Y430: Unsure of what turning off the hard disks actually does... [ Edited ]

[Twilightrose]

I have a Y430 running Vista. I'm now using Lenovo's power management over Vista's (thanks to this forum) but I'm not 100% sure what the selection of "turn hard disks off" does, well, obviously it turns the hard disks off but what does the user experience when that happens? I've noticed that when my computer is put to sleep (even while plugged in) for longer periods of time, it has shut itself down but restarts when I open it up. Is this from the hard disks turning themselves off or is it something else? It seems to only happen after being asleep for more than an hour. It's driving me crazy because it closes everything I had open. I'm the type of user who likes to leave documents, browsers and even games open for long periods. I've scanned for viruses and spyware, but I don't think that is the problem. So, I think it is the hard disks shutting down but since I'm not sure I thought I'd ask.

Moderator note: Type added to subject line for clarity.

Message Edited by Agotthelf on 24-04-2009 10:00 AM

[skripatch · Accepted solution]

It comes of complexity of difficulties in P- and C-states of CPU, Vista driver model and drivers themselves. It can't be cured by anything. The only way for you is using hibernation instead of sleep mode (I do).

Regarding shutting down disks on zero load - it helps to economy energy because stopped HDD consump less power, but spinning up and dwn constantly doesn't make good to HDD itself, so it's prefferably not to use this function.

[Twilightrose]

Pardon my ignorance for a bit longer, I'm really not use to laptops, but if I use hibernation mode will I still be able to leave documents and other programs running without loosing them each time it goes into hibernate?

[ortegaluis]

Upon hibernating the laptop, the memory allocated to RAM will be copied to the hard disk and then power off completely. This includes all programs, documents, games, etc., etc that were open at the time. When you power on the laptop once again, it copies everything back into RAM. Nothing should have been lost. You can continue using your laptop as if nothing happened.

[Twilightrose]

Thanks!