No Hybrid Sleep in Windows 8?

As you can see below, there is no hybrid sleep option like there is in Windows 8. Is it enabled by default with sleep or hibernation or is it gone entirely?

no hybrid sleep <- Windows 8 vs Windows 7 -> has hybrid sleep

Edit:

PS C:\Users\User> powercfg.exe -a
The following sleep states are available on this system:
    Standby (S1)
    Hibernate
    Fast Startup

    The following sleep states are not available on this system:
        Standby (S2)
            The system firmware does not support this standby state

        Standby (S3)
            The system firmware does not support this standby state

        Standby (Connected)
            The hypervisor does not support this standby state.
            The system firmware does not support this standby state

        Hybrid Sleep
            Standby (S3) is not available.
            The hypervisor does not support this standby state.

Is there a way to enable S3 in BIOS or does my motherboard just not support it?

Update: Hybrid Sleep is usable on Win7 64 on the exact same machine with the same drivers. Sounds like it's a limitation in Windows 8 but I would like to know what's missing if that isn't the case.

Enigma

Posted 2013-02-05T02:04:34.140

Reputation: 3 181

1I've heard this is often a driver issue (it should still be there in Win8). What system/systems are you using? – Marcus Chan – 2013-02-05T02:13:34.703

custom pc - msi 770t-c45 motherboard and amd triple core cpu – Enigma – 2013-02-05T02:43:33.473

1AFAIK, hybrid sleep is only for desktops. But since yours is a custom one, I don't know why the option isn't there. Mine is a Windows 8 laptop so I don't have the hybrid sleep option. However, I'll check with the Windows 8 PC at home and let you know – pratnala – 2013-02-05T08:15:21.163

The OP's system is a desktop. But yeah, I don't know why it wouldn't show up. – Marcus Chan – 2013-02-07T04:58:02.310

Given that Microsoft likes taking out features almost as much as they like putting them in, it doesn't seem unreasonable that they simply didn't want to support it anymore. I don't know how that could be in their favor though if that were the case. Hybrid sleep was a definite move in the right direction. – Enigma – 2013-02-07T14:49:05.897

@PratyushNalam Hybrid sleep is available both at desktop and laptops. Usually it's enabled on desktops and disabled on laptops. The latter have a battery and hibernate when the batter runs out. On the other hand, desktops usually don't have a battery. Even when there's UPS, the system does not have enough capacity to run for a long time. Therefore it makes sense to save hibernation file when you put your desktop into sleep mode while it's on AC power. On the other hand, you expect the laptop to go to sleep faster: close the lid and put it in a bag. – Alexey Ivanov – 2013-02-08T07:35:30.800

@Enigma There's no battery on your screenshot on the left. I don't know whether hybrid sleep is available when there's no battery. – Alexey Ivanov – 2013-02-08T08:00:23.777

There is no battery in the Win 7 machine on the right either (both are desktops). – Enigma – 2013-02-08T08:58:07.810

@Enigma - What type of BIOS do you have. Because UEFI is required for a hybrid shutdown. – Ramhound – 2013-02-20T19:59:41.263

@Ramhound: - I don't think I have UEFI anything. Windows 8 set up it's own boot-loader on the disk while my bios is an up-to-date version for the 770t-c45 MSI motherboard. Is that requirement exclusive to Windows 8? I have it working just fine in Windows 7 on the exact same machine. – Enigma – 2013-03-04T16:59:57.193

@Enigma - Since you don't seem to be sure, you need to verify, if your using a standard bios or UEFI. Post your parition information, if the system is MBR instead of GPT, then you likely booting at the very least in legacy mode. – Ramhound – 2013-03-04T18:06:00.210

@Ramhound - MBR for win 7 (hybrid works). win 8 installs its own boot-loader that is probably still MBR but it might be GPT. – Enigma – 2013-03-04T19:16:44.470

@Enigma - Determine which one it is. My research says otherwise. My own system doesn't support Hybrid Shutdown because its a MBR parition and I am unable to boot to a GPT parition because I don't have a UEFI Bios. – Ramhound – 2013-03-04T20:57:40.800

@Ramhound - It is MBR in both cases. If Win 8 requires GPT + UEFI to support hybrid sleep, that is likely the cause for no support. That would be a very "microsoft" thing to do in disabling a feature because they wanted to force customers to use something new instead. Like I said, Win 7 (MBR and no UEFI) has fully working hybrid sleep. I reverted back to Win 7 as Win 8 had many less than desirable "features". The only one good thing was native multi-monitor taskbars IMO but that can be done with third party software in Win 7 anyways. – Enigma – 2013-05-08T17:53:22.610

