View Full Version : Computer shutoff timer/program?
A10Warthog
13th Mar 2008, 23:39
Hello!
I am a big fan of audiobooks and online radio shows.
My problem is that I fall asleep and my computer is still running. Is there a kind of program or something that I can put a timer, say turn of computer after 1 hour.
Thx!
BeechNut
14th Mar 2008, 01:03
Most "late model" computers have energy saving settings that will put the computer to "sleep" after a configurable length of time. In sleep mode the power consumption will be minimal.
What operating system are you running (Windows, Mac OS X, Linux?)
Beech
I agree with the above: also, if it's Windows, you may also have the option of command line "shutdown" command - run shutdown /? to see its options. You could then put the command(s) you want in a batch file, and run it when you need to.
I say "may" because I'm not that sure which versions have it as standard. I think Vista does, XP SP2 might have.
Saab Dastard
14th Mar 2008, 11:53
You can schedule a shutdown at a given time with XP pro. Probably XP home also. Note that you also configure this for a specified "idle time" - although I would be leery of this, depending on what is running on the PC (it may never be "idle" enough for the system to shout it down).
Trial and error is, as usual, your friend!
Use the Schedule Task GUI and the task you want is (unsurprisingly) SHUTDOWN /s.
You can see a list of switches and parameters by typing "shutdown" at the command line. And no, it won't shut down straight away - you have to have the /s appended!
SD
idgas
14th Mar 2008, 13:22
Try this. Create a new shortcut on the desktop to the following:
%windir%\system32\shutdown.exe -s -f -t xx
where xx equals the number of seconds
To stop the shutdown process, a similar shortcut as follows:
%windir%\System32\shutdown.exe -a
Cheers, :)
Saab Dastard
14th Mar 2008, 13:57
Nice one idgas - I didn't think that the timeout before shutdown could be that long!
Do you happen to know what the max. timeout is?
Edit - the answer is "very big indeed" - I tried it for values up to 41 days (3,600,000 seconds) and it seems perfectly happy!
SD