Michael Koblic wrote:
Since Jim Wilkins mentioned Kill-A-Watt meter here some time ago it came
on sale at Lee Valley and I got me one. I spent an interesting hour
running around the house finding out what consumes electricity while
plugged in and what does not. What surprised me were the computers.

My most recent purchase (Compaq Presario) does this:

Turned off 2.1W
Booting 60W
On but quiet 46W
Asleep 5.8W
Hibernating 1.7W

My old computer also draws about 3W while supposedly switched off.

So the questions a
1) Why is the computer drawing any power at all when turned off?

It's endlessly polling itself, to see if you turned it on.

2) Why is the power drawn less when hibernating then when switched off?
3) What happens to a computer which is turned off and the plug is pulled?

Only the CR2032 cell keeping the BIOS settings, stored in CMOS, alive.

4) What happens with laptops? Do they draw power from their battery
continuously even when turned off?

and...

Why has this stupid Windows Live Mail program suddenly decided to type É
instead of a question mark ÉÉÉ