What wears down PC hardware most? Thread

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What wears down PC hardware most? (Forums : Tech Support : What wears down PC hardware most?)		Post Reply
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Erilis	Apr 10 2008, 9:37am Anchor
Erilis	-just a curious thought, what do you think would wear down your PC hardware (hard drive, graphics card, etc) most, starting up (turning on) your computer a lot or leaving it on for long periods of time? -- *~Erilis*
O N L I N E Jiffy_No0b Blame Hofmann	Apr 10 2008, 10:34am Anchor
O N L I N E Jiffy_No0b Blame Hofmann	Leaving it on is more damaging. A really long time ago computers were damaged by turning them on and off but that's just a myth now. -- Yak.RUS wrote:We had a girl in my school that took LCD and now she thinks shes a balloon for the rest of her life.
leilei * Meteo	Apr 10 2008, 11:06am Anchor
leilei * Meteo	fragmentation -- OpenArena - Dave3D - Versus 1997 Definitely not Source.
ambershee Nimbushfish Rawks	Apr 10 2008, 11:13am Anchor
ambershee Nimbushfish Rawks	Bad software - such as Visual Studio from 2003 onwards. VS2005 is horrendous and can cause HDDs to corrupt really quickly...
Dragonlord Linux-Dragon of quick wit and sharp tongue	Apr 10 2008, 11:34am Anchor
Dragonlord Linux-Dragon of quick wit and sharp tongue	A bad OS. I had multiple killed HD's under Windows machines but with all the Linux machines I have setup so far I had no such incident so far. -- Leader, Head Programmer: Epsylon \| Drag[en]gine Game Engine \| ModDB Profile by Salohcin
arklansman @_'-'	Apr 10 2008, 12:39pm Anchor
arklansman @_'-'	Fire. 10char --
Whizzard Accepted membrane	Apr 10 2008, 12:47pm Anchor
Whizzard Accepted membrane	Throwing it out of an top floor window of 10 storey building. -- Friendship is like peeing on yourself: everyone can see it, but only you get the warm feeling that it brings.
Gibberstein Generic Coder Type Thing	Apr 10 2008, 12:48pm Anchor
Gibberstein Generic Coder Type Thing	I did a few 24 hour data mining runs at uni, and soon afterwards my PC crapped out. I don't think the two were unrelated -- "lets say Portal is a puzzle game, so its a rehash of Tetris" - Wraiyth points out the craziness of stereotyping games by their genre
Icemage Substance > Hype	Apr 10 2008, 1:58pm Anchor
Icemage Substance > Hype	I've had one PC powered on almost continuously for 3 years (and it's six years old). No troubles with it aside from a video card that went bad about six months ago that fritzed out after I tried moving the box. Powerup/down does cause some wear and tear on your CPU due to heating/cooling stress. It's arguable whether leaving it on does more damage, but personally I'd rather replace a malfunctioning fan (the only moving part) versus a CPU or GPU. It costs less. -- Icemage --- Creating a mod requires: Creativity. Skill. Effort. Two out of three doesn't count.
Dragonlord Linux-Dragon of quick wit and sharp tongue	Apr 10 2008, 2:17pm Anchor
Dragonlord Linux-Dragon of quick wit and sharp tongue	Yeah... dying fans ( pun intended ) I had many so far. Reminds me of day I got called to a buddy who's PC made strange things. Checking out the screen I put my hand on the case to support myself... HOT AS A FRYING PAN ON FULL THROTTLE! The fan committed suicide recently and the BIOS over-heating check malfunctioned -- Leader, Head Programmer: Epsylon \| Drag[en]gine Game Engine \| ModDB Profile by Salohcin
Whizzard Accepted membrane	Apr 10 2008, 3:01pm Anchor
Whizzard Accepted membrane	Well, my cd-drive exploded once... -- Friendship is like peeing on yourself: everyone can see it, but only you get the warm feeling that it brings.
Dark_Raver9 Gwaa?..	Apr 10 2008, 3:26pm Anchor
Dark_Raver9 Gwaa?..	my powersuply exploded once big ass spark came out of the back, now i have a black spot on my wallpaper oh and i hate the old 130/220v switches :s i plugged one in at 220 while it was on the 130 position, it said boom i didnt knew the pc was that old so i didnt check -- Moderator at Penumbra forums ModDB XFire Clan, join now
O N L I N E Jiffy_No0b Blame Hofmann	Apr 10 2008, 6:18pm Anchor
O N L I N E Jiffy_No0b Blame Hofmann	I've started countless PSUs on fire. Mostly because I help fix computers at school and a storm went and busted 90% of the PSUs on a certain model of micron that we had. It was a good thing though because the tech dept could stop complaining and the school was forced to buy new ones. -- Yak.RUS wrote:We had a girl in my school that took LCD and now she thinks shes a balloon for the rest of her life.
