Making Windows 7 Desktops Hibernate Like Laptops

[Aminka Ozmun]

Hi, Everyone,

Just got my new Windows 7 64-Bit Pro desktop last month, but I noticed that its hibernation feature doesn't function like my laptop!

What's worse, tech support tells me that given my hardware (apparently, it's a motherboard issue), it's actually impossible to configure my desktop's hibernation to behave like it does on my laptop!

So, two questions, please:

1. How can I get my desktop to hibernate like my laptop? That is, have it save my session to disk and shut off completely, resuming only when I power it on again (IOW, I do not want "hybrid sleep")??

2. Why did Microsoft think to do things this way?? Why take away such behavior for desktops -- it's obviously something programmed into Windows 7 already; why have hibernate disabled for desktops, replaced with hybrid sleep??


Please note that I am not interested in turning off my mouse and keyboard -- I do like using "sleep" when I'm on the computer all day! It's just that when I expect to not use my machine for another whole day I'd like to save my session but have the desktop off, drawing absolutely no power (and, more to the point, not have vibrations wake up the computer)....

Thanks in advance for any advice!

 

[DeaconFrost]

Shutting off your desktop completely for a day or so won't hurt your computer at all, and will save on your power bill. Most of us completely power off our towers, even if we won't be using them until the next day. Besides, if the system was built properly, a fresh boot won't take much longer, if any, than resuming from hibernation.

That being said, this isn't an issue to be blaming Microsoft for. I know that's the typical practice...but the problem, if any, lies with your motherboard's BIOS and how the power options are set, or what options are available. Microsoft can only work with the hardware options it is given. I would read through your motherboard manual to find out what's possible and what's not.

 

[Aminka Ozmun]

Thanks, DeaconFrost! So tech support is right that my Asus P8P67 Deluxe motherboard doesn't allow for the kind of laptop-like hibernation I want....

I'm not averse at all to shutting down completely -- I want to, in fact; it's just nice not having to reopen all my applications and files! As for faulting Microsoft, it's my understanding that previous versions of Windows did allow for laptop-like hibernation on desktops...but I guess that's really a matter of the motherboards, as you say!

 

[DeaconFrost]

I don't know for sure, but it is certainly possible that your motherboard doesn't offer the proper mode for hibernation. Hopefully someone who has that board can comment for sure.

I'm a bad one to speak on the various modes of sleep and hibernate, because I don't use them....but I do know the hardware itself has to be capable, or else those options won't be available to Windows.

 

[bobkn]

Thanks, DeaconFrost! So tech support is right that my Asus P8P67 Deluxe motherboard doesn't allow for the kind of laptop-like hibernation I want....

I'm not averse at all to shutting down completely -- I want to, in fact; it's just nice not having to reopen all my applications and files! As for faulting Microsoft, it's my understanding that previous versions of Windows did allow for laptop-like hibernation on desktops...but I guess that's really a matter of the motherboards, as you say!

I don't have a P8P67, but my P8Z68-V Pro supports S3 sleep. In that mode, the PC is in a low-power state that preserves the contents of RAM. When I wake it up, it wakes in a few seconds. There are some overclocking settings that may interfere with S3 sleep, but basically it works. I haven't tried full hibernation. I've disabled it, as my boot drive is a 120 GB SSD, and I don't want to keep a 16GB image of my RAM on it.

Windows 7 still allows S3 sleep and hibernation on desktop PCs. Neither is guaranteed to work with your hardware, though.

I once had an Abit motherboard with an X38 chipset. It wouldn't wake from sleep if any overclocking at all was used.

 

[WarwickW]

I don't see how the ability to hibernate can depend on the bios settings/motherboard. As long as the system can do a soft power down (are there any motherboards that cannot these days?) you should be able to do a hibernate.
I have w7 pro 64 bit and some months ago I researched enabling Hibernate. I ended up with Hibernate as the default shutdown option and all the other options available via the arrowhead drop-down list. This suits me as I almost always Hibernate rather than shutdown as I usually have several things going at a time and want to pick up where I left off.

I will see if I can find out what I did and if so I will post it here.

I hope you are still looking as it is over a year since the last post to this thread.