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Hi,
I've just discovered a new/hidden function on my Eee, which I hadn't seen referenced anywhere on this site, so I thought I'd share. After running a search, I did find one mention of it, hidden in a thread on another subject, from november, so I think a new thread is in order, but if the mods disagree, feel free to delete this!
So, on to the subject : I found out that I could recharge my MP3 player through the Eee's USB port even when my Eee's shut down. Neat! I don't even think my Windows pc does that.... On to the details.
I use a Creative Zen Vision M to watch tv shows and movies on my tv (through the TV out plug), which works out fine, except for the battery life of the Zen, which is around 3 hours for video - not enough for marathon sessions of my favorite shows!
I don't have a craddle to plug the Zen in, and my tv's too far from my regular PC, so I thought I could simply plug the Zen in my Eee, and then plug the Eee to the wall - that way I don't have to worry about battery life anymore. The only thing that bothered me was that I had to leave the Eee open, wearing out the LCD's LEDs for no reason.
So I did a test and found out that, if I plug my Zen to the Eee, wait until the Zen is charging/getting power, and then shut down the Eee completely, the power still goes on through to my Zen. Yay! The other thread I referenced earlier mentioned that it worked for other devices as well (although not every one of them), and in sleep mode too.
I think it's a pretty useful feature in the right (on a trip, for exemple) so I hope this helps someone out.
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I might be mistaken but I believe the USB ports power down when you disconnect AC power. So, as long as you're plugged into a wall outlet or have a "kickstart" battery wired in through the charge port you should be good to go.
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Yeah, I should've mentioned that it works when your Eee is plugged in the wall, but not if you're running it off the battery. Still, you can recharge both your Eee's battery and whatever else you have plugged in your USB ports at the same time, which is convenient.
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It's the only way I charge my stereo bluetooth headset 
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Actually most laptops provide USB power while they're in standby as long as they're connected to AC, and some even provide it when completely shut down. I've discovered my Asus G1S full-size laptop provides USB power on standby (but not shut down) even on battery 
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The Eee can actually charge devices even without being plugged in. That's what I did on a recent trip when my creative zen stone ran out of juice. After turning the 3epc on, plug the device into the right-hand side usb port, the one beside the right shift key. It won't charge for long if you plug it into the port beside the backslash/enter keys.
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You could also get an AC to USB charger. This one is $2.90 with free shipping. I have a white one rated at 1000mA and it works great.
DealExtreme
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This isn't actually as good of a thing as it may seem. I sometimes run a harddrive in an enclosure (some good notebook drives need no more than 500mA for maximum power so this gives me the option of using a 2.5" enclosure and have upgradability/etc that I can't get with an external harddrive) on my EeePC. When it shuts down but leaves the drive running, that's technically eating into the lifetime of the drive. More importantly, I worry about just leaving it on when not in use because of the risk of bumps or that sort of thing (I know, it's a notebook drive so it already has more shock protection just for that alone and can take some insane amounts of bumping and such, but this is just the nature of paranoia, lol.) Besides, that's just a waste of power. Ok, only some 2 watts or so (it idles at 400mA according to the official specs) that's not much, but you're looking at someone who has only CFL bulbs and often reads/etc by the light of a little LED light... d-:
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