Hibernate vs stand by vs shut down

This Side Up · 1 Aug 2009 at 09:06

Hi guys,

I was wondering what you lot use in Windows XP/Vista when you no longer need your PC for a period of time (e.g. a few hours, over night etc).

I have recently started to use the stand by function on my PC a lot, it makes it quicker to get back into things. I am fully aware of the power consumption in stand by mode.

Also, what I can't seem to decide, is which is best for me - stand by or hibernate? Part of me thinks I am missing a trick or two by using stand by instead of hibernate.

This Side Up · 1 Aug 2009 at 09:14

Is that what you use?

This Side Up · 1 Aug 2009 at 09:38

Do you manually enter sleep mode, or have Windows power management do it after a set period of time?

I have been toying with the idea of using sleep mode when my computer is inactive for a set period of time, and use hibernate for overnight/periods when it is off for a few days. I'd only use shutdown/restart to freshen everything up occasionally.

Is there any problems doing this, or is it A-OK?

This Side Up · 1 Aug 2009 at 11:36

I've been told it's peanuts...like 15watts or something.

Anyone else use hibernate instead of shut down?

This Side Up · 1 Aug 2009 at 12:31

Headrat, do you use S3 resume all the time (i.e. over night, etc)?

This Side Up · 1 Aug 2009 at 12:57

HEADRAT said:
Yep

I see. You don't ever hibernate it? I assume you retart it occasionally to keep everything fresh and running smooth?

This Side Up · 1 Aug 2009 at 13:21

I think that's what I'll start doing then. I have alwYs used hibernate previously as I was worried about power cuts...then I realised that I always close down all programmes before hibernating anyway, so I may as well sleep it.

Thanks for the insight, guys.

This Side Up · 1 Aug 2009 at 14:28

S3 is enabled in the bios. Under power management normally.

On my pc, ismack the keyboard and it wakes up, same for hibernate. Hibernate is, I believe, s4 suspend, and is software based(???)

most modern motherboards support s1+s3 by default. Hibernate needs to be turned on on XP.

This Side Up · 1 Aug 2009 at 14:28

Burnsy2023 said:
I use sleep as well but I don't even bother closing programs. It only gets a restart for updates, pretty much the same as the Mac.

Don you worry about power cuts?

This Side Up · 1 Aug 2009 at 14:33

Does frequent power cuts damage anything?

This Side Up · 1 Aug 2009 at 15:54

pffft

This Side Up · 2 Aug 2009 at 09:54

I was going to say: cellotape over the led

This Side Up · 2 Aug 2009 at 21:45

Quick Q:

For those who said sleep mode - do you use sleep mode if you are not going to use the pc for long periods (i.e. 12+hrs)??

This Side Up · 4 Aug 2009 at 20:13

Hmmm.

I have recently updated my Nvidia graphics drivers before making this thread, and unbeknown to me, SLI wasn't enabled.

Since enabling SLI, windows cannot resume from either sleep or hibernate without BSODing or giving me an infinate loop problem.

I have searched the web, downloaded different drivers (and used driver cleaner etc), downloaded various fixes. All to no avail.

As far as I can see, my system cannot sleep/hibernate with SLI enabled.

What a ballache. Any advice?