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Most systems have ErP Ready mode on them, however, a large number of users are not aware of it, and do not know what it really is. In the specifics of this article, we shall discuss what ErP Ready means and whether or not you should enable it.
What does ErP-Ready mean in BIOS?
ErP Ready or simply ErP Mode in BIOS is a power management feature that instructs the motherboard to turn off power to all system components. These components include both the Ethernet ports in your system as well USB ports. This means that you will be unable to charge any connected devices while ErP-Ready is enabled in BIOS on your system.
A special directive designed to be followed by different energy-using products such as laundry machines, computers, etc., ErP Ready in BIOS in computers and laptops especially dictates whether or not your system can consume less than 1 watt of energy when in the shutdown state.
The mode offers the security to keep the device shut down until there is an intervention from the user-end, which comes from pressing the power button or using the remote control to power on the device.
Now, what is the point of the feature in BIOS? With reduced costs for households and businesses using ErP on your system, you can save a noticeable amount of energy that would otherwise be wasted. ErP Ready in BIOS on your PC or laptop or other energy using components is a green directive that aims to minimize the environmental impact of wastage of power that stems from devices continuously consuming electricity even when in a shutdown state.
Requirements for ErP system
To enable ErP mode in BIOS on your system, any system must have a motherboard as well as an ErP Ready Power supply to set up. Since it is the motherboard that gives full control to the ErP to shut down every connected device to the system, it is only obvious that one major requirement for ErP is to have a motherboard, to begin with.
When does ErP Ready operate in BIOS?
Since ErP Ready aims to save energy and minimize power loss when the device is inactive or in a shutdown state, ErP Ready in BIOS operates when the computer is in the following modes:
- Sleep Mode
- Shut Down Mode
- Standby/ Hibernate Mode
S5 State in ErP Ready
S5 denotes the shutdown state of a computer, which means when you shut down a computer, it is implied to be in the S5 state.
S5 power state: In the S5 state, also known as the “shutdown” state, the machine performs no computational tasks and does not retain any form of memory state in software or hardware.
Here is how ErP Ready impacts the following factors in the S5 state when enabled in BIOS:
- Power consumption
The power consumption is almost completely down. Why we say ‘almost’ is because there are trace amounts of current still supplied to the power button and a few other components of the system from the power source. This is to ensure that the user can initiate a boot of the system when required.
- Software resumption
With ErP Ready enabled in BIOS, a full boot cycle is required upon waking up, which means that no software state is maintained when the computer is in a shutdown down or S5 state.
- Hardware latency
With ErP Ready enabled in BIOS on your computer, the hardware latency shall be long and undefined, which means that the system will only begin working again with physical interaction with the hardware. You will only be able to revert the system into a working condition or state with direct interaction with the hardware.
For instance, if you are in the S5 state, the system will revert to its wakeful state when there is physical interaction of the operator to the hardware, say by pressing the ‘ON’ button on the computer.
If you wish to awaken the PC from a resume timer, you can do so from the BIOS settings configurable on the machine.
- System hardware context
No hardware context as such is stored/retained in the shutdown state with ErP Ready enabled in BIOS.
S4 State in ErP Ready
S4 State, also known as the ‘hibernation state,’ is the lowest power use setting that, in other words, puts your computer to sleep and has the memory retention while the computer is sleeping. The S4 state has the most stretched wake-up latency amongst any sleeping state.
With ErP Ready enabled in BIOS when you put your computer to the S4 or hibernation mode, the system tries to reduce power consumption to the lowest levels by shutting down all associated power-consuming devices. The OS, on the other hand, is retained at all times throughout the S4 state.
The context to the OS is saved in a ‘hibernate file’. This hibernate file is a picture of the memory before the computer was put in hibernation or S4 state, which the system writes to the disk. The writing of this file is done before your computer enters the hibernation state.
Upon restarting, the loader reads this hibernate file and therefore is able to skip a full boot. This allows it to move on to the system’s earlier pre-hibernation location without booting the whole system.
