Did you know peripheral devices connected to your computer drain your battery faster? Yes, even that mouse and keyboard connected to your computer via a USB cable suck off power from your computer. The longer you have USB devices connected to your computer, the faster your battery drains.
However, if you are using the latest operating systems from Microsoft (Windows 7, 8, and 10), there is no need to worry about USB peripheral devices draining your battery more than they need to. That is because Windows automatically shuts off USB devices that are not in use, thereby conserving your battery power.
Although this feature goes a long way towards giving your more battery hours for work or play. Some USB hardware needs to be remain powered by your computer for them to work smoothly. This Windows feature of automatically shutting off USB devices when it detects they have not been actively used for a given period could lead to malfunctioning of some peripheral devices power by USB on your computer.
If you use such a device and notice it stops working after a while when it was not actively in use, but it remained connected to the computer. It would mean that, for the device to work flawlessly, your computer needs to stop shutting off power to USB devices.
Turning off Windows feature that shuts off USB devices
In this post, we are going to show you how to turn off the Windows feature that automatically turns off USB devices in a bid to save power. This trick applies to Windows 7, 8, and 10 users.
Step 1: Go to Control Panel > Hardware and Sound > Power Options > Choose a Power Plan. At this stage, you should see the Window below:
Step 2: Click on Change plan settings.
Step 3: Click on Change advanced power settings, scroll down to USB settings > USB selective suspend setting.
Step 4: Here, you have two options; you can Disable Windows feature that turns off USB devices while your computer is plugged in and when it is on battery. Obviously, you don’t need your computer to save power while it is plugged in unless you have a serious need for extreme power cutting. But you can go right ahead and click on the Enable activated by default to bring up a drop down menu and click on Disable.
By disabling this feature, your computer will power all connected USB device for as long they are connected. That means your battery will drain faster and you will have to scatter for the power wall outlet to recharge your computer.