How long is too long to go without restarting your iBook?

I’ve had my Powerbook for 3.5 years and have probably rebooted about a dozen times. I only reboot if a system update requires it or if the memory seems to be clogged up. This is rare, and it is still running fine.

If you are worried you are going to damage your hardware doing that, you’re not. There is some disagreement as to whether it’s better to leave your computer running constantly and restarting it occasionally or to turn it off regularly. Putting it to sleep is about the same for your hardware as turning it off for a while. Doing this, however, does not allow your memory to be refreshed which will occassionally be necessary but only when you feel it would be helpful. You are not hurting you hardware or software doing this, you might just notice some performance issues that will make you want to reboot after a while. For my part, I normally don’t have to reboot between updates that make me.

Its a courteous gesture to your operating system to restart every now and then. How often depends on how much you use your computer and what you’re doing.

It purges all kinds a misc. things that can build up in the system over use (virtual memory, etc.). It can also sort out all kinds of bugs you may be experiencing.

So I’d say every few weeks for you.

I only reboot when software updates require it! My computer is 5 years old and still going strong!

Yeah there’s nothing wrong with not restarting, but I like to reboot once a month or so just in case, for a ‘fresh start’. Usually something comes up (software update or general quirkiness) that does this for me anyways.