@Ramhound No, GPT + UEFI is not required for hybrid sleep. Neither are these required for hybrid shutdown. I've upgraded Vista to Windows 8 on my laptop which is MBR and regular BIOS, both hybrid sleep and hybrid shutdown are supported. I'm quite sure the issue is with drivers, one of them may not support a feature required by Windows 8. – Alexey Ivanov – 2013-05-08T19:17:19.783

@AlexeyIvanov - While it seems plausible that it may be drivers, I also used all of the same drivers in both Win 7 and Win 8. Perhaps it is because there aren't specific Win 8 drivers that set something that Win 8 needs specifically, but I doubt I'll be seeing any updates coming out for them (older hardware). – Enigma – 2013-05-08T19:29:43.270

@Enigma This is what I meant. Although the drivers are the same, they may not implement a feature or state that is required by Windows 8. – Alexey Ivanov – 2013-05-08T19:33:37.680

@AlexeyIvanov - First I never said GPT + UEFI is required for hybrid sleep Hybrid Boot is actually what requires UEFI BIOS which allows for Hybrid Shutdown to even be possible. Hybrid Sleep and Hybrid Shutdown are NOT the same mode. – Ramhound – 2013-05-08T19:57:40.400

@Ramhound - This Q was in regards to Hybrid Sleep though I also wasn't aware of Hybrid Shutdown. Hybrid Boot & Hybrid Shutdown appear to be the same thing though (shutdown -> boot). Technically speaking, there is no such thing as a UEFI BIOS; there is UEFI boot which supersedes BIOS boot but you probably knew that already. Alexey Ivanov claims to have shutdown & sleep (both hybrid) supported with a MBR BIOS (no UEFI or GPT) however. – Enigma – 2013-05-08T20:22:34.093

@Enigma - UEFI is marketed as a BIOS replacement. Its easier to describe then saying UEFI or a legacy BIOS. Alexey might very well have it enabled, Alexey is unlikely to have a legacy BIOS, which I still believe UEFI is required to enabled the feature. Its the main reason everyone wants to issue a "full shutdown" because every new Windows 8 Device has UEFI bios. – Ramhound – 2013-05-08T22:26:54.373

@Ramhound No, you didn't. I made a mistake and mentioned you rather than @Enigma. Anyway UEFI is not required for Hybrid Shutdown either; when it's on, Windows 8 logs off the users and then hibernates the kernel, on the next boot it reads the kernel state from hiberfil.sys and reinitializes software. Yet with UEFI you'll get faster startup times than with BIOS. – Alexey Ivanov – 2013-05-09T06:48:23.693

Answers

Windows 8 still has hybrid sleep. It's usually enabled for desktops, and is disabled for laptops.

I have hybrid sleep on my laptop with Windows 8:
Power Options: Hybrid sleep option in Windows 8

Check Device manager whether there are any unrecognized devices and install drivers if there are any.

The following commands should be run in Command Prompt (cmd.exe) with Administrative privileges.

Check which sleep states your system supports:

powercfg -a
The following sleep states are available on this system:
    Standby ( S3 ) Hibernate Hybrid Sleep
The following sleep states are not available on this system:
Standby (S1)
    The system firmware does not support this standby state.
Standby (S2)
    The system firmware does not support this standby state.

If you cannot see S3 sleep in the list, then there's an issue with drivers. Check for driver updates on the manufacturer website.

Enable Hibernate:

powercfg -h on

Update:

Since it's still unknown which device does not support hybrid sleep, I propose to list all the devices that support different sleep states and then filter the list by comparing.

powercfg /devicequery all_devices
powercfg /devicequery S1_supported
powercfg /devicequery S2_supported
powercfg /devicequery S3_supported
powercfg /devicequery S4_supported

The first command lists all the devices in your system. We already know you system supports S1 (light sleep), so the list for S1 state should also contain all the devices.

The interesting part is S2 (deeper sleep) and S3 (deepest sleep). By subtracting the entries in S3 and S2 lists from the all devices, you will see which devices do not support these deeper sleep states. Then you can try to disable a device (if it's not essential for computer operation) or try to change its driver, and so on.

I believe S3 sleep is what required for hybrid sleep.

