Hibernation Support on Surface

Hibernation support is disabled by default on every Surface device since Microsoft introduced a new modern standby feature on them. The modern standby allows your surface benefits from instant on/off, background activity while the system is off, and a simplified wake story feature.

Even modern standby allows you to resume your work instantly but it does drain a bit of your battery juice. If you plan not to resume your anytime soon, you should hibernate your Surface to completely stop the battery drain. In this article, I will guide you on how you can hibernate your Surface right from the power menu in the start menu.

Note The following instruction is only applicable for Surface PCs that operate with Windows 8.1 or Windows 10 Home or Pro. Windows 8.1 RT does not support hibernation.

  • Applicable for: Surface Pro, Surface Pro 2, Surface Pro 3, Surface Pro 4, Surface Pro (2017), Surface Book, Surface Laptop, and Surface Studio.
  • Not Applicable for: Surface RT and Surface 2.

Table of contents

  1. How to check the Hibernate option in System Power Settings
  2. Turning on Hibernation Support via Command Line or PowerShell