question Is keeping an AC powered laptop in sleep mode when not using it, a harmful practice?

[apairofpcs]

I've been using both of my laptop's on AC power exclusively, since they're rarely mobile. They are a 2009 Toshiba Satellite A505 series and a 2013 Lenovo Thinkpad T530 series. I also removed the battery pack from each unit to increase it's lifespan, using them once every two months to keep them conditioned. When I know I won't be using either laptop for a few hours, I press the power button and send it into sleep mode. When I'm ready to use them, I press the power button again to return to the desktop. i configured the power button to serve as the gateway to sleep mode. Both laptops have Windows 7 Home Premium Edition 64 bit as their OS.

I'm wondering if using sleep mode "most of the time" instead of hibernate or shutdown, is a good practice? Once in a while, I'll turn off each laptop into hibernate rather than shutdown, to reduce the restart time. When I do, I'll remove the AC plug. I'm thinking that in sleep mode with the AC plug attached, the pc is using very little AC power to maintain it's status.

Please give me the pros and cons of my method.

 

[LunarMist]

I've been using both of my laptop's on AC power exclusively, since they're rarely mobile. They are a 2009 Toshiba Satellite A505 series and a 2013 Lenovo Thinkpad T530 series. I also removed the battery pack from each unit to increase it's lifespan, using them once every two months to keep them conditioned. When I know I won't be using either laptop for a few hours, I press the power button and send it into sleep mode. When I'm ready to use them, I press the power button again to return to the desktop. i configured the power button to serve as the gateway to sleep mode. Both laptops have Windows 7 Home Premium Edition 64 bit as their OS.

I'm wondering if using sleep mode "most of the time" instead of hibernate or shutdown, is a good practice? Once in a while, I'll turn off each laptop into hibernate rather than shutdown, to reduce the restart time. When I do, I'll remove the AC plug. I'm thinking that in sleep mode with the AC plug attached, the pc is using very little AC power to maintain it's status.

Please give me the pros and cons of my method.

Sleep mode is fine. You should not need to activate that manually, just set the delay time in the power settings.

 

[apairofpcs]

Sleep mode is fine. You should not need to activate that manually, just set the delay time in the power settings.

Thank you. I know about the sleep mode timer setting in the Power Options applet found in Control Panel. I'll decide on a time that would not have me toggle from sleep mode to desktop too frequently.

 

[ddrueding]

The occasional restart isn't a bad idea. Set the sleep timer and occasionally (weekly?) tell it to restart and walk away. When it comes back up it will go to sleep.