Is it better to leave laptop on 'hibernate' or 'sleep' in Windows 7 HP

rameshiyer · 12 Jan 2012

Hi,

I have been using a Win'7 HP (64-bit) based Acer notebook for sometime. Recently, I noticed that the battery was draining faster than earlier. After I read some posts on the web, I changed the power options to 'hibernate' intead of 'sleep' when the lid is closed, as it seems hibernate consumes less battery than 'sleep' mode. However, I noticed that when the system comes back to life from hibernate, it seems to consume more power, than when the system resumes from 'sleep' mode.
Can someone advise me on whether I should retain the 'hibernate' or revert to 'sleep' mode to have better battery life / backup ?

Thanks,

Ramesh

IggyAZ · 12 Jan 2012

Use Hibernation when you are not going to use the computer for a few hours or more.

Hibernate takes a snapshot of everything you got on RAM (including any windows and apps running) and saves it to a special hard disk file and then shuts the computer down, when you resume from hibernation the computer boots a bit faster than a normal power up bootup. This method does not consume any power while the computer is off.

Use Sleep Mode when you are just leaving the computer for a few minutes or hours, like at lunchtime or something like that.

Sleep, basically shuts your computer down except some components like RAM, so the next time you resume, it will boot almost in an instant. However, this method consumes battery power.

Your battery may be starting to have a broblem also.

rameshiyer · 12 Jan 2012

Thanks. I too read about it as you mentioned. Hence, had changed default setting from 'sleep' to 'hibernate' but thought the system took longer to boot up after resuming from 'hibernate' mode, so it consumes more power.

I usually shutdown my system when I know I will be away for a few hours. So, will change the setting to 'sleep' which will help me resume my work after brief breaks. My notebook is less than one year old, so I feel the battery may not have worn out as yet. Will observe for sometime and then take a call whether to have battery replaced.