A method and apparatus is provided for power conservation of a hardware module (142) which is coupleable to a portable electronic device (100). The hardware module (142) has unique identification information associated therewith and stored therein. The unique identification information is provided periodically (308) to the portable electronic device (100) and stored therein (207). To conserve power, the portable electronic device (100) sends a power-down notice (212) to the hardware module (142), the module controller (144) stores current state information of the hardware module (142) in a non-volatile memory (146) thereof, and the hardware module (142) is powered off (214).