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I just received a nice monitor that I hope to keep in use for as long as I can. Should it be turned off every night? It does go into sleep mode when not in use. Are there any settings that I should change to give it a longer life?

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There's not a whole lot of difference between sleep mode and turning off, except maybe a couple of watts of power - and I'm not even sure about that, it requires a bit of power to monitor the on/off switch. If you want to ensure being as green as possible turn it off at night, otherwise don't worry about it.

P.S. Make sure the monitor is really sleeping and not just displaying a black screen, there's a huge difference. There should be a light on the panel that will make it evident.

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  • I am not worried that much about saving power, I am more worried about preserving this monitors performance. Jun 10, 2011 at 17:08
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    From a performance standpoint, for all intents and purposes sleep=off. The panel is powered down and unlit.
    – Shinrai
    Jun 10, 2011 at 17:11
  • Ok thank you. Are there any settings I should change during normal use to preserve performance or is the default out of the box fine? Jun 10, 2011 at 17:16
  • @a sandwich, the only setting which might make a difference is the backlight brightness. Turn it down for longer life. Jun 10, 2011 at 17:23
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    @a sandwich - I've never heard that games (or any other moving images) will affect an LCD in any way. Jun 11, 2011 at 2:40
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I prefer shutting the devices off if there is no need to let them stay plugged in. I have something like APC surge arrest - extension cable with about 5 outlets and main power switch. I have all my PC components (PC, monitor, speakers and scanner) plugged in and after I shut down computer I also switch the main power switch off. This makes me calm as it 1) reduces the power consumption (why all these gadgets should suck energy when nobody uses them?), it reduces a risk of fire (ok, all the devices should have thermal fuse, but ...) and it has also surge suppressor built in. Also useful in case of some terrible thunderstorm as you can easily drag this main cable out to improve the protection against lightning. So I think there is no reason to keep the devices standby.

PS: as I know, the power supplies do not suffer from often switching on/off but when you let them standby for a very long time, it cuts their life a little bit.

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There's no answer to "always leave it on" or "always shut it off".

There's only: "If you are going to not be using your monitor/computer for x hours, shut it off".

What is "x" hours?

No one is ever going to tell you that x = 0.1 hours. (Constantly shutting down every time you walk away from your computer for >6 mins.)

No one is ever going to say that x = 10000. (Leave your computer on, even if you aren't going to use it for WEEKS.)

So, what is x? I say it's around 48 hours. Everyone else will give you other answers.

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I know my post is a massive necro to this thread since its 2015 and the last entry was 2011 ...BUT having just found this thread AND just purchased both a high end GPU and a high(er) end monitor I wanted to weigh in.

I never turn my monitors off....ever. Ok so not true when I move I'll turn them off for that. :)

Modern eco friendly monitors draw 4w (some don't even draw that much) when in power saving mode. I'm not rich trust me -- but I'm also not sweating bullets over my electric bill each month because my monitor is constantly on.

I do have a reason however beyond one of being lazy....with my display port monitor I've noticed if I turn it off sometimes when I turn on the computer it doesn't come on the first time I turn the monitor back on. Conversely if I leave the monitor on it always comes on first time every time when the computer is powered on.

I'm researching that problem to find out if that's how it just works or there is something wrong with the monitor....so far I've found other people with the same monitor having the same experience..so I'm leaning towards its "just how it is" with this particular model monitor I have.

Finally I've been a PC gamer for 30 years...been earning my living as an IT professional for 19 years come this May (2015)....I've never...NOT EVEN ONCE.... seen or heard of a monitors damage being ever related to "well it was kept on too long" or "they turned it off and on to frequently"...my employer employs 90k people....btw...so that's alot of monitors my department oversees.

I also never experienced screen burn of any kind on a LCD monitor in all the years I've dealt with them at work or in private. So I personally don't buy ANYONE (yes even someone that works at a monitor manufacturer) that screen burn is even a remote concern at all with LCD/LED panels.

I don't use screen savers at home for function --- only because they look cool.

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