Hibernate vs Sleep in Windows Vista

Hello All,

For those who have Vista please give your input and feedback on this subject matter.

I have seen that in Vista the option to shut down is not given in front...you have to click a side arrow to do it.

Which mode is best for conserving battery power if say I just close the lid? Can anyone clarify the advantages of each mode, and when one should use them (e.g to get best battery life)?

I believe there is sleep, hibernate, stand by, shut down...

Thanks in advance

 

Hibernate is terrible in Vista ... takes forever to come back up. Also, if you have fingerprint security, it will make you reapply your print and go through the whole "fresh boot" rigormorall. Sleep isn't too bad, though.

 

Offbase,

I think you may have peculiarities that apply to a subsegment of users(due to computer speed variances).

Hibernate for me, in Vista is fast. And using fingerprint security on hibernate is an option that is independent of a power-on boot. I have mine set for a fingerprint swipe on both boot and hibernate. I can easily set the unit to require only a swipe on power-on boot, and no swipe on wake from hibernate or sleep.

Maybe I'm just lucky, but hibernate works for me just as fast, if not faster than XP SP2. And it's even faster now with the MS updates released last week.

vaio2k7,

You can set the default for shutdown in your advanced power options, as well as the computer's reaction to lid closure. Hibernate consumes zero power. Sleep consumes a small amount of power to maintain memory and a ready motherboard/keyboard for instant wake on input.

 

SP, thanks, I'll check out the security settings. Hibernate is slow to resume though on a D630 with a T7300 C2D (Santa Rosa), 7300 rpm drive and 2 gb of ram (my configuration)? I think I'd be in the upper "subsegment", actually.

 

Basically I use sleep when I am just leaving my notebook for a few minutes to several hours(overnight). I hardly use hibernate but I use it whenever there is a time when I don't know when I will be returning to the notebook and it isn't going to be plugged in, for instance when I am traveling or just carrying the notebook around with me.

Sleep is very quick but doesn't save as much battery power as hibernate will. Hibernate is a alot slower than sleep but with hibernate the notebook is practically off and therefore you can save alot more battery power.

So in the end you can't have it both ways...

 

SP Forsythe,

Thanks. Looks like I should make my settings so that upon closing of the lid the computer goes into hibernate (if on battery). If plugged in, sleep is fine.

Thanks again.

 

I'll post my hibernate and wake time a little later. Right now I am formatting a new 500 gig external hard drive and I don't want to interrupt with a hibernation right now. But without testing I guesstimate around 25-30 seconds to hibernate and around 20-25 seconds to wake from hibernate to usable state, including finger swipe.

Edit: I tested, and I was a bit off. 55 seconds from the moment I hit the off button, until the lights extinguish. And 45 seconds to wake from hibernation, to usable state(including a login fingerprint scan).

 

I have standby for when I close the lid. Through out the day, it's on standby. It's on Hibernate if I know for sure i'm not gonna use it for a while. (overnight) Since Hibernate uses the harddrive, you'll actually use MORE power if you hibernate and unhibernate often between charges.

Hibernate though saves your data if you haven't already, which may be nice for the forgetful.

 

When I had vista I set it so it would sleep on lid close, hibernate on the suspend shortcut (Fn + key) and shutdown on powerbutton press.

I'd normally use sleep if I'm not sure if I'll use it in the next half hour, and if I need a fast resume. Hibernate/shutdown (depending on whether I want a fast poweroff or a fast poweron) for going between classes. Shutdown is used for when I sleep at night and I don't need to be running some maintenance task or downloading stuff.

Hibernation speed depends on how much RAM you have, since it saves all that info onto your hard drive. So, if you have 512MB ram (minimum for vista I think) then you'll have a fast hibernate. But if you have 2GB ram... Well. That might take a minute or two.

 

yin,

RAM amount is but one factor, and a minor one if you have a fast bus, dual channel, fast HDD, and low RAM utilization at hibernate. I have two gig, and it sure doesn't take a "minute or two".

 

Suppose I set my "close lid" power settings to sleep when plugged in and "hibernate" when on battery. What happens (or at least, what is Vista thinking) when I close the lid on AC power, and then later unplug it and leave? In that vein, what if my settings are on sleep and shut down?

 

This is interesting. I never thought of what would happen when you do this. My settings are that when I close the lid while plugged in, it goes to sleep. I would expect that if I did so, and then unplugged the AC adapter, it should go into hibernate mode within seconds.

You could test this by doing the above, then seeing how long it takes to wake up. If your setting is shut down when you close the lid on battery, I would assume Vista will shut down your computer when you pull the plug while your lid is closed.

 

i prefer sleep for under 10 hours of use; i have a t7300 with 3gb of ram and going to and coming from hibernate takes around 45-60 seconds, which is slow. I can shutdown and restart quicker than that.

with vista sleep, the only thing powered is the ram..around 3v..so you lose around 10% of batt over a 24 hr period...sleep is super quick..less than 2 seconds coming into and out of sleep

so i never use hibernate since shutting down is much quicker