Forum Home
Press F1
Thread ID: 80870	2007-07-07 08:56:00	Hibernating or not	heaton (3697)	Press F1

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
566799	2007-07-07 08:56:00	Hi everybody, Someone once told me that it is not a good idea to put your PC into hibernation instead of shutting down. True or False ?? I have windows XP and usually shut down last thing at night, going out for the day, or going on holiday.	heaton (3697)
566800	2007-07-07 09:05:00	I wouldn't have thought that there was anything wrong with it other than you might not want to pay for the additional power being used when your away for a week or so on holiday. Hibernating shouldn't use that much power though. XP should be fine to be left operational 24/7.	winmacguy (3367)
566801	2007-07-07 12:20:00	I wouldn't have thought that there was anything wrong with it other than you might not want to pay for the additional power being used when your away for a week or so on holiday. Hibernating shouldn't use that much power though. XP should be fine to be left operational 24/7.:confused: :confused: Hibernating uses exactly the same amount of power as shutting down. You can hibernate the PC, unplug it, put it in your car, drive to the other end of the country, take it out of your car, plug it back in, turn it on, and everything will be where it was when you hibernated :D lol I hibernate all the time. Never shut-down, just do the occasional restart (really the only difference between a shut-down and hibernating is that hibernating doesn't involve the OS restart in between. Everything that was running when you hibernate will still be running when you start up again.) Stand-by, however, does use power. But that's another topic altogether :) Mike.	Mike (15)
566802	2007-07-07 12:21:00	The main reason I hibernate instead of shutting down is that it is much faster booting from hibernation (nothing needs to be loaded as everything is just copied from HDD to RAM and away we go). I get a 20-30 second restart from hibernation, and a 2-3 minute restart after being shut-down. Mike.	Mike (15)
566803	2007-07-07 12:32:00	I leave my machine on Sleep (hibernate) mode when not in use and only restart after a software or security update if required. Restarting or just starting is not a problem as it only takes about 30 seconds.	winmacguy (3367)
566804	2007-07-07 22:21:00	Hi everybody, Someone once told me that it is not a good idea to put your PC into hibernation instead of shutting down . True or False ?? From the expert: Hibernate writes the RAM to the HDD then powers off . It's Standby that would screw up is powered off at the wall, not hibernate . But both hibernate and standby modes are fickle at best and are optimised for laptop hardware, even then a percentage end up not working reliably or dying while asleep . On desktop hardware a higher percentage do not work reliably . The modes rely on Windows updates not screwing with the configuration and the drivers playing nicely with all hardware, programs and Windows . Seldom happens . My present Vista desktops work, but I don't expect it to last (and I never use it for the sake of the reliability I require anyway) . My present laptop also works . But the previous 12 or so PC's largely never worked, or were that unstable after using the modes it simply was not worth it . Windows desktop hardware does not always support Standby and Hibernate, the modes were apparently primarily designed for laptop hardware . In the last few (actually now 17 desktop PC's) it has been reliable in only 3, yet all of the last 4 laptops had no problems . I have seen a major PC manufacturer support tech comment re the above, that the mode is only (almost) 100% supported in laptop hardware and drivers, which mirrors my experience . When it works, it works . When it doesn't, it's a PITA . Standby and Hibernation modes are really only optimised for Laptop hardware . Not always successfully then either If it works OK and reliably on desktop hardware, thats fine and good . If it doesn't then often nothing can be done, some hardware is just not designed to reliably support it . My experience is that a lot of software also runs somewhat unreliably after a standby or hibernation resume, so I simply avoid both in the inetrests of reliability .	FoxyMX (5)
1