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Powered USB When PC is Off
darkcircuit
Member Posts: 211
in Hardware
Hey all,
Does anyone else have a problem where their PC's USB ports aren't powered when the PC is off?
I recently upgraded my entire PC, which has resulted in the above behaviour. This has had a knock-on effect that my wireless mouse is no longer charged and means that when I goto use it it is usually flat and I have to use it wired throughout my use of the computer.
Has anyone else encountered this problem and if so, how did you resolve it?
For reference my MB is an MSI P67A-GD53.
P.S. the charging cradle is actually the wireless receiver so I can't plug the cradle into a wall socket adaptor, has to be plugged into the PC.
Comments
It is actually a safety system. Using power for stuff like that when your PC is turned off is rather pointless and I never even seen a motherboard that does that in many years.
If you for some reason needs powered USB ports while the computer is off you really should get a USB hub with a external power source.
Most external mouses have a docking cable for this reason.
My recommendation is that you either get a USB hub that you can plug in separatley or that you instead of turning the computer off just uses sleepmode. It is the simplest thing that require nothing extra.
Thanks for your reply.
My old MX revolution came with a seperate cable for powering the charging cradle which is great, but I have since upgraded to a Razer Mamba and now only have the usb header for power. You say that USB headers are no longer powered for safety reasons, but I feel that leaving your PC on all the time is sleep mode is definately not safe to do (especially when your at work all day or asleep in bed).
Guess I have no choice, but to go the powered hub route which isn't ideal as I feel that giving you an option to turn on this functionality in the bios or via jumpers on the MB would be a much nicer solution.
I've been doing a bit of googling and typically I go with Belkin for this kind of thing, but I can't find a decent USB hub from them that comes with a power adaptor, does anyone have any recommendations for a decent compact powered USB hub (maximum of 4 ports to keep it compact)?
Motherboards have to be wired specifically to offer USB power even when the computer is off in order to make that work. A motherboard manufacturer can do that or not. Some do and some don't.
I don't think it's a safety issue. Even USB 3.0 is only rated at 0.9 A and 5 V, which comes to 4.5 W. That's not dangerous.
Yeah, I don't think any of it is a safety issue: the USB Power, or putting your computer to Sleep rather than Off.
USB Power is mainly because it's an added expense that most people don't care about. A powered external hub easily remedies that problem. There isn't really any safety issue there. Laptops don't typically do it for the obvious battery concern. Gigabyte calls it "On/Off USB Charge Port".
Sleep versus Off: again, no safety issue. Hibernation uses the same power draw as off (all your RAM gets written to the hard drive, and the computer shuts completely down anyway). Even normal Sleep, only the DIMMs get a small amount of power (to retain their contents). Unless you are talking about performing work on the inside of the case, in which case you should always remove the power cable (and battery from a laptop) and properly ground yourself - which would remove power from the computer even if it were Sleeping (or even fully running).
I believe all that you need to do is to go into your CMOS and under power management, disable the EuP 2013 setting.
All of my posts are either intelligent, thought provoking, funny, satirical, sarcastic or intentionally disrespectful. Take your pick.
I get banned in the forums for games I love, so lets see if I do better in the forums for games I hate.
I enjoy the serenity of not caring what your opinion is.
I don't hate much, but I hate Apple© with a passion. If Steve Jobs was alive, I would punch him in the face.
On a laptop, even if the thing is plugged in I think the danger is far more to the hardware than you. My laptop is relatively beefy (for something with a non-Nvidia GPU
), and its power pack is only capable of delivering 70W. I think I'd have to try pretty hard to hurt myself on that (maybe sticking one's tongue to the power circuitry while it's plugged in?).
On a desktop, there's more concern, partly because they're capable of drawing/outputting an order of magnitude more power (if it's really beefy), and partly because you have parts with giant capacitors attached, especially in the PSU, that can hurt you very badly. Still, a USB port isn't going to do anything. Even if <5W was dangerous, you'd have to try pretty hard to actually touch the leads on the USB port
.005 amps is fatal
.9 amps is enough juice to kill quite a few people.
Just saying.
Not that its likely
To the caterpillar it is the end of the world, to the master, it is a butterfly.
At 500000 V, perhaps. At 5 V, not unless it's very carefully targeted at some very sensitive areas. Meaning, not something you could accidentally do.
