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Question

^{This is a very unscientific, and most-likely poorly phrased question (due to my complete lack of expertise) to be sure, but any responses will be greatly appreciated.}

My dad told me that walking around with my laptop in my bag, or leaving it in a moving car, without suspending it or shutting it off totally, for long periods of time, regularly over many days, can eventually cause gradual and progressive damage to the hardware. I think it was the hard disk, or the memory he mentioned.

However, out of convenience I'd like to not turn it off or suspend it when travelling between places, as this causes some issues with my os.

Is there a real risk that over time, transporting it from place to place without powering it off can mess with the hardware? Or would it be the same if it were on anyway?

When the laptop is suspended, doesn't the power shut off completely? The fans & hard drive all stop? Why wouldn't the drive should be as safe as anytime it's powered off? If the drive stayed powered on, the battery wouldn't last more than a few hours. — 9 hours ago
Read your laptop's manual about maximum acceleration values or contact the manufacturer. — 9 hours ago
Many laptops today have SSDs which don't care about movement at all. - That leaves the potential for overheating (as discussed in the answer by another poster). Side note: IT has happened multiple time to me that Windows with its excellent reliability ( ... ) did not go into standby when it should have and the laptop remained on. It never caused any harm - BUT I also wasn't running anything on the computer at the time. On idle, most laptops (especially small portable ones) are fairly cool-running nowadays. — 5 hours ago
Why not suspend? It changes nothing, and (on my laptop) it's as simple as pressing the Power button. [that is really easy to set up too] — 1 hour ago
You probably close the display lid, and that's enough to put it into sleep, anyway. Laptops are designed to tolerate much more than that, so no worries. Unless it's a sturdy business laptop, it'll probably die in a few years time no matter what, but not because of that. The two most usual death reasons are poor soldering on the mainboard [since we have to put up with lead-free solder, it's a constant problem in the whole electronic industry, aggravated by the unavoidable internal stresses of plastic houses) and mechanical failure of the display hinges. — 1 hour ago

score 26 · Accepted Answer · 2018-09-18 08:09:37Z

Yes, there is a risk in leaving the computer on. But that doesn't mean you need to turn it off Ã¢Â€Â“ it is enough to suspend (often by just closing the lid).

However, out of convenience I'd like to not turn it off when travelling between places.

Suspending is not the same thing as turning it off!

In suspend mode, most of the hardware is unpowered (CPU not generating heat, HDD heads safely parked), but the RAM contents still remain as they were Ã¢Â€Â“ the OS is "frozen in time".

This means that the suspended laptop is safe to carry, but you can instantly resume working (even old laptops resume in 2Ã¢Â€Â“5 secs) Ã¢Â€Â“ there is no inconvenient waiting for the OS to boot up again.

(You could say that the suspend function is specifically made for carrying laptops around.)

Note: If you leave the laptop suspended for a long time (several hours), Windows will eventually decide to hibernate to disk instead Ã¢Â€Â“ to avoid running out of battery. (A suspended laptop still needs minimal power; depending on battery, it can remain suspended for several days or even weeks, but not forever.) Resuming from hibernate still retains all your programs, but is noticeably slower. So for convenience, you'll likely want to increase the hibernation timer to a few days.

I think it was the hard disk, or the memory he mentioned.

Possibly both. There are two primary sources of damage:

Electronic components (especially CPU, GPU, SSD flash) can be damaged by overheating. That's why computers have fans in the first place Ã¢Â€Â“ but in a small bag/backpack there really isn't much airflow to cool anything down at all.

So if the computer in your bag is still running, in the best case it'll waste battery on fans. Worst case, the main CPU will soon reach its "emergency shutoff" temperature of 100Ã¢Â€Â“120Ã‚Â°C and the whole computer will turn off anyway (to prevent further damage).

Meanwhile, devices with moving parts Ã¢Â€Â“ especially the hard disk (if it's a magnetic HDD) Ã¢Â€Â“ may be damaged physically due to sudden shocks causing the heads to crash into the platter, which in normal operation is a few nm away.

(Some laptops have motion sensors which try to detect when the device is falling and about to smack into the ground, but that doesn't provide anywhere close to total safety. They're not going to help much if the device is being constantly thrown around in the trunk...)

The suspend mode avoids all of these problems, because it does power off the CPU and HDD.

