Sleep or off: which better?

guypdguypd Posts: 2,643
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My Lenovo PC is totally silent when it goes into sleep mode. Only sign of life is the flashing green on/off light. It led me to wonder: is sleeping the computer as good as, or better than, switching off? There's no reboot required, and it doesn't seem to use any energy at all.

Thoughts / facts I'm missing?
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Comments

  • call100call100 Posts: 7,264
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    Ahhh, the eternal debate with no definite answer that I can find. No doubt this thread will throw up the same amount of 'experts' with as many differing views. Even when powered off it uses about 0.3 watts unless unplugged apparently.
    I tend to sleep it when leaving it during the day and power off at night. No idea which is best for the PC as there is little consensus on the net...
  • noise747noise747 Posts: 30,692
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    What do you mean by better? My desktop is put into sleep mode when I am not using it, sure it uses a little bit of power, but nothing to worry about. The only time I turn it off is when I am not going to use it for a few days. i do a restart now and again because windows 8 seems to go haywire if you don't.

    My laptop is a different thing, I normally put that in hibernate mode, because that don't use any power and still boot up pretty quick. but my Laptop uses Mint linux, also the battery is no good.
  • flagpoleflagpole Posts: 44,641
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    Never switch mine off.
  • zx50zx50 Posts: 91,227
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    I always put mine to sleep. It saves having to wait for the laptop to boot from the start to the desktop. I've never switched it off for months now. It's plugged into the mains, so no chance of it losing power completely.
  • Apprentice 2 SAApprentice 2 SA Posts: 2,337
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    I sleep it during the day and hibernate at night.
  • tealadytealady Posts: 26,262
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    I sleep it during the day and hibernate at night.
    Buy do you ever use it?!
  • guypdguypd Posts: 2,643
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    noise747 wrote: »
    What do you mean by better?


    Longevity of hard drive and such like. The general life / health of the computer.
  • Apprentice 2 SAApprentice 2 SA Posts: 2,337
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    tealady wrote: »
    Buy do you ever use it?!

    LOL, I have this image now of someone bringing their computer out of hibernation in the morning just to sleep it for the day!
  • diablodiablo Posts: 8,300
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    guypd wrote: »
    Longevity of hard drive and such like. The general life / health of the computer.

    They certainly used to say that drives lasted longer if they were kept going continuously but I'm not sure that is the case today.

    Anyway, sleep mode should power off the disk after a set time.

    I use the sleep function plus hibernate on my laptop which is Windows 7. My desktop PC has Windows 8 (unfortunately) so I shut it down fully - one of the few advantages of W8 is the quick start time. :)
  • tealadytealady Posts: 26,262
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    I've just done a quick test on a laptop on w8
    30w powered normal use
    10-11 w sleep
    10w hibernate
    Gets up to 49w when coming out of sleep/hibernate to normal use.
  • BrokenArrowBrokenArrow Posts: 21,665
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    tealady wrote: »
    I've just done a quick test on a laptop on w8
    30w powered normal use
    10-11 w sleep
    10w hibernate
    Gets up to 49w when coming out of sleep/hibernate to normal use.

    It can't use 10W in sleep or Hibernate.

    Hibernate mode is completely turned off and so uses 0 watts.

    I use sleep mode on my laptop. Boots up in seconds.
  • cnbcwatchercnbcwatcher Posts: 56,681
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    I always turn my Macs off at night. I think they work better if I do that. I also turn them off if I'm travelling. The rest of the time they're either in use or in sleep mode.
  • wavy-davywavy-davy Posts: 7,122
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    call100 wrote: »
    I tend to sleep it when leaving it during the day and power off at night.

