Leave console on all day?

[Sniper82]

Son doesn't play everyday(mostly weekends) but when he does he sometimes powers the PS4 off/on 3-4 times the day he is playing it. He plays it a hour and wants to shut it off and come back a few hours later. I get on to him about it so I got to where I am telling him to just leave it on in the home menu.

Long term do you think it would be better on the system instead of powering it off/on or in/out of rest mode?

 

[TeknoBug]

Nope don't recommend leaving it on all day. Also there's a setting in there to auto turn off after an hour or 2.

 

[cmdrdredd]

I leave my xbox one on all day because I use it to turn on and off my TV and AVR. Used to run my cable box through it when I had cable as well. I have left my PS4 on for days at a time (forgetting to turn it off) and it hasn't caused a problem. It's really no different than leaving a PC on so I know there won't be any harm there. Turning it off and on multiple times also won't be a problem unless you're doing it back to back to back. Like shutting it down for an hour to come back later is not an issue, but turning it on, then off, then on may cause memory corruption on the HDD or something.

So in the end, think of it like a computer. Leaving a PC on all day isn't a problem. The only problem that may occur is with a power interruption without a proper shutdown cycle.

 

[xantub]

It's better to turn it off, even if he'll play again in half hour.
EDIT: by 'off' I mean 'standby'.

 

[SlitheryDee]

My xbox has an "instant on" mode that causes the console to never totally shut off. I basically let it handle itself as far as powering on and off. That way I can get updates and patches while I'm away from the machine. The PS4 seems to do much the same thing, which makes sense considering both of them are based on the same basic architecture and should have similar low power modes.

I would be willing to bet that your son is not actually turning the PS4 off so much as causing it to enter a low power mode. It's designed to do this, so I wouldn't worry about it very much.

 

[IHateMyJob2004]

I usually put my ps4 to sleep mode. I wish that there were a way to have it put the HD to sleep. It might but it doesn't specifically inform me of the fact.

 

[purbeast0]

not sure why one wouldnt turn it off if you aren't going to be using it. unless that 15 seconds boot time is extremely valuable to you, or as cmdrdredd was doing and actually using it for other things.

what i hate about the ps4 is that if you touch the power button on accident it puts it into sleep mode without prompting you. when i was playing sf5 beta my joystick was cutting out (until i fixed the issue) and i would have to unplug/plug it back in for it to recognize it and my fingers grazed the power button twice and put it into sleep mode mid-match. total failboat on my part, but it's just a dumb design to not even prompt before going into sleep mode.

 

[artemicion]

Son doesn't play everyday(mostly weekends) but when he does he sometimes powers the PS4 off/on 3-4 times the day he is playing it. He plays it a hour and wants to shut it off and come back a few hours later. I get on to him about it so I got to where I am telling him to just leave it on in the home menu.

Long term do you think it would be better on the system instead of powering it off/on or in/out of rest mode?

You got on your son's case because he turns off the console when he isn't going to play until "a few hours later"? You'd rather he leave it on for hours? What? Why?

 

[nakedfrog]

I just use rest mode.

 

[SlitheryDee]

You got on your son's case because he turns off the console when he isn't going to play until "a few hours later"? You'd rather he leave it on for hours? What? Why?

Yeah really. This is not a behavior I would discourage in an adolescent or teenager. As a general rule getting them to turn anything off when they're finished with it is an exercise in frustration.

 

[Fulle]

I have my PS4 set to enter sleep mode if it hasn't been in use for an hour, in case we forget to put it into sleep mode when we're done using it. The TV the PS4 is connected to is set to turn on when it receives an HDMI signal, and turns itself off after a few minutes of no signal. The result is that if we forget to turn the PS4 off when we leave, everything will go to sleep on its own... and when I get back the PS4 is just in sleep mode, so you just hit the home button on the DS4 and it all comes back up in a couple seconds.

PS4 sleepmode uses about 3 watts of power while just idle waiting, so turning the console completely OFF wouldn't save me much.... and I like that I can have my updates download while I'm away from home (while actively downloading an update or charging something, the PS4 power consumption is higher vs idle waiting, but still lower than if the system was active, and the PS4 will go back to 3 watts idle power consumption when it's done doing it's task).

My daughter has been told to just put the PS4 to sleep when she's done playing.... we don't turn the system OFF, just use sleep mode.

 

[Rakehellion]

It can run for years nonstop if properly ventilated. Though it can shorten its lifespan.

 

[xantub]

It can run for years nonstop if properly ventilated. Though it can shorten its lifespan.

That's what she said?

 

[xcas]

Seems like kind of a waste of energy to leave it on all day? Not to mention the heat... drove me mad when I used to go over to my cousin's and he'd leave his PS2 on all the time. Probably matters less with newer machines, but I don't see why you wouldn't turn it off when you're not using it.

 

[njenabnit]

My 16 month old daughter has a habit of pressing the shiny PS button my controller to turn the console on. I have glass doors shut so she won't turn it on directly (which she will do if they are open) and I am always concerned about how warm it is if I don't realize it is on quickly. I would say with proper ventilation it wouldn't matter, but I don't have that option.

 

[SlitheryDee]

My 16 month old daughter has a habit of pressing the shiny PS button my controller to turn the console on. I have glass doors shut so she won't turn it on directly (which she will do if they are open) and I am always concerned about how warm it is if I don't realize it is on quickly. I would say with proper ventilation it wouldn't matter, but I don't have that option.

The PS4 is probably putting itself to sleep before any damage is done anyway, but if you want extra security you could go into the system settings and set it to go to sleep sooner.