“Lullaby, and good night, go to sleep my dear baby.” While most people probably do not sing that song to their computer as they put it to sleep, making your computer sleep is a common practice among computer owners. Most of the time, you can put a computer to sleep either by leaving the computer on for a certain period of time or by performing an action, such as shutting the lid or quickly pressing the power button.
It’s easy, it’s quick, and allows the user to pause what he is doing and come back to it later all the while using very little power. It also allows the computer to rest for a bit while you are busy doing something else. Sleep mode is good if you won’t be gone for very long, but it does still use some power.
Users know that the computer is in power saving mode. They also know that all of their programs are saved. But how does sleep mode really work?
- Programs saved: Of course, your programs are saved. That’s why they call it sleep mode. What most people don’t actually know is where the programs are saved. In this case, they are saved to the computer’s memory, which allows them to be easily retrieved in case you need to quickly pull up the project you were working on. The computer’s memory is a short term storage space, which allows files to be put on hold temporarily, while you are away from the computer.
- The “pause” button: Another way to think of sleep mode is as a giant pause button. In the same way that your movie pauses and allows you return to the same spot later, the sleep mode on your computer lets you pause your work and come back later.
Your computer has another mode as well that will allow you to pause your work and come back it later. This mode is known as hibernate mode. The main difference between sleep mode and hibernate mode is that hibernating actually causes the computer to be shut down. You might be wondering how this works, since the computer won’t be using any power at all. It works like this:
- Programs saved: Programs are saved in the same way for both sleep and hibernation modes. The difference is where they are saved. In sleep mode, they are saved to the memory whereas for hibernation, they are saved to the hard disk. Neither location is permanent, but saving your programs to the hard disk allows the computer to be shut down while making sure that your programs are saved.
While both modes save your computer power, only hibernation allows it to shut down all the way. In either mode, however, your work will be saved for when you want to return to it.
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