Fall sensors are usually in laptop HDDs. The reaction to detecting fall is to park heads (which takes milliseconds), because HDD is pretty resilient when heads are not over platters. Unlike when reading/writing, even falling 5cm can incur permanent damage (I won't make this mistake again). Things without moving parts are pretty much invulnerable to being tossed around. — 6 hours ago
I would still think, that moving a laptop with a spinning drive is a bad idea. Lifting it carefully from the table is okay because of such safety mechanisms, but for moving it more than a few meters or rotating it I would suspend it. On the other hand, when your laptop has a SSD you can do almost everything with it. — 4 hours ago
Your dad most likely mentioned this because a few years back hard disks were really very sensitive to knocks (and they were all spinning disk types..) - the heads could end up touching the platters and scratching them up, they also wouldn't automatically park themselves, — 4 hours ago
@allo: No, the safety mechanisms are mostly to protect from shocks Ã¢Â€Â“ the internals of a modern HDD are themselves sufficiently stable to be unaffected by smooth movement. You usually won't hear the disk suddenly spinning down just because the laptop was lifted. — 3 hours ago
Every motion is something the drive needs to compensate and the compensation may fail. Harddrives fail from time to time even in stationary PCs. Of course the manufacturer tries to minimize the risk, but you do not need to test the limits. Be careful with running hard drives and consider buying a SSD for your laptop. In fact, even a not running hard drive is in a laptop way more at risk than a SSD, because hard shocks may damage the drive even when the heads are parked. — 1 hour ago

jcaron 28818 · Answer 2 · 2018-09-18 11:24:00Z

There are several different modes of operation for your laptop:

ON: the CPU is running, RAM is powered, the hard disk is running, the screen is on.

As the CPU is running, it generates heat (from a little to a significant amount depending on what you actually do), and this needs to be evacuated, usually with fans and vents. You don't want to have your laptop doing video encoding or 3D rendering while enclosed in a bag: it'll quickly overheat.

The hard disk (but see below) has a magnetic disk spinning at 5400 RPM with a tiny read/write head hovering just above the surface. You don't want that to take a shock while it's doing so, as it could damage the disk.

This is the state that draws most power, and is the more susceptible to issues.

Note that even in this state:
- the screen may be turned off while the CPU keeps running, usually after a period of inactivity. It'll turn back on as soon as you use the keyboard, trackpad or mouse.
- the hard disk may "spin down" (park heads, stop rotation) when unused for a period of time, and spin back up when needed. On some laptops you can definitely hear it stop and start.
- most hard disks are quite resistant to shocks, include fall detection (parking heads as soon as they detect free fall). Better not to tempt the devil, but we're not talking about eggshells.
- if you have an SSD (flash drive) rather than an HDD (magnetic disk drive with a spinning platter), then there's nothing to spin up or down, no moving mechanical parts, so no problem at all.

Sleep: The CPU and hard disk are not running, the screen is off, but RAM is still powered and keeping its contents.

In this state, there is just a little bit of power used to refresh RAM so it keeps its contents. That generates very little heat. There are no moving parts.

It is safe to put your laptop in your bag and carry it around. As there is still a bit of power used, the laptop can stay in this state for a while, but not forever. Some laptops will spontaneously switch from sleep to hibernation after a while to avoid running down the battery (either after a set time, or based on the battery level).

Hibernation: The contents of the RAM have been saved to disk, and then everything is turned off.

The only difference with the "OFF" state is that the state has been saved so it can resume relatively quickly afterwards (yawn).

Nearly no power at all is used (just enough to detect a press on a button and/or lid opening). It can stay in this state for as long as you like. It is safe to put in a bag or carry around.

OFF: everything is off. Same consequences as hibernation.

Depending on who you ask, "suspend" may mean sleep or hibernate, so you need to be more explicit to make the difference. But it doesn't change the fact that whether sleeping, hibernating, or off, a laptop is safe to put in a bag or carry around. That's the whole point of a laptop!

Final note: there are sometimes cases of laptops not actually going to sleep when you ask them to, or waking up during sleep and not going back to sleep. You can then find your laptop being quite warm when you take it out of your bag. Not good. But this is a specific issue, not a general rule.

computercarguy 59410 · Answer 3 · 2018-09-18 13:18:25Z

To be completely fair, moving your laptop around when it's off does damage, too.

Manufacturers know this and it's why they try for stiffer frames, rubberized everything, tougher LCD screens, strain relief on internal cables, and so much more.

When I was a computer tech, we would tell customers that a desktop generally has an expected lifetime of 4-5 years and a laptop 3-4 years. I've gotten well over that with both, but generally it's true.

