Hibernation, standby, sleep and Suspend

[TheShadow]

Hibernation, standby, sleep and Suspend

I must admit to getting confused by the proliferation of terms describing a timed, progressive powering down within the various OS's. These can vary from laptop to desktop additionally (and for a laptop vary once again depending on whether you are mains or battery powered).

There appears to be considerations for screen, hard-disk, phones and faxes, network and power-supply. I must admit that I have no idea whether the basic premise is to save power, wear and tear, screen phosphor (or all of these). Some are settable, some are automatic and some are selectable/executable.....and forall I know, some are machine-specific.


Of course there are the esoteric options in the BIOS and the options within Windows (various) plus add-on programs and tweakui's that can do things miraculous. With my very modern set-up I still get weird messages on coming out of hibernation.

Anyone have a straightforward Noddy Guide (or a URL for one)?

[rustle]

As with 99% of things IT, the answer is the easy bit -- it is getting the question right that's difficult...

What are you trying to do, on what, and what happens when you do it?

[TheShadow]

I work on a laptop and desktop simultaneously, due to the excessive/obsessive amount of cross-reference, research and searching (composing articles, manuals, writing letters, constructing graphics, corresponding etc). If I get bogged down for too long on one thing, I like to let the other machine "go to sleep". It was my understanding that this could be a gradated process (hard disk, monitor, hibernation, power supply closes down etc). I guess that I could include a scanner and laserjet printer in that subsidence process.

Unfortunately it may be the case that the file that I'm working on (or rather ONE or TWO or THREE of the files or programs that I'm working on might reside on the machine not actually in use - across the network), so any such shutdown, gradated or not becomes impractical. About the only power-saving that I achieve is the desktop or laptop monitor shuts down after the set period and when I catch a break, I can put both of them into apparent hibernation (via SUSPEND on the laptop and the SLEEP key on the MS Office keyboard). At a much later stage the desktop' sleep becomes hibernation (when the power supply goes bye-bye).

With a better understanding of the savings achieved (harddisk life, power, screen phosphor etc) and how best to configure, I might just be able to set it up in a likelier configuration.

[UNCTUOUS]

Link one (http://www.techrepublic.com/article.jhtml?id=r00620021115shu01.htm&fromtm=e064&_requestid=1454) TechRepublik's 3 page spread article on this subject says large savings available per computer - of hundreds of pounds per annum (based on 16hrs/24hr day being in standby.....and able to be awoken easily by fax, routine automated maint etc).

Hibernation is a total saving because you can power off completely and still resume at the same point.
They cite US$177 (left on continuously) versus US$27p.a. in standby (keyboard, modem, PCAnyWhere or fax wakeable).

Link two (http://www.microsoft.com/hwdev/tech/onnow/winpowmgmt.asp) = Microsoft White Paper on the subject.

You have to free register for access to most TecRepublik stuff.

[Blacksheep]

Power saving is a bit of a gimmick. I don't need any help with powering down etc. and the whole thing can be a bit of a nuisance. It is useful though, for the screen to go dark if you close the lid and come back by itself as soon as you open it again. The other need is for when you're on battery, totally absorbed in what you're doing, and the battery runs down. A gradual power down can help save the file you're working on before the computer stops dead...

**************************
Through difficulties to the cinema

[gofer]

If you are running W2000 just pressing the off button and powering off - as opposed to shutting down or whatever via the screen - works very quickly and just fine.

The only advantage in going via the Hibernation or Stand By logic - comes at restart time - especially when your start-up process is long and slow...

In stand-by mode a small amount of power is consumed - so in the end a laptop will run out of battery (mine takes 3 to 4 days but its decreasing with age of course). In hibernation mode the machine is really OFF, but triggerable by arriving activity.
:confused: me too :ok:

[CrashDive]

Looks like help is on the way - as MS / Bill Gates thinks it's confusing too, see: Microsoft's vision of the business PC (http://techupdate.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t481-s2134392,00.html)

Where the relevant snippet says: ..... Another set of ideas that Athens shares with the desktop telephone is that of an appliance that works at the moment you want it and doesn't consume resources when it doesn't.

Microsoft's research shows what we all know to be true -- that the different power management modes of sleep and suspend are subtle and confusing. Users want a computer that turns on and off immediately, the only two states that matter. There should be no latency between the two, and the state of the machine should be preserved.

Security from power outages is also very important to users, so Athens has to be able to put itself into the 'off' mode with state preserved even if the mains goes away.