Disable Hybrid Sleep Mode in Windows Vista
Windows Vista has a neat new feature for laptops called "hybrid sleep". Actually, Windows Vista has a neat new feature for laptops called sleep too, so I'm getting ahead of myself a bit.
Windows used to have a fairly simple hardware suspend command called "standby". However, this operation took a while to execute (both entering and exiting standby) and it was somewhat unreliable when performed repeatedly, on certain hardware or with certain applications running. Sleep is meant to alleviate these problems by just serializing the current state into memory and then shutting down all devices other than the RAM. With the OS state simmering in memory like that, entering and exiting sleep is nearly instantaneous. However, the dark side to all this is if there is a power outage while the computer is in sleep, all of the unsaved data is lost (since it just existed in memory). That's where hybrid sleep comes in.
Hybrid sleep saves the OS state into RAM, but it also writes it all to the hard drive as well (sort of like hibernate does). This ensures that even if power is lost, the data will remain. This all sounds like a good idea, but in practice it's just as slow as standby was.
Now, laptops have batteries and most of them are configured to enter hibernate when the battery dips below a certain level. This means that unless the battery is physically removed, power to the RAM is never unexpectedly cut. Thus, we don't really need the hybrid sleep feature. Unfortunately, giving hybrid sleep the pink slip is a little harder than it could be.
Step one, open up the power options setting from the control panel and select the "Change plan settings" link below the selected power plan.
Once in the resulting dialog, choose "Change advanced power settings". Now you need to scroll through the miles and miles of options to find the "Sleep" node. Expand this, and then the "Allow hybrid sleep" node below it. You should see two options, "On battery" and "Plugged in". Set both of these to "Off".
Once this is done, click "OK" and you should be all set! From now on, whenever your laptop would normally go into "Sleep" - usually when the lid is closed or when inactive for a certain time - it will enter full sleep mode, rather than hybrid sleep. And when you go to awaken it from its slumbers, it should be fully responsive within a second or two of reactivation - as opposed to the 10-15 seconds after hybrid sleep.
That's all well and good for laptops but I have a hp pavillion slimline, desktop pc. My problem is…I can't get it to stay "asleep". It sleeps for 1 minute then comes back on by itself. I've tried changing the settings in power options, but it behaves like i haven't changed a thing. I don't necessarily want to turn the power completely off. How can I change this. So it will come out of sleep mode when I move the mouse?
You're confusing sleep modes. If you're going to suspend to disk anyway, then you're right. But what if you're suspending to ram? In that case the hybrid sleep mode is still a nice option.
Also, if you're suspending to disk, then it may not matter whether you remove the battery, because the data is stored on the disk, right? The only reason this may not be the case is if information is stored on the disk controller and erased when the battery is removed, which I don't believe to be the case.
After all, if you were right about losing data when removing the battery, then what purpose would ANYONE have for the hybrid mode?
@melissa stegall:
It sounds like you have resume_on_lan, or whatever it's called, set in your BIOS and for your network card or modem in Windows. One way to confirm this is to unplug your network connection before putting your machine into sleep mode and see if the problem continues.
There's also the possibility that you have an alarm in your BIOS and it's responsible for resuming your machine at some specific interval.
To resume on mouse, you need to configure it in your BIOS, if it supports it. There may be a setting in your WIndows power settings also, but I don't have Vista, so I'm not sure.
Surely, by circumventing Microsoft's intention to save your work to disk, in the event of a powercut (obviously for a desktop here, laptop being more predictable battery-wise) you will lose your work?
I have become a little confused. Can someone clarify this: is the only difference between hibernate and hybrid sleep the ability to start windows by pressing a key or moving a mouse, like with standby? And why can't I have both hybrid sleep and hibernate as options on the start menu? Windows only allows hibernate when hybrid sleep is deactivated as I understand it.
The difference between Hybrid Sleep and just normal Sleep is that Sleep doesn't serialize the RAM to disk. Thus, Sleep is much, much faster to engage, as well as to come out of. It doesn't really have anything to do with mouse moving or LAN activity.
I wouldn't disable hybrid sleep for a desktop, but for a laptop things are stable enough that it really isn't a problem (I've been using it for over a month now without any data loss).
