Ask Leo!

Why can't my machine hibernate? And how's that different than Stand-by?

Home » Windows » Windows Configuration

Summary: Hibernate and standby are ways to save power when you're not using your computer. Each has pros and cons. Hibernation, at least, must be enabled.

I have a 2 year old Dell Latitude on which the hard drive crashed a few weeks ago. I received a new hard drive from Dell and installed Windows XP. Everything works fine, except I have no hibernate function. Is there a step I missed in the XP setup? Standby/Shut Down/Restart etc. all work fine, but Hibernate is not an option.

It's not a step so much as an option that probably just needs to be turned on.

We'll do that, and while we're at it we'll explain the difference between standby and hibernate.

First the setting.

In Control Panel, open Power Options:

Power Options Properties

Click on the Hibernate tab:

Power Options Properties - Hibernate Tab

I'm guessing that Enable Hibernation isn't checked on your machine. Check it, click OK and you should be set. It might require a reboot before taking effect.

"Hibernation writes a complete image of your computer's RAM memory to the hard drive ..."

So what is hibernation anyway? And how does it differ from standby?

Over-simplifying just a bit:

Hibernation writes a complete image of your computer's RAM memory to the hard drive, and then completely powers down your machine. When you reboot after hibernating, the boot loader then simply reloads the memory image into RAM, reinitializes some hardware, and you're good to go.

The key is simply that the entire state of what your machine is doing at any point in time is almost completely contained in your system's RAM. So the theory is that simply saving and restoring your RAM (along with a few other details, perhaps) should be enough to completely save and restore what you were doing across a complete shutdown of your computer.

If you look closely at the second dialog image above, you'll see that it says "Disk space required to hibernate: 2,048 meg." That's the amount of RAM installed in this machine, and thus that's how much space is required to save the RAM on disk. That image, by the way, is written to the hidden file "hiberfil.sys" in the root of your boot drive which is always present to reserve that space if you have hibernation turned on. One way that people free up that disk space is to turn off hibernation.

Standby does not write your RAM memory image to disk. Standby instead turns all your hardware off except your RAM. Thus resuming from standby is often faster than resuming from hibernation, as the memory image does not have to be loaded from disk - it's still in memory.

The downside to standby, of course, is that your machine is not completely off. Some power is still required to maintain RAM. I've also seen some devices, particularly network cards, wake up periodically while on standby.

If the machine's battery drops too low while it's on standby, Windows will either put the machine in hibernate, if that's enabled, or attempt to cleanly shut down so as not to lose any work in progress.

Both standby and hibernate have been problematic at times in the past. Sometimes devices won't come back up properly after one or the other, or sometimes the machine won't resume at all. Standby in particular requires not only Windows support, but cooperation between the computer's BIOS and the various device drivers that may be impacted by a loss or partial loss of power.

The good news it that for the most part, standby and hibernate tend to work relatively well on current computers.

Related:

More articles about: Windows Configuration

Article Useful? Link to it from your own website; just copy/paste this HTML:

Article 11970 | Posted November 5, 2007

Recent Comments

In my Laptop previously I can able to see the Hibernation option in the Start menu for my Vista Home Premium. Last day I observed the option is not there. I could not understand why this has happened? How can I get that option back.

Posted by: cris at January 22, 2008 10:39 PM

I no longer have a hibernation choice in the control
panel. I think it was wiped out by some Microsoft
updates. Tried some choices offered in their support
section but did not work. What can I do.

Posted by: J Dobster at January 27, 2008 01:59 PM

where do I locate the BIOS function?

Posted by: Kimberly at February 8, 2008 01:56 PM

I am having the exact same problem as Tricia above. I have no tab to turn on Hibernate and I have admin abilities. When I go to 'Turn off computer' I have an option to 'Stand-by', but it is grey-ed out so I can't click it. Why is this? Is there something else I can download/update to repair this?
Thanks!

Posted by: Cristina Nelson at February 27, 2008 08:05 AM

i have the same problem...i am using vista with my laptop... before i could use the hibernate features and i really love using it because it saves my works and i could just easily go back to it when i turn it on...but then during the easter holiday, i noticed hibernate button is not there anymore...how will i return that feature...hibernate is really helpful...

Posted by: gina at March 31, 2008 03:31 AM

Same problem - Vista Premium, laptop 3 months old, "hibernate" disappeared a few weeks ago. I'm guessing it's SP1 update. I preferred "hibernate" to "sleep" and want it back.

Posted by: HW at May 27, 2008 02:50 PM

I read a lot of your articles, and it was great. But this tips is not working on my laptop IBM R32
I don't know why..

http://windows-tipstricks.blogspot.com/

Posted by: Danish at June 6, 2008 09:22 AM

Same problem as Tricia. Once in BIOS, what do I (we) need to do to re-enable hibernation. I need my Dell Latitude D620 to be able to hibernate upon closing the laptop. Thanks!

Posted by: Brian at June 22, 2008 02:51 AM

my backspace disappeared so how can I get it back?

Posted by: Ladonna Clark at July 8, 2008 07:59 AM

cant hiranate or stand by enabled is checked for hibranate . Also get no sound

Posted by: james cave at July 29, 2008 03:41 AM

Post a comment on "Why can't my machine hibernate? And how's that different than Stand-by?":






(Email Address will not be published.)

Remember Me?

By popular demand...
my tip jar
Cuppa Joe
Buy Leo a Latte!

(you may use HTML tags for style)

New!

RSS feed Subscribe to the RSS Feed specifically for comments on this article.

Before commenting, please...

Please wait. Your comment is being processed ...


Ask Your Question:


ask-leo.com
Web

Archives

By Category
By Date

Advertisers

Advertise on Ask Leo!

««   »»

Question? - Ask Leo!
Who is Leo?
Link to Leo!

Terms, Conditions & Privacy