Windows 10's new standby can 'kill' laptop batteries

The culprit is the new Modern Standby feature developed by Microsoft.

One thing that many laptop users are accustomed to doing is closing the screen and ensuring that the device goes into Sleep or Hibernate mode, which consumes less power. This is basically nothing wrong, but a new study conducted by notebookcheck.net experts has shown that standby status on some modern laptop models can cause system problems, resulting in overheating and excessive power consumption.

Take examples of three laptop models that experience overheating while in Sleep: Dell XPS 15 7590, Asus ZenBook 15 and Lenovo IdeaPad S740. Experts measured an average power consumption of up to 27.4 W when the devices were closed and in Sleep mode during the night. Temperatures on the bottom of the device can reach up to 50 degrees Celsius as shown in the heat chart below, even though they are in 'sleep' mode - an extremely unusual phenomenon because under normal conditions, The power consumption rate of the laptop in sleep mode is just under 2W.

Windows 10's new standby can 'kill' laptop batteries Picture 1 Windows 10's new standby can 'kill' laptop batteries Picture 1 Windows 10's new standby can 'kill' laptop batteries Picture 2

The same is true of many other popular Windows 10 laptop models currently used by users from Lenovo, Dell, Surface, and Asus.

The culprit is the new Modern Standby feature developed by Microsoft to replace the old S3 source state mode that most of us are familiar with. Modern Standby allows background activities such as system updates, online downloads, music playback, reminders, notifications and other important programs to remain active while the device is in a 'sleep' state, causing the Power consumption increased. Worse, even if background update operations are completed and WiFi connection is disabled, overheating can still occur.

In addition, turning off Modern Standby and returning to using S3 mode is not easy. This feature has put users in more trouble than it is useful, especially when most users are not even aware of its existence and disadvantages compared to the traditional Sleep feature. Microsoft should have a solution to this problem as soon as possible.