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New Computer Problem

7 Comments

OK, now I’ve got severe lag on both mouse and keyboard, to the point that the machine is unusable. And it’s not a software issue; it is happening when I boot into either Windows or Linux. It’s wireless keyboard and mouse, but they’re brand new. Any ideas?

[Afternoon update]

I moved the USB dongle to a different port, and it’s fine now.

7 thoughts on “New Computer Problem”

  1. Okay, the two OS’s seem to me to indicate that, as you say, not a software issue.

    That leaves two possibilities. One is hardware, of course, and the other (oft overlooked) is environment.

    Regards the latter, the devices might be interfering with each other, or something else emitting on similar frequencies might interfere with them. Try taking the batteries out of one of the devices while the problem is occurring, and see if you still get the lag.

    You might want to try hooking your keyboard and mouse up to your laptop, and see if they have the same problem while in the same location as your PC. If so, take them somewhere else (preferably at least a few hundred yards) and try again. If they work while elsewhere, it’s probably a localized EM problem. If they they don’t work on your laptop anywhere any better than your PC, it’s one or both of the devices. If they work fine on your laptop, you might have a hardware issue on the PC, such as a USB issue (I’m assuming the keyboard and mouse operate via USB dongles? If so, try moving those around to other USB ports – and distance them from each other if you can).

    Testing your system with a different (preferably non-wireless) mouse and keyboard would IMHO be an ideal way of narrowing down the problem, but seeing as you’re traveling, I’m guessing you probably don’t have access to any.

    Best of luck!.

  2. Are these wireless in the sense that they have either 1 or 2 dedicated USB transmitter/receivers? Or are they Bluetooth (yuck)?

    In additional to what Arizona CJ suggests I’d see if there are “preferred” USB ports for keyboard and mouse. Usually on a desktop, there are some nice, cozy old USB 2 (or even 1?) ports that are usually used for keyboard and mouse that normally don’t need much in the way of resources. I’d definitely avoid wasting a USB 3 port, which although USB 2 “compatible” might be introducing unneeded complexity into the mix.

    I’d also check out the BIOS to see what its USB settings are.

    1. It’s a single USB for both. It’s in a front 2.0 port, but I should move it to the rear.

      What’s weird is that it was working fine all day, then it suddenly started doing it.

  3. Rand so why didn’t switching graphics cards not work? Was your other graphics card not compatible with the new motherboard?

    2. Any display adapter he could fit into a PCIe slot would be compatible with the motherboard. Sometimes when you’re working on a tough problem and switch one hardware component, things get weird for a while.

      For future reference, there’s a tool called ddu, display driver uninstalller, that you should run when swapping cards, especially when switching from AMD to nVidia or the other way ’round. It’ll do a deep clean of driver files, and having both AMD and nVidia drivers on your system at the same time can make the system not work right. This may not be relevant in Rand’s recent case, of course.

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