How to remove Standby from the user experience (optionally: replace with Hibernate)

Introduction

In the preceding articles we have described problems and potential solutions with Standby on Windows laptops.

• Problems with Standby (Sleep)
• Advanced troubleshooting for Standby issues

One fundamental workaround in preventing Standby from causing stability, power drain and overheating issues is to prevent the System from switching to Standby states altogether. This must be done in across multiple Windows Settings panels, each of which being responsible for a different trigger condition (power button, idle time, closing the lid).

For some or all of these trigger conditions, depending on user preference, it may be sensible to replace the Standby action with Hibernate, with Hibernate being the more robust power saving option.

What is the difference between Standby and Hibernate?

In Standby, also known as Sleep or "Suspend to RAM", the laptop's current state, including open applications and documents, is saved to the system memory (RAM). The system powers down non-essential components like the display, SSD, and processor, while maintaining just enough power to the RAM to retain its data. With the introduction of Modern Standby, the number of components that are powered down changes over time as the system is still able to receive push notifications, download updates and accept voice commands.

In Hibernate mode, the system's current state is saved to the SSD before powering down completely. When the laptop is powered on again, the saved state is loaded from the SSD, restoring the system to its previous state.

In summary, Standby (Sleep) would be ideal for short periods of inactivity, offering quick wake-up times and moderately low power consumption, while Hibernate is better suited for longer periods of inactivity or when you want to maximize battery life without losing your current work state. However, due to the generally unstable or unreliable condition of Standby, a more deliberate and targeted use of Hibernate might be the better policy altogether.

Replace Automatic Standby with Automatic Hibernate after a set period of Idle time

By default, the system switches to Standby after a certain amount of time during which there has not been any user input (i.e. no keyboard and mouse action). This automatic Standby can be replaced with Hibernate or disabled altogether.
 

Screenshot compilation: how to fully remove Standby based on Idle time. Click here for full resolution.

Follow these steps:

• Search "Power & Sleep" in Start Menu.
• Under "Sleep", set both options to "Never".
• Scroll further down and click on "Additional power settings".
• Under the title "Choose or customize a power plan", you should only see one single plan, named "Balanced". If you see multiple plans, you need to do the following action for each plan.
• Click on "Change plan settings".
• Click on "Change advanced power settings".
• Click on the [+] icon next to "Sleep" to unfold its options
• Unfold "Hibernate after"
• For "On battery" and "Plugged in", set your preferred amount of Idle time. If you set "0" (Zero), it will be set to "Never".

One practical suggestion would be to set the "Plugged in" time to a very high value such as 180 minutes (3 hours), while setting the "On battery" time to a lower value such as 30 minutes.

Prevent Standby when closing the laptop's lid (and customize the power button behaviour)

By default, Windows sends the system so Standby when the user closes the lid of the laptop. Changing this behaviour can have certain advantages. For example, you can continue to play music, run a long download or watch a movie on an external screen while the laptop's lid is closed. You can also close your lid while moving the laptop from one room to another without fear of losing any currently unsaved work or being logged out of currently open sessions. For example, when you work in an office and you take your laptop from your desk to a meeting room, you don't need to awkwardly keep your lid half-open while walking down the hallway.

However, if you indeed disable Standby on "Close lid" action, you will need to be more mindful of actually shutting down the laptop (or send it to hibernate) when you finished your work. So instead of just closing the lid and shoving the laptop into your backpack, you will need to first press the power button and then close the lid. By the way, the response of the power button (Standby, Hibernate, Shut down, Nothing) can be customized in the same menu as the "Close lid" action.

Disabling Standby on "Close lid" allows a more flexible user experience and puts agency and responsibility back into the user's hands. Another alternative: set the "Close lid" action to Hibernate. This would still allow a convenient "Close lid and forget" user experience while also preventing the experience of random Standby issues. Of course, wake-up time from Hibernate is slower, so this is not something you'd want to use if you close and open your lid very often during a single work session.
 

Screenshot: how to customize power button and lid close behaviour.

