A handful of users, including me, are experiencing intermittent freezes with both their keyboards and mice. While typing, input suddenly stops for around 15 seconds, then the queued text appears, often with some keystrokes missing. The mouse may stop responding during the same period and then recover. Sometimes it happens only once, but other times the devices work normally for a few minutes before freezing again.
I have replaced keyboards, mice, and wireless dongles, tested wired devices, disabled Windows settings that allow it to power down USB devices, and tried every USB port on both the laptops and hub monitors. The issue occurs with brand-new and older equipment, as well as devices managed by Intune and devices that are not. So far, only about ten users are affected, and I cannot find an obvious pattern. Has anyone dealt with something similar or have suggestions for narrowing down the cause?
5 Answers
It would be useful to determine whether this is system-wide or tied to particular applications. Have the users reproduce it with only a basic text editor open, and check Event Viewer around the time of a freeze for USB, HID, Bluetooth, display, chipset, or kernel-related warnings. A clean boot or temporarily disabling startup software could also reveal whether a background utility is interrupting input.
There have been reports of a Microsoft Store media application causing Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and peripheral interruptions on some systems, so it is worth checking installed Store apps and testing after removing any recently added software and rebooting. That may not apply here, especially if the affected users do not have the suspected application, but comparing recent software and update history could still expose a common change.
If the affected machines use wireless keyboards or mice, test them with Bluetooth and Wi-Fi disabled, then test a completely wired keyboard and mouse connected directly to the laptop with the hub disconnected. Also check for nearby wireless congestion or interference. If the wired devices freeze in the same way, focus less on replacing peripherals and more on laptop chipset, BIOS, hub-monitor, and USB controller drivers or firmware.
Do the affected users have anything in common besides the hardware? Check whether they use the same laptop model, hub monitor or docking firmware, wireless adapters, physical location, network segment, or nearby wireless equipment. Since both wired and wireless peripherals are affected, comparing an affected user with an unaffected user while disconnected from the hub could help isolate whether the problem follows the laptop or the workstation setup.
The users do use hub monitors, but I have already tested the laptop ports and the monitor ports. I am going to compare the exact laptop and monitor models, firmware, and locations next.