Windows 8 is destroying a new computer experience for me

I purchased an Asus T100 Transformer Book (Atom Z3740) to replace my first generation iPad, which Apple has slowly butchered with OS updates over the last four years.

I realize the T100 is far from perfect but, for my uses, it is almost perfect. The biggest problem I have is that in order to stop the battery from draining to nothing in less than a day, I need to completely power-down the device every time I stop using it. This involves closing all running apps. This is a complete pain for me.

I have learned of Windows 8.1's Connected Standby. I understand it is not supposed to drain much battery life but, in my case, it is ruining my experience with this device. I don't know why the battery is draining so quickly but I feel the operating system is to blame for not providing some sort of sleep or hibernation function that I could use to stop the battery from being depleted when I'm not using the device.

I'm not very familiar with the technical reasons why the Z3740 functions only with Connected Standby and why a sleep or hibernation option is not available. Does anyone know what the feasibility of adding a sleep or hibernate to the T100 is? Does the UEFI completely prevent this? Is a third-party solution possible? If MS wanted to allow for the option, could they?

Thanks,

David

1. Hold down your Windows Key and push X at the same time.
2. Choose Command Prompt (Admin)
3. Copy the line below by highlighting it, then rt.clicking it and choosing copy

powercfg /a

4. Go back to your command prompt, place your mouse pointer on the blinking screen cursor and click your right mouse button once - this should paste the command you copied above. Hit enter.
5. The results will tell you exactly which sleep states are supported by your system.
6. Report back and let us know what you found.

I've had the experience of working with an ASUS T100 Transformer and a member here also has one. Battery life should be a good 8-10+ hours.

Have you gone through and installed EVERY update available? You might have a chipset driver that needs updating.

Lastof:

Connected Standby, Hibernate and Fast Startup are the only states available.

I am now using a forced-hibernate through command prompt to shut down the device.

I'd like to also have it enter hibernation through a screen fold. After hours of reading it seems that will be the best solution for me.

daved31415 said:

Lastof:

Connected Standby, Hibernate and Fast Startup are the only states available.

I am now using a forced-hibernate through command prompt to shut down the device.

I'd like to also have it enter hibernation through a screen fold. After hours of reading it seems that will be the best solution for me.

Click to expand...

You can configure these options in the power options control panel:

1. Windows Key + X
2. Power Options
3. Choose 'Change Plan Settings' underneath whichever Power Scheme you are using
4. Change Advanced Power Settings

Here you should be able to configure what happens when you close the lid, various timeout settings, etc.

Welcome to Windows Eight Forums, daved31415.

Very nice ultrabook! Comparable to the Surface.

How old is it? Have you considered that the battery may be defective? Also, it may be that it's not charging 100% even though it says it is.

It claims to have 11 hours of life in their advertising. You may want to consider exchanging it for a replacement.

Lastof:

I've tried changing power options before, the only selections available in the "drop down" box are "do nothing, sleep (Connected Standby) and shutdown." Hibernate is not an option.

Hippsie:

Battery life is as expected if I'm simply using the device. It's when I'm not using the device that I have a problem. I lost only 25% of battery after over 2 hours of web surfing earlier. The problem would have been if I folded the screen down to put the system into sleep (Connected Standby) and left it until tomorrow. Then the battery would have likely been under 50%, possibly under 25%. I often find that the battery is dead when I expect plenty of life to be reaming from my last use.

Try this:

1. Windows Key + X
2. Command Prompt (Admin)
3. As before, copy line below:

powercfg /h on

4. Go to the Command Prompt window, rt. click once to paste the command you copied above. Hit enter.
5. Restart Computer
6. Go into Power Options, and see if Hibernate is now enabled as a choice, or check your shutdown/restart menu (where you usually turn your computer off) - is Hibernate available?

Lastof: Hibernate is still not available after running powercfg /h as Admin from command prompt. I've been using "shutdown /f /h" to enter hibernation (through a desktop icon for convenience) but I'd prefer to have the machine do this anytime the screen (lid) is closed.

After finding a way to add Hibernate to my close lid action options, I will need to find a way to disable and enable the touchpad driver after resuming since there are issues with it functioning. I've been using the device manager but it is not an efficient solution.

Looking back at the questions I asked in my original post, from what I understand at this time the Atom processor does not support the older style ACPI S3 sleep mode. Hibernation, however, seems to function for the most part. Maybe Hibernation was disabled on the T100 to decrease the amount of data that is written to the SSD. I would expect pagefile to be much more demanding than swapfile.

I think you might be right about the Atom cpu ,my acer one doesn't hibernate either ,only sleeps ,and battery life has the same affect a yours when left asleep a long time