Scanners, printers, and power off or on?

[Ed_L]

Do you turn your scanner and printer off when not in use? Maybe only when you go to bed? Never? What are the advantages and disadvantages of leaving them on or turning them off? My scanner is always off unless I'm going to use it, but my printer and computer are on almost all the time. Maybe that's not the best way to handle it?

Ed

[Doug Nelson]

My &$%# scanner doesn't even have and "off" switch. But I do leave my printer on all the time deliberately. It takes too long to warm up whenever I need to print (and I never remember to turn it on beforehand).

[DJ Dubovsky]

My last scanner turned on and off when the computer did and so did the Cannon printer. My new Epson scanner doesn't have the off button and I didn't like it being in sleep mode if that's what it does so I hooked it to a switch I could manually turn off. My Epson printer, I turn off when not in use. It does need to warm up also but I can wait the few minutes it takes or I usually have it turned on when I am going to be printing that day. I don't even like that my mouse seems to stay on when all is off but I swear that didn't happen before the computer disaster occured. I could be wrong. Still when all is shut down and the lights are off this room looks like a UFO is parked in here with all the little green lights flashing and blinking on hubs, modems, mouse and power backup systems. I can just see the wheel on our electric meter running overtime just to keep those lights flashing. No wonder why our electric bills are so high.
DJ

[jeaniesa]

I turn my scanners off when I'm not using them. Printer and computer are on 24-7. I heard at one point that it's less wear and tear on the disk if the computer stays on, but I don't know where or even when I heard it - so I don't know if it's true - or was true at some point and isn't anymore. Regardless, my computer is always on. Doesn't seem worth it to turn it off for the 6-7 hours I'm sleeping.

My husband's computer has a "sleep mode", but it seems to wake up all on its own - like it did just now. No one (not even the cats) were anywhere near the thing and it decided it was time to wake up. Maybe it should get together with DJ's computer? -Jeanie

[CJ Swartz]

Like Jeanie, I have read that leaving the computer on is better than frequently switching it off and on. However, this summer, our Governor asked us all to switch our computers off when we were done (along with other electrical equipment) to ensure that we didn't have a power crisis like California had faced earlier. We were allowed to use our air conditioners 24-7 as long as we raised the thermostat, so I figured that was a fair deal and started shutting down my computer. Since the weather has cooled off, I can now let it run again. Of course, I have to give it a restart every day or so just to keep Windows working well.

I've been told to turn my printer off when not in use - someone sometime said that the cartridges ran dry faster if the power was on - guess that might not be correct since a bunch of you keep it running as well. I turn my scanner off when not in use since I also read that the scanner light only has so many hours of life and I was worried that it would burn out sooner if it sat in "park" rather than getting turned off.

Of course, all the above is only what I try to do -- I often notice the next day that the "On" light is still glowing on the printer, and (horror of horrors) on the scanner also...

[thomasgeorge]

The computer stays on all day but off at night and I only turn the peripherals on when needed and off when not in use--have not encountered any problems doing this over the years. Tom

[chris h]

Agreed on the permanently running computer, I drive past computer suites at 2 in the morning round here and in one office I could see about 50 terminals glowing away so there must be something in it. I’ve always left scanners and printers switched on although my present scanner has a sleep mode. Apart from the deskjet for colour I have an old HP 5L Laserjet for business which has been on since 1995 apart from the odd power cut or cartridge change