Microsoft – Disable USB power management to fix problems

Microsoft – Disable USB power management to fix problems


Problem

A Windows user has a USB device problem on a Windows laptop/desktop where power management is suspected to be the cause of the problem.


Resolution

Windows uses power management on connected USB devices, however if this is causing problems it may worth disabling the power management to see if this resolves the problem.

 

Using a mouse

  1. Right click Start button, then choose Device Manager.
  2. Then double click to open the tree branch where where the problem USB.
  3. Right click the problem USB device then choose Properties.
  4. Click the Power Management dialogue tab.
  5. Click to uncheck the option Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power.
  6. Then click OK button to save the change and close Device Manager window.
  7. Restart the computer so that the changes fully take effect.

 

Using the keyboard

  1. Press Windows key and search Device Manager then press ENTER on the result to open this item.
  2. Then press TAB once to focus on the Device Manager tree view.
  3. Then press down arrow to find the main tree branch where the problem device is located and press RIGHT ARROW to open it.  Then navigate to locate that problem USB device.
  4. When you are focused on the instance of the problem device press ENTER to open its properties and press CONTROL+TAB to reach the “Power Management” tab.
  5. When switching to the “Power Management” tab this should bring a checkbox into focus “Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power” and press SPACEBAR to uncheck this option.
  6. Press TAB to reach the OK button and press SPACEBAR  on it.
  7. Restart the computer so that the changes fully take effect.

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