Know I know why the 4 USB devices (printer, scanner, video cam, and digital
camera dock) I have hooked up to the computer go to sleep until I call upon
them to do something. In my case it is a power saving feature and equipment
saving feature that has not caused any problems except for slight delays in
heating up the scanner light. My last scanner had a parallel port connection
and gave out in about a year likely because the light was always on. And
each device functions separately than the others in that only the one that
is called wakes up while the others continue to sleep.

If  I ever run into the problems you had, I will try to remember your
information.

Thanks
Tom Mayer


 However, after some trawling about on the net, I discovered that, by
default, in Windows XP, the USB ports attached to the motherboard have a
Power Management facility switched ON. Unfortunately, as Microsoft know,
it doesn't always reset completely when you send something to the
printer or whatever, but only when you use a hub, equipment plugged into
"original" ports are ok.

By de-selecting this option manually via Device Manager; USB Root;
Properties; Power Management, the ports don't "go to sleep" and thus the
problem disappeared.

            Do you want to signoff PCBUILD or just change to
                    Digest mode - visit our web site:
                   http://freepctech.com/pcbuild.shtml