Shutting down PC

[BobT]

Upnorth made a comment in another thread that got me curious.

1.

Is there a difference between executing restart vs shutdown?

2.

Is there a difference between shutting down and then rebooting immediately vs waiting a few minutes, and then restarting?

3.

Does removing power have a different effect or advantage than shutting down?

[Shack]

Quote:

Does removing power have a different effect or advantage than shutting down?

Yes, a proper shutdown lets all software programs (ones you know about and ones that you never see) clear first before power is cut off. This helps so files and drivers are not lost or damage. You can do a hard shut down (flipping switch or holding button) a 100 times with no issues, but all it takes is only one time to cause problems.

If you select the restart option, the computer makes all the proper actions for you.

A person can cut down their start up time dramatically by going into the OS systems and shutting off programs that power up at start up that are not needed. Also by manipulating time out seconds and start up run time. But!!! That is getting way off topic!

[upnorth]

When you restart it just restarts the PC and most times this is fine. But there are times when you want to shutdown and remove all power to make absolutely sure everything clears. That is the only way to be totally sure you completely clear out everything from Memory on the PC, it also completely resets all controllers. All you have to do is look at that back of your PC when it is powered down and see that the link light for your network card is still blinking tells there is still power to the mother board.

[spearchucker]

Shutting down and rebooting is the same as a restart.

If you need to physically pull the power plug to reset something, this indicates a problem greater than software. Memory is in an unknown state when powering up anyway so any decent software won't use it until initialized.

[upnorth]

There are things that can and do sometimes stay resident in RAM until the power is removed. Hence removing all power to memory.

[BobT]

I have my home system set up to go to low power sleep mode (Vista Home Premium) in 5 minutes of non-use. I have it putting my monitor to sleep and shutting down my hard drive. Just moving my mouse or pressing a key on the keyboard wakes it up.

I've also scheduled a task to automatically shut down the PC once a week. I was told this was a good thing to do because some applications can consume memory if you don't shut down the PC on occasion.

From what you're saying this sounds correct.

[BobT]

One thing that I haven't figured out how to do is to make it shut down during the night from sleep mode. As a result, it usually executes when someone wakes the computer up that day. A little inconvenient but at least I don't have to remember to do it myself.

Anyone have any ideas how I might be able to accomplish this? I've tried configuring the scheduled task to wake the computer to run the task but that didn't work.

[Shack]

Quote:

There are things that can and do sometimes stay resident in RAM until the power is removed. Hence removing all power to memory.

Yep, just like when you unplug the power supply, remove a battery from a lap top and hold down the power button for 10 seconds. This draws all the power out for a complete shut down.

At least with a Toshiba laptop this is recommended when a booting issue occurs at start up.

[spearchucker]

On a shutdown of the PC, the power to RAM is killed. There should not be anything usable in RAM unless you are going into S3 sleep mode (suspend to RAM). Just because there is power to the motherboard doesn't mean the RAM is powered. The LAN card is blinking because the WOL (wake on LAN) is turned on. It is looking for a magic packet to turn the PC on.

[upnorth]

I know that in the 12 years I have been working in IT we have had the completely remove all power from a PC or server work at least a half dozen times. I know that top level support at HP and Dell will have you do that to totally rule out anything resident in memory. Don't discount it.

[spearchucker]

Upnorth, I'm not disagreeing with you, but if you have to do this on a regular basis something is not right.

[upnorth]

I am not advocating doing this every time, but there are times things get stuck and need some help. I agree if you have to do this continuously you have a problem that needs some attention, but this is usually a one shot deal.

[spearchucker]

I've also had the bios get screwed up and had to fix this by pulling the motherboard battery and shorting a jumper to clear it. Only had to do it once, but I always keep it in the back of my mind. Machine wouldn't boot until I did this.

[upnorth]

All sorts of little twists to working on PCs, servers, network. And it takes years to learn em. That is not to say I know all, but I have learned a few things.