What does "USB selective suspend" mean?

Anonymous
2010-10-14T06:39:16+00:00

In Windows 7, Power Options->USB Settings->USB selective suspend setting, what does "USB selective suspend" mean?  Also, given that there is only one setting, why does it say "USB Settings" instead of "USB Setting"?

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Devices and drivers

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Anonymous
2011-02-17T03:53:10+00:00

A USB device driver can send a message to windows telling it to idle the device.  This puts the device in a low-power state (the suspend state).  When a USB device is suspended, windows does not wait for it to respond before entering a sleep or hibernate mode.  If you disable this feature, the system will simply return a failure to the driver when the driver attempts to enter suspend state.  If the driver complies with Microsoft guidelines, it will simply retry the idle request at every expiration of its idle timer.

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  1. Anonymous
    2016-05-08T19:18:39+00:00

    you have it all wrong guys. Selective suspend means that WINDOWS is asking the DEVICES to idle out before going to sleep to avoid driver corruption and data loss for devices such as external hard drives. ..

    That's how I understand it too. I know people keep saying that to disable selective suspend when your USB mouse (in my case) keeps cutting out may fix the problem. But it seems to me that not only does disabling that keep the mouse from properly idling down but it could prevent functions higher up on the "tree" from idling down as well. To paraphrase the parent/child description of the process

    https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/usbcoreblog/2011/05/10/demystifying-usb-selective-suspend/ 

    it seemed to me that the "children" - such as a USB mouse - all had to go to sleep before the mother (the computer? -- obviously there are other levels in between) could go to sleep. Overly simplistic or maybe just wrong, but that's how I understood it. Which makes me think that disabling it for a usb port would keep Mom awake. No?

    I'm going to try it anyway and see if it helps.

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  2. Anonymous
    2016-03-13T19:29:39+00:00

    Martian Packets, Your first question has been answered satisfactorily, so I will just answer your question on English grammar. It says both, i.e.

    USB settings:

    On Battery = One setting (either enabled or disabled).

    Plugged in = One setting (either enabled or disabled).

    Since there is a separate setting for being on battery and being plugged in, collectively it is correct to refer to the plural, thus the use of the word settings.

    I take it that English isn't your mother tongue to have asked this, I hope I have explained it clearly for you.

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  3. Anonymous
    2016-02-27T05:22:07+00:00

    I was reading through these comments and after reading yours JensenEllard, it occurred to me you were doing us all a favor.  As you have heard, "opinions are like ****, everybody has one".

    I will go one better, "Every forum has ****, you just don't know when you are going to run into them".  Thanks for raising your hand.  Now everyone, take a good look so you'll recognize one the next time ... and then back away slowly ...

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  4. Anonymous
    2016-02-19T15:13:10+00:00

    If I disable this feature on my laptop, Win8, will it keep my wifi  usb adaptor from dropping connection?

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