text: is it safe to turn my computer on and off a lot? i work and go to school full time so i am rarely home. i basically just turn on my laptop for about an hour in the morning and an hour in the evening. when i am done using it i turn it off. could turning it on and off like this be potentially bad for the computer? not in your case you are not turning it on and off repetitively.   what happens is that each time that you turn it on it sends a high amount of voltage from the wall outlet to your computer. the computer has to regulate this voltage to a smaller amount that is used by the computer compents.   so turning it on and off real fast causes electricity to shoot  through the circuts over and over enough to fry it.  your time frame for tuning it on gives it enough time to settle between each power on.  edit* i just got done reading the above post about ic chips and that is kinda right. but what happens the power goes through a circut with resistors that are designed to level out the current. if you burn on this circut then yes, the ic chips will be burned.