USB power staying on

[reko19]

Hi,
Recently upgraded my PC, now USB power stays on after I shut the power off to the machine.  I am using ASUS motherboard, don't think there are any BIOS options to disable it. I am thinking of installing PCI expansion board to take care of this, anybody knows if the power at the USB ports from the expansion board would turn off when PC is down?

Thanks

[Kevin Mullins]

USB power stays on after I shut the power off to the machine. 

More information is needed....because that's just not possible.
Explain "machine" and "shut the power off".
Are you talking about mains power shut off or are you talking about "it is now safe to shut your computer off" shut off?
Are you talking onboard USB or a USB hub type thing?
If the PC's power supply is literally shut off, or if the mains power is shut off, then anything onboard would no longer have power either.

[SirDaShadow]

USB power stays on after I shut the power off to the machine. 

More information is needed....because that's just not possible.
Explain "machine" and "shut the power off".
Are you talking about mains power shut off or are you talking about "it is now safe to shut your computer off" shut off?
Are you talking onboard USB or a USB hub type thing?
If the PC's power supply is literally shut off, or if the mains power is shut off, then anything onboard would no longer have power either.

I think what he means is that when you shut down the computer but the power supply switch is on and hooked up, the motherboard would still supply the +5V lines to all of the USB ports. I know because I have an Asus mobo that does exactly that.

After some googling I found this thread http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies-archive.cfm/900068.html

Here is what I googled about it so far http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-US%3Aofficial&hs=4EX&q=asus+usb+power+shutdown&btnG=Search

[Hoopz]

I was just about to post the same thing as SirDaShadow (minus the links though as he's faster).

I also had an Asus mobo and when I received the GGG NovaGems, the buttons would stay lit when the pc had shutdown.  I cant recall though how I fixed it but I thought it was BIOS setting.  I quickly flipped through my manual but didn't see it.

[orion]

I'm in the same boat, and I must say its rather annoying. Thanks for that link I saw something in it about an energy star setting in the BIOS. Hopefully that will sort things out. If not, the only thing to do as suggested is grab a USB PCI card.

[ghettodish]

When you power off does the computer go into hibernation or sleep mode? The computer in my car does and the usb ports stay powered for 20 minutes, then shut down. You might be able to change the settings in control panel/power options if you can't find the USB settings in your BIOS.

[MonMotha]

USB ports are often left powered in soft-off (including STR and "Hibernate") mode in order to allow you to wake the PC from the keyboard.  Your USB device should turn everything it can off in order to conserve power (after all, for all it knows it's hook up to a laptop that is off and on battery).  This would certainly involve turning off any powered loads.   The USB specification requires 2mA draw max for compliance.

If your device isn't turning off (apparently the GGG LED-Wiz does not), you should contact the device manufacturer for a fix.  In most cases, it should be fixable with a firmware update if the device supports such a function.

Most motherboards in the past allowed the user to configure this behavior.  Some even let you set it up per-port.  Often, it's a hard jumper setting rather than a BIOS setting, though.  Check your mobo manual, and also take a good look at the motherboard itself.  Name-brand PCs may not allow this to be set since they're usually built to be as cheap as possible.

Most mobos used to default USB power in soft-off to "off", but given the prevalence of this question recently (almost has become worthy of a FAQ over the past couple months), apparently some major makers have changed their default.

[Kevin Mullins]

Ah..... I can see now what you all are saying.
Just not how I interpreted "shut off", I'm thinking along the lines of a master power switch.
(which it should have anyways as far as I'm concerned if it's a game cabinet)

Honestly, I just never even knew some motherboards did that.
I've never have anything but a USB printer and mouse plugged into mine.

[reko19]

Thank you for the replies. I followed the links above and googled it myself. Looks like I am out of luck with Asus. I am powering some of my LEDs from the +5V available off I-PAC, they stay illuminated after I turn the PC off by pressing the on/off button. Obviously, tuning a switch on the power supply kills everything. I was hoping it would time out, but it stays on for hours.  My question remains (unless I missed an answer): would having PCI expansion board take care of this? They are really chip under $20 for 4-port USB seems like the best solution if it works. Thank you.

