USB ports not working in laptop when charger is not connected

[OrsoBruno]

@zexy72

BTW, I have a microSD card inserted on the other side. It works whether the charger is plugged in or not.

I read that the Logitech mouse and the Keychron keyboard are also there, plus every internal USB peripheral (WebCam, BT, Fingerprint …) as well.
Maybe there is something specific to the SanDisk USB 3.1 pendrive?
What happens if you connect something that does not rely on USB power, like a disk with its own power supply, a phone or similar?

[zexy72]

@OrsoBruno

I read that the Logitech mouse and the Keychron keyboard

The heyboard and mouse also dont work on removing the charger.

@OrsoBruno

What happens if you connect something that does not rely on USB power

The phone is charging but I cannot access its files or use adb.

[OrsoBruno]

Please can you post the result of:

# lspci |grep USB

to see what USB controllers your Vivobook uses?

[zexy72]

@OrsoBruno

Please can you post the result of:

# lspci |grep USB

zexy@MiWiFi-R4A-srv:~> lspci |grep USB
03:00.3 USB controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Raven USB 3.1
03:00.4 USB controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Raven USB 3.1
zexy@MiWiFi-R4A-srv:~> 

[zexy72]

The camera also stops working after removing the charger.

[OrsoBruno]

@zexy72

zexy@MiWiFi-R4A-srv:~> lspci |grep USB
03:00.3 USB controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Raven USB 3.1
03:00.4 USB controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Raven USB 3.1
zexy@MiWiFi-R4A-srv:~> 

Some AMD hubs have suspend problems with TLP, but we have seen that

@zexy72

MiWiFi-R4A-srv:/home/zexy # tlp-stat | grep Mode
Mode           = AC
Error: TLP's power saving will not apply on boot because tlp.service is not enabled --> Invoke 'systemctl enable tlp.service' to ensure the full functionality of TLP.

TLP is not enabled in your system.
Then on Bus 003 you have both the flash reader and the webcam

@zexy72

Bus 003 Device 002: ID 058f:6366 Alcor Micro Corp. Multi Flash Reader
Bus 003 Device 003: ID 058f:6254 Alcor Micro Corp. USB Hub
Bus 003 Device 004: ID 13d3:56d3 IMC Networks USB2.0 HD UVC WebCam

and…

@zexy72

BTW, I have a microSD card inserted on the other side. It works whether the charger is plugged in or not.

but at the same time…

@zexy72

The camera also stops working after removing the charger.

I’m really puzzled and running out of ideas, we tried the obvious tricks and none worked, it looks as removing the charger triggers an event and the USB subsystem, or part of it, remain waiting to service that event but never returns to normal service.
Maybe disconnecting all external devices, testing if the problem is still there (with the webcam, for instance?) and if not so, connecting external devices one at a time to test if there is something specific to one of them might give us another hint.
Not being able to reproduce the issue here doesn’t help

[OrsoBruno]

Looking up the web for

[AMD] Raven USB 3.1 not working

returns a bunch of results, it seems that its power management is in trouble; see for instance this
https://www.tomshardware.com/news/amd-suggest-possible-fixes-for-usb-connectivity-issues
especially where it reads:

If you continue to experience USB connectivity problems after following the suggestions above, you may consider using either of the following workaround:
1.) Set PCIe mode from Gen4/Auto to Gen 3 in the BIOS
2.) Disable Global C-State in the BIOS.
These settings are found in the BIOS.

I don’t know if that applies to your Vivobook, but at least we have a trail to follow…

[OrsoBruno]

This Archlinux post
https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=290627
suggests to activate TLP after a kernel update (current TW kernel is even newer than that).
I don’t mean you should do the same, but it is an interesting hint.

[zexy72]

Thanks @OrsoBruno and everyone else for helping me.

Solved the problem by removing TLP altogether.

I also found another thread related to the same problem [askubuntu]. Maybe it was the fix, but well its fixed for me. May it help someone else with the same problem.

[OrsoBruno]

Thanks for the feedback and for providing additional help for other users.

[gogalthorp]

Did you try setting to turn off USB power management??

https://linrunner.de/tlp/index.html