Dragonlord Linux-Dragon of quick wit and sharp tongue	Apr 10 2008, 8:08pm Anchor
Dragonlord Linux-Dragon of quick wit and sharp tongue	Who fried a HD? did one. Had one of those Shuttle XPCs. The HD somehow didn't do it anymore so I wanted to take it out. I forgot to pull the power plug while doing so ( silly me... youth sins ) and I touched with the HD the metallic frame... That has been a hell of a flame out of the HD . I still have that HD around here as a sort of "hunting trophy"... all black and burned -- Leader, Head Programmer: Epsylon \| Drag[en]gine Game Engine \| ModDB Profile by Salohcin
Wraiyth That Guy Who Does Those Things With The Stuff	Apr 10 2008, 9:19pm Anchor
Wraiyth That Guy Who Does Those Things With The Stuff	Jiffy_No0b wrote:Leaving it on is more damaging. A really long time ago computers were damaged by turning them on and off but that's just a myth now. Yeah, because servers being on for over a year straight (running Windows, nonetheless) without any issues whatsoever is definitely indicative of problems you have leaving a computer turned on. -- My Homepage
Spector WWIII	Apr 10 2008, 10:56pm Anchor
Spector WWIII	Ok, the true answer of what wears down PC hardware the most!!!!! STUPID USERS! =p -- Spector Mod DB News Manager snetErz.com - Web Design
SinKing //you think/ You Know \you are\\	Apr 10 2008, 11:17pm Anchor
SinKing //you think/ You Know \you are\\	Well, servers don't have gfx cards running hot on the interior. One of my cards had burnt a hole into it, once and I still don't know, if it was from obsessive gaming habits, or from some hardware failure. Anyway, the biggest threat to my hardware is me, kicking things and throwing the mouse around. -- Muestrame la luz: www.gaiamedia.de
Erilis	Apr 13 2008, 11:08pm Anchor
Erilis	lol. interesting variety of responses. hearing about how many of you had things die out on you worries me considerabley because mine has never done that ever--I'm due! I know people who leave theirs on for weeks, but the most I usually do it is two days. I was playing the Crysis demo on all low settings as I have to do and thinking about how much my graphics card or processor can take before they explode. -- *~Erilis*
Wraiyth That Guy Who Does Those Things With The Stuff	Apr 13 2008, 11:55pm Anchor
Wraiyth That Guy Who Does Those Things With The Stuff	SinKing wrote:Well, servers don't have gfx cards running hot on the interior. One of my cards had burnt a hole into it, once and I still don't know, if it was from obsessive gaming habits, or from some hardware failure. Anyway, the biggest threat to my hardware is me, kicking things and throwing the mouse around. I haven't seen anything to support this guess, but I think Processors would get hotter than Video Cards in the kind of situations we're talking here. For instance, an Exchange server with spam filtering software is likely gonna be getting hammered 24/7, which is gonna put much more constant stress on a processor than the average gamer would put in a video card (ie play a game for a while, then stop, even if the PC is left on for long periods of time) -- My Homepage
Icemage Substance > Hype	Apr 14 2008, 2:10am Anchor
Icemage Substance > Hype	I don't see why everyone thinks that constant heat applied to hardware somehow makes it wear out. It doesn't. As long as the heat is uniform and doesn't fluctuate, it's no worse than having the machine powered down, unless the heat itself is so high that the materials nearby start to melt (but that's a completely different issue). The computer I'm typing this on has been running continuously for almost 2 years. My older computer (mentioned above) has been on for almost 3 years. My newest computer has been on continuously since December. As long as you don't have power quality problems, and don't have a huge dust problem, you shouldn't notice any difference in wear - less, if we're talking about the chips themselves (memory, CPU, GPU), which have to expand and contract every time you power up/down. I should note, however, that my computers are each always connected to an uninterruptible power supply, which cleans up any power issues quite capably. If you're not using a UPS unit (power strips don't count!), then chances are you're better off powering down, as the occasional over/undervoltage is going to fry your componentry way faster than any normal usage will. Edited by: Icemage -- Icemage --- Creating a mod requires: Creativity. Skill. Effort. Two out of three doesn't count.
ArChNeMiSiS Say hello to my little friend!	Apr 14 2008, 2:41am Anchor
ArChNeMiSiS Say hello to my little friend!	Erilis wrote:-just a curious thought, what do you think would wear down your PC hardware (hard drive, graphics card, etc) most, starting up (turning on) your computer a lot or leaving it on for long periods of time? An iron file? 10char --
O N L I N E drone565	Apr 15 2008, 2:03am Anchor
O N L I N E drone565	your pc on fire maybe. or crysis on high --
TKAzA LvL 1 Elite	Apr 15 2008, 2:44am Anchor
TKAzA LvL 1 Elite	Id say lemon juice and beer. -- TKAzA moddDB Content Manager Portfolio
Mr_Cyberpunk Game Developer	Apr 15 2008, 2:54am Anchor
Mr_Cyberpunk Game Developer	I'd say ESD - Electro Static Discharge. DON'T LEAVE YOUR CASE OPEN! -- Neuromancer Founder - The first Multiplatform game on ModDB! Sonic Mobius Founder Deus Ex : New Vision Texture Artist POTC Build Mod Supporter
TKAzA LvL 1 Elite	Apr 15 2008, 3:18am Anchor
TKAzA LvL 1 Elite	Had a open case for 3 years never had a issue. I still think beer and lemons are killers. -- TKAzA moddDB Content Manager Portfolio