Why Are There Two Timeout Settings, One For Sleep and Another For Hibernation, In a Power Plan?
I noticed I can set two timeout values, one for Sleep mode and another for Hibernation mode. What is that for? If one of them expires, the other one will never get touched. Wouldn't it have been more intuitive to have only one timeout setting plus a DropDown listbox to select which action to take? ...or don't I just understand the idea behind all this?
September 17th, 2009 3:20pm

On sleep and hibernate, see this article http://www.mydigitallife.info/2007/10/12/what-is-the-differences-between-sleep-standby-and-hibernate-in-vista/ It's oriented toward Vista but it also discusses the ACPI sleep/hibernate states. Your question about why have two timeout values implies that you're using the start menu to get to sleep and hibernate. Many people set the the sleep and hibernate states to come on automatically after a certain amount of idle time. The timers are set so that the computer goes into the sleep state for a while and then later the computer goes into the hibernate state. Hibernate saves more power than sleep but it takes longer to power up from hibernte.
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September 17th, 2009 7:47pm

Thanks for enlightening me! So basically you say that first a computer is set to standby mode, then after the Hibernate timeout expires, the computer automatically wakes up again to actively enter Hibernation mode? Is this assertion true?
September 17th, 2009 10:45pm

@Ronnie Thanks for all your efforts, but would you be so kind to leave it up to me to regard a reply as an answer to my questions? I'd like to define this for myself. Thanks
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September 18th, 2009 2:05pm

I don't think this was defined as "answered." I think that someone marked my response as "an answer," which it is. It may not be the answer but it is "an answer. I should probably read the forum rules. The sleep and hibernate settings are only one way settings. After a defined amount of time has expired without any activity the computer will enter the defined state. It is NOT used to wake the computer up. Usually beinging the computer up requires some other action. In sleep these actions can usually be defined, e.g., wake on being addressed by the LAN or when a telephone call comes in. To give a personal example, my computer goes to sleep if I don't use it for 15 minutes. It hibernates after an hour of no activity. I have to wake it up by doing something.
September 18th, 2009 9:46pm

Still no answer to-"So basically you say that first a computer is set to standby mode, then after the Hibernate timeout expires, the computer automatically wakes up again to actively enter Hibernation mode? Is this assertion true?"Maybe Win7 uses hybrid sleep like in Vista, in which when sleep is triggered, the RAM is aved to hiberfil.sys but the powere is left at S3. Then when the hibernat timeout is reached, the computer doen't need to wake up to do the hibernation preparation, since its already done, but instead, the power just goes to S4.This is just speculation, but I'm looking for a response from someone who knows.
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September 19th, 2009 1:35am

Witling is correct.But, only if your PC hardware handles sleep correctly.Enter "sleep" in the windows forums search box to see the various sleep/hibernatefailure manifestations in Vista and Windows 7.I think Windows XP can be set to do the same thing. Just the terminology is different.
September 19th, 2009 1:55am

Why don't you try it?If Hybrid sleep is enabled and the hibernate timer is greater than the sleep timer, then the computer will go to sleep,and then it will wake up (by itself), and enter Hibernate and shut down again. When you tickle the computer, the "Resuming Windows" message will show.
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September 19th, 2009 2:13am

@RonnieThanks for all your efforts, but would you be so kind to leave it up to me to regard a reply as an answer to my questions? I'd like to define this for myself.Thanks HiAs the thread starter, you have complete control over which replies are marked. If you feel that a reply was marked in error, simply click the Unmark As Answer button to unmark that reply. This action will always be respected.Regards,Thank You for using Windows 7 Ronnie Vernon MVP
September 19th, 2009 6:55am

Fanfarenj, you're right. After testing for myself I now see that Witling is correct indeed. It's like both of you described. I didn't believe that and I was too lazy to try for myself. Shame on me.
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September 19th, 2009 1:03pm

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