If you wish to customize the "Close lid" response, follow these steps:

• Search for "closing the lid" in Windows Start Menu
  • Alternatively route: "Power & Sleep" settings u2192 "Additional power settings" u2192 "Choose what closing the lid does"
• You can customize the action for power button, sleep button and lid closing.
• For each trigger, you can pick between Shut down, Hibernate, Sleep and "Do nothing".
• The action can differ between "On battery" and "Plugged in", but for the sake of consistency we recommend setting both power states to the same action for each trigger.

Our recommendation for advanced users:

• Close lid: Do nothing
• Sleep button: Do nothing
• Power button: Hibernate

In the same menu you can also pick which power options appear in your Windows Start Menu.

• Click on "Change settings that are currently unavailable".
• Confirm the Admin prompt.
• Customize the checkboxes at the bottom of the menu under "Shutdown settings".
• Our suggestion:
  • Remove the checkmark next to "Sleep".
  • Add checkmark next to "Hibernate".

Does extensive use of Hibernate cause premature SSD aging?

Due to the nature of SSD storage technology (NAND flash cells), SSDs are rated by their manufacturers for only a limited amount of written data, defined in "terabytes written" (TBW). Frequent use of Hibernate can have a theoretical impact on SSD's lifespan because each Hibernate action writes a certain amount of data onto the SSD. However, taking a closer look at the actual numbers involved, it becomes clear that for most users it is very unlikely that Hibernate will have a significant contribution towards reaching the TBW limit.

• The amount of data written to the SSD during Hibernate is limited by the system's RAM capacity. Furthermore, Windows only writes the portion of RAM that is actually being used, not the entire (mostly empty) RAM capacity. By closing large files and exiting memory-intensive applications before entering Hibernate, users can minimize the amount of data written and speed up the wake-up process.
• Example calculation: the 1TB version of the Samsung 980 Pro is rated for 600 total terabytes written (TBW). If a moderately used Windows system writes approximately 6 gigabytes (0.006 terabytes) to the SSD during each Hibernate action, it would take around 100,000 Hibernate actions to reach the TBW threshold. Assuming an average of 3 Hibernate actions per day, this translates to over 90 years of use before reaching the TBW limit.
   

Example screenshot: the Hibernate file is only 6.6 GB large despite having 16 GB system memory.

While it is clear that an SSD that has reached its TBW rating should be replaced, it certainly won't fail immediately. According to SSD manufacturers, reaching the TBW rating merely increases the chances of future data loss. Depending on the model and manufacturer, an SSD may even stop accepting new data but still allow data reading and recovery, thus preventing predetermined failure and data loss altogether.

Exceptions: professional users who frequently write extremely large amounts of data to their SSDs, such as those involved in professional 4K RAW video editing or certain data science disciplines, may already have an accelerated approach towards their SSD's TBW limit. For those users, putting additional volume onto the TBW counter via frequent Hibernate use may seem undesirable. For such users, we would like to offer the following advice:

• Separate system disk and data disk: by default, Windows writes the Hibernate data onto the system partition (C:). Most XMG and SCHENKER laptops have at least 2 SSD slots. It may be recommended to use a smaller SSD for operating system and software and a larger SSD for your operational data. In this case, the Hibernate written data would not contribute to the TBW rating of the work SSD.
• As written above, you can minimize the amount of data that is being written by exiting memory-intensive programs before Hibernate. For longer periods of inactivity, you can also use plain old "Shut down", i.e.: use Hibernate for taking a (longer) break; use Shutdown when the work is done for the day.

No matter if Standby or Hibernate: save your data before you go

Hibernate is certainly more reliable than Standby, but it is not 100% failure-proof either. The usual worst case of a Hibernate-induced failure is to boot up the laptop and find that the previous state is not being recovered; instead, the system boots with a fresh desktop, just like after a Reboot or Shut Down. This is of course still better than the more catastrophic Standby-induced failures such as system not waking up entirely or system crashing and overheating in the backpack or overnight.

These rare and usually non-critical Hibernate issues can be troubleshot with the same methods like the Standby issues:

• Advanced troubleshooting for Standby issues

In any case, it is best practice to save your data before you enter either of these suspend or shutdown states. Make a habit of frequently using the Ctrl+S shortcut in your content creation applications. Check if your software supports automatic saving of recovery states. Some software may only start saving regular recovery backups once a new project has been initially saved with a proper location and filename.

Bottom line: always make sure to save your files before you enter Standby or Hibernate.