Rebooting your PC won't solve all of your performance issues - for that read our handy guide to speeding up your PC.

That's why you should still reboot your PC every so often. This can be due to its memory filling up or to the amount of temporary files created, among other reasons. But don’t worry, once the battery is critical, your laptop will automatically use hibernation (see below) to completely shut down and prevent any data loss.Īlso, Windows and macOS and your apps tend to slow down and become a bit unreliable after a few days without being shut down. You might wake up your laptop later to discover its lost significant amount of battery life. Sleep still consumes just a bit of battery and while it usually takes days (or weeks!) for a device on sleep to drain a fully charged battery, it’s something to be aware of. The cons of putting your PC or Mac to sleep Once you open the laptop or push a button, your laptop is instantly ready with all your applications running - and you can keep on working. Sleep mode is the best and easiest option when you’re just quickly taking a break from work and have enough battery power left (or when your laptop is connected to the power outlet). That RAM is then the only thing that draws batter and unnecessary built-in devices like your laptops processor, hard disk or DVD drive are powered down to save power. Sleep is a very power efficient way to give your device a quick rest without completely shutting it down: Once you click on that option (or close your laptop lid), everything you’re working on and everything that's running, such as Windows or macOS and your applications, are kept in your computer's main memory (the Random Access Memory, or RAM). Sleep mode What happens when you put your PC or Mac computer to sleep If you don’t feel like saving all your work but you need to go away for a while, hibernation is your best option.Įvery once in a while it’s wise to completely shutdown your computer to keep it fresh. In situations where you just need to quickly take a break, sleep (or hybrid sleep) is your way to go. When to shut down, sleep, or hibernate your laptop?

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