Power question about MOTU 828

brockfanning · Post by **brockfanning** » Fri Apr 14, 2006 8:59 am

Hi, sorry if this is a dumb question but I am concerned and could not find this anywhere by searching...

Is it bad to leave my MOTU 828 powered on 24 hours a day?

I ask because my roomate likes to sit down and listen to music a lot on my computer, and I don't think I can rely on him always turning it off after he uses it.

Thanks!

Jidis · Post by **Jidis** » Fri Apr 14, 2006 10:29 am

brockfanning,

Sorry to say it, but for overall "product longevity", I wouldn't recommend it. If you read through some of the threads here (probably go back at least a page or two), you'll see many issues with parts,etc. going out after a year or so (or worse), and there are at least a few incidents which users seem to suspect of being "heat-related". Any unnecessary "on-time" would be best avoided.

There's the chance that you would never have a problem, but no one wants to deal with a broken interface, so protecting it might stack the odds in your favor. Sadly, I think leaving it on all day might be a guaranteed way to "jump start" an early malfunction.

If possible, you may want to figure out a way to route system sounds or multimedia apps through the onboard sound or something, and try to conserve 828 on-time to when you really need it.

Best of Luck,

George

PS- With the heat thing in mind, you may also want to make sure you've actually got it somewhere that it gets optimal ventilation (on all sides). It's possible some of the failures could have been prevented with "enhanced" ventilation, but it shouldn't be blamed on the users (or even required in the first place).

MattForshaw · Post by **MattForshaw** » Sun Jun 04, 2006 2:24 am

Hmm, hearing that comes as a bit of a suprise and quite an annoyance.

How many hours per day would you say would allow a decent lifespan to be maintained? I don't plan to keep it running 24/7/365 (if it would even last that long) but somewhere in the region of 8-10 hours a day.

My 828mkII isnt racked and is on a tabletop with nothing covering it so I presume that would qualify optimum ventilation.

Any further insight'd be greatly recieved.

Matt.

Smokehouse · Post by **Smokehouse** » Sun Jun 04, 2006 8:45 am

Jidis' observations about people complaining about failed units is certainly true, but there's no quantitative data to suggest that you should do anything different than what you're doing. Of course, NEVER turning your unit on will make it last MUCH longer.... But what percentage of units fail and how many were due to aging components? We really can't say based on the posts here.

All components will die with age and the MOTU unit isn't different. I did hear a number of complaints about early units that had failures in the front panel display (dim, and then dark) but I haven't seen a post about that in a while. Manufacturing problem solved? Who knows. I would say not to get too obsessive about it. Turn it off when you go on vacation to Europe! Leave it on between takes. Use you judgement for everything else.

Spikey Horse · Post by **Spikey Horse** » Sun Jun 04, 2006 9:47 am

I've always gone by the rule that leaving things on for long durations is bad ..... as is turning things on and off too frequently.

So it's better to make a judgement and leave it on when it's going to be used frequently and switch off when it's going to be idle for a long time.

Kind of makes sense I think!

(...and always keep good separation between all warm/hot rack units, and have good A/C to keep room stable if you need it)