PC freezes ~ KB and mouse

Asm0deus

My wife's PC has started to have have a weird freezing problem.  She works on it everyday.  She uses OpenOffice and writes articles for online use and usually has firefox open for research, at the same time as OpenOffice, and also usually has a tab open so she can "listen" to a tv show so 2 to 3 tabs open in FF while working in openoffice.


What happens is the mouse and KB crap out and stop working, the light on the mouse and KB are still on but we can't do anything, ctrl alt del doesn't work and the mouse cursor turns into what look like a big exaggerated capitol "i".

I tried plugging in another KB and mouse and they do not work either, only thing we can do is reboot pc by flicking the switch on psu or holding down the power button.

While it's frozen the shows she watches carry on playing and the sound is fine..it's just the kb and mouse that stop working.  This is a new thing the pc has never done before and I have never had such an issue with any other PC before like this.

I tried cleaning up the pc and reseating ram and gpu but I think maybe it could be a driver issue?

Anyone else here ever have a problem like this before.

I build her pc in 2013:

psu= seasonic ss-660xp2
mb=  msi z77a-gd65
ram= corsair vengeance 16gb
gpu= msi gtx760


She has a 212evo cooler and temps seem fine when it happens, I can see right from the mobo temps are within the norm for when she working which is tween 35 ~ 40 degrees.

Vrika

Do the minutes on your taskbar clock still move normally?

Can you move the mouse cursor around the screen, or is it frozen in place?

Asm0deus

Vrika said:

Do the minutes on your taskbar clock still move normally?

Can you move the mouse cursor around the screen, or is it frozen in place?

The mouse curser freezes in place haven't noticed or checked the clock in lower right, will check next time it freezes.

Sovrath

Have you tried swapping out a different keyboard and mouse? That should tell you whether it's the specific hardware of if it's something else about your computer.

Also, are you using a wireless keyboard and mouse?

Baratuk

Sovrath said:

Have you tried swapping out a different keyboard and mouse? That should tell you whether it's the specific hardware of if it's something else about your computer.

Also, are you using a wireless keyboard and mouse?

He said he had tried that.

Is the KB/Mouse you are using use USB ports or the old plugs?

Asm0deus

USB mouse n KB.  Tried different keyboard and they dont work untill I reboot pc.   All kb/mouse work on the other 2 pc in the house.

This has happened like 3 or 4 times in 4hrs but the intervals it happens in is random.  I mean she can work for 2hrs no problem then  it will happen twice in 30 mins and not happen again for an hour.

Grunty

Try reinstalling the motherboard's USB drivers. They should be available from MSI.

And run virus/malware scans.

Tamanous

What OS and did you upgrade from an older OS or a fresh install?

OS upgrades can cause endless issues conventional fixes often won't resolve. Reloading the OS (from a Bootable Windows 10 USB Flash Drive is Win 10) would resolve numerous issues caused from upgrades (and give you back a massive amount of drive space) if rebuilding USB hubs and controllers doesn't resolve issue.

One thing to test though is to determine which type of USB ports are in use and what USB devices are in them. Remove all USB devices other than the KB and mouse but also test across all USB types over fresh boots. My pc sometimes fails to load a USB device if my headset is plugged into a USB 2 on boot. I usually ensure it's not plugged in on boots just to be sure.

Asm0deus

@grunty it does look like a driver issue doesn't it?

@Tamanous she running a ssd window7 fresh install, I don't do upgrades only fresh installs to avoid problems.  Will try what you say about the USB 2.0 vs 3.0 on boot.

Sovrath

Out of curiosity, do you have "flash hardware acceleration"? I found something where a person had the same issue, someone told him to disable flash hardware acceleration and it worked.

Just spit-balling here ...

Asm0deus

SedrynTyros said:

I'm guessing you've tried plugging the keygboard and mouse into different USB ports?

Pretty sure I tried that earlier this week, I am just waiting for it to freeze up again so I can try a few things suggested ofc it's not freezing because I actually want it too...lol

@Sovrath yeah the adobe flash acceleration was enabled, I just had her uncheck that in case that is the issue.

Hyperpsycrow

MSI says it all XD 

This hardware brand dont last that long time..i had a gfx card from msi in 2013 and it died after 2 years an dmy friend today also had a msi card and it died recently..lucky within warenty time.

if the whole pc is from 2013 i think its time to upgrade since hardware is more compatibel today

Scorchien

My PC did the same exact thing last week , took into my PC guy , he said it was caused by Windows Creative Upate , Something Didnt update correctly , He fixed .. NP since

Octagon7711

I was thinking about a .dll conflict caused by an update and was about to ask if anything was installed lately, also a program doing an auto-update can do it.  If you know exactly when it started happening you may be able to try a system restore if one is available.  But first make sure all drivers are up to date.  If all else fails, backup and reinstall everything.

Baratuk

DarkestOverlord said:

MSI says it all XD 

This hardware brand dont last that long time..i had a gfx card from msi in 2013 and it died after 2 years an dmy friend today also had a msi card and it died recently..lucky within warenty time.

if the whole pc is from 2013 i think its time to upgrade since hardware is more compatibel today

I've had nothing but good dealings with MSI , I only use MSI Mobo's and GFX cards. 

Asm0deus

Hasn't done it all evening, until it does this again I can't check out some of the suggestions, I did uncheck the hardware acceleration and I do remember having to reinstall FF not that long ago and I also installed chrome though she doesn't use it so will give it a week or so and see if it happens again if not I will guess Sovrath hit the nail on the head.

If it does it again I will try and check out some of the other ideas from here and perhaps delete usb drivers and reinstall them and see if that works.


As for the MSI suck comment...well dunno it has never caused any problem and neither have the msi cards I have.

As for her pc being old...it still does plenty good for everything she does including games...hell my old i5-750 which overclocked from 2.6ghz to 4ghz  and is like 7 years old or so still work well too.

I'd say my old clonker needs upgrading before my wife's and my son's needs it before mine..lol

Asm0deus

Okay it finally buggered up again.

So when it bugs up both mouse AND keyboard both stop working but light are on for both.. I have 4 usb 2.0 ports in the back and they wont work when this happens if I plug or unplug.  I have two 2.0 ports in the front and two 3.0 ports they work when I plug it in here so do the two the 3.0 ports in the back.

Is late but I think I will try reinstalling the drivers and see if that helps.

Oh yes the clock still works when this happens.

Vrika

Asm0deus said:

I have 4 usb 2.0 ports in the back and they wont work when this happens if I plug or unplug.  I have two 2.0 ports in the front and two 3.0 ports they work when I plug it in here so do the two the 3.0 ports in the back.

If you still have 6 usb ports that work, could you just circumvent the problem by using only those ports?

It's not as good solution as getting all of the ports work, but it might be faster solution.


Also, have you ever updated motherboard's BIOS? When there's a strange problem like this one, sometimes it's worth checking for possible BIOS updates in addition to driver updates.

Octagon7711

Also sometimes when uninstalling drivers some files that caused the problem are left behind and don't get uninstalled.  When you go to reinstall it, it may not upgrade that file.  Backup her key files and good luck.

Asm0deus

Just to update

It turns out it was the mouse causing these issues.  I got my son a new keyboard/mouse combo and the new mouse which my wife is now using has stopped all the problems.

Ridelynn

Thanks for updating - that is good to know and glad you figured it out