I have a new HP Slimline that is having the exact same issue that Melissa stated above…and just like anonymous mentioned, I went looking for wake on lan in the bios and can't find it anywhere. If anyone has any other ideas, I'd love to know…sleep isn't working well on this model presently. Other than that, what a great little pc!
Sean
may have found a solution. go to hardware device manager, select the network card, go to properties, and in one of the tabs you have the option to uncheck "allow this device to wake the computer."
That seems to keep my slimline sleeping so far…
I found this doc on HP's site for people that were having problems getting their computer to sleep and got me thinking…
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfr.....R1002_USEN
Sean
Sean:
That helped me as well… I was having an issue with my laptop where I put it into sleep mode and then pulled out the network cable… which would turn the computer back on. Very irritating.
Thanks for the followup… feedback from the readers is very much appreciated.
Thanks Sean. Your solution works a charm on my system.
It was very frustrating putting my machine to sleep and as soon as I did, it woke straight back up after 1 or 2 seconds, most likely because of network signals from my ethernet modem.
Thanks again.
Fluffman
Hey Sean…I have an Acer Aspire 5050 and Vista is working fine for me except recently whenever I shut the lid or put it to 'hybrid sleep' it still remains on and doesn't go to that mode, but only the screen turns black and it locks my computer. When I open it again, it's on the 'enter the password' screen.
I tried to switch hybrid sleep off and followed your directions but at this part: "choose "Change advanced power settings". Now you need to scroll through the miles and miles of options to find the "Sleep" node. Expand this, and then the "Allow hybrid sleep" node below it. You should see two options, "On battery" and "Plugged in". Set both of these to "Off"."
I don't see the "Allow hybrid sleep" and I only see Sleep - which opens up to Sleep After:
What should I do?
Thanks,
Saad
i. I'm sorry but, following your steps to remove the hybrid sleep function, I discovered it was already disabled but my laptop use to go to hybrid sleep anyway (or at least this is what I suppose to happen).
My problem is that, when I shut down my laptop it automatically re-boots by itself… and the same happens when I put it in hybernation.
Can you halp me?
I know this is a problem of WinVista Home Premium of the italian, french and norwegian version.
Hi,
I have toshiba tecra a4 laptop and Vista business edition installed on it. the problem is it never shuts down unless I keep the power button pressed for at least 5 seconds. Even if the OS is shutdown, the laptop is never turned off on its own.Any idea?
Hi everyone, I have an Acer Travelmate 4230 and I love the new "Sleep" function apart from the fact that I cannot get it out of Sleep mode and need to reboot in order to get my machine up and running. Can anyone help and/or am I being a "Dummy"?
I have a new inspiron 531 with vista. When I leave the computer on and it goes into sleep mode the mouse or keyboard will not wake it - I have to turn the computer off and then turn it back on. I called Dell and they said it was a software problem not with the computer. Is there a fix for this?
Linda, by chance do you have a 2nd monitor attached to your laptop? I can not wake from mode either when both monitors are used (2nd monitor extends my workspace). My laptop is an HP, BTW.
Also, when I only use my laptop monitor, I can only get the computer to wake up by pressing the power button.
I'm having a SNOW WHITE problem: exactly the opposite problem of some of those above. When my computer enters sleep, it stays asleep no matter what I do. (I even tried kissing it to wake it up, but I guess I'm not such a prince.) I've tried pressing Enter, Esc, Start, etc. on my keyboard, either for just a second or holding it down for awhile. I've tried jiggling or clicking the mouse. I've tried tapping the power button briefly. The computer just stays asleep. I can tell it's still in sleep mode and not off because the power light is still on. If I press and hold the power button for several seconds, the computer does a hard reset and reboots.
for any help[ for the Windows Vista operating system….please visit this site
I fixed my problem with not being able to wake from sleep mode with the latest bios update for my HP laptop.
I have a white-box PC, and the small but reputable manufacturer has told me fairly authoritatively that the Vista sleep problems, going to sleep-not waking up and going into and out of sleep unbidden, are both software bugs in Vista that are supposed to be fixed in SP1. I have tried many and all of the above suggestions, without consistent cure for the no-wake-up situation. Any thoughts on this report?
