downloads arent staying when my pc turns off Fix Windows 10 Is Not Shutting Down or Won't Shut Down. Many users, including you now, have reported the issue of Windows 10 not shutting down. When they try to turn off their computer, Windows 10 won't shut down. Instead, it restarts automatically. To help you out, we will show you why the problem occurs and how to fix "Windows 10 cannot shut down" with useful tips. If there is unexpected data loss during the fix, you can use EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard to retrieve your files. Table of Contents. About the Author. Reviews and Awards. Here is a list of the best data recovery software for Windows and Mac users. Use data recovery software to retrieve deleted or lost data quickly. Applies to: Fix "Windows 10 will not shut down" error on Windows 10 2009/2004, Windows 10 1909/1903/1809/1803/1709, etc. Is your computer stuck with this error: You clicked "Shut down", but Windows 10 refuse to shut down. And it automatically restarts instead of shutting down directly? Don't worry if your Windows 10 restarted after clicking "Shut down" from the Start menu. Follow the navigation table and pick one of the fixes to resolve the "Windows 10 Won't Shut Down" error immediately: Workable Solutions Step-by-step Troubleshooting Fix 1. Disable Fast Startup Open Power & sleep settings > Additional power settings > Choose what the power buttons do. Full steps Fix 2. Run Full Shutdown Run Command Prompt as administrator > Enter: shutdown /s /f /t 0. Full steps Fix 3. Run Windows Troubleshooter Type troubleshoot in search > Select "Troubleshoot". Under "Get up and running" section. Full steps Fix 4. Enter Safe Mode, Cancel Automatically Restart Boot PC to Safe Mode, open sysdm.cpl, uncheck "Automatically restart". Full steps For More Fixes Boot PC from Safe Mode and change BIOS settings (in Fix 5 and 6). Full steps. For Your Information: If some of you are wondering why is Windows 10 or PC not shutting down, check out the causes first. For a detailed guide, follow the respective fixes to learn how to fix Windows 10 not shutting down issue. If you lost important files during the process, apply reliable data recovery software for help. Why Windows 10 Won't Shut Down. Why is my PC not shutting down? Why my Windows 10 won't shut down? Check the causes as listed below, you'll learn what is stopping your PC or Windows 10 from shutting down: Fast Startup is enabled. Corrupted system files Windows 10 update error BIOS issues. So how do you fix "Windows was not properly shut down" and make Windows 10/8/7 work normally? Follow the methods in the next part for help. How to Fix "Windows 10 Not Shutting Down" Error. Based on the underlying causes, there are several ways for you to fix the Windows 10 shutdown problem on your computer. Quick Guide: Force to Shut Down Windows 10. The direct way to resolve Windows 10 not shutting down issue is to force your computer to shut down: Step 1. Press and hold the power button on your computer until the PC turns off. Step 2. Unplug all power cables (battery, power cord wires) for 5 to 10 minutes. Step 3. Re-plug all the power cables and restart your computer. After entering your Windows PC, create a backup of your valuable files first. Then, you can try the below methods one by one to thoroughly resolve the "Windows 10 won't shut down" or "Windows 10 not shutting down" issue on your own. Method 1. Disable Fast Startup. Turning off the Fast Startup feature is the quickest way to fix Windows 10 not shutting down. Here are the steps to disable Fast Startup in Windows 10: Step 1. Press Windows + X keys, click "Search" and type: power . Click "Power & sleep settings" from the search result. Step 2. Scroll down the Settings window, click "Additional power settings". Step 3. On the left pane of Power Options, click "Choose what the power buttons do". Step 4. Click "Change settings that are currently available", then uncheck "Turn on fast startup (recommended)". Click "Save changes". It's normal that the start and shutdown period in your computer increases after disabling Fast Startup. If you don't want to fix the Windows shutdown problem in this way, try other ways as shown below. Method 2. Perform a Full Shutdown. The Fast Startup feature doesn't fully turn off your computer to decrease the booting time. Instead, it hibernates the kernel session, which is the reason why Windows 10 cannot shut down. Thus, to fix the issue in this case, you have two options to perform a full shutdown on your computer in Windows 10/8/7: Option 1. Use the Shift Key. Step 1. Click the Start menu and click the Power button. Step 2. Click "Shut down" in the Start menu, press the "Shift" key simultaneously. This will turn off your computer completely. Option 2. Use CMD. Step 1. Press Windows + X keys, click "Search" and type cmd in the Search box. Step 2. Right-click "Command Prompt" and choose "Run as administrator". Step 3. Enter the command shutdown /s /f /t 0 and hit Enter. Wait for the process to complete, your computer will shut down automatically. Method 3. Run Windows Update Troubleshooter & Install The Latest Windows 10. Some users can't