that and it cant backup their "my documents" folders if the machines off  

know some places keep user shares on the server but twas cheaper for me to  let em use that 40gb harddrive locally and just get the backup do the others over the network.

Quote from: Beaker

Quote from: SeriousThe number of times I have heard that old one, I always switch off to save electric and so do millions of other users and it doesnt harm a computer at all.

Constant heating up and cooling of electronic devices shortens their lifespan.  Scientific fact.  

While the damage may be minor, it does happen.  

And over haw long does it take to do any damage? I know that unsoldered chips tended to march slowly out of their sockets but modern mobos are fully soldered and the only chip that might is the processor which is held in place with a hooge heatsink fastener.

TBH the last time I had *any* piece of home electrical equipment that might have failed due to this was a twenty odd year old telly.

Quote from: SeriousAnd over haw long does it take to do any damage? I know that unsoldered chips tended to march slowly out of their sockets but modern mobos are fully soldered and the only chip that might is the processor which is held in place with a hooge heatsink fastener.

TBH the last time I had *any* piece of home electrical equipment that might have failed due to this was a twenty odd year old telly.

Depends.  FUlly soldered with surface mount are less prone, but the most likely thing to go with constant temp changes are Electrolitic Capacitors.  Ceramics you can freeze then boil and it wont matter.

However SM stuff is a bastard for cracking.  Old fashioned Through Pin boards are the most durable, however they are also the largest and most expensive to produce these days.  basically as the board expands with heat the SM components have no give in them.  This causes the soldered joints to crack if they arent done properly.  Ive seen boards that get particularly hot "tombstone" components because there wasnt enough solder on them, even worse is too much solder meaning the component can crack.  

TBH its more common now with cheap Surface Mount than with old fashioned through boards.  The older components had play in the legs due to the nature of them. We worked on some Casino equipment that was going to be left on 24/7/365 and the tolerances where wider because they would be run up to heat, then only cooled when work was done on them.  The test rig was patched, and patched, and patched because over a 6 month period we gave it ~15 years of power cycling abuse.