Hybrid sleep was required for my new Dell XPS 1330 so that Vista would redetect USB devices when coming out of sleep (standby).
My situation was this: working at home in the evenings with laptop attached to a KVM. Go to "sleep", packup laptop in AM, go to work, attach external keyboard/mouse/monitor, come out of sleep mode, USB keyboard/mouse not recognized. Enabling hybrid sleep mode fixed this issue.
Just recently, I've noticed that I don't have the Hibernate function at all. I used to have it enabled when I would close my lid of the HP Pavillion 5000, but just over the last few weeks the only options available are sleep and shut down. Can anyone advise me how to re-enable this feature? Thank you!
My "allow hybrid sleep" and "hybernate" options are completely missing now on my Sony VAIO. When I go to the "Power Options" menu as you show in this article, the menu only shows "Sleep After" and does not show "Hybernate After" nor "allow hybrid sleep". I went to the Multimedia section and changed the setting as you recommended, but no change. When I originally bought this PC a few month ago, I am SURE all 3 choices were there.
It didn't help my sleep problem–won't go into sleep after no activity.
Nice directions but my Vista Home Premium doesn't have anything like Allow Hybrid Sleep in your step 2. All mine shows is Sleep > Sleep after and then catagories On Battery and Plugged in with drop downs to select Never or amounts of time.
Frankly, Vista is just a poor, beta-level OS.
OK, if there is only SLEEP as an option, then please see below. "Disk Clean-up" kills the other options.
====
The hybrid sleep feature and the hibernation feature in Windows Vista may become unavailable after you use the Disk Cleanup Tool (or fix hibernation not working)
[updated 12th March 2007 21:03]
This particular problem went round the internal discussions groups - having told people how to turn on hibernation and suggested a KB article on it, Armelle O'Neal told me that is has already been written up in KB Article (928897).
SYMPTOMS
After you use the Disk Cleanup Tool in Windows Vista, you may experience the following symptoms:
You cannot see the Hibernate option in Power Options.
When you use the sleep feature, the computer does not recover its settings if power is lost.
CAUSE
This problem occurs when the Disk Cleanup Tool disables the hibernation file. The hibernation file must be enabled to access the hybrid sleep feature and the hibernation feature in Windows Vista.
When the hibernation file is disabled, and the hybrid sleep feature is enabled, a backup of open programs and open files will not be saved to the disk when you use the sleep feature in Windows Vista. Additionally, if the computer loses power while the Windows is in sleep mode, open programs and open files will not be recovered, and any unsaved work will be lost.
RESOLUTION
To resolve this problem in Windows Vista, run the powercfg -h on command at an Administrative command prompt to enable the hibernate feature and the hybrid sleep feature. To run this command, follow these steps:
1. Click Start, click All Programs, and then click Accessories.
2. Right-click Command Prompt, click Run as administrator, type powercfg -h on, and then press ENTER.
If this fails, it is normally because the command prompt is not actually running at an admin level - click here for my "how to tell"
I have an Acer Aspire Desktop computer with vista and when i press the power button in the start menu the computer goes into ''sleep'' mode there is absolutely nothing i can do to ''wake it up'' i even do a hard reset and retart the machine but it wont exit sleep mode, this is really frustrating and i have even sent my computer in to get it fixed when i didn't realize this was the problem. How am i supposed to get it out of this mode.
Sounds like a hardware problem actually. I'd proceed along that avenue in my diagnosis, but frankly if it is the hardware's fault, there's not much you can do.
On the flip side, it is a desktop, so the sleep mode doesn't serve that much of a purpose to begin with. I would either shut the desktop down completely, or just lock the screen. Sleep mode is really only *necessary* for mobile devices.
I am having the same problem with regards to getting the computer to "wake up" from sleep mode. With my old computer I would just let the screen saver come on and I much prefer that as it was easy to start using the computer again. As of now rebooting doesn't even work all the time to get it out of sleep mode. I have to completely disconnect the power supply.
Mine is a desktop as well and if sleep mode is not necessary I would love to disable it. How do I lock the screen? Sorry if that's a super dumb question.
