Windows 7 turning off USB devices and sound

tim3003 · 23 Jan 2019 at 21:47

Hi,
Anyone know why this might be? I've tried setting the USB root hubs to always on in Device Manager, but this isn't doing the trick. I've also disabled USB Selective Suspend Setting in the Power Plan. And now I've noticed my sound - from a SB Audigy PCI card is being turned off along with the USB devices. I notice sometimes Windows turns them all back on - say when an email arrives - then turns them off again. It even turns the sound off while I'm playing a track in Media player.

This in Win 7 64-bit, btw. I use a 3-mobile USB dongle to access the web. Interestingly this is not being turned off..

Thanks.

Quartz · 23 Jan 2019 at 22:55

Which power plan do you have enabled?

Are the devices disabled when the PC goes to sleep or when it hibernates?

tim3003 · 24 Jan 2019 at 20:08

I have been playing around with power plans, to sort the problem, but without success. Currently I'm using Balanced, restored to default settings just in case. When I put the machine to sleep all the devices go off. Then on waking it up they come on with Windows, then it turns them off again.

I forgot to say: I installed Win 7 64-bit over my previous Win 7 32-bit HD. This has been fine, but I think this problem may have begun then..

tim3003 · 31 Jan 2019 at 16:43

Solved it! I finally realised that the devices Windows was turning off were not the USB ones but specifically those with their own mains power supply. My PC runs via a special mains plug, which has a socket for the PC and 2 for peripherals. When the PC is turned off all the peripherals are automatically too. Which in theory is good. However it seems Win 7 64-bit likes to power down the peripherals at the socket, not just at the USB ports, regardless of power plan settings. So I moved the peripherals off the special socket and they're fine. I have to turn printer and speakers off/on manually though..