Off Topic questions on switching power supplies and flat panel displays

[TChesek@Epix.Net]

I am looking for opinions from engineers or higher level technicians. I have a greater chance of getting good information from this forum as opposed to a computer forum and this is the PC I use for my Ham hobby. I read on the internet that switching power supplies have minimum design loads to prevent failure. When my Dell 1800FP display is turned off 5 & 12 volts is still present from the power supply. Turning on/off the display occurs through a switch attached to the video interface board in the display itself, therefore it is a logic state change that fires up the display. Obviously there is loading to some degree on the power supply to maintain the off state but nowhere near the loads put on the supply to illuminate the screen and backlight. My question: Is it better to remove ac power completely when not using the display or leave the ac connected and just use the on/off button as most users would do, or letting the pc go into a powersave mode. Another question: with flat panel displays do you extend the life or minimize failure by running brightness and contrast at 80% vs. 100%? I pose these questions after having the power supply fail for an unknown reason and upon investigating come up with more questions than answers.

73 & tnx,
Tom k3tvc

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