I too have the problem with vista walking up after a few minutes. I have turned off the Hybrid sleep and that helped alot but I do NOT have the network check where it wants to wake my computer while sleeping. Any other ideas?
My problem was solved when I got a new keyboard.
i accidently entered the sleep button. and when i tried turning on my PC again, the screen doesn't detect anything.
Hi all, I have a compaq presario C714NR with vista home premium 32 bit. On upgrading the RAM from 1GB to new RAM 2 GB. Doesn't REVIVE FROM SLEEP…and sometimes does an awkward improper shut down. If i switch back to the original RAM i had in the laptop the problem is gone. But it detects the 2 GB RAM perfectly if i put it back in and performs much faster…the only problem being with the sleep mode.. CAN ANYONE HELP?
Hp customer support is saying that i should buy the most expensive RAM out there ($ 299.00) if i want it to work correctly…and somehow i don't believe that…
I've got a desktop with Vista premium.The ather day I pressed the sleep batton on the kb and when I decided to revive the machine, nothing!I talked to the computer store where I bought the computer and they told me "It's a well known problem.Just open the box,remove the internal battery and reinstall it."It
fixed the problem.Hello m$,are you listening?What a shame
Cheers
I have a new Dell laptop with Vista, on which I manage my non-profit web site through Microsoft Front Page. It is totally messed up now that I'm using a Vista operating system. Although the published site looks fine, the MFP design page is a mess with bars overlapping type and disappearning type that is actually there. Now a warning box appears every time I go to the preview page that says an error has occured, do you still want to run scrips on this page. Yes or No?
I don't even know what scrips are…yet it still works. BUT WHAT A PAIN. Is there any way around these problems. I wouldn't have purchased a Vista machine if I had known.
have a aspire 5610 with vista os, when booting up, turns on but no desk top, screen is black, laptop did not have a boot disk or oem disk for reboot etc. how do i resolve this, please help? where or how do i make a boot with files from internet, cannot even get to bios to try, really a dummy? Thanks in advance
I have a vaio running vista and out of nowhere my sleep function no longer works. It certainly used to but now all that happens is the screen locks, nothing more. I have tried everything above including the network wake option. Is there anything else like the network wake that could prevent sleep? Ta
Hi,
I have a 3 month old HP dv6516tx notebook running vista home premium. in the advanced power options i can not see the "Hybrid sleep" option at all and this has got me worried. Can you help me please?
thnx
hi sushant
check in bios the power state. make it to s1 and s3 state and go to advanced power settings and make the adjustments.
Hi i am unable to disable the Hybernet option after doing all the above procedure can any one please help me out in this issue because i will be working on it for some time and i will leave it when i get the other work and i will be connecting from the other pc's remotely to this pc also then i am facing the problem like the remote desktop could not be established because of the pc is going in to the sleep or the Hybernet state after enabling the the remote desktop..
Thanks in Advance..
I too have the dell inspiron 531 and if it goes to sleep it won't wake up. Called dell several times about this - one even had the nerve to tell me, well don't put it to sleep and you won't have a problem.
there must be a solution.
Why am I unable to "wake-up" my system from power saving mode when I move my USB mouse or press a key on my USB keyboard?
i turned the hybrid sleep off and guess what, nada, zilch, ain't doing it, get outta here, you said what. get the picture. and i've tried tons of other combinations to get my vista to sleep and still, it's got a mind of it's own. somebody, somewhere in this good ol' u.s-of a has an answer. again, my email is philntoot@yahoo.com i'm sleeping near my computer in anticipation. hurry! i ain't gettin no younger. plan b. is it possible to download xp over vista without a cd. be gentle. i'm a layman. thanks!
Uhm for some reason i cant see the Allow Hybrid sleep in the sleep options and i have vista..? Can you help?
Get Vista SP1 through Windows Update!
those of you who are experiancing the same problem described by mellisa(i.e your PC keeps waking up after 1 minute) this is what you have to do:
1. Go to device manager
2. click on network adaptors
3. find your network card ( mines is NIVIDIA n force)
4. Click on the POWER MANAGEMENT tab at the top
5. UNCHEK "allow the device to wake up the computer" and OK
6. come back on this forum and thank me lol.