tl;dr: Dear Lenovo, please re-enable S3 Sleep in the firmware (if possible).

Proud owner of a shiny new ThinkPad T16 gen 2 (AMD) here, running Windows 11 Pro.  It's a nice machine, but I am VERY disappointed with the Sleep function.

For those who may not know (like me, until recently), putting your PC to sleep nowadays is not like it used to be.  Suffice to say, the "old" way is referred to as "S3".  The new way is called "S0 Modern Standby", and it SUCKS!  It allows your computer to wake up instantly (like a smartphone), but it doesn't save your battery at all because things are still running in the background, despite being "asleep".  In fact, I allowed my ThinkPad to go to sleep the other day for 2.5 hours and when I woke it up, it had lost 21% of the battery charge!  Unacceptable.  (and yes, my machine has all the latest updates from Lenovo Vantage as well as Windows Update)

To be clear, Lenovo did not invent this S0 Modern Standby.  If you want more detail, check this out: https://www.elevenforum.com/t/disable-modern-standby-in-windows-10-and-windows-11.3929/  According to that article, S0 can theoretically be disabled and S3 re-enabled, but the firmware has to support it.  I tried the procedure in that article and found out that the firmware on my machine does not support S3.  When I disabled S0, the only sleep state that was listed as "available" was Hibernation.  I've always preferred Sleep (the old kind) to Hibernation.  In my view, hibernation isn't much better than just shutting the computer down.

So I'm begging you Lenovo, please please PLEASE give me my old Sleep back!  Give us firmware that supports S3 sleep once again.  You can leave in the support for S0 for those who like it better, but please don't force us old-timers to use this modern garbage.

By the way, gentle reader, I also learned about a nice command to get a diagnostic power system transition report.  Open an elevated command prompt and issue the command "powercfg /sleepstudy".  Gives a ridiculous amount of detail regarding your laptop's recent history regarding power state, sleep, hibernation, battery levels, etc.

Hello crispy42,

Welcome to Lenovo Community

I understand that you wanted S3 sleep mode on your ThinkPad T16 Gen 2 AMD.
The number of systems supporting Modern Standby rather than S3 is increasing over time.
This is a sleep mode set by Microsoft for Windows 10 desktop and Windows 10X (and Window 11).
Some new computers don't offer S3 option anymore, especially if it is not available in BIOS.
Kindly check the Modern Standby FAQ for more details.
Hope this helps.

Regards, 
Lorenzo_Lenovo

Thank you for your reply, Lorenzo.

I understand that it is Microsoft who is pushing this Modern Standby on everyone.  But I also understand (from many online posts like the one I linked to above) that *some* people have been able to switch their computers from using Modern Standby (S0) to using the old S3 Sleep.  So it is possible, *if* the hardware/firmware support both S0 and S3.

I was just politely requesting that Lenovo consider providing a firmware/BIOS/UEFI update that has support for both S0 and S3.

Hi,

for some laptop models (e.g., T14s Gen 3 AMD), the S3 option was available as "Sleep mode" setting in the BIOS. If this setting was switched to "Linux", the computer would use S3 sleep mode.

Unfortunately, later BIOS versions removed this option. I've written a blog post on how to downgrade the BIOS. If you go back to the right version, the option will reappear.

Good luck,

Max

Hi Max,

Thank you for the excellent blog post.  Like you, I have read many stories online about Sleep problems and potential fixes (and not just Lenovo products).  It's a shame that Microsoft and Lenovo are ignoring so many of their customers.

To add to your disclaimer (about potential problems with downgrading your BIOS) in the blog post, I also read that Windows 11 doesn't like it when you do that and some users have had to reinstall the OS.  That isn't necessarily a big deal, but people should be aware that it could happen before attempting to downgrade (make a backup first, people!).  Unfortunately, I can't find the reference to that issue at the moment.

I'm seriously considering returning my laptop over this issue (to let Lenovo know just how displeased I am), so I probably won't try the downgrade just yet.  But then again, like you, I do like the hardware.  I've read that S0 Modern Standby isn't as bad under Linux as it is under Windows, so I may try that.  I know it didn't solve your "no wake from sleep" issue, but my issue is the huge battery drain during sleep, as well as random wake-ups (and it stays warm the whole time as well).

Of course, the real solution would be for Lenovo to fix their BIOS and for Microsoft to abandon Modern Standby, but I'm not confident that either of those things will happen.

Cheers,

Chris

Thanks for the hint Chris, I've updated the disclaimer with the new information.

I understand your frustration about Lenovo, feeling the same way!

Regards,

Max

Just for completeness, I found a reference for my statement above about the need to reinstall Windows after changing the BIOS sleep setting.  It is from way back in 2020 and doesn't mention Windows 11 at all, but it is directly from Microsoft.

Modern Standby FAQs

Thanks for the update.

Regards, 
Lorenzo_Lenovo

I need it too for t14s g4 ryzen.

Laptop manufacturers in the past were brave to s3 but they are chicken today. They are afraid of microsoft to put s3 capability