    Same here, except I tend to be lazy and turn off the power at night when in sleep mode (Windows 7). It throws up the warning screen on reboot the next morning but doesn't seem to do any harm.
  • wavy-davywavy-davy Posts: 7,122
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    tealady wrote: »
    I've just done a quick test on a laptop on w8
    30w powered normal use
    10-11 w sleep
    10w hibernate
    Gets up to 49w when coming out of sleep/hibernate to normal use.
    My 4 year old 19 inch Dell Inspiron laptop running W7 uses 0.5 watts in sleep mode and 15 watts when it's on.. :confused:
  • s2ks2k Posts: 7,410
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    No point in me using sleep mode since it only takes a few seconds to boot anyway. In fact, prior to me adding a 2nd disk it used to actually take about the same time for the monitor to adjust than it did for the Windows logon box to appear. :)
  • JustinThePubJustinThePub Posts: 3,521
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    I always turn my Macs off at night. I think they work better if I do that. I also turn them off if I'm travelling. The rest of the time they're either in use or in sleep mode.

    I never turn my Macs off. Sometimes I shut the lid on my macbook to make it easier to carry (which puts it to sleep) and my iMac has been on since I bough it a few years ago.
  • tealadytealady Posts: 26,262
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    It can't use 10W in sleep or Hibernate.

    Hibernate mode is completely turned off and so uses 0 watts.

    I use sleep mode on my laptop. Boots up in seconds.
    Well, those were the figures from the power meter when plugged into the mains.
    When the laptop is hibernating and not plugged in, it still uses power, since one of the lights is on.
  • diablodiablo Posts: 8,300
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    tealady wrote: »
    Well, those were the figures from the power meter when plugged into the mains.
    When the laptop is hibernating and not plugged in, it still uses power, since one of the lights is on.

    It can take a few minutes for it to go into hibernate mode. All the lights should go off eventually.

    It is storing an image of the memory on the hard drive and then shuts off totally. If yours doesn't do that then something is wrong and it is sleeping instead.
  • tealadytealady Posts: 26,262
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    diablo wrote: »
    It can take a few minutes for it to go into hibernate mode. All the lights should go off eventually.

    It is storing an image of the memory on the hard drive and then shuts off totally. If yours doesn't do that then something is wrong and it is sleeping instead.
    Thanks for the info.
    I will test again and leave it a bit longer for a reading.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 1,168
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    I went through a phase of leaving the PC on or sleeping 24/7 for a couple of years, but I realised it was just a waste of electricity, especially through the night.

    Now it's off at night, off during the day until I need it then suspend/sleep until it's time to go to bed. I tend not to leave it on when I go out either in case of fire.

    The laptop is different though, I leave it sleeping all the time because it takes a while to boot. Very, very occasionally I shut it down properly but it's rare.
  • SandgrownunSandgrownun Posts: 5,024
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    I always just close the lid on my laptop and let it hibernate. Its probably not that much quicker to wake up than a switch on, but it means I don't have to close and reopen all the stuff I have running. The only time it reboots is when Windows Update makes it reboot.
    tealady wrote: »
    Well, those were the figures from the power meter when plugged into the mains.
    When the laptop is hibernating and not plugged in, it still uses power, since one of the lights is on.
    There should be no lights on when it's hibernating. You can take the battery out of a hibernated laptop and it'll still be hibernating, everything is stored in the RAM. If there are lights on its in sleep, not hibernate.
  • JeffG1JeffG1 Posts: 15,243
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    There should be no lights on when it's hibernating. You can take the battery out of a hibernated laptop and it'll still be hibernating, everything is stored in the RAM. If there are lights on its in sleep, not hibernate.
    RAM is volatile, surely?
  • pingu01pingu01 Posts: 82
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    Just set it to sleep and you can configure how long after sleep it will go into hibernation (for Windows, in the advanced power settings of the Power Plan - sleep -> hibernate after). I personally don't like staying in sleep mode for too long so I'm normally in hibernation and rarely power-off completely, although I reboot now and again which is good practise.
  • guypdguypd Posts: 2,643
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    Which results in less hard drive wear, though? Off and reboot, or sleep / hibernate and no reboot?
  • whoever,heywhoever,hey Posts: 30,992
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    JeffG1 wrote: »
    RAM is volatile, surely?

    it is. It's stored in disk.
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