Differences Between Sleep Mode / Hibernation / Power off
While a computer may look the same in "Sleep mode" and after you've pressed the power button, these states are actually quite different. Here is a short and sweet guide about the different inactive states your computer can enter.
- Shut Down: This is the power-off state most of us are familiar with. When you shut down your PC, all your open programs close and the PC shuts down your operating system. A PC that’s shut down uses almost no power. However, when you want to use your PC again, you’ll have to turn it on and go through the typical boot-up process, waiting for your hardware to initialize and startup programs to load. Depending on your system, this can take anywhere from a few seconds to a few minutes.
- Sleep: In sleep mode, the PC enters a low-power state. The PC’s state is kept in memory, but other parts of the PC are shut down and won’t use any power. When you turn on the PC, it snaps back to life quickly—you won’t have to wait for it to boot up. Everything will be right where you left of, including running apps and open documents.
- Hibernate: Your PC saves its current state to your hard drive, essentially dumping the contents of its memory to a file. When you boot up the PC, it loads the previous state from your hard drive back to memory. This allows you to save your computer’s state, including all your open programs and data, and come back to it later. It takes longer to resume from hibernate than sleep, but hibernate uses much less power than sleep. A computer that’s hibernating uses about the same amount of power as a computer that’s shut down.
Here's some scenarios in which you'd use each.
- When To Sleep: Sleep is particularly useful if you’re stepping away from your laptop for a small amount of time. You can put your PC to sleep to save electricity and battery power. When you need to use your PC again, you can resume from where you left off in just a few seconds. Your computer will always be ready to use when you need it. Sleep isn’t so good if you’re planning to be away from the PC for extended periods, as the battery will eventually run down.
- When To Hibernate: Hibernate saves more power than sleep. If you won’t be using your PC for a while—say, if you’re going to sleep for the night—you may want to hibernate your computer to save electricity and battery power. Hibernate is slower to resume from than sleep. If you’re hibernating or shutting down your PC every time you step away from it throughout the day, you may be wasting a lot of time waiting for it.
- When To Shut Down: Most computers will resume from hibernate faster than from a full shut down state, so you’re probably better off hibernating your laptop instead of shutting it down. However, some PCs or software may not work properly when resuming from hibernate, in which case you’ll want to shut down your computer instead. It’s also a good idea to shut down (or at least restart) your PC occasionally. Most Windows users have noticed that Windows needs an occasional reboot. But most of the time, hibernate is fine.
Related Articles
No Internet After a Power Outage? Here’s What You Should Do
Aside from strong winds and flooding, thunderstorms also cause unexpected power outages. This could be a result of fallen trees and power lines. In some places, outages could also be because power suppliers decide to shutdown supply to avoid damages ...
OneDrive for Business Overview
Welcome to the wonderful world of OneDrive for Business Designed for business—access, share, and collaborate on all your files from anywhere. The real power behind OneDrive for Business is that it gives employees a place to store files and work on ...
How To: Office 365 Explained
Delve - Available Use Delve to manage your Microsoft 365 profile, and to discover and organize the information that's likely to be most interesting to you right now - across Microsoft 365. Learn Delve - Microsoft Excel - Available Create, ...
Troubleshooting Headset / Audio Issues
Having trouble with your headset or microphone is an unfortunately common occurrence. To help resolve these issues, it is first important to know where the problem is. Is it one app in particular, or everything? This can help support know how best to ...
10 Useful Keyboard Shortcuts
Using keyboard shortcuts can greatly increase your productivity, reduce repetitive strain, and help keep you focused. For example, to copy text, you can highlight text and press the Ctrl+C shortcut. The shortcut is faster than moving your hands from ...