shut down Windows 10 during the update. If you are in such a situation, you can run the Windows troubleshooter to resolve problems that prevent you from updating Windows. #1. Fix Errors That Stop Windows 10 from Shutting Down. Step 1. Right-click the Windows icon and select "Search", type troubleshoot in the Search box. Step 2. In the result, choose "Troubleshoot". Step 3. Under the "Get up and running" section, click "Windows Update". Step 4. Click "Run the troubleshooter". #2. Install The Latest Windows 10. Installing the latest Windows 10 on your computer can also work to fix some system errors or unknown bugs that stop your computer from shutting down. Here is the access that you can get and install the latest Windows 10 update on your computer: Method 4. Boot Computer from Safe Mode and Cancel Automatically Restart. When Windows 10 cannot shut down, it will keep restarting each time you press "Shut down" on your computer. Thus, another way to fix the issue is to disable automatic restart on your computer. Step 1. Continuously press "F8" before the Windows logo appears. Step 2. Release "F8" until the boot menu shows up and choose "Safe Mode". Step 3. Boot the computer into Safe Mode and go to search after Windows boot-up. Step 4. Type: sysdm.cpl and open sysdm.cpl. Step 5. Click "Advanced" and "Settings" under Startup and Recovery. Step 6. Uncheck "Automatically restart". Step 7. Click "OK" and reboot the computer. Afterward, shut down your PC and check whether the Windows 10 shutdown problem persists. Method 5. Run Windows System File Checker Tool. If some of the Windows system files are corrupted on your computer, you will surely encounter problems, such as "a required drive partition is missing". The built-in Windows System File Checker is able to check and repair missing or corrupted system files for you. It may help you fix the "Windows 10 won't shut down" issue, and here are the steps: Step 1. Right-click the "Widows" icon, select "Search" and type cmd . Step 2 . Right-click "Command Prompt" and choose "Run as administrator". Step 3. Enter the command sfc /scannow . Step 4. When the process completes, shut down your PC. Method 6. Change BIOS Settings. As mentioned, your Windows 10 may fail to shut down due to BIOS issues, be it wrong settings or corruption. You can first reset your BIOS to default. Here are the steps: Step 1. Force to shut down the computer by pressing the power button. Step 2. Once your PC shuts down, restart the PC and press F2/F11/Del to enter BIOS. Step 3. Go to the Boot section, select "The Default" or "HDD" at the top of the boot order. Step 4. Press F10 or click "Save" to keep the changes, and exit BIOS. Step 5. Restart and shut down your PC. After this, your computer will work normally again with a right start and shutdown state. If none of the methods introduced helps to solve the problem "Windows 10 cannot shut down", you should consider getting your computer motherboard replaced. Restore Lost Data While Fixing Windows Not Shutting Down. When the computer cannot shut down, it is often accompanied by data loss. If you lost files during or after fixing "Windows doesn't shut down", reliable hard drive recovery software - EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard can help. With this data recovery software, you can safely get your data back in only three steps: Step 1. Select a partition to scan. Launch EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard. Select the partition where you have lost data after the computer restart, then click the "Scan" button to start. Step 2. Select the files you want to recover. When the scan completes, select the lost files you want to recover. To locate specific files, click "Filter" and choose the category or use the search bar. If you need, double-click the file to preview its content. Step 3. Recover the data lost due to the computer restart. After choosing the files, click "Recover" button and choose a location on another drive to save the data. This tool not only supports common deleted file recovery, formatted data recovery, and lost file recovery but also helps to recover data after OS crash, OS reinstallation, and more. Bonus Fixes: Another Windows 10 Shutdown Error - PC Randomly Restart or Shutdown. "Windows 10 can't shut down" is just one of the Windows 10 shutdown problems. Another frequently happened issue is Windows randomly restart or shutdown. In case you need it, the solutions to this Windows 10 shutdown problem are: Method 1. Change Power Options. This is an effectiveness-based solution to Windows randomly restarting or shutting down. Don't hesitate to try it if you are bothered by the Windows 10 shut down issue. Step 1. Right-click the Windows icon, select "Search" and type power . From the search result, choose "Power & sleep settings". Step 2. Go to Settings, scroll down and click "Additional power settings". Step 3. Click "Change plan settings" > "Change advanced power settings" Step 4. Expand "PCI Express" > "Link State Power Management". Step 5. Set the "Settings" to "Off". (If you are using a laptop, there are other options available. Set them to "Off", too.) Method 2. Disable