Why and How To Hibernate Your Computer:
Hibernating computers is the fastest, safest, and most effective way to reduce your computer’s
electrical consumption when you aren’t using it; and it reduces power consumption as much as turning
it off. It is estimated that if all FS computers and monitors were hibernated during off hours it would
save the FS $5 million annually in electric bills and reduce CO2 emissions by 44,000 tons.
Hibernating Forest Service (FS) computers is now mandatory per USDA policy letter dated
July 28, 2008. Unfortunately, IRM routinely disables the hibernation settings and it is up to the
individual user to activate. The Energy Policy law of 2005, FAR 23.203, and Executive Order
13423 require federal agencies to purchase and use EnergyStar computers. Unfortunately, the
Forest Service has never distributed EnergyStar compliant computers. But partial compliance can be
reached by activating the hibernation mode.
Hibernating your computer is also the fastest way to shut down your computer at night and to get it
back up and running in the morning. When you put your computer into hibernation (by pressing the
power button (or see Method 2)), everything in computer memory is saved on your hard disk, and your
computer is turned off. When you turn the computer back on (by pressing the power button), in less
than a minute, all programs and documents that were open when you turned the computer off, are
restored on the desktop. You should still use your software to save all your work before you leave at
night, but you need not close any programs or documents. If the electricity should go out at night, that
will not effect a hibernated computer.
Many people have asked how to set your computers to hibernate. Unfortunately, the current and all
previous FS imaging deactivates all power saving features, so it is up to the individual user to manually
activate the hibernation settings. It’s easy, here’s how to do it:
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Check this box
Desktops won’t have this option.
Click “Hibernate”. When in a docking
station, this won’t impact the laptop
operation.
Click “Hibernate”. When you want to
hibernate your computer, all you have to
do is press the power button on the
computer (or docking station for a laptop).
To turn the computer back on, just press
the power button.
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You must set “System standby”
to “Never” or else the computer
won’t automatically hibernate.
Setting “System hibernates:” to a time will
automatically hibernate the computer if you
forget to press the power button when you leave,
but note that this feature often doesn’t work, so
you should still press the power button when you
leave.
When hibernated properly, there should be no lights on, no noise, nor should you feel any heat on the
computer in the morning. Hibernating your computer also reduces the wear and tear on its mechanical
and heat dissipating parts.
This works on most computers. You may have to have administrative rights. The monitor should also
shut off when your computer hibernates. If a screen saver comes on, the monitor is not off. If the
monitor doesn’t turn off automatically, call up EUSC to have them fix it so it will.
IR can turn on your computer at night even if you have hibernated it and
they do this about once a week, usually on the weekend. Once they do this,
the computer won’t hibernate again and the computer will be stuck on all
weekend, so the best way to deal with this is to first hibernate the computer,
then turn off the power strip button that you have everything plugged into.
This also totally stops the fugitive power use of the computer, monitor and
any other peripherals you have plugged in (which can be significant.) This is
particularly important if you have a laptop as they trickle charge 24/7.
When IR uploads software to your computer (about once a week) you will be prompted to restart your
computer. Usually just ignore this because every time IR does this, they deactivate your hibernation
setting, so you will have to reset all your hibernation setting. None the less, it is also good idea to
reboot your computer every couple weeks—but of course you will then have to follow the above steps
to reinitiate Hibernation.
Note: Do not use the “Standby” power save mode. This does not totally shut off your computer so it
keeps drawing electricity; and most dangerous, your work is only stored in volatile RAM memory
which will be lost if your computer has a power outage. The difference in turn on time for hibernation
vs standby is only seconds. So Hibernate your computer!
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How To Hibernate Your Computer: Method 2
The above method is the fastest way to get your computer to hibernate. But if you have to reboot your
computer, IR will disable all the hibernation setting and you have to do it all over again. An
alternative is to go directly to the Shutdown Windows dialog box:
Click
“Hibernate”, then
“OK”.
Presto! Your computer will hibernate! To start the computer in the morning, press the power button
and it will resume from hibernation.
If “Hibernate” doesn’t show up in the above dialog box, that means IR disabled it and you will have to
reinitiate Hibernation as shown in the previous method.
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