Is it true that shutting down you computer by pressing the button (instead of going to start, shutdown etc.) can give you errors on your computer. I heard today that by shutting your computer down by pressing the button causes you HD to spin and not shutdown properly. Although if you do it the proper way (start, shutdown) it turns if off naturally. So does shutting your computer down (in the way mentioned) cause errors on your computer?

Thanx,

Yes it can...

But why would you want to shut your computer off with the button?

Mostly is that windows has so much stuff running in the background that a turning the PC off with out using Start Shutdown can cause windows to corrupt itself. Result..windows will do at least a scan / check disk. and worst case it wont boot into windows anymore..and you'll have to reformat. Its also hard on the HDDs [img]smile.gif[/img]

So I wouldn't do it if I were you ;)

I've had some serious trouble coming out of that because my brother never bothers to shut it down properly... no matter how much I threaten him... [img]smile.gif[/img]
It only takes 5 seconds to shut down and it can't be that we are in that much of a hurry that we need to flick that button.

yep, it can and it can cause damage too. Mine is never off, i have too many cool screensavers, so it would be a shame not to use them.

with Windows maybe, sometimes i just flip off the power without even bothering to shut the computer down, let's face it, It's faster and doesn't really seem to do damage in the long run, its just a secure way to waste your time [img]tongue.gif[/img]

The only time i do that is when window's locks up. It can be such a pain in the patoody if you know whAT i mean... Otherwise I alway's shut it down with the start button. It can and will cause your hdd to
malfuntion eventually.

Yes, it can give you errors if you do that, but its not that common IMO.

On some newer motherboards, you can select shut down, and then simply walk away without having to press the power button, because the motherboard does it for you.

I'm not sure, but I think if you have Win 2000 and a newer motherboard, you can simply press the power switch when you want to shut down, and then Windows will automatically shut down your computer for you.

[ 05-06-2002, 09:55 AM: Message edited by: Grimslade ]

Win 2k isn't required. I can do that with my Win 98.

I have lost _so_ much files by not shutting down properly. Its not just under windows, any time you shut down with the HDD in use can cause damage (Even under DOS). Modern OSes - windows, linux, solaris etc have a proper shut down option, so use it.

Even if you refuse to bother with it a least wait for the drive to stop writing, ive seen people who switch off during game-saving, which is just daft. *Plus it was my save game and I lost *months* of progress*

Terminating apps and OS improperly can corrupt files. If your HDD is writing when you power off, that file will surely be corrupted. Outside of that, the shutdown procedure removes temporary files that were in use during your session. If you want to waste HDD space with useless files, don't use the shut down process. Shut down also ensures that your HDD heads "park" properly. Your call.