Hibernation. Disabling hibernation is quite easy with the help of cmd. Do as follows: Step 1. Press Windows + X keys, click "Search" and type cmd in the box. Step 2. Right-click "Command Prompt" and choose "Run as administrator". Step 3. Enter powercfg.exe /hibernate off and hit Enter. (This command is used to turn off hibernation on your computer. If you want to re-enable it, enter powercfg.exe /hibernate on instead.) Step 4. Type exit to close command prompt when the process completes. Hope at least one of the tips above is helpful to you to fix the Windows 10 shutdown problem. FAQs About Windows 10 Won't or Not Shutting Down. In addition to the solutions for Windows not shutting down issue, some users may also want to learn the causes and what is slowing down the Windows shutdown process. Here we have the answers for you. Check and find the answer to your question now. 1. What to do when Windows won't shut down? This page answers this question with 6+ solutions to help you get rid of Windows won't shut down issue. You may try to: 1). Disable Fast Startup ; 2). Run Full Shutdown; 3). Run Windows Troubleshooter ; 4). Run System File Checker; 5). Boot from Safe Mode; 6). Change BIOS Settings. Revert back to the main content on this page, and you can follow any method to make your computer shutdown normally again. 2. Why is my PC or laptop not shutting down? The Hybrid Shutdown feature (also known as Fast Startup) released in Windows 8 and later is the primary reason why Windows doesn't shut down normally. It is enabled by default on most laptops and on some desktops. The Faulty CMOS and BIOS settings can also cause Startup and Shutdown problems. 3. Why does Windows 10 take so long to shut down? You may meet Windows takes forever or Windows fail to shut down issue when you forget to close all running programs and files on your computer. The following issues may also slow down your Windows shutting down procedure: 1). Software Problems - If you have a lot of "Programs need to close", it takes time for the computer to close them one by one before shutting down. 2). Process Problems - Windows has to close all running processes before completely shutting down. The more processes are running on your computer, the slower it would be for the computer to shutdown. 3). Operating System or Driver Problems - When Windows OS or driver is outdated, the computer will slow down in starting up or shutting down. 4). Local Services Problems - When you have enabled many local services on your computer, it also takes time to close the services before Windows shutting down. Was This Page Helpful? Author Jean has been writing tech articles since she was graduated from university. She has been part of the EaseUS team for over 5 years. Her special focuses are data recovery, disk partitioning, data space optimization, data backup and Mac OS. By the way, she's an aviation fan! Brithny is a technology enthusiast, aiming to make readers' tech life easy and enjoyable. She loves exploring new technologies and writing technical how-to tips. On her spare time, she loves sharing things about her favorite singer - Taylor Swift on her Facebook or Twitter. Product Reviews. EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard is a powerful system recovery software, designed to enable you to recover files you’ve deleted accidentally, potentially lost to malware or an entire hard drive partition. EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard is the best we have seen. It's far from perfect, partly because today's advanced disk technology makes data- recovery more difficult than it was with the simpler technology of the past. EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard Pro has a reputation as one of the best data recovery software programs on the market. It comes with a selection of advanced features, including partition recovery, formatted drive restoration, and corrupted file repair. How to Fix a Computer That Turns On and Then Off. What to do when your computer shuts off during the boot process. Tim Fisher has 30+ years' professional technology experience. He focuses on support and Microsoft topics but is an expert in all areas of tech. He's also the GM & VP of Lifewire. Facebook Twitter LinkedIn. Tweet Share Email. Is your computer turning off by itself immediately or at some point before the operating system loads? If so, you could be facing anything from an electrical short to a serious hardware problem. Because there are several reasons that your PC might be shutting off by itself during the boot process, it's important that you step through a logical troubleshooting process like the one we've described below. If your computer is, in fact, turning on and staying on, even if you don't see anything on the screen, see How to Fix a Computer That Won't Turn On for a more applicable troubleshooting guide. How to Fix a Computer That Turns On and Then Off. This process could take anywhere from minutes to hours depending on why the computer turns off so quickly after being turned on. Troubleshoot the cause of the beep code, assuming you're lucky enough to hear one. A beep code will give you a very good