Windows 10: RE : sleep vs shut down

For 10 years I have been setting my laptops to go to sleep when closing the lids.
I did that because a) laptop went back to desktop a lot faster, and b) I was told years ago that "hard shut down" using the power butter was not "healthy" for the computer.

In any event, true or false, I would like to know ........
With the present-day computers, is there any ill effect if I use the power butter as a regular routine to shut down the computer instead of using sleep mode ?

:)

 

My computer won't shut down

Is there a big difference between a computer shutting down and being put to sleep? I mean, is it wearing down the computer if it's in sleep mode vs. shut down mode.

 

Sleep vs Hibernate vs Shut Down

I have heard so many stories from different people which is better to use Sleep vs Hibernate vs Shut Down.

I have a PC that's about 3 months old. It's an HP Phoenix Desktop and it's loaded. I was on a chat with an HP Tech and during the chat I told him I was having trouble getting the PC to sleep. He told me, unless I'm returning to the computer within an hour
or so I should shut dow, always to use shut down rather than Sleep vs Hibernate.

Does anybody have any hard facts about which is best for the life and performance of the PC?

Thanks

Jerry

 

I know of no issue past or present related to shutting down. That said I'm talking software controlled shutdown, soft shutdown, not holding the power key until it makes that small popping noise and computer goes down hard. That is not recommended.

There is even a setting in power mgmt that says what to do with power button. Sleep or shutdown. Again this is a tap, not push and hold.

I'm interested in seeing other member comments. I'm unaware of any issues with a soft shutdown other than a longer phase to being usable.

I use sleep for desktop, on UPS, and shutdown for laptops.


Ken

 

Power button override (i.e. shutting down the system by holding down the power button for 4 seconds) should only be used if your system is hung and can't be shut down any other way. The main risk if you do this on a normally running system is data loss.

Power button soft shutdown via Windows has no practical impact to longevity compared to sleep.

If you go to sleep then you are burning some power to maintain RAM contents but you can start up exactly where you left off in a few seconds. Of course, this is at the risk of losing any unsaved data in case of power loss.

If you shutdown then it'll take much longer to start up and you'll have to reopen whatever apps/documents you were working on.

 

It's only a 'hard shut down' if you press and hold the power button until the power dies and kills the OS while it's still running - useful only as a last resort if the system has hung (and yes, it's a bad thing to do regularly).

A quick press on the power button can be handled in software, set it in Control Panel > Power Options. Choices are: Do nothing, Sleep, Hibernate, Shut down, or Turn off display. A software shut down is safe because the OS shuts itself down properly before telling the power supply to turn off. A hard shut down turns off the power supply to kill an unruly OS.

Personally, since Windows '95 I have always set my laptops to hibernate when the lid is closed. It's a bit slower to resume than sleep, but unlike sleep requires no battery power to maintain it. I've even hibernated a PC and taken out the hard drive so I could test an install on another drive. When I put the original drive back it resumed from hibernation as if nothing had happened.

 

Thanks for all the replies.