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USB Selective Suspend is a very useful feature that most Windows 10 users aren’t aware of. It allows you to disable USB ports that aren’t being used, essentially putting them to sleep. If you’re trying to figure out why this is useful, it’s a great way to conserve battery life on mobile devices like laptops and surface tablets.
How to Enable Power Throttling on Windows 10 Mobile Devices. (Laptops & Tablets)
Microsoft has really stepped up their game when it comes to Windows 10 on mobile devices, with battery performance taking a top position on their priority list. One of the best features to come out of the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update was Power Throttling mode, which allows users to customize how their computer uses power (full article above). As well as Power Throttling, there is also another lesser known feature worth looking into called USB Selective Suspend.
USB Selective Suspend is a clever way to put individual USB ports on your computer to sleep, without disabling the entire USB hub. For example, if you have 4 USB ports on your device and only use one, you can set your computer to put the other 3 to sleep while they aren’t being used.
Before you get too far into this article, if you are using a desktop computer or a computer that is connected constantly to a power source, you should know that using USB Selective Suspend is completely useless. If you are using a mobile device, however, it’s worth learning how to use Windows 10’s selective USB Suspend feature.
How to Turn USB Selective Suspend On or Off on Windows 10.
To begin, the first thing you need to do is open the Windows Control Panel. This can be done with a Search from the Start menu or from the Settings Menu. Once you have the Control Panel open, go to Power Options and click Change Plan Settings, which is located next to your current power plan.
On the next screen that appears, click Change Advanced Power Settings.
Now, in the new window that is displayed, scroll down until you find USB Settings. When you find the option, expand it and you will see USB Selective Suspend with two options listed underneath, On Battery and Plugged in. Depending on your device, version of Windows and Driver version, these options maybe be on or off. If they are disabled, simply use the drop-down box to enable them.
If you don’t see the option or get an error message when trying to make the change, your drivers are either out of date or your computer’s USB hardware doesn’t support the option. To fix the issue, update your driver version and try again. If it still fails, your USB hardware doesn’t support individual port deactivation. (USB Selective Suspend)
Note: If you have a USB port on your device that isn’t working, it’s possible that there has been a glitch in the USB Selective Suspend feature. To check if this has happened, go back to the same location and deactivate, USB Selective Suspend for both On Battery and Plugged in. Once done, connect something to your device and test it out.