idea of exactly where to look for the cause of your computer turning off. If you don't fix the problem that way, you can always return here and continue troubleshooting with the more generic information below. Verify that the power supply voltage switch is set correctly. If the input voltage for the power supply doesn't match the correct setting for your country, your computer might not stay powered on. Chances are your computer wouldn't power on at all if this switch is wrong, but an incorrect power supply voltage might also cause your computer to turn off by itself. Make sure you're keeping the computer cool enough, or it might overheat to the point that it shuts down. Follow that link for some easy tips anyone can follow to cool down their computer. Some computer cooling techniques for desktops require you to open your computer, but that's fairly easy to do. Check for causes of electrical shorts inside your computer. This is very often the cause of the problem when the computer powers on for a second or two but then powers off completely. Inspect the inside of your computer for problems that cause shorting. If you don't take the time to troubleshoot this possibility thoroughly you may end up missing a simple electrical short and instead performing costly hardware replacements later for no good reason. Test your power supply. Just because your computer came on for a few moments doesn't mean that the power supply unit in your computer is working properly. The power supply tends to cause more problems than any other piece of hardware and is very often the cause of a computer turning off by itself. Replace your power supply if it fails any of your tests. If you do end up replacing the PSU, keep the computer plugged in for at least five minutes before you try powering it on. This pause gives time for the CMOS battery to charge a little. Test the power button on the front of your computer's case. If the power button is shorting out or even just sticking to the case, it might be the reason your computer is turning off by itself. Replace the power button if it fails your testing or if you suspect it's not working properly. Reseat everything inside of your computer. Reseating will reestablish all of the connections inside your computer which may have wiggled loose over time. Try reseating the following and then see if your computer stays on: Unplug and reattach your keyboard and mouse as well. There's little chance that either one is the cause of this problem but we shouldn't overlook them while we're reseating everything else. Reseat the CPU only if you suspect that it might have come loose or might not have been installed properly. We call this out separately only because the chance of a CPU coming loose is very slim and because installing one is a sensitive task. This isn't a big concern if you're careful, so don't worry! Start your PC with essential hardware only. The purpose here is to remove as much hardware as possible while still maintaining your computer's ability to power on. If your computer turns on, and stays on, with essential hardware only, proceed to Step 10. If your computer continues to turn off by itself, proceed to Step 11. This troubleshooting step is easy enough for anyone to complete, takes no special tools, and could give a lot of very valuable information. This isn't a step to skip if, after all the steps above, your computer is still shutting off by itself. Reinstall each piece of non-essential hardware, one component at a time, testing your computer after each installation. Since your PC powered on with only the essential hardware installed, those components are working properly. This means that one of the devices you removed is causing your computer to turn off by itself. By installing each device back into your computer and testing after each installation, you'll eventually find the hardware that caused your problem. Replace the faulty hardware once you've identified it. Test your PC using a Power On Self Test card. If your computer continues to power off by itself with nothing but essential PC hardware installed, a POST card will help identify which piece of remaining hardware is to blame. If you don't already own and are unwilling to purchase a POST card, skip to Step 13. Replace each piece of essential hardware in your computer with a "known good" identical or equivalent spare piece of hardware, one component at a time, to determine which piece of hardware is causing your computer to shut off automatically. Test after each hardware replacement to determine which device is faulty. Most normal computer users don't have a collection of working spare computer parts at their disposal. Our advice is to revisit Step 11. A POST card is not expensive and is a much more reasonable approach than stocking spare computer parts. Finally, if all else fails, you'll likely need to seek professional help from a computer repair service or from your computer manufacturer's technical support. If you're without a POST card and also without spare parts to swap in and out, you're left not knowing which piece of your essential computer hardware is faulty. In these cases, you have little