Here is how ErP Ready impacts the following factors in the S5 state when enabled in BIOS:
- Power consumption
The power consumption is almost completely down. Similar to the S5 state with ErP Ready enabled in BIOS, there are trace amounts of current still supplied to the power button and a few other components of the system from the power source. This is to ensure that the user can initiate a boot of the system when required.
- Software resumption
As mentioned before, with ErP mode enabled in BIOS, the system will save a memory file called the hibernate file before the system enters hibernation. This file will later be read by the loader to restore the operating system to its earlier phase. If the hibernate file encounters any issue and the loader is unable to read it, the system shall require a full reboot in order to bring the system online.
You can always reconfigure or modify the hardware components while the system is in the S4 state, meaning the hibernate file and the system startup may be impacted by the introduction of changes to the hardware.
- Hardware latency
With ErP Ready enabled in BIOS on your computer, the hardware latency shall be long and undefined, which means that the system will only begin working again with physical interaction with the hardware. You will only be able to revert the system into a working condition or state with direct interaction with the hardware.
For instance, if you are in the S4 state, the system will revert to its wakeful state when there is physical interaction of the operator to the hardware, say by pressing the ‘ON’ button on the computer. In a usual state, the S4 also wakes up responding to the inbound signal to the modem or activity on LAN.
However, when you have ErP Ready enabled in BIOS, the system does not wake up even if you have wake-up settings enabled. Any inbound signals to the modem or activity on a LAN are not received by the machine, and therefore, it does not wake up to its working and ‘wakeful’ state.
If you wish to awaken the PC from a resume timer, you can do so from the BIOS settings configurable on the machine.
- System hardware context
There is no system hardware context retention on the system with ErP Ready enabled in BIOS (in S4 state). The only point of difference is that upon an appropriate ‘wake up call’ by the operator, the system resumes from the previous state in the S4 state, unlike the S5 state, which requires a complete system reboot.
What are the features that are unavailable when ErP Ready is enabled in BIOS?
Here is a list of features that are disabled when you turn on ErP Ready in BIOS on your system:
- PME Event Wake Up – Short for ‘power management event’, PME Event Wake Up allows your computer to turn on again spontaneously right after being shut down by the operator. With ErP enabled, the system does not turn on again spontaneously after being shut down by the user.
- Power On By Mouse – Unlike other times, with ErP Ready enabled in BIOS; your system mouse will not wake up the system.
- Power On By Keyboard – You will not be able to return the computer to an awake state by using the keyboard. Unlike other times, with ErP Ready enabled in BIOS, your system keyboard will not wake up the system.
- Wake On LAN – As mentioned before, Wake ON LAN does not make the system return to its wakeful and working state with ErP Ready enabled.
Should you enable ErP Ready in BIOS?
Enabling ErP Ready in BIOS has its fair share of advantages and disadvantages. We have discussed them both below. If you ask us our bit on whether you should enable ErP Ready, we shall say it’s your call depending on whether the advantages weigh higher for you or the disadvantages do.
We do think you should enable ErP Ready if you wish to save power and do not likely use your mouse, keyboard or a LAN to wake up your computer.
Advantages of enabling ErP Ready in BIOS
- ErP shuts down all the power-consuming devices, so it helps in energy conservation. Turning on ErP mode in BIOS can significantly help conserve energy on your computer.
- It does not impact the hardware or the software negatively when you turn on your computer to its wakeful state.
- When you execute the consequent ‘Power On’ on your computer, having ErP Ready enabled allows the motherboard to reserve energy.
- All devices that have been disabled owing to ErP work fine when they are in ‘Standby’.
Disadvantages of enabling ErP Ready in BIOS
- All the power affair handling options don’t show up when you enable ErP.
- Not all power handling options are shown when ErP is enabled in BIOS.
- As mentioned, you will be unable to wake up your PC using the mouse or the keyboard.
- No USB device can be used when the system is in S4 or S5 state with ErP enabled.
- The system does not respond to incoming LAN signals to revert to its working state.
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