8204 and the USB power "bug"

Anandtech have just posted an article on the "USB Power Bug" found by Tom's Hardware a few weeks ago.

As the 8204's Web Cam *and* internal bluetooth adaptor are both USB devices, I of course am interested in anything that might fix the problem and give me some more battery life.

What's interesting is that my 8204 came shipped with the "secret" registry hack detailed in the article already implemented. I wonder is this is this common to all 8204's, or only something they've added into the latest batch of machines?

Hrmm, I wonder if this hack is the cause of my bluetooth drooputs? Will disable it and see..

 

Well I removed the registry key and rebooted just after posting this, and my bluetooth mouse just dropped out

 

removed? from my knowledge you don't remove the key, rather you insert a new key to solve the USB power problem.

 

That's right. As my machine came from the factory with the registry key fix already in place, I removed it in order to see if it would fix my bluetooth problems, which it didn't

In any case, as Anandtech has shown the registry key doesn't really fix the power problem - when coming out of standby the USB polling will restart regardless of whether you have the key present or not.

 

Interesting... I'll need to check my 8204 and see if the "fix" is there. I was running on battery last night, mainly surfing, and got about 3 hours of battery life. I'd been hoping that, with a fix, I'd get closer to four hours or more.

I'll take a look tonight, and see...

 

Install Linux

 

Let us know if you succeed. X1600 appears not to be supported by the current ATI proprietary drive, not do the wireless or ethernet chips. The old 3com PC card came in handy though.

- Ed

 

I don't have the laptop. What wireless card does it come with? & ethernet chip set?