option than to rely on individuals or companies that do have these resources. How Do I Keep Windows from Hibernating While I'm Downloading? Dear Lifehacker I frequently download big files to my computer and walk away. How do I stop my computer from going into standby while downloading something from the internet? I'm using Firefox on Windows 7. You're in luck. While it's a much trickier request to want Windows to hibernate based on network activity from any application, it's a snap to tweak Firefox to help with the process. We shared an extension called Auto Shutdown with you last year. Auto Shutdown lets Firefox, among other tasks, put Windows to sleep after all the downloads in the Firefox or DownThemAll! queue complete. Auto Shutdown Lets You Schedule Tasks Upon Download Completion. Firefox: If you hate leaving your computer running until you return because a download needs to be… You can download the extension here . Go into the Options menu for Auto Shutdown and then to Customize. You'll find commands for every version of Windows for a variety of tasks. The one you're interested in is [Hibernate/Standby] Windows Vista/Seven] . Auto Shutdown is a great solution for hibernating or shutting down a computer after a download but unfortunately it doesn't override the settings in Windows. If you set your computer to sleep after 30 minutes, then sleep it will. It's an imperfect workaround, but you can disable automatic sleep and put your computer to sleep manually the days that you're not planning on doing any marathon after hours downloading. To assist with that end, you want to make sleep mode as accessible as possible so you do it frequently and don't forget. Check out our guide to the best Windows tweaks that still work in Windows 7 with a focus on changing your Windows 7 shut down button to a sleep button and how to create a shortcut to lock the screen, shutdown, or restart—that section covers making a shortcut sleep button too! The Best Windows Tweaks that Still Work in Windows 7. The final version of Windows 7 is being released this week to the general public, and after you get. With Auto Shutdown and a quick access button to put your computer to sleep you'll have the best of both worlds and never have your computer nod off again in the middle of an important download. Hope that helps! Should You Shut Down a Computer When It's Not in Use? Leave your computer on all the time, or shut it off when it's not in use; does it really make a difference? If you've been asking yourself this question, then you'll be happy to hear that you can choose whichever way you want. You just need to understand the ramifications of your choice and take a few precautions to ensure you get the longest life you can from your computer. The most important precaution is to add a UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply), no matter which method you choose. A UPS can protect your computer from many of the dangers it's likely to face. The Things That Can Harm Your Computer. All of the parts that make up your computer have a limited lifetime. The processor, RAM, and graphics cards all experience aging caused by, among other things, heat and temperature. Additional failure modes come from the stress of cycling a computer on and off. But it's not just your computer's semiconductors that are affected. Mechanical components, such as the ones in hard drives, optical drives, printers, and scanners, are all affected by the power cycling they may undergo when your computer is turned off or on. In many cases, peripherals, such as printers and external drives, may have circuitry that senses when your computer is powered on or off, and initiates the same condition, turning the device on or off as needed. There are other failure modes to consider that originate externally to your computer. The one most often mentioned is a power surge and power drop, where there's a sudden rise or fall in voltage on the electrical circuit that your computer is plugged into. We often associate these surges with transient events, such as nearby lightning strikes, or devices that use a lot of power at once (vacuum cleaner, hairdryer, etc). All of these failure types need to be considered. Leaving a computer turned on can reduce exposure to some of the failure types, while turning your computer off can prevent most of the external vectors that can cause the failure of a computer's components. The question then becomes, which is best: on or off? Turns out, at least in our opinion, it’s a bit of both. If your goal is to maximize lifetime, there's a time period when turning a new computer on and off makes sense; later, leaving it on 24/7 makes sense. Computer Life Testing and Failure Rates. There are various failure modes that can result in your computer, well, failing. Computer manufacturers have a few tricks up their sleeves to reduce the failure rate seen by end users. What makes this interesting is that assumptions made by the manufacturer regarding warranty periods can be upset by the decision to leave a computer on 24/7; let's find out why. Computer and component manufacturers use various tests to ensure the quality of their