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Switcher Hangout (Windows to Mac)
Why is it bad to shutdown your Mac?
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<blockquote data-quote="MacInWin" data-source="post: 1674665"><p>The biggest risk to electronics is the surge of current at power-on. That first "inrush," as it is called, can overload devices which are cool and quiet from being off and more vulnerable to the sudden current and attendant heat change. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inrush_current" target="_blank">Here</a> is a link to a Wikipedia article on inrush current. Note the sentence, "Power converters also often have inrush currents much higher than their steady state currents, due to the charging current of the input capacitance," in the first paragraph. The power supply in your Mac is a power converter. Inrush is also a challenge for motors, such as the motor in the hard drive. Now Apple (and just about every other manufacturer) does put in place inrush limiters to minimize the inrush and to allow the components most vulnerable a chance to stabilize without being hit with the high current flow from power-on inrush, but those components can also fail. Inrush is not a huge problem anymore, but it does happen. Consider the incandescent bulb--most failures are "blowouts" when the bulb is in a lamp that has just been turned on. That's inrush.</p><p></p><p>On a sidenote, folks who renovate old radio equipment use what is called a variac to bring voltage slowly up to full so that the tubes, capacitors and other components can warm slowly and fail (if they are going to) more gracefully. Just plugging in an old tube radio and turning on the switch can result in some pretty spectacular results if the capacitors in the power supply are dried up!</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="MacInWin, post: 1674665"] The biggest risk to electronics is the surge of current at power-on. That first "inrush," as it is called, can overload devices which are cool and quiet from being off and more vulnerable to the sudden current and attendant heat change. [URL="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inrush_current"]Here[/URL] is a link to a Wikipedia article on inrush current. Note the sentence, "Power converters also often have inrush currents much higher than their steady state currents, due to the charging current of the input capacitance," in the first paragraph. The power supply in your Mac is a power converter. Inrush is also a challenge for motors, such as the motor in the hard drive. Now Apple (and just about every other manufacturer) does put in place inrush limiters to minimize the inrush and to allow the components most vulnerable a chance to stabilize without being hit with the high current flow from power-on inrush, but those components can also fail. Inrush is not a huge problem anymore, but it does happen. Consider the incandescent bulb--most failures are "blowouts" when the bulb is in a lamp that has just been turned on. That's inrush. On a sidenote, folks who renovate old radio equipment use what is called a variac to bring voltage slowly up to full so that the tubes, capacitors and other components can warm slowly and fail (if they are going to) more gracefully. Just plugging in an old tube radio and turning on the switch can result in some pretty spectacular results if the capacitors in the power supply are dried up! [/QUOTE]
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Switcher Hangout (Windows to Mac)
Why is it bad to shutdown your Mac?
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