Shut Down vs "Flippin' the switch"

[Dr. DOS]

Kids play a lot of games and when they won't listen (time for bed, etc) I've often just hit the main switch that turns everything off. How bad is that for the machine / OS? All they are playing is web based games with a single instance of IE or Firefox running. OR.. ..should I take the 15 seconds to shut it down

Tim

[Cobra]

I hear that it is not advisable since Windows has to pack stuff up before it shuts down and prepare hard drives for power down and so on. I'm not sure if that's right, but I would always wait for shutdown.

[Faustus]

Could in theory seriously damage the OS.

Perhaps you should look for a piece of software to force a systems shutdown at "curfew" on the machine the kids use or specific to their user account on the system.

I'm sure there is something like that out there.

[Dr. DOS]

OK, Thanks .... the power switch on the front of the computer does a proper shutdown and will also work as a curfew inducer.

Thanks Tim

[bazooka]

You could also go into your power settings and adjust it there.

[Skoorb]

I think I remember with windows 95/98 you could sometimes get OS stability issues doing this. With Windows 2000 if I did this it would almost always, upon reboot, want to check my drives for damage.

What a hassle all of that was. Now that I use XP or Server 2003 I hit the switch if I'm pissed, and having done it now probably 50 times I've not once had an issue, on three different machines. If my box is slow and annoying and some program won't close I just hit the switch. In fact, that still takes time, so at work I've been known to yank the power cable out of the back of the box, plug it back in, and I'm good to go. Worse case I have to rebuild the machine, but by God it deserves it anyway. When possible I shutdown properly (although I almost always leave my machines on 24/7), but sometimes I have to up the ante.

If you have XP I wouldn't worry much

[888888]

I would always shut-down properly. You are teaching your kids bad habits.

[bazooka]

Control close apple C.


Oh wait that is mac.

Control,Alt,Delete.

[Skoorb]

I would always shut-down properly. You are teaching your kids bad habits.

I'll be teaching mine that computers are thoughtless machines, owned by us, and that if they do not do our bidding when we want in a timely manner their reward is to be mistreated, hammered, and/or used to practice shot putting. I still remember the pain I endured from punching my old 486 sx20 when it had already taken 3 minutes to load the damn browser My last MP3 player's volume was finicky so I asked it if it wanted to try being a bouncy ball instead. It said ok, but it didn't bounce well - or work after that.

[888888]

I would always shut-down properly. You are teaching your kids bad habits.

I'll be teaching mine that computers are thoughtless machines, owned by us, and that if they do not do our bidding when we want in a timely manner their reward is to be mistreated, hammered, and/or used to practice shot putting. I still remember the pain I endured from punching my old 486 sx20 when it had already taken 3 minutes to load the damn browser My last MP3 player's volume was finicky so I asked it if it wanted to try being a bouncy ball instead. It said ok, but it didn't bounce well - or work after that.

Remind me never to lend you my stuff.

[Skoorb]

I would always shut-down properly. You are teaching your kids bad habits.

I'll be teaching mine that computers are thoughtless machines, owned by us, and that if they do not do our bidding when we want in a timely manner their reward is to be mistreated, hammered, and/or used to practice shot putting. I still remember the pain I endured from punching my old 486 sx20 when it had already taken 3 minutes to load the damn browser My last MP3 player's volume was finicky so I asked it if it wanted to try being a bouncy ball instead. It said ok, but it didn't bounce well - or work after that.

Remind me never to lend you my stuff.

If it's crap, and I break it, well I'm doing you a favour

[redwudz]

Most of my machines are set up in BIOS for a soft power button shutdown. There should be a setting for it there. In that case if you hit the front power switch, it does a proper shutdown of programs and the system.

If you were to, say, use the extreme method of unplugging the computer or using an external power switch, you will almost be guaranteed to get OS errors eventually.

I also use a neat little program called One Touch Shutdown;
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/d.mills2/afm/ots.htm Because it irritates me to have the tell the computer twice that yes, I really want to shut it down. The program is configurable for other shutdowns also, such as hibernate or standby, from a icon on the screen or the quick launch bar.

[glockjs]

baaaad, hit the right switch...


my computer is weird, i have the soft switches on the front for reboot or shut down....i never really see windows shut down it's almost instant for a reboot or shut down. but windows never complains on restart so i guess its ok

[Skoorb]

Most of my machines are set up in BIOS for a soft power button shutdown. There should be a setting for it there. In that case if you hit the front power switch, it does a proper shutdown of programs and the system.

If you were to, say, use the extreme method of unplugging the computer or using an external power switch, you will almost be guaranteed to get OS errors eventually.

I also use a neat little program called One Touch Shutdown;
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/d.mills2/afm/ots.htm Because it irritates me to have the tell the computer twice that yes, I really want to shut it down. The program is configurable for other shutdowns also, such as hibernate or standby, from a icon on the screen or the quick launch bar.

That's a nice utility. It's cleaner than the unplug, but there is something very satisfying about the unplug. Even with the one-click you have to watch the computer do its thing, but with the unplug method it's me saying "See, biatch? I'm still the boss. I say when you run or not. And if I don't want you to run at all, then you don't, because I control your power!"

[Garibaldi]

I hear that it is not advisable since Windows has to pack stuff up before it shuts down and prepare hard drives for power down and so on. I'm not sure if that's right, but I would always wait for shutdown.

What about Linux or OS X, are they the same way?

[Faustus]

Yup, being Unixy they are CAN be even more sensitve.

[handyguy]

HD's certainly don't enjoy that unplug technique.

Why don't you just unplug the monitor instead?

[bazooka]

Why don't you just unplug the monitor instead?

Because it can easily be plugged back in :P

[jimmalenko]

AFAIK flicking the switch doesn't do any major damage - it's my "last-resort" to machines that won't shutdown nicely. "If in doubt, reboot" is the motto we spread at work. It's not documented, but around 90% of all computer problems are fixed by rebooting.

One way to really scare the kids is to set up a scheduled task to run every night at <insert curfew time here>. You can set up a batch file to run c:\windows\system32\shutdown.exe [args] and this will nicely but forcibly shut the computer down without warning if configured correctly

[Skoorb]

HD's certainly don't enjoy that unplug technique.

They like it less than being dropped, while seeking information. Well, not dropped, but I've killed two HDs by them being in my case and moving the case around while the computer was on doing stuff That was a while ago though. I'm really not as bad with my belongings as I may impress - I'm too poor to do that