A common issue, even after all this time.
You would think, after all this time, that sleep mode (also known as standby) would be more reliable. I wrote that in 2014, when the first version of this article was published, and it’s still true 12 years later, in 2026.
Sadly, sleep mode is still not completely reliable.
I’ll explain why that is, what I do, and what steps you can take.
Waking from sleep
Sleep mode has never been completely reliable, and unfortunately, it still isn’t. It depends on your computer’s device drivers all working together just right, and that doesn’t always happen. Try updating your BIOS and possibly certain device drivers. If it keeps failing, switch to hibernate mode or just shut down completely.
Sleep is special
Sleep mode is kind of special. When you put your computer to sleep, it’s turned off, but not really. Certain parts of the system remain powered or partially powered. RAM is the obvious example; it’s given enough power so it doesn’t lose its contents.
Hardware devices, from printers to monitors and many more, handle sleep a little differently than a complete shutdown. Some put themselves into a low-power state that can be turned on again more quickly than if they had been fully powered off. For sleep mode to work, almost every device needs to know about sleep. Almost every device needs to do something different when it’s told that the system is about to enter sleep, or when the system wakes up from sleep.
Now, PCs and Windows are awesome in that you can get computers and hardware from hundreds of different manufacturers. The problem is that we end up with hundreds of thousands of different combinations of hardware.
And every one of the drivers for each possible piece of hardware needs to:
- Play well with all of the others and
- Handle sleep appropriately.
The fundamental problem with sleep, in my opinion, is that the drivers for some pieces of hardware still can’t handle the special nature of sleep mode properly 100% of the time.
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Sleep compared to hibernation
Hibernation mode sidesteps most of these problems by shutting down your computer completely. The difference is that your computer’s state is saved when it’s shut down. Then, when you turn the computer back on, it doesn’t go through the normal start-from-scratch process, but rather reloads the saved state and carries on more or less as if nothing had happened.
While hardware devices can be aware of hibernation, for most, it’s closer to a normal shutdown and restart. As a result, hibernating, while not without the occasional issue, is generally more stable than sleeping.
It varies dramatically
What’s frustrating is that even though sleep mode has improved over the years, you can’t assume it’ll work properly on whatever computer you happen to have. Because it’s highly dependent on device drivers, and because those drivers vary dramatically between computer makes and models, sleep mode on one computer might be solid as a rock and be completely broken on another.
As I said, it’s gotten better over the years, but even today there’s no way to predict which way it will go.
My approach to sleep mode
I used to avoid sleep mode completely. These days, I’ll give sleep a chance.
When I get a new laptop, or after I’ve performed a clean install of Windows, I’ll try sleep mode a few times and see what happens. If it seems reliable, then I’ll use it as needed.
On the other hand, if it fails — usually a failure to wake up so I have to long-press the power button to force a reboot — then I avoid it on that machine. Instead, I’ll either use hibernation (after a few tests of that as well) or simply shut the computer down completely.
Do this
If you want to try to get sleep mode to work reliably, I suggest two things.
- Check for BIOS/UEFI updates from your system’s manufacturer. Much of the power management in a PC is performed at the BIOS/UEFI level, and as a result, it’s heavily involved in sleep mode.
- Look for updated drivers for relevant hardware components. In your case, I’d start with a network interface. Check with the manufacturer for updated network drivers. Other hardware that can quickly come into play includes video drivers, so updating those is also a good place to start.
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In the past, I didn’t use sleep, but lately, on my laptop, I just shut the lid when finished and it goes to sleep and I’ve never had a problem with it. Maybe sleep has improved or maybe that laptop happens to interact well with sleep.
5 years later, I still often shut the lid to put laptop to sleep and haven’t had any problems.
I think one reason is that peripheral manufacturers are doing better and coordinating with laptop makers for compatibility. The Windows Hardware Compatibility Program (WHCP) Certification helps with that somewhat.
I used to try to put my desktop to sleep, but even the slightest movement of the table the mouse is on will move the mouse enough to wake it.
I like to use sleep – because the Macrium Reflect backup system you recommended has a “wake computer from sleep” setting – and I’ve assumed that I need to put the computer to sleep at night (rather than Hibernate), so it can be woken at 2am by Macrium (which is when I’ve set the daily backup to happen).
Have I misunderstood something? Would it wake from hibernate too? If so, how do I make it hibernate – when I click the Windows icon on my Dell PC, and Power, I’m only offered Lock, Sleep, Shutdown and Restart. Where do I find Hibernate?
If it’s working, you’re fine. Sleep doesn’t work for everyone.
I don’t think it’ll wake from Hibernate.
Hibernate is a full shutdown which saves the state of RAM before shutting down. It’s no more possible for a program to wake it from hibernation than to turn it on from a normal shutdown,