If I hibernate my system all the time and hardly shuts down, does it pose any problem to my system or the harddisk?

 

nope but you tend use a lot of HDD space and waste energy

 

Then you put you computer in hibernate mode it is turned off. But the memory are saved on the HD. From what I have heard, do not know how valid it is. Only using hibernate mode over a long period may cause memory problems and make the computer unstable.

 

Then you put you computer in hibernate mode it is turned off. But the memory are saved on the HD. From what I have heard, do not know how valid it is. Only using hibernate mode over a long period may cause memory problems and make the computer unstable.

Yup!! computer tends to forget things, when memory is used always. Sometimes it gones insane (unstable in human's case)

I Know, I do.

 

the computer creates a snapshot of every program/service running at that moment when you hit Hibernate. It is saved in Hiberfil.sys in windows and in /root in linux as well. so it takes not much but 4-5gb of space. the size depends upon the size of ram.

 

Hibernation in itself doesn't cause any problems. The computer is turned off, there is no more risk in damage due to heating etc.
This is not the case with standby, where the computer sleeps, and still has voltage across the memory, this can produce heat and shorten the lifetime of the components.

However, if you have a system with badly written drivers, then these may not recover from hibernation (or standby) correctly.

For example, consider MPLAB IDE, the ICD2 drivers cannot handle hibernation. After each hibernation you must unplug the USB, and power, from the ICD2, then re-insert in order to ensure that the drivers are re-synchronised with the device.

 

The only situations I can see hibernation be of any use is with a laptop, and even then modern PCs boot fast enough that hibernation doesn't save you that much more time than a standard boot. Personally I leave mine in standby. They don't use that much power and it's paranoia I think to think that the energy used in standby could ever measurably shorten the life of a PC. Standy wakeup is seconds, hibernation is minute or more, full boot is only a bit longer than a hibernation boot. It's nice on a laptop because you can leave your working applications in their exact state while in a no power mode.

 

Having worked for an OEM, I have seen several machines damaged by heat generated in standby (often teir 1 equipment).
It is more common in laptops, especially if left on charge (as the heat generated by charging is added to the heat from the memory and processors in quite a small space, and not removed due to the fans not working), but not unknown in desktops.

Recently we came across a whole series of computers from a tier 1, which even in off mode, their power supplies were generating so much heat as to damage themselves. Without the fans running, they literally melted.

For me, using hibernate solves pre-cache delays. A full boot of my machine into windows including all the drivers for peripherals, can be 5 minutes (to the point of being quick enough to keep up with me, not just the login screen), from hibernate, around 40 seconds. I possibly have more peripherals than most though.

Consider getting a power meter and applying it to the machines that you use. In standby, they could use up to 50w when tuned, this heat is going to be going into the processor and memory keep-alives, and will not be being dissipated (barely any radiative dissipation, and there will be little convection).

 

Recently we came across a whole series of computers from a tier 1, which even in off mode, their power supplies were generating so much heat as to damage themselves. Without the fans running, they literally melted.

That's criminally stupid of whoever engineered it or decided to use the setup without proper air flow. Scarey to hear that kind of thing occurs.

All I can do is speak from personal experience, which is mostly limited to a handful of machines. Never had a problem with standby power. Given you work with a large enough pool of PCs failure is inevitable.

 

The trouble is, this particular machine were servers. They are designed to run in ~18 degrees C, and to be on.
The server room we had them in, was around 15C, cool enough. But, as we were not putting them into production yet, they were off, and in the equivalent mode of standby (they had been turned off by IPMI). The power supplies still had to produce power for the IPMI interface on the motherboard (the equiv to Wake On Lan in simplistic terms), and the processor/memory, so the power supply still heated up. However, because the MB was in a sleep state, the fans were all off.
The engineers that designed it, only tested it for when the machines were on. If they are off, they didn't think that the power supply produced power

The same but worse (quicker) will happen in hotter living rooms.

Also, with laptops, hibernation/standby is possibly worse than with desktops. It will bypass the initial disk check performed by the OS. Laptops are more likely to have errros introduced to their disks due to rough handling than workstations. (however if you just leave your laptop using power on a desk it isn't quite so bad, but might give you issues with the lifetime of your battery).

 

We have server dying due to heat..in our nominal temperature.
A lot of AC cooling have to provided to keep 'em happy