products. One of these is known as life testing, which uses a burn-in process that accelerates the aging rate of a device under test by cycling power, running devices at elevated voltage and temperature, and exposing the devices to conditions beyond the environment they were intended to operate in. Manufacturers found that devices that survived their infancy would continue to operate without problems until their expected lifetime was reached. Devices in their middle years rarely failed, even when exposed to conditions just outside their expected operating range. Failure Rates Over Time. The graph demonstrating failure rate over time become known as the bathtub curve because it looked like a bathtub viewed from the side. Components fresh off the manufacturing line would display a high failure rate when first turned on. That failure rate would drop quickly, so that, in a short time, a steady but extremely low failure rate would occur over the remaining expected years. Near the end of the component's life, the failure rate would start to rise again, until it quickly reached a very high failure rate, such as that seen near the beginning of the component's life. Life testing showed that components were highly reliable once they were beyond the infancy period. Manufacturers would then offer their components after using a burn-in process that aged the devices beyond the infancy period. Customers who needed high reliability would pay extra for these burned-in devices. Typical customers for this service included the military, NASA contractors, aviation, and medical.​ Devices that did not go through a complex burn-in process were sold mostly for consumer use, but the manufacturers included a warranty whose time frame usually matched or exceeded the infancy time on the bathtub curve. Turning your computer off every night, or when not in use, would seem like it could be a cause for component failure, and it's true that as your computer ages, it's likely to fail when turned off or on. But it's certainly a bit counterintuitive to learn that putting stress on your system when it's young, and under warranty, may be a good thing. Remember the bathtub curve, which says that early device failure is more likely when the components are very young and that as they age, failure rates drop? If you remove some of the expected types of stress by never power cycling your computer, you slow down the aging process. In essence, you extend the length of time the device remains susceptible to early failures. When your computer is under warranty, it may be advantageous to provide a modicum of stress by turning your computer off when not in use, so that any failure that occurs because of turn on/turn off stress happens under warranty. Leaving your computer turned on 24/7 can remove a few of the known stress events that lead to component failure, including the in-rush of current that can damage some devices, voltage swings, and surges that occur when turning a computer off. This is especially true as your computer ages and comes closer to the end of its expected life. By not cycling the power, you can protect older computers from failure, at least for a while. However, for younger computers, it may be more of a "don’t care" issue, as research has shown components in the teenage through adult years remain very stable, and don't show a likelihood of failure by conventional power cycling (turning the computer off at night). For new computers, there's the question of removing stress being an agent of slowing down aging, thus extending the time frame for early failure to occur beyond the normal warranty period. Using Both Options: Turn the Computer Off When New, and Leave on With Age. Do what you can to mitigate environmental stress factors, such as operating temperature. This can be as simple as having an external fan (such as a pedestal or ceiling fan) in the hot months to ensure air movement around your computer system. Use a UPS to help keep voltage surges at bay, and keep voltage levels constant. Use a normal turn on and turn off-cycle; that is, turn the computer off when not in use during the original manufacturer's warranty period. This will help ensure all components are aged out under warranty to a time frame when failure rates fall to a low level. It also helps to ensure that any failure that may happen will occur under warranty, saving you some serious coin. Once you move beyond the warranty period, the components should have aged beyond the infant mortality time frame and entered their teenage years, when they're tough and can stand up to just about any reasonable amount of stress thrown at them. At this point, you can switch to a 24/7 operating mode, if you wish to. So, new computer, turn it on and off as needed. Teenage to adult, it's up to you; there's no real benefit either way. Senior, keep it on 24/7 to extend its life. When Running 24/7 Which is Better, Sleep or Hibernation? One possible problem with running your computer 24/7, even if it isn't actively being used, is that you may discover that your computer entered a hibernation mode that's extremely similar to turning your computer off and back on again. Depending