Selective USB suspend in Windows

USB Selective Suspend is a Windows specific feature that allows users to set their connected USB devices to a very low power state when not in use.. While this feature is definitely effective in extending the battery life of your laptop or notebook, it can also cause unexpected problems with certain devices connected to your PC via USB.

USB selective suspend is enabled by default in Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 8 and Windows 10.

Unexpected consequences

In certain circumstances, USB selective suspend may have a negative effect on some of your USB connected devices. This is more common on Windows 7 and Windows 8 than in Windows 10. These are some of the best known symptoms that we have managed to identify:

• License error message when starting an application protected by USB-eLicenser.

• In some cases, a USB port that was selectively suspended will not turn back on when needed.

• Error messages when working with multiple sound production suites when the USB port is suspended.

• When multiple devices are connected to the same USB hub, they can become unstable when one of them receives an activation request.

• Bugcode_USB_Driver Blue screen error that occurs with certain connected USB devices when they are forcibly suspended.

USB Selective Suspend explained

The mechanism is similar to when you put your whole system to sleep, it's just a more localized process. Instead of completely turning a USB port on or off, selective sleep mode allows the operating system to put a USB port into a low power state (suspended state). But note that Windows will not suspend a USB port when it is turned on. For this to happen, you should receive an idle request from the USB device driver.

Note: Don't worry about this feature that suspends your keyboard and mouse. The majority (yes not all) computers will include a BIOS setting that will filter out any critical USB-connected devices.

Some USB devices like printers, scanners, webcams and fingerprint scanners only require intermittent power. For those devices, selective suspension is especially helpful, as it conserves battery power and reduces overall power consumption. This feature allows the operating system to suspend a specific port individually, without affecting power delivery to the rest of the USB ports.

Each device connected to the USB that is not suspended will force the system to activate a data transfer protocol in the physical memory of the system.. This will significantly increase power consumption as direct memory access transfers will prevent the CPU from entering a low power consumption state.

When to disable USB selective suspend

Selective sleep mode isn't exactly necessary on a desktop machine that's plugged into power. Turns out, the selective sleep feature doesn't save as much power on a desktop compared to a laptop.. This is why Microsoft included a way to disable USB selective sleep mode.

As a general rule, you should only disable USB selective suspend if you find that some of your peripherals are malfunctioning. If you regularly see the error message USB device not recognized, you can probably blame the USB selective suspend feature.

However, if you are using a laptop and have no problems with the USB ports, You shouldn't disable USB Selective Suspend if you want to get the most out of battery life.

How to disable USB selective suspend

If you find that your USB devices are affected by the USB selective suspend feature, it's a good idea to turn it off. Here is a step-by-step guide to disable USB selective suspend:

Note: The following guide will work on any version of Windows that supports selective suspend (Windows XP and later).

1. Press the Windows key + R to open a run window and type »powercfg.cpl». Press Enter to open Power Options.

   

2. In Power Options, see which plan is selected and click Change plan settings associated with it.

   

3. In the Edit plan settings window, click Change advanced power settings.

   

4. In Advanced Settings, make sure active plan is selected and scroll down to USB Settings. Extend the USB selective suspend setting and set the drop-down menus next to On battery and Connected to Off.

   Note: If you only want to disable USB selective suspend while computer is connected, leave the With battery option enabled.

5. Press Apply to save the changes.

Once you complete these steps, the operating system will no longer automatically turn off USB devices connected to the computer. This will fix any issues that may have something to do with this feature.

If disabling USB Selective Suspend doesn't solve the problem, you can reverse engineer the steps above to re-enable the feature.