USB Sound Card doesn't power sometimes...

**n0irsmurf** · 04-11-2006, 11:04 PM

Ok, I've been looking with the search for about 20 minutes... can't find an answer, (I know, probably missed it, humans make mistakes.) But I have a problem with my SoundBlaster 24bit sound card (external obviously). But my problem is that when I restart, shutdown, standby, whatever, and then reboot, it doesn't come on, my touchscreen has never done it, it comes on every time. And I can't figure out why, I just either restart or unplug it from the usb and replug it back in and it works fine.

I have a Toshiba laptop, it has 4 usb connections, 2 on the left side and 2 on the back. The touch screen is plugged in on the side and the sound card is plugged in in the back with an extension cable, (it was 2.50 off axshop.com).

But what I'm thinking, is that it can't get enough power when it starts up (the blue light blinks, but then nothing) maybe where it's plugged in or because of the extension cable, though it does it without the extension cable.

And now I'm thinking, maybe a powered hub? But I have no idea, when I boot up, it goes directly to RR and then makes winamp crash since I have "a bad sound driver."

**we87** · 04-12-2006, 02:58 PM

Try this:

Go into your device manager (rightclick on My Computer, Properties>Hardware tab>Device Manger) and find your USB Sound Card. (probally in sound, video, and game controllers) From there, double click on your card and there should be a Power Managment tab, if so, make sure nothing about "saving power" or "Let Windows Turn Off Device To Save Power" is checked.

Thats my guess, but I could be very wrong... There may not even be a Power Management tab in there... But, its worth a shot

**moahdib** · 04-12-2006, 03:05 PM

Good topic. I been a member for a while and haven't seen this being discussed...
I have a cheaper usb sound card and maybe 1 out of 5 times, windows does not recognize it. This happens after coming back from hibernation or restart after a shutdown.

I'll give that a shot as well and see what happens. The quick fix for me is to unplug and plug the device, or to do a full restart.

**n0irsmurf** · 04-12-2006, 10:52 PM

Unfortunatly that didn't work,

I just don't get it. And it's too much of a hassle to unplug it and replug it back in. Since it's a laptop, it's under my passanger seat and I already have to reach under to turn it on. There has to be some fix... because it drives me nuts.

I will also soon be moving it to the trunk once I find a way to turn it on except the power button. And unplugging it and plugging it back in won't be an option. If I had an open PCMCIA slot I'd just use that, but my orinoco card takes that up

All the help is appreciated.

**n0irsmurf** · 04-14-2006, 01:49 AM

Does the NX do this at sound blaster nx or whatever do this at all? Cause I know that it's always powered... I was thinking of reformatting soon to see if that helps a little. But that's going to take a lot of work :/ And I'm going to try a powered usb hub next week. I just think it's weird my touch screen loads and works flawlessly every time.

**TurboBoos** · 05-02-2006, 07:10 PM

After wasting many hours trying to get my Audigy2 NX USB soundcard to turn on after hybernation or standby, I finally gave up. I exhausted these forums and tried just about every trick in the book. Even if you keep the USB sound card powered while the laptop goes in and out of standby/hybernation, it still doesn't work 100%.

I finally bought a PCMCIA Audigy2 ZS and all my problems are gone! Unfortunately the height of the PCMCIA card interfered with my USB 2.0 PCMCIA card so I removed the plastic and desoldered the USB Jacks to a breakout cable permitting both cards to fit.

If you need a WiFi card, consider a USB WiFi device and use the available PCMCIA for sound. You'll appreciate it in the long run. That's my 2 cents.