Hibernating for Maximum Power Savings In Windows XP


Hibernation is a way of shutting down your computer without shutting down the operating system. Hibernation is a choice on a lot of systems, even if they’re or else Advanced Power Management (APM) nor ACPI-compliant. When you get sleep, Windows XP copies everything in memory to disk and then powers down all parts of your computer. When you come out from hibernation (by pressing your computer’s power button), the memory image that was copied to disk is restored, and you’re ready to go back to work.

Hibernation saves time because it relieves Windows of all the housekeeping chores it would normally perform during shutdown and restart. Instead of having to close files on shutdown, redetect hardware, reconstitute the hardware-specific sections of your registry, reload drivers, and restart programs, the operating system simply saves and restores the state of your computer.

Because hibernation puts your work into nonvolatile storage, it’s a safer way to reduce power during periods of inactivity than standby. If you experience a power failure while your computer is hibernating, you won’t lose anything because your computer’s memory has been copied to disk. On the other hand, hibernation requires an amount of free disk space equivalent to the amount of your computer’s random access memory. If you have a 128-MB system, for example, you need 128 MB of free disk space to hibernate. Moreover, it takes longer to emerge from hibernation than to come off standby, because the operating system has to restore data from disk.

To configure your system for hibernation, in the Power Options Properties dialog box, click the Hibernate tab and select Enable Hibernation.

You can configure other hibernation options to:

● Set an inactivity time limit to automatically switch to hibernation (Power Schemes tab).

● Assign a button on the computer to switch the computer to hibernation (Advanced tab).

● Need a password to resume from hibernation (Advanced tab; even though the check box states only standby, it affects appearance from hibernation also).

To hibernate manually, use either of these methods:

● Press the button on your computer or keyboard (for example, the power button or sleep button) that you’ve configured to hibernate.

● On the Start menu, select Turn Off Computer. In the window that shows—here’s the tricky part—hold down the Shift key. The Stand By button modify to Hibernate; click it before releasing Shift and the computer will hibernate quite than enter standby mode. (If your computer doesn’t support standby, then the button always shows as Hibernate, and you won’t require pressing the Shift key.)