Windows has a power-saving feature that can switch off individual USB ports when it thinks a connected device has been idle for a while – useful on a laptop trying to save battery, but exactly the wrong behaviour for a photo booth PC that needs its camera, printer, or other USB hardware to stay connected and responsive throughout an entire event. If a camera intermittently drops out, needs replugging to be detected again, or a triggering device stops responding after sitting idle between guests, USB power management switching a port off is one of the most common underlying causes.
Turning it off in Device Manager
This needs doing once per USB device, and needs redoing if you ever reinstall drivers or swap the device to a different port.
- Open Device Manager (right-click the Start button and select it, or search for it in the Start menu).
- Expand Universal Serial Bus controllers.
- For each entry named something like USB Root Hub or USB Root Hub (xHCI), right-click it and choose Properties.
- Go to the Power Management tab.
- Untick Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power.
- Click OK.
Repeat this for every USB Root Hub listed – a typical PC has several, and you won’t necessarily know in advance which one your camera or other booth hardware is actually plugged into, so it’s simplest to work through all of them.
Turning it off in Windows’ power plan settings
Windows has a second, related setting worth checking alongside the above:
- Open Control Panel -> Power Options (or search Edit power plan from the Start menu).
- Click Change plan settings next to your active plan, then Change advanced power settings.
- Expand USB settings, then USB selective suspend setting.
- Set both On battery and Plugged in to Disabled.
- Click Apply, then OK.
Why this matters more for a booth PC than a normal one
A booth PC often sits with its camera and any triggering hardware genuinely idle for stretches between guests – exactly the pattern Windows’ power-saving is designed to detect and act on. On a desktop or laptop doing everyday tasks this rarely causes a visible problem, since something is usually happening on a USB port often enough to keep it awake. A photo booth’s usage pattern is different, which is why this is worth doing proactively during setup rather than only after a camera has already dropped out mid-event.
If you’re still seeing drops after this
If a camera or device is still disconnecting intermittently after disabling USB power management on every root hub, the cause is more likely a cable, port, or hardware issue than a Windows power setting – see My Camera Isn’t Being Detected for the next steps to check.