When I set up a new laptop, I now go through Windows’ power-saving settings one by one. This is a habit that people generally skip. The power-saving settings reduce power consumption, but disabling some options can improve latency and stability.
USB Selective Suspend
The tiny power-saving feature behind my random disconnects
Sometimes, mid-meeting, my webcam freezes, then reappears after just a few seconds. It appeared to be a cable issue, but replacing it didn’t resolve the issue. When I investigated further, I realized the trigger was a setting called USB Selective Suspend. When USB devices are idle or appear idle, Windows suspends them, and for some devices, resuming isn’t always smooth.
Some devices never exhibit this problem.
This feature mainly affects docks, hubs, webcams, audio interfaces, and external SSDs, but it rarely affects low-bandwidth devices like wired keyboards and mice.
When you turn it off, it has a slight impact on battery use, but you may leave it on if you’ve never experienced USB devices disconnecting unexpectedly.
To disable USB Selective Suspend, run the commands below from an elevated Command Prompt:
-
Disable when Plugged In (AC):
powercfg /SETACVALUEINDEX SCHEME_CURRENT 2a737441-1930-4402-8d77-b2bebba308a3 48e6b7a6-50f5-4782-a5d4-53bb8f07e226 0 -
Disable when On Battery (DC):
powercfg /SETDCVALUEINDEX SCHEME_CURRENT 2a737441-1930-4402-8d77-b2bebba308a3 48e6b7a6-50f5-4782-a5d4-53bb8f07e226 0 -
Apply the changes immediately:
powercfg /SETACTIVE SCHEME_CURRENT
Network adapter Power Management
The setting that puts my network to sleep
Video calls freezing and brief connection drops are not always a router problem. Certain Device Manager adapter power settings can trigger this problem because, just like USB Selective Suspend, they also try to conserve energy by allowing Windows to power down an idle network adapter.
The setting to be concerned with here is called “Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power.” Like the other features I discuss, waking a device after this setting has put it to sleep isn’t always clean, which can cause brief drops or delays.
Here’s how you disable it:
- Open Device Manager and expand the Network adapters category.
- Double-click your adapter to open its properties.
- Navigate to the Power Management tab and uncheck Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power.
Energy Efficient Ethernet
Your network adapter may be saving power too aggressively
An Ethernet adapter comes with several properties enabled by default. To find these options, open your Ethernet adapter properties from Device Manager’s Network adapters category and navigate to the Advanced tab.
The green setting that I disable from this list is called “Energy Efficient Ethernet,” but on some devices it may appear as “Green Ethernet.”
I only turn off Energy Efficient Ethernet when my laptop is plugged in or when I use a desktop PC because, when connected to mains power, there are no energy-saving benefits.
Energy Efficient Ethernet automatically reduces power consumption in your wired network when no data is actively being transmitted over the link. Here again, on some devices, this may cause a slight delay when it needs to restart. Turning it off has resolved occasional pauses on my system.
Link State Power Management
The PCIe setting behind those split-second freezes
Mid-transfer, my external NVMe drive sometimes pauses for just a fraction of a second. It’s very subtle, but once you notice it, it feels like one of those telltale signs of a dying drive.
The drive was fine; the problem was PCIe Active State Power Management (ASPM). The feature causes the PCIe link to automatically enter low-power states when idle. It isn’t designed to reduce throughput, but repeatedly entering low-power states can introduce latency on some systems. The most sensitive devices seem to be NVMe SSDs, some GPUs, Wi-Fi cards, and Thunderbolt devices.
To disable it:
- Search for “Edit power plan” in the Start menu and open it.
- Click Change advanced power settings.
- Expand PCI Express, expand Link State Power Management, and set it to Off.
By default, it is set to Maximum power savings, but there are three Link State Power Management options:
|
Setting |
Stability |
Battery savings |
|---|---|---|
|
Off |
Most consistent, no wake-up pauses |
Lowest |
|
Moderate power savings |
Good, occasional wake-up delay |
Moderate |
|
Maximum power savings |
Most pauses on sensitive hardware |
Highest |
Efficiency mode
When Efficiency mode becomes more frustrating than helpful
I once had a compression job running in the background, and after 20 minutes, it had barely moved. Yet it didn’t seem like anything was busy on my computer. This was Efficiency mode in action. Rather than imposing a hard performance cap, Efficiency mode reduces a background process’s scheduling priority, which can slow CPU-bound tasks.
It’s different from Microsoft Edge’s Efficiency mode.
You’ll see this feature shown as a small green leaf in the Status column of certain processes in Task Manager. I don’t disable it for all running processes, though, and only exclude my export and compile processes, as well as large copy and sync operations, from Efficiency mode.
To disable it, expand the process in Task Manager, right-click it, and click Efficiency mode when available.
Best Power Efficiency
The Power Mode that can slow demanding workloads
Unlike most of the other options, Best Power Efficiency isn’t a per-app throttling feature; it applies more aggressive power-saving policies across the system. This option is found in the Settings app’s Power Mode section and could be the reason some tasks, like exporting a video, take longer to complete.
Power Mode gives three options: Balanced, Best Performance, and Best Power Efficiency. As long as my computer is plugged in, I set the Power Mode to Best Performance to avoid system-level throttling.
There is a place for energy saving, not just my setup
These settings are useful for battery-powered setups, but they caused tricky, intermittent problems on my machine. I prefer to trade battery life for responsiveness.
