[MacDV] New G5 dies, mac servicing, photos altered, web design

[Michael Winter]

On Oct 4, 2005, at 5:49 PM, animal wrote:

> Re Usage patterns may be another factor -starting up the computer,  
> using it for a short period, shutting down.... Basically starting  
> up and shutting down the
> computer every time its used.
>
> With the last two Macs (G5 that died in 3 weeks and the Emac) I do  
> have the energy saver turned on so that the computer shuts itself  
> down if unused for more than 15 minutes and this does happen 2-5  
> times a day.  Should I not be doing this?  Is this going to shorten  
> the life of the computer??

I think I would opt for sleeping the computer instead of shutting  
down. After bad/dirty power sources, the thermal stress of turning  
electronics on/off is about the hardest thing on them in everyday  
use. I know components have been improving over time, but its a very  
slow process, and one of the weakest points are those mass-produced  
solder joints that hold all the components to circuit boards. I don't  
know how much sleep vs. shut down saves when it comes to thermal  
stress, so I really don't know how much to worry about it.

Personally, I manually sleep my computers at work, usually over lunch  
(if I'm not at my desk) and when I go home. At home, once awakened,  
the computers stay on until its clear nobody will be using them again  
that night (2 hr. for Energy Saver to sleep them). That may be a bit  
excessive, and may use more energy than it should, but like I said, I  
hardly ever have hardware failures on computers.

-Mike