Laptop in Standby mode: is it bad?

[Peroxyde]

Hi,

We use WinXP in our laptops. A few users reported that the laptop turned back on after standby. As a results, some users have had their laptop damaged. Either hard drive crash or heat building up in the back pack.

Our network admin has sent a note saying that Shutdown is recommended instead of stand by. The reasons Standby is bad:

1- It is possible that system events can bring the laptop on automatically again (no need to push power button)

2- Repeated Stand By / Power On will make the laptop boot slower and slower over time.

I maintain my laptop pretty clean. But I still suffer a quite long boot time (around 5 minutes). I would like to continue to use StandBy, mainly to save the time to shutdown and cold reboot. I would like to have your opinions to better understand all the implications of using StandBy.

Thanks very much in advance for any help.

 

[Sink41]

My laptop turns itself on after a while if placed on standby. I usually hibernate instead if I'm only turning it off for a short while. Memory is saved and resumed to the harddrive so it takes up some room and is a bit slower at turning on and off. I occasionally do a full reboot to clear out any cobwebs, maybe once a week or so. Hold down shift when you press shutdown and standby will be replaced with hibernate.

 

[lxskllr]

I don't trust standby to work 100% of the time. I use it if my machine isn't cased, but if I'm packing it up for longer than 15 minutes or so, I do a full shut down.

 

[Peroxyde]

When the lid of the laptop is closed, is it standby or hibernate?

Here is what I called "StandBy" on my laptop. It's aHP Compaq nc8430. When the lid is closed or when the laptop is idle for 1 hour, it looks like it is shut off. The power light blinks every second. To get the laptop working again, I have to hit the power button (Moving mouse or KB is not enough). SO is it StandBy or Hibernate?


Also the Hibernate option is unchecked in my WinXP (Ctrl Panel, Power Option, Hibernate tab) not sure why but if it was unchecked, may be there was a good reason?

 

[Nothinman]

When the lid of the laptop is closed, is it standby or hibernate?

Depends on how you have it setup, by default it's probably standby. Hibernate will show a progress bar on bootup while it reloads all of the stored memory contents from hiberfil.sys.

 

[VinDSL]

Originally posted by: Peroxyde
Some users have had their laptop damaged. Either hard drive crash or heat building up in the back pack...

Our network admin has sent a note saying that Shutdown is recommended instead of stand by...

Thanks very much in advance for any help.

Personally, I SELDOM use sleep/standby/hibernate...

I only use them if I'm sitting through long-winded meetings and conferences... and I don't have access to AC power.

I certainly wouldn't use them if I'm on the move (for the reasons you mentioned above)!!!

For the most part, I'm not afraid of nothing and nobody, but Lithium-ion batteries scare the crap out of me!

I've read many stories (and watched many videos) about Li-ion powered cell phones blowing up in ppl's pockets - Li-ion laptop batteries starting car trunks on fire - burning houses down, yada, yada, yada. That would be MY concern!

Speaking of fire - nobody ever got fired for listening to their net admin!

That's what I would suggest you do...

 

[armstrda]

Sounds like you have either a bad driver, or have something set to wake the computer. I have used standby for years... In fact some months I can go a whole month with using standby in between meetings/packing up to go home / etc before I ever do a full restart. As for standby causing the system to be slower on normal boot, I guess maybe if your page file gets big, but why not limit your page file or have it dump it at shutdown? My take is standby is awesome as I don't want to wait 10 minutes for my laptop to reboot every time I walk to a different room (our systems have a lot of stuff on them that take upwards of 5-10 minutes to cold boot).

 

[Peroxyde]

I have used standby for years... In fact some months I can go a whole month with using standby in between meetings/packing up to go home / etc before I ever do a full restart.

Me too, I used standby most of the time, reboot may be twice a week. I thought it was OK until our network admin sent out his recommendation against standby. Well, now I am going to be a little bit more patient with shutdown & cold reboot.

 

[VinylxScratches]

Sounds like a IT department cop out.

 

[Rottie]

Originally posted by: Peroxyde
When the lid of the laptop is closed, is it standby or hibernate?

Here is what I called "StandBy" on my laptop. It's aHP Compaq nc8430. When the lid is closed or when the laptop is idle for 1 hour, it looks like it is shut off. The power light blinks every second. To get the laptop working again, I have to hit the power button (Moving mouse or KB is not enough). SO is it StandBy or Hibernate?


Also the Hibernate option is unchecked in my WinXP (Ctrl Panel, Power Option, Hibernate tab) not sure why but if it was unchecked, may be there was a good reason?

I am thinking standby is more like sleep mode I have a compaq notebook I closed lid it goes to sleep. also when I am away from my notebook for more than 15 min it goes to sleep with lid open. If I plan to move my notebook I do full shut down to avoid any damage to hard drive.
nVidia GPU keeps notebook awake from sleep mode I had to disable somewhere I cant remember how it happens and it works fine.

 

[MrChad]

I use Hibernate all the time on my laptop. It fully powers off the laptop while maintaining state. I can boot back up and have Outlook and VMWare already up and running.