A laptop will see a bunch of abuse, no matter if you have the most plush carry case in the world. The bumps, jolts, moving the monitor, setting it on a table, picking it up, everything you do to move it damages it in some slight (or not so slight) way. Plugging in cables is much more often in a laptop than a desktop and can cause loose sockets.

Being on top of a desk, in a bag, in a vehicle, or wherever is much more likely to see an accident, too.

This is why I would caution people against buying a laptop. It's more expensive and more prone to damage than a desktop, so do you really need a laptop? If you need the mobility, then yes, you need a laptop. Just be sure you understand and accept the risks first.

Moving it while it's on is just more potential damage than when it's off. Even solid state drives aren't 100% guaranteed against all damage.

This is a fairly decent answer. But one suggestion in any description of a laptop versus a desktop. That chances of a desktop just being bluntly dropped on a hard floor as a part of day life is zilch. A laptop that has been well taken care of for years can suddenly be dropped and be damaged to useless. That is really the high level reality that people somehow avoid discussing. — 16 mins ago

Peter A. Schneider 1276 · Answer 4 · 2018-09-18 13:50:33Z

Yes, not powering down to an un-powered state can cause heat damage to all electronic components including the hard disk (regardless whether it's SSD or magnetic). Getting rid of the heat is one of the main problems laptop designers face; it's important that it's not on a soft surface (as on a blanket in bed), that the vents are unobstructed and that the fan is working properly. A bag doesn't allow the heat to dissipate and thus can lead to overheating. It's probably wise to leave the laptop sit for a minute or two even after properly powering it off, before bagging it.

Moving a computer with a magnetic disc â€” spinning or not â€” can cause mechanical damage to the disk. When the disk is spinning it's very volatile because the disk's heads hover only a few nanometers above the disk's surface; the laptop should best not be moved at all. I know that we all have done it many times without apparent problems; but there will be one at some point, believe me (and make backups). Magnetic hard disks are the weak spots on computers.

When the disk is not spinning it's less volatile. But even then I'd recommend to handle a laptop very carefully to avoid hard disk damage. It's simply by far the mechanically most delicate part of the computer â€” everything else is casing or circuits. SSDs are a big step towards more robust laptops.

With respect to powering down I'd recommend to not rely on "Suspend to RAM" (technically the S3 state in the ACPI specification, the state often connected to closing the lid. This is for two reasons:

I have seen my laptop power back on without apparent reason (perhaps a spurious key press?). That would be bad in the bag.

There is still some power consumption producing heat.

Better power it down; whether you suspend to disk (ACPI state S4) or shut it down doesn't matter electrically; both states do not consume power.

Last not least I'd unplug all external connectors (mouse, phones, power) in order to reduce mechanical stress on the sockets.

-1 This is kind of Ã¢Â€ÂœtruthyÃ¢Â€Â and filled with generic Ã¢Â€ÂœtipsÃ¢Â€Â that are not reality helpful. Laptops are designed to be moved around. And modern hardware is far more reliable in the cases explained here nowadays than they were 15+ years ago. — 19 mins ago
@JakeGould The question was somewhat unspecific; all factual statements in my post are correct (afaics); all the tips in my post are valid (most from personal experience); my impression and hope is that they are helpful to the OP. — 14 mins ago

score 26 · Accepted Answer · 2018-09-18 08:09:37Z

Yes, there is a risk in leaving the computer on. But that doesn't mean you need to turn it off Ã¢Â€Â“ it is enough to suspend (often by just closing the lid).

However, out of convenience I'd like to not turn it off when travelling between places.

Suspending is not the same thing as turning it off!

In suspend mode, most of the hardware is unpowered (CPU not generating heat, HDD heads safely parked), but the RAM contents still remain as they were Ã¢Â€Â“ the OS is "frozen in time".

This means that the suspended laptop is safe to carry, but you can instantly resume working (even old laptops resume in 2Ã¢Â€Â“5 secs) Ã¢Â€Â“ there is no inconvenient waiting for the OS to boot up again.

(You could say that the suspend function is specifically made for carrying laptops around.)

Note: If you leave the laptop suspended for a long time (several hours), Windows will eventually decide to hibernate to disk instead Ã¢Â€Â“ to avoid running out of battery. (A suspended laptop still needs minimal power; depending on battery, it can remain suspended for several days or even weeks, but not forever.) Resuming from hibernate still retains all your programs, but is noticeably slower. So for convenience, you'll likely want to increase the hibernation timer to a few days.

