[Computer] Hibernation

[robcaro]

When I shut off my laptop with hibernation as the shutoff option, does it use any battery power while off?

[Colibri]

Edited thread title.

Colibri
General Questions Moderator

[si_blakely]

No. During hibernation, the system state and the contents of memory are written to disk, and the system is fully powered down. During the boot sequence, the OS loader detects the valid hibernation file, loads it into memory, and resumes the system state.

This is in contrast to suspend, which retains the contents of memory and system state in RAM, and powers down the cpu, disk, display and other subsystems. This state requires the use of power to keep the RAM contents, and will eventually drain the batteries. Before draining the batteries, a good power management system should wake the system and hibernate before the power level is too low.

There are caveats - some systems enable WakeOnLan, so the network card is in a low-power (but not switched off) mode that can be used to wake the system remotely. Other add-in cards may also continue to consume power, even in hibernate.

Si

[robcaro]

Thanks si_blakely. Just what I needed to know.