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

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

0 comments No comments
Answer accepted by question author
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.

Was this answer helpful?

300+ people found this answer helpful.
0 comments No comments

51 additional answers

Sort by: Most helpful
  1. Anonymous
    2012-06-06T16:10:25+00:00

    Why would a USB device driver send a message to Windows telling it to idle the device? Could a mouse or keyboard have such functionality? Would having this USB selective suspend enabled allow the keyboard or mouse to freeze up by going into a suspended state? I'm looking at this because I'm troubleshooting problems involving the freezing of both my keyboard and mouse at irregular intervals.

    Was this answer helpful?

    2 people found this answer helpful.
    0 comments No comments
  2. Anonymous
    2012-06-01T21:11:41+00:00

    I just thought I would say that I found this page through google. Thank you for the answers.

    Was this answer helpful?

    2 people found this answer helpful.
    0 comments No comments
  3. Anonymous
    2012-07-18T08:55:48+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?!

    Agreed - I also found this page from Google. (In fact it is the first result for searching "USB Selective Suspend"!)

    This feature is enabled/disabled via Power Plans. If I understand this correctly, then setting this to "Enabled" uses less power, correct? Is it a considerable amount of battery-power or is it pretty negligible? (I assume that it depends on which devices (and number of devices) one has connected via USB, but on average, in most situations does this make much of a difference?)

    (The reason for my confusion is that on my netbook (running Windows 8) both the "High performance" and the "Power saver" plans have this defaulted to "Enabled.")

    Thanks much for your help, "help forums are your friends."  ;)

    MikeY

    Was this answer helpful?

    1 person found this answer helpful.
    0 comments No comments
  4. Anonymous
    2012-01-05T02:16:45+00:00

    Hi,

    I am using a DLink DWA-643 Express Card WiFi Adapter in my laptop. Win 7 64-bit can detect the

    hardware and installed the driver.

    But after restart my syste, it cannot detect the adapter. I need to unplug and plug in the adapter again and scan for hardware changes.

    everytime i restart, the adapter is not detected automatically. I need to unplug and plug in again.

    Kindly advice.

    Was this answer helpful?

    1 person found this answer helpful.
    0 comments No comments