If anyone does not know, the constant turning on and turning on of a computer or laptop can have a negative impact on the operability of the “iron” components installed in them, since this may cause power surges that damage the equipment. But what if the computer is required for everyday tasks or at certain intervals, and it is not recommended to turn it off? For this, the so-called sleep and hibernation modes are provided. About how to configure hibernation or hibernation, and which parameters are most preferable, we will discuss further. We will dwell separately on possible problems associated with setting particular options. But first, let's see what the fundamental difference between the modes themselves is.
Sleep and hibernation: what's the difference?
Hibernation is known to most users, since the first-born in the line of Windows operating systems, which were versions 95 and 98.
Only in them the dream was originally designed only so that the cathode ray tubes of the monitors did not burn out, and screensavers or so-called screensavers were used as the main tool for falling asleep. Over time, sleep became necessary so that the "iron" equipment did not wear out, which could be affected by the same power surges, overheating, etc. Hibernation appeared relatively recently (only in Windows Vista) and was a curiosity to many then.
What is the difference between ordinary sleep and hibernation? And the fact is that when you enter sleep mode on the computer, only those components that do not take part in maintaining the operability of the currently active programs are de-energized, and when using hibernation, the power is turned off for all equipment. Saving data of running applications is performed in a special hyberfil.sys file, which is located in the system partition and can take up a lot of space on the hard disk.
Basic Windows Sleep Settings
Now directly about the main parameters of both modes. You can access them through the "Control Panel" in the power section. In the case of laptops on which special batteries are installed, the sleep mode setting in Windows 7 or in any other system can be accessed through the PCM menu on the battery icon in the system tray. What is most interesting: in the menu itself there are items for adjusting the screen brightness and power management, but choosing each of them leads the user to the same section. In this case, it doesn’t matter.
First of all, pay attention to the options of the power button (an item in the menu on the left). In the main parameters, you can select several options for action (including sleep). When switching to currently unavailable options using the appropriate link, you can additionally set the lock and display the transition point to sleep mode in the start menu.
Additional features for laptops
For laptops, you can select additional options in the sleep mode setting. Firstly, different or the same parameters can be set for both mains and battery operation.
Secondly, you can configure the actions performed by the system when the lid is closed (you can access these settings through the main menu in the power section itself). So, for example, if you set the sleep mode when closing the lid, the laptop will “fall asleep” on its own.
Sleep and wake settings
Along the way, you should pay attention to the settings for turning off the display, where you can select a specific time period, after which the screen goes off automatically. To use such settings on modern laptop screens or modern monitors, by and large, it makes no sense. Basically, such parameters are set by office workers to hide everything that is displayed on the screen.
But if you go directly to the sleep mode setting item in Windows 10 or in systems below, you can access additional options that are not available in any other section (if you pay close attention to other parameters, it is easy to notice that most of them are duplicated) .
And here there are many interesting options regarding the management of many hardware and software components (hard drive, screen, USB devices, battery, network adapter, video card, access to multimedia functions and even control of the desktop design). Again, the sleep mode settings for laptops in this section are more diverse, but the point is to set the time intervals for disconnecting components, to enable or disable certain actions.
We should also say that very often you will notice an unauthorized waking up of a computer, for example, if you accidentally hooked a mouse. In order to avoid such situations, equipment that can affect the computer’s recovery from sleep mode must be configured accordingly.
It’s best to do this through the “Device Manager”, where on the power management tab you need to activate the prohibition item to wake the computer from sleep mode.
Hibernation management
Finally, let's look at setting the sleep mode from the point of view of the need to use hibernation. In some cases, it is recommended to replace it with ordinary sleep, which is especially true for computer systems with small volumes of hard drives. A hibernation file, which takes up a lot of space in the system partition, cannot be deleted manually (no access rights at the administrator level or programs for unlocking will help). You can get rid of it only in one way, which consists in completely turning off hibernation. To do this through the command line, called on behalf of the administrator, by performing the combination powercfg –h off. When you reboot, the file will be deleted automatically.
Possible problems with the installed parameters
It remains to say a few words about possible problems that may arise after the installation of certain options of sleep mode. It is often recommended that you immediately deactivate the quick start, if possible, do not use passwords, do not disable the hard drive or USB ports, etc. Very often, these actions are used as additional solutions even if some malfunctions of the installed equipment are fixed. Among other things, you can change the sleep or hibernation settings through the registry or group policies if they turn out to be inaccessible to the selected scheme, but the methods described above are simpler for the average user.