I think it was the hard disk, or the memory he mentioned.

Possibly both. There are two primary sources of damage:

Electronic components (especially CPU, GPU, SSD flash) can be damaged by overheating. That's why computers have fans in the first place Ã¢Â€Â“ but in a small bag/backpack there really isn't much airflow to cool anything down at all.

So if the computer in your bag is still running, in the best case it'll waste battery on fans. Worst case, the main CPU will soon reach its "emergency shutoff" temperature of 100Ã¢Â€Â“120Ã‚Â°C and the whole computer will turn off anyway (to prevent further damage).

Meanwhile, devices with moving parts Ã¢Â€Â“ especially the hard disk (if it's a magnetic HDD) Ã¢Â€Â“ may be damaged physically due to sudden shocks causing the heads to crash into the platter, which in normal operation is a few nm away.

(Some laptops have motion sensors which try to detect when the device is falling and about to smack into the ground, but that doesn't provide anywhere close to total safety. They're not going to help much if the device is being constantly thrown around in the trunk...)

The suspend mode avoids all of these problems, because it does power off the CPU and HDD.

Fall sensors are usually in laptop HDDs. The reaction to detecting fall is to park heads (which takes milliseconds), because HDD is pretty resilient when heads are not over platters. Unlike when reading/writing, even falling 5cm can incur permanent damage (I won't make this mistake again). Things without moving parts are pretty much invulnerable to being tossed around. — 6 hours ago
I would still think, that moving a laptop with a spinning drive is a bad idea. Lifting it carefully from the table is okay because of such safety mechanisms, but for moving it more than a few meters or rotating it I would suspend it. On the other hand, when your laptop has a SSD you can do almost everything with it. — 4 hours ago
Your dad most likely mentioned this because a few years back hard disks were really very sensitive to knocks (and they were all spinning disk types..) - the heads could end up touching the platters and scratching them up, they also wouldn't automatically park themselves, — 4 hours ago
@allo: No, the safety mechanisms are mostly to protect from shocks Ã¢Â€Â“ the internals of a modern HDD are themselves sufficiently stable to be unaffected by smooth movement. You usually won't hear the disk suddenly spinning down just because the laptop was lifted. — 3 hours ago
Every motion is something the drive needs to compensate and the compensation may fail. Harddrives fail from time to time even in stationary PCs. Of course the manufacturer tries to minimize the risk, but you do not need to test the limits. Be careful with running hard drives and consider buying a SSD for your laptop. In fact, even a not running hard drive is in a laptop way more at risk than a SSD, because hard shocks may damage the drive even when the heads are parked. — 1 hour ago

jcaron 28818 · Answer 6 · 2018-09-18 11:24:00Z

There are several different modes of operation for your laptop:

ON: the CPU is running, RAM is powered, the hard disk is running, the screen is on.

As the CPU is running, it generates heat (from a little to a significant amount depending on what you actually do), and this needs to be evacuated, usually with fans and vents. You don't want to have your laptop doing video encoding or 3D rendering while enclosed in a bag: it'll quickly overheat.

The hard disk (but see below) has a magnetic disk spinning at 5400 RPM with a tiny read/write head hovering just above the surface. You don't want that to take a shock while it's doing so, as it could damage the disk.

This is the state that draws most power, and is the more susceptible to issues.

Note that even in this state:
- the screen may be turned off while the CPU keeps running, usually after a period of inactivity. It'll turn back on as soon as you use the keyboard, trackpad or mouse.
- the hard disk may "spin down" (park heads, stop rotation) when unused for a period of time, and spin back up when needed. On some laptops you can definitely hear it stop and start.
- most hard disks are quite resistant to shocks, include fall detection (parking heads as soon as they detect free fall). Better not to tempt the devil, but we're not talking about eggshells.
- if you have an SSD (flash drive) rather than an HDD (magnetic disk drive with a spinning platter), then there's nothing to spin up or down, no moving mechanical parts, so no problem at all.

Sleep: The CPU and hard disk are not running, the screen is off, but RAM is still powered and keeping its contents.

In this state, there is just a little bit of power used to refresh RAM so it keeps its contents. That generates very little heat. There are no moving parts.

It is safe to put your laptop in your bag and carry it around. As there is still a bit of power used, the laptop can stay in this state for a while, but not forever. Some laptops will spontaneously switch from sleep to hibernation after a while to avoid running down the battery (either after a set time, or based on the battery level).

Hibernation: The contents of the RAM have been saved to disk, and then everything is turned off.

