then shut down for an hour, for a nice clean cold boot. A little over 78 hours, now...

Johanna

 

I said it in the other thread, and I'll repeat it here:

"In the final analysis, whether you run your system 24/7, or shut it down when you're not using it, it all boils down to how you use your system and what you're comfortable with. "

If you need to be up 24/7, fine ... leave it running. BUT ...

If you feel the need to reboot, do so.

If you feel the need to shut down every night, or when you're going to be away for more than a few hours, do
so.

And, don't let ANYone tell you that you're doing things the wrong way.

 

...and the debate continues, on and on...

 

Just had a look at the site posted by dobhar Whilst the figures seem a little over the top at 372 watts (probably more like +- 200w?) for my system by way of example, I definately would rather switch off my PC and save some dollars in the power costs rather than have the equivilent of 2 100w light bulbs burning continuously. Obviously you 24/7 pundits (Those not running a WEB server or other legitimate reason for running 24/7) must have shares in your local power company to even consider leaving it on continuously.

 

Not wishing to flog a dead horse (well maybe just a little )
I've just had a look at an NT4 service pack 0! PC here at work used for recording 6 channels of audio 24/7 overwritten every 6 weeks, and it's system idle process has 6542 hours which equates to 272 days. Actually it would be well above that when you factor in the non idle usage. So probably well over 1 year without a reboot! The CPU usage is around 20% continuously, as it's writing to 4 9 GIG hard drives, and only has 64 MB of system RAM. Not bad for NT4 without any service packs! The screen burn on the CRT monitor looks cool as well.

 

Hi All: Johanna, I would like to take you up on your challange, but since I am constantly installing/uninstalling programs, most of which, as I remember, require reboot, especially on uninstall, I'd be a sure loser in this contest.

For me, an even worse contest would be: How long can you run continuously without a crash? I'd be a sure looser in that contest as well.

Been thinking of changing my experience to: "King of BSOD "



Martin

 

Well, my experiment didn't last as long as I hoped it would. Frigging Indiana sent us a windstorm that knocked out the power, and my UPS shut my system down in an orderly manner, as it is supposed to do...sigh...

But, I must say that in the time w/o a reboot, and despite all the use my comp got, the comp didn't slow or falter- which tells me that Reboot is likely quite correct that on a well running system, rebooting shouldn't be necessary (my qualifier here) unless major changes are made. Rebooting is not needed to "refresh" the comp, or to clear the memory or to speed things up. XP does it all, on the fly.

Before the storm, in addition to the usual work on this comp, I ripped 50 cds, burnt audio and MP3 cds, did a thousand page print job, resized the pics and then reorganized a huge pic folder, updated websites, closed out the quarter on the accounting program I use for work, etc etc..no heat issues, no slowdowns, no problems. I will be less inclined to reboot "just because" after this test!

Martin, I hope you don't mind, but I worked on a comp this weekend that was a mess, and had to do a reinstall, and I named the comp "Train Wreck" (taken from you!) because the owner is a model train enthusiast who knows nearly nothing about his comp, and is ALWAYS having problems. He thinks the name is great, and I told him I got the idea from a friend!

Johanna

 

Hi Johanna: I sympathize with your power failure problem. Basically, I live in the woods here and it is the preferred habitat for the Grey Squirrel.

They love to run on the power lines, it is their highway, which is ok except when they make a misstep on a transformer. Then it is fried squirrel and tripped relay.

This happens with an annoying (to me, fatal to them) degree of regularity. It causes the power to blink off for a millisecond, then back on.

My ups was not coping with this type of event, if the power went off and stayed off the ups kicked in with a gracefull shutdown, but off/on blink, machine shut down immediately.

I had setup the ups in Windows power management, apparently that caused some conflict with ups (Belkin) software. I removed it from power management, disabled ups in services. I think this cleared the problem, will find out on next blink off.

I am ambivilant about your naming a computer "Train Wreck" for a user who knows nothing about his machine and is constantly the cause of his own computer problems.

On one hand, I'm honored that you would think of me and my machine, on the other, the implication that he and I are somehow kindred spirits...........

Well, just maybe

Martin

 

Wheter or not or how often to reboot a computer depends upon how it's used and what's loaded into the machine.

Personally, I think the mongrel nature of a Windows PC, spyware, multimedia, and publishers causing purposeful conflicts require rebooting.

Is rebooting bad on a stand alone computer?

 

The software that came with my UPS, (an APC) allows me to set it to shut down after a specified time. Mine is set at two minutes. If the power doesn't return by then, it ain't a-gonna! I have about 7 minutes of battery time when the comp is idle, and if I'm at home, the alarm beeps loudly enough for me to hear, and shut it down myself.

IN NO WAY are you and this fella kindred spirits. He doesn't want to know how his comp works, or what he is doing wrong! He doesn't care. Martin, for most people, a BSOD on XP is rare. That's why "Train Wreck" was funny to us...he is quite familiar with them. I have "idiot proofed" his comp as best I can, but I can't prevent his sheer stupidity.

You are not careless, or stupid, which is why I have come to believe that "Catastrophe" is haunted by a malevolent force trying to turn your life into a Hitchcock thriller, or an old Bette Davis movie. Like a Stephen King novel (Christine), or an episode of "The Twilight Zone ", Catastrophe laughs darkly, and plots her next move. She is a sentient being, and it's quite likely that now, since you have given her the idea, she will get you to ...chase squirrels!

Martin, beware of her. She is sneaky, insidious, deceiving and possessed. The only way to placate her is to format C, reinstall XP and maybe call her "Cleopatra" or something! I don't think animal sacrifice will help- the dead squirrels haven't calmed her nerves. I looked in the phone book under "exorcists" and didn't find any. Did you search the board for voodoo? I don't know what else to do.

But I am afraid for you. You sound like a good man, and Catastrophe would like nothing better than to see you pick up an axe, like Jack Nicholson in "The Shining ", while she howls with delight as you murder the microwave...

Johanna

 

Hi Johanna:

Hmmm, kind of sounds like my wife!

I really don't want to infuriate Catastrophy, so I'm not letting her read your last post. I laid a piece of paper over the graphics card so she can't see it.

She is behaving very well lately. (Catastrophy, not my wife) Since overcoming her confusion that Configsafe caused, her performance can only described as slick. Our joint efforts (you, me and the rest of the good souls on this bbs) have gotten her calmed down and performing admirably and as advertised.

Last night before bed, I blew her a kiss. (Catastrophy, not my wife)

Seems a little affection and a pat on the back settles her down, no nevous jitters. (Catastrophy, not my wife)

Please be kind to her on future posts so I can remove the blindfold, you remember the flies/vinegar/honey story don't you?

Martin