Anyone used an Ecobutton?

PeteC · 2009/05/18

My energy supplier is offering a deal on the Ecobutton - supposedly puts the computer into a deeper sleep state than Standby .....

Q: What kind of sleep mode does ecobuttonâ„¢ actually engage, is it just the normal Standby mode? ^

A: No, ecobuttonâ„¢ does not employ the normal Standby mode (although you may get the on screen message 'Preparing to Standby' when you use your ecobuttonâ„¢). The mode that ecobuttonâ„¢ engages is a deeper energy saving mode than the regular Standby mode you usually find as default on a Windows PC.

On most PCs there are 4 inbuilt sleep states - S1, S2, S3 and S4. With each successive sleep state, from S1 to S4 (hibernate), more of the computer is shut down. However, the majority of PCs are actually supplied with S2 and S3 disabled leaving just the most shallow sleep state (S1) and the deepest (S4 hibernate) available to most users. Most people tend not to use hibernate due to the length of time the PC takes to wake up leaving just S1 as the only convenient option.

The sleep states built into most PCs are as follows:

S1 = Basic Standby (Shallow sleep). Typically wakes up in no more than two seconds
S2 = Less power consumption than S1 and greater than in S3. Wake up is usually two seconds or slightly more.
S3 = Less power consumption than in S2. Wake up time is the same as S2.
S4 (hibernate) = The lowest power state but with a long wake up time - sometimes a few minutes or more.

ecobuttonâ„¢ re-educates your PC to use S3 when the ecobuttonâ„¢ is pressed.
Click to expand...

System Sleep States

Any experience of this device out there?

wildfire · 2009/05/18

I have no experience of this device at all, so for anyone reading please bear that in mind.

Pete,

I still strongly believe in "if it's too good to be true then it probably is ". I know by experience there can (often) be problems waking a system from an S4 state and even occasionally from an S1 state.

The above device is not ecological in my opinion, what is wrong with waiting a couple of minutes for your system to start up?

I'll concede to a lack of knowledge in this area however, and look forward to others discussion.

PeteC · 2009/05/19

The devil is in the detail - or rather the lack of it ......

No mention or estimate of the power saved over and above the normal Standby mode which I admit to not using on the basis that the greatest strain on hard drives, etc is on powering up and if a hard drive goes down the replacement cost outweighs any savings made through the use of standby.

That said I there is more than a hint of green about me and I should perhaps reconsider the use of Standby. Although my bios supports S1 & S3 I suspect that the power savings between the two states are minimal and S3 more risky than S1.

The only advantage I see with the Ecobutton is the ability to hit it and get instant Standby rather than Winkey-U-S which only works in XP.

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Anyone used an Ecobutton?

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