Thats actually what MSI told me to do this morning, but I'm afraid it didn't work
Was really crossing my fingers that it would. Guess its my own fault for buying an MSI MB, from the poor Engrish in their manuals to their poorly explained bios 
Actually the military uses 30V as their threshold for "lethal" voltage - the amperage is about right: I had heard 1mA is noticeable, 5mA hurts, and anything over 10mA can cause muscle spasms and potentially be lethal since it may not be possible to let go of the power source.
But I = V / R (Ohm's Law), and your body resistance is highly variable (and typically pretty high) - so you do need a good bit of voltage to push that current. Now you would have to be standing in salt water with an open wound to actually get a lethal shock from 30V - but on a ship at sea that's remotely possible. While working on a USB port, not really likely, and the only place there is more than 30V inside a computer in the first place would be inside the sealed part of a power supply where you have line voltage.
It doesn't look like the motherboard has wake from USB except in S3, so if the EuP2013 setting didn't change anything then a powered USB hub is the best choice if you want to have your system shut right down.
All of my posts are either intelligent, thought provoking, funny, satirical, sarcastic or intentionally disrespectful. Take your pick.
I get banned in the forums for games I love, so lets see if I do better in the forums for games I hate.
I enjoy the serenity of not caring what your opinion is.
I don't hate much, but I hate Apple© with a passion. If Steve Jobs was alive, I would punch him in the face.
Thanks for your help
have ordered a 4-port powered USB hub from D-Link
Why do ypu power off ur computer? Do u do the same for ur fridge, or clock radeo..?A modern computer is meant to stay on 24/7 and go into sleep mode on it's own.. consuming less wattage than ur cable box, etc.
"No they are not charity. That is where the whales come in. (I play for free. Whales pays.) Devs get a business. That is how it works."
-Nariusseldon
Why do ypu power off ur computer? Do u do the same for ur fridge, or clock radeo..?
A modern computer is meant to stay on 24/7 and go into sleep mode on it's own.. consuming less wattage than ur cable box, etc.
I turn mine off completely. There's no reason to leave it on if you aren't using it. Your refridgerator or clock aren't good examples: the fridge only runs as it needs to, because of an invention called a thermostat, which just turns on the compressor when the temperature gets too high. Your clock stays on because without power, it couldn't keep the time (your computer has a battery in order to do this when it's turned off). Your computer goes to sleep so that... it starts up faster when you get back, it isn't doing anything while in sleep mode. With an SSD, my computer starts up pretty fast as is, so I really don't save any time, and I have to pay (even a small amount) for electricity for the privilege of doing so.
And as a matter of fact, I do have most of my appliances on power strips, which get turned off entirely when they aren't in use. That may sound excessive, but in California electricity gets expensive fast, once you start to bump into the third and higher tiers (which happens nearly every month in the summer because of air conditioning - $0.28-0.32 per kWh - the national average is around $0.11).
All those vampire devices add up.
I believe you are ignorant that, when using Win7, your computer acts as an appliance. Matter of fact, you computer uses less power THAN YOUR CLOCK RADEO when in sleep mode... derp!
How can u not understand that^...?
Educate yourself on the standbye modes of a modern computer.. when u "awake your computer from sleep mode" it is using less power than a typical cable box is when powered "off". I applaud enyone striving to save energy, but if you only use ur system uber-peroidically like once a day, then by all means save urself some pennies.
But honestly... are you that dire that you unplug your cable box every time you shut it off? How about your Microwave..? They are both still on...
"No they are not charity. That is where the whales come in. (I play for free. Whales pays.) Devs get a business. That is how it works."
-Nariusseldon
When I built my computer, I timed how long it took to wake up from sleep, and how long it took to do a cold boot. The cold boot was faster. So I disabled sleep mode and turn the computer off for the night.
Why do ypu power off ur computer? Do u do the same for ur fridge, or clock radeo..?
A modern computer is meant to stay on 24/7 and go into sleep mode on it's own.. consuming less wattage than ur cable box, etc.
I turn mine off completely. There's no reason to leave it on if you aren't using it. Your refridgerator or clock aren't good examples: the fridge only runs as it needs to, because of an invention called a thermostat, which just turns on the compressor when the temperature gets too high. Your clock stays on because without power, it couldn't keep the time (your computer has a battery in order to do this when it's turned off). Your computer goes to sleep so that... it starts up faster when you get back, it isn't doing anything while in sleep mode. With an SSD, my computer starts up pretty fast as is, so I really don't save any time, and I have to pay (even a small amount) for electricity for the privilege of doing so.
