Was wondering - should I turn off my desire once in a while, say overnight for example, to give it a break? Or is the hardware (CPU etc.) made to be on without ever being turned off?
Leave it on. Ideally, you need only restart it if you think you might have problems with the software.
I appreciate your input... but could you elaborate a bit? What do you base the answer that i should leave it on, on?
This was discussed at length recently here http://androidforums.com/htc-desire/203438-how-often-do-you-reboot-your-desire.html
When I had my blackberries I always left them on in exception of the ******ed necessary battery pulls. If there's a memory leak or data leaking app a reboot would be ideal or if you can point out which app is causing it you could kill it manually. Longest my Desire has been turned on was almost a month before I rooted and flashed it, always have it left on even when I plug it in at night to charge.
There's no reason to turn it off, unless there is a problem with an app or you want to apply an update or similar.
My current phone, which hopefully I am replacing with a Desire in the next week or so, is something like 3 years old and the battery is still great. I turn it off every night. My previous phone I used to leave on 24/7 and the battery was trashed within 9 months. Not scientific in any way, and might be a coincedence, but unless you want to be woken up by calls or texts in the middle of the night, I can't see the point in never turning your phone off.
You had a bad battery. Every cell phone I've owned has remained on 24/7 and no issues at all with battery life. Two of the phones ran for over 3 years constantly. You do realize that phones have a volume control, airplane setting, silent mode, etc. One simple mode change prevents any calls or texts in the middle of the night. Yet the Desire can select silent mode and the alarm will still sound to wake me in the morning, in essence doing what I need it to do without ringing.
Hmm, im not so worried for the battery, im thinking more in terms of the phone it self breaking down due to never getting a "rest"...
Electronics generally fail due to heat/cool cycles, not because they need "rest". Read up on it. You can turn the phone off if you want, it's up to you. But there is no need to do so.
*shrug* - the manual doesn't say to give the device a break every 15 hours. Simple as that I'm just curious, do you turn off your router at night? Physically turn your games console off? It's the same thing - if the manufacturers thought we'd get better life out of their devices by "giving them a rest" it'd be printed clear as daylight over all the packaging. Then, if something broke because we'd left it on too long, what a way to void our warranties!
I find after long periods without being rebooted my laptop can get a bit sluggish and restarting it freshens it up. A restart would clear the RAM, wouldn't it?
Yes it does clear the RAM and cache file, but that's probably running a 32-bit version of Windows which has never been good at keeping the memory running properly due to poor memory management. The 64-bit versions are much better and will run indefinitely without a reboot (as long as you don't have any rogue programs). The Android operating system is Linux based and as such it has good memory management and does not need a reboot to clear the RAM or cache file. There really is no need to reboot the Desire on any kind of regular basis (unless you have a rogue app), nor is there any need to let it "rest" at night.
A restart on the Desire would clear the RAM and close all apps that are 'open' in the RAM. That's not necessarily a good thing because, as has been discussed elsewhere, Android keeps frequently used apps in RAM so they take less time to start up next time you need them and this uses less battery and processing time. I think the biggest advantage of a restart is to allow Android to reload the apps (as you start them again) which can help resolve any issues that may have arisen with currupted data. If your phone starts to behave strangely, then a restart usually sorts it. It's kinda like a reboot on a laptop or PC, but for slightly different reasons.
Hey this is an Android phone, not an iPhone. Just make sure you have it set that way as there is a setting to enable this feature. It's on by default in the generic versions, but may not be in the carrier versions. When in the Alarms configuration, Press Menu, Settings, and enable the checkbox for Alarm in silent mode if it's not already set. Also remember you have a Menu button. Whenever you're in a config screen, press the Menu button and see what's there. Many of the config screens have additional settings which is why Android is so adjustable.
Why, yes i turn off my game console (not my router though (except when im on vaccation)). But i see your point with the warranty
I turn mine off every night, not for any particular reason but I've got a landline if anyone wants me. I still take my phone up to bed with me even though I no longer need to - my old phone is my alarm clock so when I had that it had to be at the side of the bed. Now I just do it with this one out of habit. Our routers stay on all the time, but everything else gets turned off. Just don't see the point in leaving things turned on/on standby for 8+ hours when we're asleep ourselves. Sometimes we leave the PC on while we run a scan/clean-up, but that's all. The laptop goes to sleep by itself eventually in any case.
I never turn my Desire off unless I really have to (software glitches etc.) I mean, come on, it's designed to be on all the time
If you dont need to leave it on during the night turn it off. If you have to leave it on in case you get an important call during the night leave it on ! It wont hurt either way.
