Thread: Windows XP Hibernating Power Question

You can leave it *on* for months. Hibernation uses zero power. What it does is it puts everything in the RAM onto your hard drive, so when you boot up again it just loads it back into your RAM. I recommend restarting weekly regardless because with Hibernation, Windows doesn't quite clean up after itself and your RAM will be used more and more each time. But yes, use hibernation over shutting it down.

You also might want to check out some tweaks for making the WinXP boot faster, the first of which is to remove junk from your start up. 'Start' -> 'Run' -> 'msconfig' -> 'startup pane' and have fun! You normally don’t need anything other then your keyboard and mice drivers, if they have extended options (Like my Logitech keyboard has a bunch of extra buttons, and a driver called ‘iTouch’ which I have auto startup.)

SiGmA_X is correct, you can hibernate forever. Well not you, but your computer.

As for speeding up your boot times, be sure that you tweak the BIOS correctly. This means setting IDE devices (no auto detect), killing and memory checks or virus scans, enabeling fast boot option, etc.

Awsome, I appreciate the tips guys! I will have to reconfigure my carputer now. You guys do know I am talking about while my car is off...I just wantd to make sure you guys know. Thanks again

Yup, car on or off, you can still hibernate

GuRuGoD - It's SiGmA_X

Rom, GuRuGoD is totally right BIOS tweaks will help you for sure! There is a feature in most BIOS'es that will allow you to turn off BIOS Virus Checking (To make what GuRuGoD said perhaps a little clearer) but if you don't have the option don't worry, you probably don't have it enabled

I would look into disabling everything on the motherboard that you don't need as well. If you have Serial-ATA and aren't using it, turn it off. Same with onboard RAID and stuff like that. Also, make your boot up order (BIOS) be just for your main hard drive, no need for floppy or CS boot once your system is running. And if you need it, you can always change it later.

Fixed Above, sorry.

Np. We all make mistakes (*Cough* Nuke *Cough*) Heh

Oh, I got most of my stuff turned off and its pretty tweaked, but it still takes a while to boot windows, I think its the hard drive or something, I plan on taking it back up to my comp. room to work on it some more...I dont get my license for another 1 1/2 . And my stupid aunt lost the title to the car so I cant drive it at all.