Dell Volume Control

Hi. My former roomate, a self proclaimed guru, told me that if I was only going to be away from my computer for an hour or so it is better on the machine to just put the computer in standby/hibernate. Is this true even if I run my laptop (Inspiron 5100) on AC power 95% of the time? After what period of time would it be more efficient to Shut down computer? My only problem in putting my laptop in standby/hibernate is that when I return, my audio speakers do not work, but if I plug in headphones I can hear fine. I must restart to listen to songs without headphones. Is this a Dell problem in general, or is it related to some component on my system? Thanks in advance!!!!!!!!!

The reasoning behind that theory is, one, power consumption and two, saving your monitor from having an image burned into it. Personally, I would turn OFF hibernate/standby as it consumes resources…lots of them. Turn on your screen saver to avoid to any damage to your monitor and as for the machine in general, totally up to you. (my opinion, having several years in electronics and small PCB repair back ground, machines are made to run. The more often you power them up and then power them down, the less the life expectancy of components will be. In other words.. they heat up.. they cool down…they heatup…etc..etc. Thats alot of wear and tear on cap's, and caps have a shelf-life to begin with)