Notebook power: hibernate, sleep, or ???

More and more people are going toward notebook computers these days, it seems. With this movement comes new challenges and options that people need to be aware of. One of the most frequently misunderstood facets of notebook computing is how to tell the computer to shutdown or stop work. Here are a couple tips:

• Sleep mode (standby on some computers) will park the hard drive (stop spinning) and turn off the display, fans and other larger consumers of power. The system "session" is saved (open docs and all) and will fire up immediately the next time the computer turns on. Data is retained in standard system memory (RAM), which requires a small amount of power consumption. You know your computer is in sleep/standby by the intermittant "glowing" (usually amber color) of the power light.




• Hibernate mode will do exactly the same thing, but instead of keeping the session in internal RAM and continuing to use power, it actually saves the data from RAM off to a file on the hard drive, and shuts down power to all system components. It does require an extra 5-10 seconds on startup because the computer does actually need to retrieve this data from the hard drive, and to load Windows.




• So, the difference probably depends on how much you'll be starting up and shutting down. I myself prefer the zero-battery-drain so I always train my notebooks to use hibernate by default.




• Another thing to think about (and that I always train on my notebooks) is the behavior when the power button is pressed, and when the lid is closed. These settings are in Control Panel - Power Management in Windows. I usually have the computer shut down when the power button is pressed, and to hibernate when the lid is closed. Then, when I'm done working I usually just shut the lid and know my battery will not run down and my session will be saved exactly where I am.



• If you're finding that your computer is depleting its battery and/or is losing the place where you were, you're probably using sleep/standby. Consider switching to hibernate.