The only difference with the "OFF" state is that the state has been saved so it can resume relatively quickly afterwards (yawn).

Nearly no power at all is used (just enough to detect a press on a button and/or lid opening). It can stay in this state for as long as you like. It is safe to put in a bag or carry around.

OFF: everything is off. Same consequences as hibernation.

Depending on who you ask, "suspend" may mean sleep or hibernate, so you need to be more explicit to make the difference. But it doesn't change the fact that whether sleeping, hibernating, or off, a laptop is safe to put in a bag or carry around. That's the whole point of a laptop!

Final note: there are sometimes cases of laptops not actually going to sleep when you ask them to, or waking up during sleep and not going back to sleep. You can then find your laptop being quite warm when you take it out of your bag. Not good. But this is a specific issue, not a general rule.

computercarguy 59410 · Answer 7 · 2018-09-18 13:18:25Z

To be completely fair, moving your laptop around when it's off does damage, too.

Manufacturers know this and it's why they try for stiffer frames, rubberized everything, tougher LCD screens, strain relief on internal cables, and so much more.

When I was a computer tech, we would tell customers that a desktop generally has an expected lifetime of 4-5 years and a laptop 3-4 years. I've gotten well over that with both, but generally it's true.

A laptop will see a bunch of abuse, no matter if you have the most plush carry case in the world. The bumps, jolts, moving the monitor, setting it on a table, picking it up, everything you do to move it damages it in some slight (or not so slight) way. Plugging in cables is much more often in a laptop than a desktop and can cause loose sockets.

Being on top of a desk, in a bag, in a vehicle, or wherever is much more likely to see an accident, too.

This is why I would caution people against buying a laptop. It's more expensive and more prone to damage than a desktop, so do you really need a laptop? If you need the mobility, then yes, you need a laptop. Just be sure you understand and accept the risks first.

Moving it while it's on is just more potential damage than when it's off. Even solid state drives aren't 100% guaranteed against all damage.

This is a fairly decent answer. But one suggestion in any description of a laptop versus a desktop. That chances of a desktop just being bluntly dropped on a hard floor as a part of day life is zilch. A laptop that has been well taken care of for years can suddenly be dropped and be damaged to useless. That is really the high level reality that people somehow avoid discussing. — 16 mins ago

Peter A. Schneider 1276 · Answer 8 · 2018-09-18 13:50:33Z

Yes, not powering down to an un-powered state can cause heat damage to all electronic components including the hard disk (regardless whether it's SSD or magnetic). Getting rid of the heat is one of the main problems laptop designers face; it's important that it's not on a soft surface (as on a blanket in bed), that the vents are unobstructed and that the fan is working properly. A bag doesn't allow the heat to dissipate and thus can lead to overheating. It's probably wise to leave the laptop sit for a minute or two even after properly powering it off, before bagging it.

Moving a computer with a magnetic disc â€” spinning or not â€” can cause mechanical damage to the disk. When the disk is spinning it's very volatile because the disk's heads hover only a few nanometers above the disk's surface; the laptop should best not be moved at all. I know that we all have done it many times without apparent problems; but there will be one at some point, believe me (and make backups). Magnetic hard disks are the weak spots on computers.

When the disk is not spinning it's less volatile. But even then I'd recommend to handle a laptop very carefully to avoid hard disk damage. It's simply by far the mechanically most delicate part of the computer â€” everything else is casing or circuits. SSDs are a big step towards more robust laptops.

With respect to powering down I'd recommend to not rely on "Suspend to RAM" (technically the S3 state in the ACPI specification, the state often connected to closing the lid. This is for two reasons:

I have seen my laptop power back on without apparent reason (perhaps a spurious key press?). That would be bad in the bag.

There is still some power consumption producing heat.

Better power it down; whether you suspend to disk (ACPI state S4) or shut it down doesn't matter electrically; both states do not consume power.

Last not least I'd unplug all external connectors (mouse, phones, power) in order to reduce mechanical stress on the sockets.

-1 This is kind of Ã¢Â€ÂœtruthyÃ¢Â€Â and filled with generic Ã¢Â€ÂœtipsÃ¢Â€Â that are not reality helpful. Laptops are designed to be moved around. And modern hardware is far more reliable in the cases explained here nowadays than they were 15+ years ago. — 19 mins ago
@JakeGould The question was somewhat unspecific; all factual statements in my post are correct (afaics); all the tips in my post are valid (most from personal experience); my impression and hope is that they are helpful to the OP. — 14 mins ago

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