I just noticed that all the USB ports on my computer remain hot even when the computer is powered down. I keep the audiophile plugged into one of those ports and I am wondering if that's hard on it. Should I unplug and reconnect whenever I need it? I do have Digital monitors Roland DS 90's and I leave them on all the time, of course they have no moving parts. Opinions?
WSS

I didn't know a USB port remains powered. Are these on your motherboard or are you talking about a powered hub?

In either case, I thought that any USB devices are disconnected during power down. Correct?

A real full shutdown *should* cut power to all USB ports.

Don't confuse any of the "sleep" or other categories as being the full powerdown, though. For example, the "powerdown" of merely shutting a laptop won't cut power to the ports.

Sometimes there is residual current left in the power supply capacitors of residual components that are connected to USB ports, which can provide enough power to keep LEDs lit for quite some time, even though there is really no real power enough from that to actually operate the device. To find that out, leave it powered down for a longer time and come back and observe whether of not the LED has gone out.

--Mac

Nope... Steve is right.

On my DAW, I have my PG HD plugged into the USB port on the rear of the DAW. When I initiate a full power off sequence using windows shutdown procedure to power the DAW down, the PG HD, which has a blue LED to indicate it is powered on remains lit. That LED never goes out.

Setting here now, the DAW is not this computer.....I just looked and yup.... the blue LED is ON and the DAW is supposed to be off.

The USB ports maintain powered status.

To answer Steve's question: Steve, I don't think it hurts. But if it bothers you, certainly it will not hurt to unplug the USB cable from the port....or if you have the hard drive space to spare, do a complete and full install to the hard drive and store the PG hard drive in a safe place in it's box.

I have done both at various times, currently I have the PG HD connected.

I guess this shows that different mobos are wired in different fashions, because mine shuts everything off.


--Mac

I have a Lenovo laptop that has one "always powered" usb port. My understanding is that ports of this type are color coded yellow. This allows you to charge portable devices without having to keep the computer awake. For me, as long as the hard disk isn't spinning I wouldn't worry about unplugging it.

From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB_port:

Sleep-and-charge USB ports can be used to charge electronic devices even when the computer is switched off. Normally, when a computer is powered off, the USB ports are powered down. This prevents phones and other devices from being able to charge unless the computer is powered on. Sleep-and-charge USB ports remain powered even when the computer is off. On laptops, charging devices from the USB port when it is not being powered from AC drains the laptop battery faster; most laptops have a facility to stop charging if their own battery charge level gets too low.[74] Desktop machines need to remain plugged into AC power for Sleep-and-charge to work.[75]

These ports are found colored differently (mostly red and yellow). On Dell laptops, the port is marked with the standard USB symbol with an added lightning bolt icon on the right side. Dell calls this feature "PowerShare."[76]



Regards,
Ed

Even if the power stays on to a USB port on SOME machines, as we have established it does not stay on for all machines, the shut down process should have triggered the proper exit command for the USB device. The PG Music hard drive cannot be accessed and should be perfectly fine to remain in that state.

my new system is a studio cat Platinum tower. According to the Builder the top USB slots stay powered constantly so as to keep chargeable peripherals plugged in. The ones on the back are supposed to power down but after powering down and coming back to the studio in the morning the blue light on the hard drive, the PG hard drive, is still on.
I am assuming these are not solid state drives. I also don't feel any vibration like it's spinning.

and yes I do hit the shutdown switch and not sleep...
WSS

It is likely a case where only the Power connects to the USB ports remain active when those PCs are powered down.

In other words, the Serial Communications would be shut down.

And in that case, a disk won't be searching, etc.


--Mac

But it could be spinning!

Several of my systems supply USB power when the systems are completely shut down (not standby, hibernation)

So I did a bit of checking. If I connect a removable drive to a computer that supplies USB power when turned off, and the computer is already completely shut down, the disk actually spins up as soon as the USB is connected. Obviously it would be better if the drive needed some form of SATA signal to be present to spin up, but that was not the result I identified.

Other users can check, just place your ear against the drive, you'll be able to hear the spindle rotating.

So even though there is no disk I/O activity, those little bearings are all working away, day and night (or should that be Night and Day?).

If you detect that your drive is spinning all the time, just disconnect the USB plug when shut down.

Incidentally, I looked in the BIOS to see if USB phantom power was a controllable feature, but could not find it.

Regards
Trevor

Some may indeed spin, head won't move, unless heat causes the disk to go into Temperature Compensation routine, which moves the head somewhere else to let that area cool down.

Hey - doesn't the Audiophile version come with its own Power Supply?

I'm sure the heads remain parked in the correct park position, and they don't move at all. The fact that the platters are left spinning unnecessarily is the only point I wanted to highlight.

Audiophile doesn't come with separate Power Supply, it's a USB powered drive (well, my one anyway).

Trevor

Have a look in your BIOS under Power Management.

I did, but I only looked on a system that had USB power permanently on. There was no option to control it on that system.

I think that some of the previous Audiophile editions did indeed come on a larger drive with external power supply included, having read reports about that on these forums at the time.

Correct. It's been both ways. The last two years have come on a drive with no external power. Going back before that, there were some drives that accepted an external power connector but generally worked without using it. And then maybe five years back, the enclosure was a huge black plastic case and required the power block.

There might be something like: Wake on USB ?

Hi SR. Haven't heard of Wake on USB, and definitely not found. Most BIOS systems have a "Wake On LAN" option, some have a "Wake on Ring" (monitoring the Ring Indicator signal from a Modem), but definitely nothing found indicating a way of controlling power to USB. The only option in the BIOS relating to USB was to include USB in the boot-order preferences.

Most if not all ATX PC power supplies these days produce a constant standby voltage, so that a momentary contact closure is all that is required to start the computer. This explains why some power is available while the system is shut down.

I wondered that having USB power available might also be so that a removable USB drive could be in the 'ready' state if a user wanted to boot from that USB drive at switch-on. My thoughts, anyway.

Cheers
Trevor

Power On By Mouse/Keyboard.
You are best to turn off the mains and unplug it anyway when not in use this will make the motherboard and power supply last longer and prevent damage from power surges.

Hi SR
Not sure what you mean by the comment: "Power On By Mouse/Keyboard."
Is there a suggestion disabling this stops USB power when the system is off? I have that disabled always, it's certainly not related to USB power on any of my systems. And of course USB hosts a lot more than just mouse / keyboard devices.

Well anyway this morning the blue light was on and I picked up the drive put it against my ear. It was not spending. I hit the power button on the computer and it began to spend so I guess everything is cool. Thank you gentlemen. Next up... The light in the refrigerator. Should I unscrew it before I close the refrigerator door?

thanks everybody!
WSS

Just had the same problem on another PC and solution was in the BIOS "power section" enable ErP/EuP this turns the power off to the USB ports in shutdown. Check your BIOS to see if it supports this.

"ErP/EuP, stands for Energy Using Product, was a provision regulated by European Union to define the power consumption for the completed system. With the great quantity and the popularly using of the electrical products nowadays and the continuously increasing of the electrical products categories in the following 20 to 30 years, European Union decided to establish an effective strategy to solve the energy consumption problem. That is, according to ErP/EuP, the total AC power of the completed system shall be under 1.00W in off mode condition."

You should leave it unscrewed. It generates heat in a device that is meant to cool. The guy that suggested it should be fired.