My USB's have power when the computer's turned off?!
 

Yesterday I attached a small USB fibre-optic ornament to the pc (White Bengal in system specs). I turned the pc off but didn't switch everything off from the wall-socket. The ornament remained lit. At first I thought it was extra charge in the PSU but not after an hour and more?

This morning, I noticed the ornament lit up as soon as I switch on power from the wall socket. Even though pc is not powered and not running. :wtf:

I checked the same thing out on my previous pc (Black Panther in system specs) and the USB doesn't have current in it when the pc is off.

Is there something wrong? :eek:

Your motherboard doesn't deep-sleep. Go to the BIOS setup program, and under the power-management settings, look for "ErP Compliance" mode or "Deep S5 mode", enable it.

http://img.techpowerup.org/121019/bta09832.jpg

Never heard about that :o I thought I had messed up something when I built the pc..

Now that I know that there isn't anything shorting out, I'll leave it as it is because I actually like having the decoration light up even while the pc is turned off.

I still can't figure out how this works electronically...

It means that the PSU is still receiving and sending current from wall-socket to the motherboard and USB's even though the PSU is in the 'off' position?

PSUs have a +5V Standby rail which is always on even if computer is off, and most modern mobos use it for powering up USB devices :)

Great info! Thanks everybody :respect:

And your PSU has a 3A +5VSB rail, most likely more than enough for your decorative light.

Its cool cause you can charge your phone or tablet while you sleep :)

Yeah I have a strip of white LED lights power by USB under my monitor panel and it stays on unless I flip the switch on the PSU.

^ this.

this is actually present to support USB charging feature of many devices like tablets and phones and mp3 players and stuff.

Yup, that's what it's for. Nothing's wrong, it's actually a feature.

I have that on my backup rig Socket 754 AMD. It's a good feature but imho it's more prone to blow the system if there is a lighting strike. I'm not an expert so it's only a guess.

All ATX systems for the last 15 years require the 5VSB rail for other reasons (Wake on LAN, Wake on KB, etc.) and motherboard manufacturers began allowing USB ports to use that rail instead of only the onboard LAN adapter and PS/2 ports. We weren't really connecting our mobile devices to our PCs until the mid 2000s when feature phones and eventually smart phones with USB connections became prominent.

i think all PSUs have lightning protection now.

I built my parents a rig some time ago with a 2600k and a Gigabyte P67-UD4-B3 and IIRC the board has a jumper to switch certain USB groups between +5vsb and +5v with +5vsb being the default.

In my case I use a power strip w/surge protection and switch, but I still unplug it when not in use for a long time i.e night, watching TV, etc.. I had bad experiences with thunderstorms and appliances...

Also it can save some money on bills especially if electricity is expensive like here :)

I have pretty hefty surge protection on my UPS. Heck, if the power quality gets too low it switches to the battery. One of the best investments I've made.

Yeah I want a UPS too but here they are too expensive :(

There might be some issue in your mother board

Or maybe his motherboard is using +5vsb like the specs on Gigabyte's site says. :slap:

i know i'm going to have issues with this in my next build, simply because i have a backlit keyboard.


one of those weird 'features' that not everybody wants.

I thought that there is a jumper on the motherboard to switch it on and off for different USB ports. At least I think that was the deal with the P67A-UD4-B3.

Edit: Hmmm, manual is lacking information. That is strange. I would imagine that you would be able to change it though. Forcing it on sounds incredibly stupid.

Edit again: Wow, gigabyte says this in their manual.

from the amount of threads on this subject lately, i'm going to say not all boards have it. mine has it only on specific ports, which is a good compromise.

No, it's fine.

lightning has a better chance to get through the ethernet cable. ofcourse this is true for people with underground power cabling. I have had a vblown lan card once. lol. rest of the system was ok :)

Yeah. And I only just recently learned this.