Maybe I'm too lazy

[Crazybob]

Got this great box from Emsti. Installed win 7 Pro on it. It runs great, but when I leave it for a while, the USB ports lock up and I need to reboot to get them to work. Checked the power settings and was surprised to actually find a setting to turn them off to save power, but they were not set to do so. The box has both USB2 and 3.0. I have tried to switch the connections back and forth with no luck. Has anybody experienced this before? Am I missing something? I don't have the time to really search in depth for the correct setting. Any ideas are appreciated.

[Fire$torm]

There are two places to find power settings for USB ports, the BIOS and Windows. Obviously you've sound one so check the other. If its the BIOS that needs checking sometimes its listed under "Green Power" settings.

Edit: Forgot one thing. Check the manufacture website for MB drivers. You may be missing one that controls advanced USB settings.

[Slicker]

F$, good catch. Especially for network drivers, there is often an advanced property for the NIC that enables it to shut down when idle. My i7's embedded Realtek driver calls it "Green Ethernet" but on others it is often more obvious like "Shutdown to save power when idle" or "Power saving" etc. Those settings are different from the HDD and CPU settings that the windows power control panel changes.

I have also noticed that USB network cards tend to lose their connection with even the smallest power blip. If it is enough to dim the lights, then I have to unplug and re-plug the USB nics to get them back up and running - at least on any boxes with only surge suppressors.

[Crazybob]

Thanks for the info. Checked every power setting I could find and it looks like it worked. Windows puts in all of these settings to save power and we're trying to get as much power as we can. They need to talk to us before they load this crap. :)

[Fire$torm]

Thanks for the info. Checked every power setting I could find and it looks like it worked. Windows puts in all of these settings to save power and we're trying to get as much power as we can. They need to talk to us before they load this crap. :)

LoL soooo true!