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
    2012-06-19T00:31:07+00:00

    dude, where do you think Google Searches take you?... places like this!; don't waste the space telling people to Google it. You think someone would come here before typing it in Google?!

    Amen

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  2. Anonymous
    2014-12-21T04:37:09+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. It also filters out mouse and keyboard if BIOS "Wake from Keyboard/Mouse" is enabled. drivers cannot ask windows anything. Windows, the OS makes all the requests to the devices. Selective Suspend is merely Windows trying to suspend all drivers that prevent windows from going to sleep if in use or are needed. It sends the requests to external USB devices such as Hard Drives, USB Thumb Drives and Other devices like USB WiFi adapters. Even things such as CPU and internal HDD devices get suspended (even in the S1 Sleep State; S3 Sleep State suspends all devices but RAM) and the lot.

    SOURCE:

    Mac/PC Computer Tech for 13 years.

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  3. Anonymous
    2013-02-13T13:52:08+00:00

    Google is how I got here. If you're not going to help, please don't post.

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  4. Anonymous
    2014-02-07T07:48:18+00:00

    +1 re @_Kelter and others who are helpful.  But the "@RTR, you're a d...A$$!"..."Google brings you here!!" posts are a bit stale now...going on a cpl years...really?!?  You guys yell at TV screens and blame the tree for bumping into it?  Single file line, children..let's move forward...

    The simple rule if you suspect USB suspend is locking your device?... "disable to enable; enable to disable"  Enabling the USB suspend feature may lock the device if it's driver cannot transition gracefully to a full power state when signalled by the host system. (enable to disable)  Disabling suspend has the opposite effect since the port never suspends in the first place.  (disable to enable)

    It's helped me save a lot of time and trouble with all of the USB devices almost everyone has now.  I hope it helps you too.

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