Talking about power plans when it comes to PCs or Desktops is useless as there is no, obviously, battery attached to keep your computer running. Today I will talk about a feature with Power Options designed explicitly for Desktops; it’s a data savior for many unless you have a Power Backup in Place. Let’s figure out how to enable or disable hybrid sleep on Windows PC.
What Is the Difference Between Hybrid Sleep and Normal Sleep?
Sleep Mode in computers puts the computer in low power mode, i.e., the monitor turned off, almost zero activity on the hard disk, documents saved, etc. This saves electricity, but everything saved here is put in the computer’s RAM, which is temporary storage and gets clean and wiped off when power is lost. So ultimately, your data is lost too.
Hybrid Sleep is a concept that does two jobs, it saves your current state into RAM and in your hard disk, and then it switches to low power mode. So in case of power failure, Windows can restore your work from your hard disk, and you don’t lose anything. The good part is that Hybrid Sleep is turned on by default, so you don’t have to worry, but it’s good to double-check.
How to Enable or Disable Hybrid on Windows PC
Using an Administrator account, follow the steps below to enable or disable the Hybrid Sleep on Windows PC. You need to go to the Power Options menu and change the default power settings to disable hybrid sleep:
- Open the Power Option via the Run command (as mentioned in the previous step).
- Click on Change plan settings under the heading, Selected plan.
- In the Edit Plan Settings page, click on Change advanced power settings.
- In the Power Options windows, expand the Sleep option. Next, expand Allow hybrid sleep. Choose Off for both the On battery and Plugged in options. Click OK. Now, restart your PC.
The default setting is Hybrid, ensuring your computer never enters Sleep mode. While this saves your entire state to the hard disk, waking up your computer may take longer than usual sleep mode. Laptops with a battery backup can turn it off from the same place. However, it will still be beneficial if your battery is almost drained (Try Optimizing Battery Usage).
Is Hybrid Sleep RAM Powered?
Indeed, hybrid sleep serves as an energy-conserving function in particular computers, blending sleep mode and hibernation. In hybrid sleep, the data in your computer’s RAM (Random Access Memory) is preserved on the hard drive or SSD (Solid State Drive), much like hibernation, while simultaneously retained in the RAM as in sleep mode. This facilitates the swift restoration of your computer to its prior state should there be a power disruption, such as during an abrupt power outage.
This is still no substitute for a proper power backup, there is still a good chance that if there is a power cut when you are using your PC, then the data on the hard drive will be damaged. If you rely on this to save your bacon then you may be in for a nasty suprise when the power comes back on and your hard drive has stopped working.