Tech Blog #53 | Shut Down or Hibernate ??? | 5% for SL Charity | Club5050

These options can be used in various occasions. But there's always an ideal option for a particular occasion. We can divide these occasions according to the time period of inactivity.

If you shut down the laptop, all the processes which use electricity will be stopped. So, the RAM will be stopped. Because of that, all the data of work that you were doing when you turn off the laptop will be destroyed. If you don't want that, it's better not to shut down the laptop.

Also, when turning on the laptop again, it takes a bit of time to come to a fully functional state. And sometimes it can be 5-10 minutes.. It depends on the performance of the laptop. So, if you want to keep the work you've been doing before turning off the laptop or if you wanna quickly turn on the laptop, it's better not to shut down.

When hibernation was done, what happen is, the data in the RAM is written on the Hard Disk of the laptop. And it goes to a state like a shut down. But when turning on the laptop, the data which was written on Hard Disk is put back to the RAM so it can kick start the works which were done before turning off the laptop.

This is the method that I commonly use. It saves power. It quickly loads the Operating System. So, the disadvantages of Shutting Down can be eliminated by Hibernation.

What happens when putting into sleep is.. almost all parts will be stopped.. but not the RAM. The RAM will be put into a power save mode. So, the RAM is not inactive. It only consumes a little amount of energy.

So, it's better to sleep the laptop if you wish to work again for an hour. Also, in Windows settings, we can set the laptop to hibernate after some time of putting it to sleep. All these settings are there to minimize power usage.

Settings are there to Minimize Power Usage

I usually use my laptop all the time. I hardly shut down the laptop. Most of the time, it's hibernation. But Hibernation for a long time is bad for laptops. It heats up the laptop quickly. I don't know why. So I shut down the laptop like.. once in 5 days.. I don't know whether it's still not that good or not..

You know, these days, laptops are crazy expensive. Laptop parts are also expensive. So choose a suitable method to turn off the laptop.. And One thing you should keep in mind is that ... "HEAT is the greatest enemy of electronic components".