on your computer and the OS it's running, it may support multiple types of power-saving options. Generally speaking, sleep mode is designed to reduce power consumption while keeping the computer in a semi-operational state. In this mode, your computer spins down any hard drives and optical drives it may have. RAM is powered down to a lower activity state. Displays are usually dimmed, if not outright powered off. Processors run with a reduced clock rate or in a special low-level state. In sleep mode, the computer can usually continue to run some basic tasks, though not as speedily as in a normal state. Most open user apps are still loaded but are in a standby state. There are exceptions, depending on your OS, but you get the idea. Sleep mode conserves power while keeping the computer turned on. Hibernation, another version of reducing power consumption, varies a bit between Mac, Windows, and Linux OSes. In hibernation mode, apps that are running are put into a standby state, and then the content of RAM is copied to your computer's storage device. At that point, RAM and the storage devices are powered off. Most peripherals are put into standby mode, including the display. Once all data has been secured, the computer is essentially turned off. Restarting from hibernation mode isn't much more different, at least as experienced by the components that make up your computer, than turning your computer on. As you can see, if you haven’t ensured that your computer won't enter its hibernation mode after some amount of time, you're not really keeping your computer on 24/7. So, you may not be realizing the effect you wanted to achieve by not turning your computer off. If your intent is to run your computer 24/7 to perform various processing tasks, you'll want to disable all sleep modes except for display sleep. You probably don’t need the display to be active to run any of the tasks. The method for using only display sleep is different for the various operating systems. Some OSes have another sleep mode that allows specified tasks to run while placing all remaining tasks in standby mode. In this mode, power is conserved but processes that need to be run are allowed to continue. In the Mac OS, this is known as App Nap. Windows has an equivalent known as Connected Standby or Modern Standby in Windows 10. No matter what it's called, or the OS it runs on, the purpose is to conserve power while allowing some apps to run. In regard to running your computer 24/7, this type of sleep mode doesn't exhibit the type of power cycling seen in hibernation mode, so it could meet the needs of those who don't wish to turn their computers off. Leave the Computer on or Turn It off: Final Thoughts. If you're asking if it's safe to turn your computer on and off as needed, the answer is yes. It's not something you should worry about until the computer reaches old age. If you're asking if it's safe to leave a computer on 24/7, we would say the answer is also yes, but with a couple of caveats. You need to protect the computer from external stress events, such as voltage surges, lightning strikes, and power outages; you get the idea. Of course, you should be doing this even if you plan to turn the computer on and off, but the risk is slightly greater for computers left on 24/7, only because it's likely they'll be turned on when a severe event occurs, such as a summer thunderstorm rolling through your area. PC Help Center. Answer: This question can invoke quite a bit of debate, but my short answer is to put the computer to sleep each night or any time you leave the computer for more than 15 minutes. If you are not going to use the computer for more than a day (such as leaving it for the weekend), it is best to turn the computer off. Idle 15 minutes to 24 hours: Sleep Idle 24 hours or more: Shut Down. When a computer is in "sleep" or "standby" mode, it consumes almost no energy, so the difference between letting it sleep overnight or turning it off during the night is negligible. However, if you have a laptop running off a battery charge, the difference may be noticeable. I have noticed that my laptop's battery life only lasts about five to six days in sleep mode, but will last for weeks if the computer is off. Therefore, if you are not going to be using your laptop for more than a few hours and do not have AC power available, it is best to turn the computer off. The most important way to save energy is to not leave the computer running normally when you are not using it. I have my computer set to automatically sleep if it is idle for 15 minutes and my screen dims after 5 minutes. This way, I know that I won't accidentally leave my computer running for a long period of time. I also put my computer to sleep manually if I know I am going to be taking a break for more than 15 minutes. Finally, if you put your computer to sleep every night and hardly ever turn if off, it may be good to at least restart the computer every few weeks. This may help improve performance in case some errant processes are consuming unnecessary RAM or CPU time. Mac users: The keyboard shortcut for putting your computer to sleep is Command-Option-Eject .