Home computer use: Windows 7 sleep modes

As a computer user, I’m constantly self-tutoring. The tutor shares about Windows 7 sleep modes.

I find my Windows 7 computer sometimes a bit groggy after it’s been idle for a while. This morning I began investigating it, and learned about sleep, hibernate, and hybrid sleep.

When a Windows 7 computer is left idle, it likely goes to sleep to save energy (and wear). How deep its sleep is determined by power options. Apparently, a computer can sleep, hibernate or hybrid sleep. The way I understand the three:

  • Sleep: open documents stored to RAM, but most processes suspended until user returns.
  • Hibernate: open documents stored to disk, then computer shuts off: power to RAM ceases.
  • Hybrid sleep: idle computer stores open documents to disk. Theoretically, the open documents are meant to be kept in RAM as well.

When a computer goes into hibernation, but is awakened, the previous state must be loaded from disk to RAM before it’s ready. This extra step can take extra time, apparently. However, hibernation offers extra protection against document loss due to power loss.

HTH:)

Source:

www.tomshardware.com

www.howtogeek.com

answers.microsoft.com

Jack of Oracle Tutoring by Jack and Diane, Campbell River, BC.

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