In the list above, S4 is hibernation. All your devices seem to support it as well.

Alexey Ivanov

Posted 2013-02-05T02:04:34.140

Reputation: 3 900

So how can I get mine enabled? All device drivers are installed and none are unrecognized. – Enigma – 2013-02-08T16:53:34.763

1@Enigma I have updated my answer with commands to check available sleep states and to enable hibernation. Also look for errors in the Windows system log: Windows + X, Computer Management, Event Viewer, Windows Logs, System. – Alexey Ivanov – 2013-02-12T06:37:10.060

I made an edit to the original post. Hibernation and sleep are both visible and work. It is just Hybrid sleep that is not visible. – Enigma – 2013-02-13T02:02:40.840

I checked in bios and S3 is selected as is last state for the resume option. – Enigma – 2013-02-14T00:09:47.983

@Enigma So now you know “Hybrid Sleep - Standby (S3) is not available.”, and that's the reason why you cannot configure hybrid sleep. The other question is why it's not supported in Windows 8 whereas it was in Windows 7. The most likely answer to this question is drivers. I would start by looking for updated drivers on the motherboard manufacturer website. If there are no drivers for Windows 8, you can try drivers for Windows 7, yet it does not always work. The default drivers Windows installs may not “know” everything about the hardware, and some features can be unavailable. – Alexey Ivanov – 2013-02-14T13:31:44.680

Ok I will look into this. – Enigma – 2013-02-14T14:11:57.313

I installed any/all device drivers that I could for my OS but the option still does not show up. – Enigma – 2013-02-20T15:19:04.623

@Enigma Does it still say Hybrid Sleep is not supported? Then I guess you should somehow look for a device that does not support Hybrid Sleep. – Alexey Ivanov – 2013-02-20T18:22:43.627

I'll try Win 7 on same box and see if its supported in there. I did a comparison between supported/unsupported devices but the list is pretty large - would take some time to go through. – Enigma – 2013-02-20T18:41:45.773

I'd recommend using a script to filter the device lists (yet it requires some programming experience). If it's possible, disconnect all the additional devices, if any, and see whether the situation changes. Comparison with Win7 is a good thing to start, if you still got it available on the same hardware. – Alexey Ivanov – 2013-02-20T18:54:53.947

Hybrid Sleep is usable on Win7 64 on the exact same machine with the same drivers. Sounds like it's a limitation in Windows 8. – Enigma – 2013-02-24T00:11:55.883

@Enigma That's really weird. Anyway there's a difference somewhere between Windows 7 and Windows 8. But I have no more ideas where it can be. Doesn't reinstall of Windows 8 resolve the issue? – Alexey Ivanov – 2013-02-24T17:27:00.460

Perhaps it would but I don't think I'm going to be doing that on this machine any time soon. I'll run through with the commands you put in the update. – Enigma – 2013-02-24T17:33:47.907

@Enigma If you need, I can help with filtering the output of those commands for analysis. – Alexey Ivanov – 2013-02-24T19:50:40.347

I've actually seen manufacturer software disable some of the built-in windows features so that they can only be used through their own, like OEM power management software. Sometimes if you uninstall the software, but crack open the installer and install just the driver itself (if it was removed), it'll show up. – SilverbackNet – 2013-02-28T06:49:39.213

@SilverbackNet I haven't seen that, yet I believe OEMs can do that. Unfortunately, most driver downloads now have large utilities which are installed along with drivers. The worst thing is that some of these utilities are added to autostart for no reason. But anyway sometimes you have to install manufacturer's drivers to fully utilize the features of the hardware. – Alexey Ivanov – 2013-02-28T07:19:40.580

Are there perhaps registry keys that could be tweaked? My hardware clearly supports this feature as I can do it just fine in Windows 7. – Enigma – 2013-03-04T16:56:22.333

There could be. Editing registry settings of the drivers is rather risky. Anyway I don't know which settings to tweak… – Alexey Ivanov – 2013-03-04T19:09:55.093

It seems that your answer is right there. It's telling you that Hyper-V doesn't support that mode. Disable it and try again.

Otherwise, it has to be a driver issue, as one or more drivers are working fine with one and not the other. The system may only recognize the most crucial lines of the driver programming yet not recognize less crucial ones. Ergo, the hardware runs, but it is not compatible with the power settings which you desire.

Ryan

Posted 2013-02-05T02:04:34.140

Reputation: 1