As you can see below, there is no hybrid sleep option like there is in Windows 8. Is it enabled by default with sleep or hibernation or is it gone entirely?

no hybrid sleep <- Windows 8 vs Windows 7 -> has hybrid sleep

Edit:

PS C:\Users\User> powercfg.exe -a
The following sleep states are available on this system:
    Standby (S1)
    Hibernate
    Fast Startup

    The following sleep states are not available on this system:
        Standby (S2)
            The system firmware does not support this standby state

        Standby (S3)
            The system firmware does not support this standby state

        Standby (Connected)
            The hypervisor does not support this standby state.
            The system firmware does not support this standby state

        Hybrid Sleep
            Standby (S3) is not available.
            The hypervisor does not support this standby state.

Is there a way to enable S3 in BIOS or does my motherboard just not support it?

Update: Hybrid Sleep is usable on Win7 64 on the exact same machine with the same drivers. Sounds like it's a limitation in Windows 8 but I would like to know what's missing if that isn't the case.


Solution 1:

Windows 8 still has hybrid sleep. It's usually enabled for desktops, and is disabled for laptops.

I have hybrid sleep on my laptop with Windows 8:
Power Options: Hybrid sleep option in Windows 8

Check Device manager whether there are any unrecognized devices and install drivers if there are any.


The following commands should be run in Command Prompt (cmd.exe) with Administrative privileges.

Check which sleep states your system supports:

powercfg -a
The following sleep states are available on this system:
    Standby ( S3 ) Hibernate Hybrid Sleep
The following sleep states are not available on this system:
Standby (S1)
    The system firmware does not support this standby state.
Standby (S2)
    The system firmware does not support this standby state.

If you cannot see S3 sleep in the list, then there's an issue with drivers. Check for driver updates on the manufacturer website.

Enable Hibernate:

powercfg -h on

Update:

Since it's still unknown which device does not support hybrid sleep, I propose to list all the devices that support different sleep states and then filter the list by comparing.

powercfg /devicequery all_devices
powercfg /devicequery S1_supported
powercfg /devicequery S2_supported
powercfg /devicequery S3_supported
powercfg /devicequery S4_supported

The first command lists all the devices in your system. We already know you system supports S1 (light sleep), so the list for S1 state should also contain all the devices.

The interesting part is S2 (deeper sleep) and S3 (deepest sleep). By subtracting the entries in S3 and S2 lists from the all devices, you will see which devices do not support these deeper sleep states. Then you can try to disable a device (if it's not essential for computer operation) or try to change its driver, and so on.

I believe S3 sleep is what required for hybrid sleep.

In the list above, S4 is hibernation. All your devices seem to support it as well.