We often open our laptop lid and go out, but have you ever thought about what harm it can do to your Windows PC to sleep by accident? Frequent use of sleep mode can do more harm than good, and that is why you should never put your PC to sleep.
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One of the main benefits of putting your PC into sleep mode is that it's ready to go immediately when you press the power button, open the lid, press a key, or move the mouse. However, with most, if not all, modern PCs having SSDs , it only takes about 10 seconds or so for the PC to wake up after a complete shutdown.
SSDs are the real champions here. In addition to the durability and power efficiency benefits, they offer significantly faster data transfer speeds than HDDs , making them one of the best upgrades you can make to an older PC. Even slower SATA SSDs will significantly improve your boot times, so you don’t necessarily have to pay for top-of-the-line products.
Additionally, the Fast Startup feature in Windows can speed up your boot time. You also have the option to hibernate your PC, a feature that is often used as an alternative to Sleep mode. When you consider all the other issues associated with putting your Windows PC to Sleep mode, saving 10 seconds of waiting for your PC to wake up doesn't seem like a smart choice.
If you frequently put your PC to sleep, you're likely reducing system performance on a session-by-session basis. While the hardware isn't affected much, using sleep mode on a Windows machine all the time will replicate all the effects of never restarting your Windows PC.
Over time, you will encounter software issues, slowdowns as your system memory fills up, and perhaps most importantly, problems with Windows updates that require a system reboot. This is why shutting down your PC every day is a good idea, as it clears up system memory, closes stuck background processes, and clears out anything in the background that might be hogging system resources.
Your PC still consumes power while in Sleep mode. This may not be a problem on a desktop, but on a laptop it means you'll run out of battery if you leave your device in Sleep mode for too long.
Why does a device in Sleep mode need battery power? Sleep mode in Windows uses battery power to store data in memory, which means it will always drain the battery. Depending on the size and age of your laptop battery, this means that Sleep mode may not be an option for you if your laptop is unplugged while the power is still on.
Unlike Shutdown mode, which waits for processes to finish properly before shutting down the system, Sleep mode saves everything in system memory to resume whenever you're ready. This behavior isn't consistent with every program you use.
This can lead to corrupted files, settings, and crashing games or applications. If you're using programs like Premiere Pro or AutoCAD, putting your Windows PC into sleep mode without properly closing them first can lead to corrupted projects.
Modern hardware and software are so well designed that this is unlikely to be an issue in the short term, but the situation gets worse when you frequently use your PC to Sleep without shutting down or restarting in the meantime.
While putting your PC to sleep won’t actually damage your hardware, it will put it under stress. Laptops always run hotter in sleep mode than when they’re off or hibernating. This is never a good thing if you’re carrying your laptop around in a bag or backpack.
Additionally, your battery is constantly working and losing charge cycles, which can reduce its lifespan in the long run. Your system memory is also working, and while that doesn't necessarily damage the memory, it's not good for any software running on the system.
Eventually, this will lead to inconsistent behavior like uneven battery drain, performance issues, power failures, etc. Usually, a reboot will fix most of these issues, but opening a faulty laptop in class is much worse than waiting 10 seconds for it to boot up normally.
Sleep mode is supposed to be a handy feature, but Windows' current implementation is pretty disappointing. It's fine if you do it occasionally for short periods of time, but using Sleep mode on a Windows PC on a daily basis isn't a habit you should get into.
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