USB Power Still Enabled in Standby (XP)

Hello.

I had an old Targus ChillMat lying around. Patiently waiting for that killer Japanese product that serves as port replicator, hdd bay, cooler mat, but decided to repurpose the Targus in the meantime. After a good bit of Dremel work (cuts down to size easily), a shard of melted plastic to the eye (use goggles, not sunglasses!!!!!), a shortened spliced power-USB cable (no switch now) and a lot of duct tape, I've got a suitable Netbook ChillMat + Duct Tape solution. That part's good.

When XP is in Standby, the USB ports are still supplying power and the fan stays on. If I'm on battery and don't feel like pulling the fans' plug (the cord has no slack), I've now got a nice quick power drain.
Having googled a bit, I've verified that all five (side note -- five? card reader the fifth?) USB Root Host listings in Device Manager have a checkmark on the "Allow Windows to Disable to Save Power" option ("allow device to bring out of standby" is grayed out since presumably usb port is off).

So yeah, though the USB ports say they turn off, they're still feeding my fan. I imagine same applies to any USB device remaining attached. Any ideas where else I might look to get the power off to the ports? Possible outdated drivers? BIOS is at absolute latest (09) and system was bought 12/26 -- don't believe drivers should be old...

Ideas?!

Much obliged

 

I noticed the ports stay powered during a reboot as well.

This actually helped to solve a long standing problem with using a bus powered USB/IDE/SATA inferface cables. They had never worked before with Ghost 2003. I has assumed it was either a problem with the bios, the chipset, or the cables. They worked during a reboot with the Aspire One, so I investigated. My HP's reset the power to the usb ports during a reboot. So far, the issue has been a big blessing for me

J

 

bet you wish you'd kept the switch attached