It's better to turn off an idle laptop
Cox News Service
August 17, 2008
Q: When you said laptops should be turned off when not in use I wondered if the hibernating mode is enough. Or did you mean to turn it off? Thanks for your response.
— Rosemary Barr
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More Tech Q&A |
A: In the case of a laptop, I much prefer that the machine be turned off. However, using the sleep or hibernate mode probably will suffice.
Q: I recently opened "My Documents" to work on a file and discovered approximately 250 to 300 items I had not put there. My items are the first 15 or so, and then the "foreign" items show up. They start with CA00.IDX, and continue through STUC.IDX. A few of my files are interspersed among them. What is this, and can I just delete? I cannot open any of them.
— James Poole
A: I often get questions about "strange to you" file extensions. And, especially in these days of viruses and hacking, it's a question worth asking.
In this case, the IDX means that it is an index file, helping your computer find the right files created by a program. IDX file extensions are used by Microsoft FoxPro, Corel QuickFinder, ESRI ArcView, ICQ, and other programs.
I happened to know about IDX files, but I often run into file extensions that are foreign to me. The following Web site can be a big help: www.fileinfo.net/
Help from a reader
Peter Dashnaw weighs in with his thoughts on whether to turn off a computer when it's not in use:
The average computer these days comes with a 350- watt power supply. The cost of leaving that thing running 24 hours a day can run as low as about 40 cents a day, and here in California about 75 cents per day. That's only one machine. The average household has two or three. Even if the computer goes into the sleep mode, it's still using about half the cost of electricity.
Let's be generous here and say it costs roughly 30 cents a day to leave your single computer on 24/7. In one month it will cost $9 to leave that one machine running. Now, add in another machine and you get the idea. Now factor in the cost of running the power supply on the monitor and you increase your cost by about another $2 per month and the cost of leaving your laser jet printer running (even in the sleep mode), and you are talking real money each month. In some areas of the country, it can cost you more to leave your computer on 24/7, than it costs to run your refrigerator.
There are some generic energy cost calculators on www.csgnetwork.com/elecenergycalcs.html
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