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Tech Tips / Windows XP / Performance Monitoring and Optimization

Conserve energy with these power states

Standby and Hibernation are two power states in which computers use less electricity. When the computer enters Standby mode, the machine shuts off the monitor and hard disks and uses minimal power to keep other devices running, such as the motherboard and memory.

But you should be careful when using Standby because it doesn't save the memory content. A power failure during Standby would cause the loss of all unsaved data. The advantage to Standby is that the computer awakens quickly from this state.

Hibernation is different from Standby. If you experience a power failure, you won't lose any data when the computer is in Hibernation. The machine saves the complete memory content to the hard disk (in the Hiberfil.sys file) and completely turns off the power. When you restart the computer, it reads the Hiberfil.sys file and restores your desktop exactly as you left it. Restoring the computer from Hibernation takes more time than Standby. The exact time depends on the amount of memory you have in your computer.

You can put your computer into Standby or Hibernation using either the Start menu or Task Manager. From the Start menu, select Turn Off Computer. A dialog box will present you with three options: Stand By, Turn Off, and Restart. If you want to hibernate, press the [Shift] key, and the Hibernate option will replace Stand By in the dialog box. Putting the computer in any power state is also possible from the Task Manager by using the Shut Down menu.