Thinkpads Forum

Recently i put a cooling pad under my docked x61 (vista) and noticed that the coolpad's usb port does not power down when in sleep mode. To power down i have to unplug the docking station. When the mashine is removed from the ultrabase and goes to sleep then the usb ports power down alright.
Is there a way to cut off the docking station's usb power during sleep other than unplugging?

my guess:

StartPower Manager ---> global settings ----> enable always on usb

greetings

Thanks for your help. I have tried that in both ways: always on, and unchecked always on, it did not help.
The problem i figured is that the docking station usb ports cannot be switched off, at least i couldn't do it.
So the cooling pad's fans are working all the time, may be a switch is needed to those fans would work.

I don't understand what you are doing with the cooling pad. If you are putting it underneath a dock there is no direct airflow to the laptop, therefore it is useless.

To elevate the ultrabase and improve the airflow. Both units are excessively hot and by elevating i want(ed) to achive some heat reduction. I have 2 other Thinkpads (R40, R40e) with XP and am able to use cooling pads with usb connection. But they don't have ultrabases. For all the TPs am using TPfan too and for the x61 i found even that was not enough.

I still say that this setup will not have a positive effect on the inside temperature of the laptop in the Ultrabase. Feel free to prove me wrong. I am typing this from an X60s in an X6 Ultrabase, so I'd be interested in cooling improvements, although this one runs @ 48*c at idle with the 1.6Ghz ULV Core Duo.

Vow, 48 C, i wish i had that too. Mine works at 71-72*C, that is Celsius, and rarely goes below 70. I suspect (guess) that because of Vista, the hard drive keeps whirring all the time and the heat is on...
Even the R40s idle at 57*C but certainly they are not ULV equipped Thinkpads.
But back to the original question: can i shut the ultrabase's usb power off (power management) when the machine in sleep mode?

I've never seen it in Lenovo's specs, But in many Ads for the X6 ultrabase you will see this; "Power pass-through to fuel your system and recharge the battery".
Link - http://www.provantage.com/lenovo-40y8116~7IBMT08U.htm

If that is true, and you've tried both USB ports, I believe the answer to your question is no. If it were me I'd plug the X6 Ultrabase into it's own small power strip and flip the switch on the strip to turn it off.

Thank you for the advice and the link. Seems i have to give up on that. As a sidenote, i experienced with a Dell Inspiron 1150 (that was a real furnace) where the usb ports just could not be shut off even though power management tab was unchecked and i was pretty proud of my Tps superiority in this respect...