External hard drive - Sony G11 - USB power?

[chajohn97]

Hi there,

I'm looking for an external hard drive to use with my Vaio G11 and am trying to verify the power outputs of the USB ports to determine whether I will be able to use a drive requiring 1000mA.

I'm looking at the device manager for the power capabilities of the USB ports but, being a bit of a Luddite, am failing to find the necessary info - can any one help?

Thanks

[Blencogo]

Hi Leontion and welcome to Club Vaio.

The total power available through USB is 500 mA per port.

You can check on your model: -

Control Panel -> Device Manager -> Universal Serial Bus Controllers -> USB Root Hub -> Power

[chajohn97]

Hi Leontion and welcome to Club Vaio.

The total power available through USB is 500 mA per port.

You can check on your model: -

Control Panel -> Device Manager -> Universal Serial Bus Controllers -> USB Root Hub -> Power

 

Thanks very much for your response - very helpful info. That probably means that most external drives will need additional power supply.

For some curious reason I cannot see the power available following the instructions you describe.

Looking at Control Panel > Devise Manager > Universal Serial Bus Controllers I then have five options for USB Root Hub.

Opening up 'Properties' on any of the 'USB Root Hubs' gives me tabs stating 'General', 'Driver', 'Details' and 'Power Management' (which gives no info other than tick boxes 'allow computer to turn off this device to save power' - none of the tabs reveal the power available.

Possibly this is due to having installed XP rather than Vista?

Thanks again for your help.

[Blencogo]

That's odd - I'm using XP on this Vaio. Anyway, I think 500 mA is standard.