No USB devices recognised when on laptop battery but ok when on mains

ninian · 2011-02-15 20:25:32

I have a Dell Inspiron 1525 laptop which has generally behaved well with Arch. But after doing a pacman -Syu today, I have found a really frustrating problem (it may of course have happened earlier but I maybe didn't notice).

When I'm connected to mains power, all USB devices (eg mouse, flash drives) work as expected and dmesg shows the usual device allocation messages. However when I'm running on battery power, no USB devices whatsoever are recognised - dmesg and messages.log report nothing at all! When I connect the power cord again, I can plug the USB devices in and they are recognised again.

I'd be grateful for some help in tracking down this problem; I'm not too up on battery and power-saving stuff, so am unsure where to start. Searches of the wiki and forums didn't turn up anything obvious.

Added later:
Seems that the problem is caused by laptop-mode-tools-1.56-1
Downgrading to laptop-mode-tools-1.55-2 brings things back to normal!

Now reported as bug 22909.

Last edited by ninian (2011-02-15 23:29:44)

MadTux · 2011-02-16 08:44:33

Is laptop-mode-tools configured such that it reduces power consumption or even switches off usb devices?

ninian · 2011-02-16 09:52:35

MadTux wrote:

Is laptop-mode-tools configured such that it reduces power consumption or even switches off usb devices?

I'm not near the laptop at present, but I haven't changed anything in this configuration area for a year or two. With a fully updated system (using kernel 2.6.37), the only difference seems to be between laptop-mode-tools-1.56-1 (fails) and laptop-mode-tools-1.55-2 (works).

Look suspiciously like the problem might be related to another: bug 22906

Added later: We have pinned this down a little bit more. See bug 22090, and I do note that my Asus Eee 701 netbooks work okay with version 1.56.

Last edited by ninian (2011-02-19 16:32:50)

mabier · 2014-07-30 10:19:14

I encounter the same problem ,I have tried two mice of different brands, but when my laptop relying on battery, these two mice will turn off their LED completely. I checked my laptop-mode-tools, the version is 1.64-1, I went /etc/laptop-mode/conf.d and edit usb-autosuspend.conf, set USB autosuspend value to zero : CONTROL_USB_AUTOSUSPEND="0" , then reboot, everything return to nomal. but the latest laptop-mode-tools(1.64-1) still does not work perfectly ! I am also wondering how much extra power will be consumed when I completely disable the USB-autosuspension function.

fsckd · 2014-07-30 12:15:48

Hi mabier, this is an old thread. Please start a new one for your problem. Forum Etquette: Old Threads / Necro-Bumping; closing.
Good luck.

Arch Linux

#1 2011-02-15 20:25:32

No USB devices recognised when on laptop battery but ok when on mains

#2 2011-02-16 08:44:33

Re: No USB devices recognised when on laptop battery but ok when on mains

#3 2011-02-16 09:52:35

Re: No USB devices recognised when on laptop battery but ok when on mains

#4 2014-07-30 10:19:14

Re: No USB devices recognised when on laptop battery but ok when on mains

#5 2014-07-30 12:15:48

Re: No USB devices recognised when on laptop battery but ok when on mains

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