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Re: [LUG] Computer on time

 

On 06/02/12 13:07, tom wrote:
On 06/02/12 12:07, Tony Sumner wrote:
On Feb 06, 2012, Jack Oley wrote:

I don't believe that there's any good reason for leaving equipment -
   including routers - on when not being used.  Where's the evidence to
   the contrary?

An anecdote. I have a pair of Homeplug ethernet bridges that are on all the time. I was away over Christmas so I switched everythig off. When I came back I couldn't boot the PC because the bridge was broken. Not evidence of course,
just a bit odd.

Tony

Hard disks can seize if not run for a while and when they get old they can seize just stopping them. Some things are a lot more vulnerable to emp when switched off but still connected to the mains - I had a whole rack of hi-fi things fried by lightning as they were 'turned off'. Also twenty years ago things seemed to be designed to last - nowadays they're engineered to fail just outside of a reasonable lifetime
Tom te tom te tom

Component manufacturers have done a lot in the last 20 years to improve the reliability of of the basic bits. Design has undergone a real improvement too to take out a lot of common causes of failure. But I "feel" that the assembly reliability has gone backwards a bit. I have no real evidence, just my experience and listening around. For mass production of our electronic bits, temperature cycling and shock testing will only be done on a sample basis at best. You have to get into military and high end professional kit before the full monty is applied.

Looking at mobile phones I think the commonest points of failure are batteries, microphones, speakers and connections. Same old, same old.

George

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