difference between StandBy and Hibernate in Windows XP?

Question

what is the difference between standby and hibernate?

when i put my laptop as standby when the power is plugged there is no problem to resume.

when the power is unplugged my system will dumped. i want to do illegal shutdown(holding power button) and the switch it on.? why?

Answer 1

This belongs on SuperUser, but:

Standby saves your current working environment to RAM and turns almost all hardware off, using only a little bit of power to keep the RAM from clearing itself.

Hibernate saves your environment to the hard drive and powers EVERYTHING down.

As for your issue, I know that XP is somewhat notorious for screwing up when placed in standby on certain hardware. Your best option perhaps is to Google for other people with your model laptop having the same problem.