Problem with Win7 USB Power Management settings

Question

Here's one for Windows 7 experts... I've had occasional problems with my USB mouse (not wireless) dying on me. The optical light goes out, and the mouse is dead. If I unplug and re-plug the mouse at the USB port, it comes back to life.

Searching for a solution, I found the following suggestion:

Device Manager
> Universal Serial Bus controllers
(for each instance)
> USB Root Hub
> Properties (right click)
> Power Management (tab)
> Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power (uncheck)

Now here's the thing... I'm not sure if prohibiting Win7 from allowing the computer turn off USB devices is a viable solution. My still mouse occasionally locks up, but when I check the Power Management tabs, they're all checked again. This has happened at least three times now.

Does anyone know how/why Windows 7 is overriding my settings? And more importantly, how I can make my settings "stick?"

Many, many thanks.

RoHe · Answer

When you make those changes, are you logged into an account with Administrator privileges? Do you have to "run as administrator"...?

A corrupt user profile..?

Maybe your security software is preventing the changes from "sticking'..??

Ron

Neal Miller · Answer

I've just confirmed that my default account has Administrator privileges - I have never been prompted to 'run...' anything '... as administrator.'  I have no reason to believe my profile is corrupt, but if you know of any smoking guns I might check for, please let me know.  Security software is unlikely.  Outside of Win7 security, the only security-related software I'm running is AVG Antivirus, which is unlikely to be the culprit.

RoHe · Answer

Don't know anything specific. My suggestions were just 'generic' things that might be causing the problem you're seeing.

In the "good ole days", there was an XP registry tweak to "save settings on exit" which forced XP to save any changes you made. You might want to google around and see if there's a similar tweak for Win 7.

Or maybe somebody else has the solution...

Ron

Neal Miller · Answer

I may have found a solution, but it's too soon to say...

Under Change Power-Saving Settings (just type the string in the Start>Run box) I'd already specified "High Performance." However, if you click the associated Change Plan Settings link, then click Change advanced power settings, you get a few more options.

On the menu, expand USB settings, then expand USB selected suspend setting, and you can toggle it to "Disabled." I did so this morning, and seven hours (and one reboot) later, the settings I configured using Device Manager have not reverted.

It appears that this setting was quietly overriding my power settings in Device Manager. Theoretically, if I now used Device Manager to enable each of the USB root hubs, they'd eventually be overridden in the other direction, though I have no intention of experimenting in this regard.

This hypothesis also means that it is impossible to permanently enable/disable specific USB root hubs - it's all or nothing. I'll post back with my findings (either way) in a few days. In the meantime, I'm wide open to any other thoughts or observations.

RoHe · Answer

Thanks for telling us what you found. Will be useful to other forum users who experience the same problem. Microsoft couldn't have made this any more complicated if they tried...! :emotion-40: Ron

Neal Miller · Answer

Well, it's been a few days, and my mouse hasn't shut down.  Nor have the individual USB Root Hub settings in the Device Manager reassumed their old settings.  I think this one's been solved.  Hopefully, someone will come across this post when they have a similar problem. :)

Windows General

Problem with Win7 USB Power Management settings

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