Windows Question?

[Guest lilbman]

At my workplace, I bought a desk with a very large drawer and sort of turned it into a dock for my laptop.   I have it set up so that it's quiet, so the ventilation isn't phenomenal. There's just enough for the rear and side exhaust to blow air out without it getting circulated back in.  Also, I also have a cooling pad to elevate it.  I don't like the cooling pad running all the time, and it's a pain to turn it on and off.  Is there any way I set it up so that the USB port turns on and off when the fans whirr up?  If not that, any way I can do it manually?

[Linksys120n]

from my experience the fan on a cooling pad doesn't do a whole heck of allot of difference... Just having the laptop up on the cooling pad vs the bottom of the drawer makes the biggest impact.

[Guest lilbman]

3 minutes ago, Linksys120n said:

from my experience the fan on a cooling pad doesn't do a whole heck of allot of difference... Just having the laptop up on the cooling pad vs the bottom of the drawer makes the biggest impact.

Exactly, the only reason I have it sitting on one under the desk is to reach a height where it can ventilate properly.  I'm trying to figure out how to turn off the USB port it runs off of through Windows itself so it doesn't constantly run.

[HelplmChoking]

You could probably just lift the laptop off the base of the drawer without the cooling pad, they don't do much. You'll get a bigger benefit by having ventilation or even fans built into the drawer itself.

[Guest lilbman]

7 minutes ago, Linksys120n said:

from my experience the fan on a cooling pad doesn't do a whole heck of allot of difference... Just having the laptop up on the cooling pad vs the bottom of the drawer makes the biggest impact.

I found an article that MIGHT help me.-http://www.pcworld.com/article/2940859/windows/how-to-lock-and-unlock-your-usb-ports.html

 

Think that might work?

[Guest lilbman]

1 minute ago, Rangaman42 said:

You could probably just lift the laptop off the base of the drawer without the cooling pad, they don't do much. You'll get a bigger benefit by having ventilation or even fans built into the drawer itself.

The problem is that there are walls on the side of the drawer that prevent it from exhausting air.  If it sat on the base of the drawer, I couldn't connect any IO and the hot air would be circulated back into the system.

[Linksys120n]

3 minutes ago, lilbman said:

Exactly, the only reason I have it sitting on one under the desk is to reach a height where it can ventilate properly.  I'm trying to figure out how to turn off the USB port it runs off of through Windows itself so it doesn't constantly run.

just unplug it and leave it that way... it's not like it's welded in place... just pull it out.

[HelplmChoking]

Just now, lilbman said:

The problem is that there are walls on the side of the drawer that prevent it from exhausting air.  If it sat on the base of the drawer, I couldn't connect any IO and the hot air would be circulated back into the system.

 

I know, so lift it up with a couple small items. The cooling pad does very little, it's just moving air around the drawer, not bringing cool air in.

[Guest lilbman]

1 minute ago, Linksys120n said:

just unplug it and leave it that way... it's not like it's welded in place... just pull it out.

The drawer is locked and the USB port it's plugged into is facing away from where it's accessible.  To be able to remove it would mean that I would have to unplug almost everything and pull it out.

Just now, Rangaman42 said:

I know, so lift it up with a couple small items. The cooling pad does very little, it's just moving air around the drawer, not bringing cool air in.

I need the space underneath the cooling pad to stash the cables.  I would put some books under it but then I wouldn't have anywhere to put the cables.

[HelplmChoking]

Just now, lilbman said:

The drawer is locked and the USB port it's plugged into is facing away from where it's accessible.  To be able to remove it would mean that I would have to unplug almost everything and pull it out.

I need the space underneath the cooling pad to stash the cables.  I would put some books under it but then I wouldn't have anywhere to put the cables.

 

Maybe wire in a simple switch to the USB cable, then have that sitting above the desk?

[Guest lilbman]

2 minutes ago, Rangaman42 said:

Maybe wire in a simple switch to the USB cable, then have that sitting above the desk?

I guess so.

 

I'm not a natural at that sort of thing though, I'm a lawyer for Christ's sake.  If you can find a how-to on how to make one, I can probably make one, but otherwise, I won't be able to do it with my current knowledge.

[LogicalDrm]

10 hours ago, lilbman said:

I guess so.

 

I'm not a natural at that sort of thing though, I'm a lawyer for Christ's sake.  If you can find a how-to on how to make one, I can probably make one, but otherwise, I won't be able to do it with my current knowledge.

You can buy USB hubs which have power switch per port. Scheduled task would be the one thing inside Windows to do something like this. When you are disabling and enabling USB port according to some event. In this case I'd say when CPU usage is over 50%. But I don't know if tool allows that kind of control.

[Guest lilbman]

7 hours ago, LoGiCalDrm said:

You can buy USB hubs which have power switch per port. Scheduled task would be the one thing inside Windows to do something like this. When you are disabling and enabling USB port according to some event. In this case I'd say when CPU usage is over 50%. But I don't know if tool allows that kind of control.

Ok, I'll play around with that and see if that works.

 

What if I used Lubuntu? I occasionally use that instead of Windows from time to time.  Only problem with that is that I'd only be limited to games able to be ran on Linux.

[Guest lilbman]

7 hours ago, LoGiCalDrm said:

You can buy USB hubs which have power switch per port. Scheduled task would be the one thing inside Windows to do something like this. When you are disabling and enabling USB port according to some event. In this case I'd say when CPU usage is over 50%. But I don't know if tool allows that kind of control.

 

17 hours ago, Rangaman42 said:

Maybe wire in a simple switch to the USB cable, then have that sitting above the desk?

 

18 hours ago, Linksys120n said:

just unplug it and leave it that way... it's not like it's welded in place... just pull it out.

 

18 hours ago, Sierra Fox said:

not likely. As far as I'm aware there's no way to turn off USB ports when a certain amount of current is running through them (which will determine how fast the fan is spinning).

 

You might want to get a different cooling pad that gives you control over the fan speed

http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/usb_devices_view.html What if I used this tool?  Maybe in conjunction with Task Scheduler?

[HelplmChoking]

Just now, lilbman said:

 

 

 

http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/usb_devices_view.html What if I used this tool?  Maybe in conjunction with Task Scheduler?

 

Yeah? I'm sure there's software out there that will allow you to schedule a task based on CPU temps.

[Guest lilbman]

32 minutes ago, Rangaman42 said:

Yeah? I'm sure there's software out there that will allow you to schedule a task based on CPU temps.

Installed it, I can disable the data transfer to that specific port, but it doesn't stop it from being powered.  It doesn't show up at all as a standalone device.