Powering-down USB Powered Devices on laptop sleep

Question

I recently purchased a Targus Lap Chill Mat, which is a USB powered device, but doesn't have any interface/storage/etc function.

I'd like it to power-down when my (macbook) laptop sleeps (since the fan obviously doesn't need to be running when the laptop is idle) without having to unplug it.

Any suggestions?

Answer 1

Such device doesn't use any of the USB data functions. It uses only the power which is given by the USB port (if interested, you can see details of a USB plug here).

As such, there is nothing else to do with the peripheral itself, or eventual drivers, as it is only a simple "plug to current" situation.

What would be to check, however, would be why your Mac still provides power on USB, while sleeping. According to what I read on this forum, it is normal for "Desktop" ones to do that, to be awaken by the keyboard, typically. For a Macbook, however, I don't know.

My knowledge in Macs is quite limited, so I can't really provide more than this small explanation. I searched several places, but there doesn't seem to be a known way to turn this USB power off, while sleeping. I hope that someone else will be able to find more about it.

Answer 2

If the USB device doesn't support it out of the box you are out of luck.

You'd need some sort of program to detect the when the computer is idle, then the USB peripheral needs to be able to act in that information.