HP EliteBook 855 G7 – No Sleep Options Available (BIOS 01.17.01)

[MikeSlovakia]

Hi all,

I’m using an HP EliteBook 855 G7 (Product Number: 1J6L9EA, Serial Number: 5CG036G09B) and I’ve noticed that none of the usual Sleep modes are available—no S3, no Modern Standby, nothing.

When I run powercfg -a in Windows 11 Pro, it shows that all standby states are unsupported by system firmware. Hibernate works, but that’s the only option. I’ve also checked the BIOS (version 01.17.01, dated 07/09/2024), and under Power Management Options I don’t see any settings related to ACPI, S3 Sleep, or Low Power Idle.

Does anyone know:

1. Whether Sleep mode is actually supported on this model?

2. If this BIOS version disables sleep support?

3. Whether there’s a way to re-enable it or roll back to a BIOS version that allows it?

Any help or insight would be hugely appreciated—happy to provide screenshots or logs if helpful.

Thanks!

[TzortzisG]

Hi MikeSlovakia.

- Whether Sleep mode is actually supported on this model?

Yes, the Elitebook 855G7 and all the G7 systems in general have sleep capabilities. However, since HP was an early adopter of the S0ix software-based pseudosleep state called modern standby, S3 sleep will be disabled on these systems on a BIOS level. Even by using the registry hack that disables modern standby and even if powercfg reports S3 as available, it simply won't work. S0 low power idle is the only other option to hibernate on these machines. Since it is software-based Sleep and there are many prerequisites for it to work correctly (and thus appear enabled on powercfg -a) having it reported as disabled just means one of the requirements isn't met. This could be anything, from a bad driver, to a wrong setting on windows, literally anything.

- If this BIOS version disables sleep support? Whether there’s a way to re-enable it or roll back to a BIOS version that allows it?

There's nothing wrong with the BIOS version you have, and neither downgrading or upgrading will help you with your issue. Since S3 is disabled permanently on all HP modern laptops, you need to find a way to get Modern Standby to work again. This type of issue is very common: https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Notebook-Operating-System-and-Recovery/Modern-Standby-Windows-11-23H2-.... I would try enabling-disabling the registry hack, if that doesn't work, reinstalling a clean OS is a good start to debugging this. You can also read this discussion ( "Laptop has no sleep option or sleep states?" ) that should give you some pointers.

To be honest, personally I'm not a fan of Modern (connected) Standby. On my G8-G9 systems I turn it off and just enable Hibernate. An idle state where my system does all sorts of things is of no real use to me. But I guess every user is different and has different needs. Post back if you need more help....