Putting the iMac to sleep without losing USB assignments

[Will]

Perhaps I'm the last person in the world to find this solution... But I used to have a problem with putting the iMac into sleep mode.

Having USB devices plugged in prevents sleep mode (leading to more energy usage and a shorter display life). However, shutting down or putting the whole computer to sleep (via the "Sleep" command under the Apple icon) led to a loss of USB assignments after a reboot or a reawakening. Each time the computer came back to life, I would have to remap some or all of the USB axes or buttons, which could be a huge time-consuming pain.

Then today I discovered that you can put just the display to sleep with Ctrl+Shift+Eject.

Problem solved! Mac display goes to sleep, and wakes up with the USB assignments preserved.

[Hardy Heinlin]

Does your Mac register your USB devices by a random order during computer start?


Cheers,

|-|ardy

[Will]

Yes. I am using about a dozen axes and half again as many buttons, and they are randomly reassigned after a (re-)start, as well as after unplugging the USB devices and plugging them back in again.

[cavaricooper]

Will-

I use the "Apple" and then Sleep- same as keystrokes I believe.

Best- C

[Will]

For me, Apple and Sleep doesn't just put the display to sleep, but puts the computer to sleep as well. And that scrambles the USB assignments.

So the key combination is different, it just sleeps the display, which preserves the USB assignments.

[cavaricooper]

Oh ok... I've been lucky, my USB stays put, but I don't usually unplug it... Just Power... Perhaps that's it.....

C

[Will]

For what it's worth, I didn't see any trouble as long as I only had one USB device plugged in. But with a joystick, throttles, tiller, and rudder pedals, things started getting scrambled upon restarts or awakening. Unless of course, it's only the display that sleeps, which is what I just found out how to do via Ctrl+Shift+Eject.