The keyboard and mouse both stop working at the same time

Question

I am helping someone with an odd keyboard and mouse issue.

Her keyboard and mouse will both stop working at random times. There is no pattern to it, just completely random. I can connect to her machine remotely, move the mouse, open new programs, and type. However, she can do none of these things, but she is able to see what I am doing.

I have done the following:

• Checked for updates on the mouse and keyboard drivers.
• Ran malware scans.
• Restarted the machine.
• Disabled the USB sleep option.
• Switch USB ports on the machine

Still no luck!

The keyboard is wireless, but the mouse is not and they both stop working at the same time. The Operating System is Windows 7 Pro x64, and the computer is a Dell Optiplex 3010

Solution

I found the issue! I deleted the drivers for the mouse and keyboard, then restarted the machine. It no longer locks up. Previously, i had only checked for updates, and made sure they didn't have the yellow warning symbol, I did not think to remove them entirely until today.

Comments

[J. Titus]

Have you checked the USB controllers in Device Manager when this occurs? Any of them reporting issues? Does scanning for hardware changes help?

[SilentStormcc]

Yes I have checked the USB controllers in device manager when it is "frozen" on her end, they appear to be perfectly fine. I have not tried scanning for hardware changes, I will add that to my list of things to try at this point. Thank you! Hopefully it does, I find it so odd.