[MonMotha]

Yes, USB ports on a PCI expansion card SHOULD take care of this.  I don't think +5VSB even appears on the PCI connector, and if it does, I suspect most cards would use the normal +5V rail for VBUS instead of the +5VSB.

I should re-iterate, though, that your device is broken.  It should not do that since it clearly won't meet the suspend power requirements for USB.  I sure hope it doesn't display the USB logo anywhere.

[orion]

Yes, USB ports on a PCI expansion card SHOULD take care of this.  I don't think +5VSB even appears on the PCI connector, and if it does, I suspect most cards would use the normal +5V rail for VBUS instead of the +5VSB.

I should re-iterate, though, that your device is broken.  It should not do that since it clearly won't meet the suspend power requirements for USB.  I sure hope it doesn't display the USB logo anywhere.

Nothing is broken, it seems its a new thing motherboard manufactures are doing these days. The idea apparently from what I have found on the net, is to let things like ipods and the like charge when you shut down the PC. There are no jumpers or anything apparent in the BIOS.

[MonMotha]

No, the device IS broken, assuming the PC tells it to standby (which is implied by a lack of activity, according to the USB spec).  A device in standby must draw 2.5mA or less from VBUS.  This is required by the USB spec.  Leaving a whole bunch of super-bright LEDs on is pretty much guaranteed to draw more than 2.5mA, thus the device is violating the USB spec, thus the device (if it is to claim USB compliance) is "broken".

Of course, many devices are not fully USB compliant.  Many, many devices do not honor all the suspend requirements.  However, in this case, ignoring those requirements seems to be leading to undesired behavior.

The motherboard, however, is fine.  I don't like being forced to leave my USB ports powered in soft-off, but the host is at least not doing anything "wrong" per se.

I guess the mobo could keep everything "alive" in soft-off, rather than suspend the devices (which still allows remote wake-up).  I'd also consider that "broken", though I'm sure many would find it "cool".

In this case, it should be possible to simply tell your OS to turn everything off when you shut down.  Implementing such a thing is left as an exercise to the user.

[RandyT]

The LED-Wiz is an ouput device that can be used to control any number of things.  My philosophy when designing the device was that it should never do anything it was not specifically instructed to do, and that includes turning off it's outputs due to USB inactivity, which could occur in the case of a system lock-up.

Lots of folks use it for case mod lighting and since it has autonomous functionality for pulsing lights, this is desirable behavior to many when the system is in standby.  Unfortunately, one person's "undesirable behavior" is another's "must have feature".

If you want everything off, nothing beats a smart strip to make sure everything is really off.  But if you don't want to go that route, it's your responsibility to instruct the hardware to be in a state that is desirable to you.  It shouldn't be too hard make a script that turns off all of the LED-Wiz outputs (or whatever other tasks one needs to do for an orderly shutdown) so you can put the system into standby, either manually or programmatically.

RandyT

[Havok]

I use one of these to take care of this problem:

http://www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_12605_00924031000P

Can't go wrong for $20.

[richms]

The LED-Wiz is an ouput device that can be used to control any number of things.  My philosophy when designing the device was that it should never do anything it was not specifically instructed to do, and that includes turning off it's outputs due to USB inactivity, which could occur in the case of a system lock-up.

If its drawing power from a USB port and not shutting down to less then 2mA load then its no more a USB device then a cup warmer or a vacuum cleaner is. If the person is hooking things up to the 5v and ground on the board however that is their decision to use it in a way that violates specs.

My solution would be to just plug a hub into it thats on either the molex plugs or a seperate power adapter plugged into a smartstrip type thing.

[reko19]

To wrap this up, PCI USB expansion board takes care of this issue.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815104216

Works great and eliminates the need for the external USB hub.