Can You Leave Your Laptop On All the Time?

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Is your laptop on since last evening? Have you shut it down at
all? Do you often leave your laptop on until the battery drains out? Do
you often find yourself keeping your laptop on for a week at stretch?
Now, that is very disturbing indeed, for your laptop of course. Have you
ever wondered that stressing your laptop to stay up and running
continuously for long stretches could ultimately damage it? Let's find
out how true this is.

The past decade has given us the most
awe-inspiring technological innovations. Although, the laptop has been
around since more than 35 years, in this day, almost everyone is hooked
onto it, thanks to the Internet which is now more popular than ever
because of search engines and social networking sites. Everyone likes a
portable computer even if you don't really need to carry around. Enter
laptops and you have the comfort that you need. Take it to the coffee
shop and switch on your WiFi or get it for the presentation, we all need
a laptop. The motto is; if you can afford it, you will buy it. So,
what's the deal? The only problem is that we have become a little too
comfortable with its use. To be more direct, we use it way too much and
it stays on all the time. We love to stay connected even if we don't
need to because who likes to shut down the laptop all the time and then
switch it back on. Plus, you have so many windows open; the cool
website/article you just discovered (no, we haven't heard of bookmarking
or browsing history), or the playlist you just made (we don't want to
save it but you want to listen to it) or you just love being logged into
your social networking account 24X7. Everyone has got a reason. But,
can you leave your laptop on all the time? Are you unknowingly damaging
your laptop? Well, the answer may quite possibly be a yes. Here is why.

Why is it Bad to Leave Your Laptop On All The Time?
Your
laptop is pretty much a lean version of a desktop PC and, hence, it
contains all the components; CPU (Central Processing Unit), RAM (Random
Access Memory), battery, speakers, hard drive, CD/DVD drive, LCD and
keyboard within the same body. This leaves little space between the
hardware parts and they heat up easily, even though a laptop has an
inbuilt cooling fan. It is not safe to leave your laptop on all day long
because when you do that, you are most likely to also keep it plugged
in for that duration to prevent the battery from draining out. Excessive
charging causes overheating, leading to heating up of all the hardware
components of your laptop, especially the motherboard and CPU. When your
CPU cannot withstand the heat, it will automatically shut down as an
emergency measure without following the proper procedure of shutting it
down. This causes software problems and as such frequent occurrences can
slow down your laptop and increase instances of no response (freezing),
ultimately leading it to crash! It is not worth it if you leave your
laptop on all the time just to save time on starting the operating
system and re-loading the programs. It only takes about 2-3 minutes to
do so.

Since your laptop is essentially made of metal, it is
likely to change its properties due to changes in temperature,
especially in high temperatures. The hardware components made of metal
will expand slightly causing further problems in the design mechanics of
the laptop. Also, if you leave the laptop on all the time, it will
negatively impact its battery. You will find your battery quickly
draining out within a week of overuse, that is, when you are keeping
your laptop plugged in all the time. It will also degrade the memory
from overuse making it worn down. Every time you shut down or cold boot
your laptop, it wipes out the previous program logs from the memory so
it is not overloaded with data. Hence, if you leave the laptop on all
the time, it will reduce its lifespan due to internal heating and stress
on the hardware and software.

What Should You Do?
A lot of us
are used to bringing the laptop to the bed, like it is our bedtime
lullaby, to watch a movie or listen to a playlist or download files or
just work on something and we often end up sleeping amidst our activity.
Here is how you can minimize the damage to your laptop if you need to
leave it on all day or all night long or you tend to do it out of habit.

Use a laptop cooling pad.
Disconnect the power.
Put it on sleep mode if you can.
Remove the battery and let it charge through the adapter.
Do not run too many programs simultaneously.
Don't use it on the bed as it causes overheating.
Place your laptop on a heat resistant surface.

Change power management settings to automatically switch to sleep
mode, after 25 minutes of idleness. However, this is not appreciated
much as any fluctuation in power supply will also stop the power supply
to your laptop. With no backup, it will shut down immediately.

Any
electronic equipment or device is fragile and if not cared for
properly, will malfunction! You can leave your laptop on all the time,
but overuse will damage your laptop. If you have left it on for more
than 8 hours, give it equal rest or at least a 2 hour cooling period by
shutting it down, so that it functions at its most optimum level. You
will also be saving energy. Laptops can withstand only a temperature
between 50ºF to 95ºF. It is an absolute myth that switching your laptop
on and off frequently will damage it! You must know how to care for your
laptop to minimize damage from heat and other factors. It is
recommended that you DO NOT leave your laptop on all the time. If you
have to, better switch to a desktop computer because they have better
heat dissipation properties than a laptop