Turning power on/off every night?

Is it best leave an LCD monitor on 24/7 or is it ok to turn them on/off every day?

I'm an independent graphic designer and just had a Samsung 204B fail after only 16 months. Thinking it would help save the backlight and monitor in general, I'd turn it off every night and sometimes during the day if I'd be gone for a few hours, and am just wondering if the "on/off" process may have had something to do with its demise. A couple months ago it began struggling to come on, flickering, then eventually reaching full brightness. It did this for a few days, then fearing it would never come back on, I just left it turned on. Then one day it was blank and never came back on with just the blue light around the power button blinking. I'm guessing the backlight failed. I would think monitors should last more than 16 months even doing what I do, so I'm wondering if was simply a problem with the monitor, or could turning it on ad off every day have affected it?

I've replaced it with a Samsung 245BW (wonderful monitor) and just want to know....do I leave it on 24/7 or turn it off every night when I'm finished working?

When i shut down my PC (I have CRT monito) the monitor is turning off itself. The yellow LED is not turned on, everything's off (Yellow Diode is for stand by). And i am pressing the On/Off Switch when I'm gonna leave the PC off for a week or so...between days, when i am using it frequently i am leaving the switch on, the monitor is turning off itself. But on the LCDs i don't know how thing goes. It shouldn't be a problem for the monitor, that's why the switch is, but I can't guarantee. i would like to know the correct answer to this.

Ballyshannon, turning the monitor on/off is the best thing to do with LCD screens. They are "all digital" and nothing will tear down due to the countless number of turn off's and on's. This is important. LCD panels are working on the basis of backlights and if as soon as those die then your LCD dies, simple as that.

Right at the moment I have got 2 LCD monitors. The first one dates back to 2002 and it still works just like it is a few days old. It's a Kingston-made (the panel) branded under an unknown China-based company. It is really old but I've taken care of it and it still works. My new monitor is a 19" wide and it's 100% LG-made, fortunately, it still works but it's barely a few weeks old.

Bottom-line is that I've got used to the habit of turning it off even if I go away from the keyboard for 5 minutes to handle a business call or if somebody rings at the door. It's a great habit because first of all, it won't consume that much. Yes, 30W still adds up. Think of it like 24/7, that's a 30W light-bulb always on 100% efficiency. Chances are you don't sit in front the monitor more than 12 hours each day - therefore, you would end up with 50% less power consumption and that's only from the monitor.

Also, this is the best way to extend the lifespan of an LCD monitor. You need to take care of those lights because without them the panel is pretty much worthless. In case of CRT monitors this is quite different. However, there's the main benefit comes from the power consumption (100W-160W) so it is worthwhile to turn those off too. Under ideal condition nothing should happen with CRTs either, although sometimes if abused then few components near the "power on" circuitry can go bad, including the switch per se. Though, this rarely happens.

Like I said, in case of LCD monitors this is all digital and the power on almost always happens in less than 2 seconds, even if the Samsung logo and welcome screen pops up. You won't lose that much productivity. Your previous monitor died for whatever reasons but one thing is clear - the frequent powering on and off did not contribute to it. That's what I've been doing since years and that's what are advocated the personel at the computer department (250+ computers) of a local manufacturing/factory company/organization, too. Neither of those monitors died "just because" of frequent power on and off's.

All in all, under no circumstance should you leave an LCD monitor powered on 24/7 with the "energy saving" features disabled.

Really appreciate the information. I didn't think frequent on/offs would have any effect on LCDs but you never know and just wanted to make sure. If anything, constant operation of the power button could wear out the button components which are usually plastic. I had that happen on a CRT years ago and had to have the power button replaced.

if you turn off your computer, the monitor goes to standby, basically, turns off, but wastes some power, so you might as well turn it off.