And as a matter of fact, I do have most of my appliances on power strips, which get turned off entirely when they aren't in use. That may sound excessive, but in California electricity gets expensive fast, once you start to bump into the third and higher tiers (which happens nearly every month in the summer because of air conditioning - $0.28-0.32 per kWh - the national average is around $0.11).
All those vampire devices add up.
I believe you are ignorant that, when using Win7, your computer acts as an appliance. Matter of fact, you computer uses less power THAN YOUR CLOCK RADEO when in sleep mode... derp!
How can u not understand that^...?
Educate yourself on the standbye modes of a modern computer.. when u "awake your computer from sleep mode" it is using less power than a typical cable box is when powered "off". I applaud enyone striving to save energy, but if you only use ur system uber-peroidically like once a day, then by all means save urself some pennies.
But honestly... are you that dire that you unplug your cable box every time you shut it off? How about your Microwave..? They are both still on...
A computer turned off uses no power, which is infinitely more efficient than "some power" that is used while in sleep mode.
I don't have a cable box. I do unplug my microwave. I don't have a clock radio (I use my phone for an alarm clock). I do unplug my TV and PS3 and DVD Player when I'm not using them.
I think I understand it pretty well.
I think it is about the same for me, but it is more annoying when you wake it.
Still, in OPs case it makes sense to sleep it instead.
Thats is awsome..!
Unfortunately, it doesn't matter to anyone but you, not the OP.
I have 3 computers that never shut off. All wall sockets have energy readers on them. I use solar power to subsidize my carbon portfolio... because that makes more sense then unplugging everything I use daily, hourly..
Don't ever want to constantly move a 60" TV around, to unplug it everytime I goto bed.. then, in the morning re-program it... etc
If you are a prosumer, instead of a consumer you can buy things that mirror your needs. I applaud anyone who UNPLUGS their television every time...!
"No they are not charity. That is where the whales come in. (I play for free. Whales pays.) Devs get a business. That is how it works."
-Nariusseldon
It's a power strip - you can put them where ever you want. They have convenient on-off switches.
As far as the relevance - just a rebuttal to those who say you never need, nor should you, turn off your PC. I think you should turn off everything when your not using it, and provide a situation where it makes good sense (such as when your paying in exceed of $0.30 / kWh in electricity).
Wow those power prices are insane! Guess I'm never moving to Cali. Up here in Toronto the highest rate is at around 11 cents per KWH and lowest drops down to around 6 or 7.
Was actually thinking of getting a 2KW solar system, currently the government has a incentive program going that pays around 80 cents per KWH if it's generated using solar and once you get approved they will pay you that price for 20 years.
DC current does not equal AC current... If it was 5v with .9 Amps AC it would be enough to be fatal but DC current will burn you without any other effect unless you keep the cable sticked to the skin then it can cook you...
AC stands for alternative current which means it's (on and off) DC is direct current and is not has dangerous as AC. The result on the heart and artery is far from one and another.
If they pay you 80 cents per kWh, then guess how much they charge for that electricity when they sell it to someone else? Mandating that a significant fraction of their electricity has to come from outlandishly expensive sources is how you get such high electricity rates. That plus heavily restricting or banning a lot of cheaper electricity sources is how it gets so expensive in California. And that also means that the state imports a large fraction of its electricity from its neighbors.
Oh I agree, they are warning us that prices will most likely double in the next 5 years, from then on I guess the sky’s the limit. They are also limiting the amount of people admitted to the program annually. People and business have an option to pay the higher prices if they want to support the electricity coming from solar or wind sources.
The way I see it regular people are getting screwed left and right. Most don't even get a raise that accounts for inflation, never mind the rising cost of living, so every year a lot get their annual raise and are happy when in fact they are a bit poorer then they were the previous year.
Solar, wind & tidal....
California has plenty of energy, it is just that the uneducated politicians (who do nothing, except pagentry) don't understand benevolence and spending money on things that help everytone.
"No they are not charity. That is where the whales come in. (I play for free. Whales pays.) Devs get a business. That is how it works."
-Nariusseldon